With two months to go, political handicappers are picking Republicans to narrowly win a House majority and make big gains in the Senate, although not enough to give them control.
Charlie Cook of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report wrote on Tuesday that his race-by-race analysis showed Republicans are poised to gain at least 40 House seats and possibly more.
"The House has reached the tipping point," Cook wrote.
University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato raised his prediction for Republican gains last week to 47 House seats.
In the Senate, Cook predicts a Republican gain of seven to nine seats. Republicans must retain their own Senate seats and sweep nearly all of the competitive Democratic seats to win control, a difficult task in the 2010 election.
