Josephine Hearn reports for The Hill that the Democrats claim to have polling numbers that indicate that 2006 could be a bad year for GOPers.

Recent Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) polling shows that seven Republican members would be easily defeated if their reelection took place today, the committee’s chairman told House Democrats yesterday at a closed-door meeting.

While Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) did not name the members, who are from districts “around the country,” he said all polled at 43 percent or less when voters were asked if they would vote today to reelect their congressional representative, sources at the meeting told The Hill.

Emanuel said three of the Republicans polled below 40 percent, including one, from a Western state, at 32 percent and another, a Californian, at 34 percent. The DCCC has targeted three California members: Reps. David Dreier, Richard Pombo and Randy “Duke” Cunningham.

While this is unreleased partisan polling, it's nonetheless interesting to see Democrats so optimistic at this stage in the game.