When Steny Hoyer swung through Seattle in 2006, the House Democratic whip was boosting a rookie candidate for Congress while his party hoarded money to stay competitive in perhaps 15 to 20 congressional races across the country.

Hoyer is now House Majority Leader, and boasted yesterday that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee leads its Republican counterpart "by a factor of eight in cash-on-hand."

"The question this year is how much they're gonna lose," Hoyer, a Maryland congressman, said in a Seattle fundraising stop.

The West is where Democrats hope to fatten the House majority they captured two years ago.

Hoyer was hosting a reception for 8th District hopeful Darcy Burner, a political neophyte in 2006 who has consistently outpaced 8th District GOP Rep. Dave Reichert in fund raising, even though President Bush did an event for Reichert last year.

"Darcy has done what no congressional challenger has ever done: She has outraised the incumbent seven quarters in a row," Hoyer said.

He was also boosting former Alaska state legislator Ethan Berkowitz, who hopes to unseat the 49th state's scandal-tinged Congressman-for-life Don Young. And Hoyer had stopped to do an event for Walt Minnick, a businessman and conservationist given a good shot at unseating Idaho's first-term Republican Rep. Bill Sali.

The next stop for the House Majority Leader - Las Vegas, where state Sen. Dina Titus hopes to unseat a four-term Republican incumbent.

The Democrats gained 30 seats, and House control, in 2006. They have taken three districts long held by Republicans in special elections this year, including the seat of retiring former House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

The party is bullish even though Congress' public approval ratings are in the tank. But Hoyer sees happy days ahead. "The Congress' low numbers are reflective of the public's frustration that the country is not working," he said in an interview.

Republicans have grasped at one issue with resonance across the country, a call to open up offshore drilling in areas currently off-limits due to environmental and other considerations.

Several prominent Democrats, notably Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, have declared themselves open to the idea. The party's nominee-in-waiting Sen. Barack Obama has indicated he is open to some drilling as part of a comprehensive solution that includes renewable energy sources.

Hoyer danced around the subject yesterday.

"Republicans and not so much the print media, but TV and radio, have served this country badly," he argued.

Hoyer said that 68 million acres offshore are already under lease, but 33 million of those acres are not being worked. "Either work it or give it back and let someone else drill," he argued.

Still, Hoyer left the door ajar to stepped-up drilling.

"Americans are saying, 'We need to utilize our resources'," he said. "we, as Democrats, agree. We need to look very carefully at the use of our resources. But we cannot pretend that we can rely on petroleum products indefinitely.
"We need to require conservation, and investment in alternative energy resources -- and that includes nuclear," he added. "If we are able to maintain our economy, it will only be because we are more energy independent."

The Reichert-Burner race is likely to see more high-profile surrogates in the 80-odd days until the November election.

The next likely celebrity guest, boosting Reichert, is former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani, a Republican who has won on Democratic turf.