Schumer’s Senate Outlook: “Every Week It Gets Better”

ABC News’ Catrin Jones and David Chalian report: When asked during a press briefing Tuesday about the Democrats’ chances of taking back the Senate, DSCC chairman Chuck Schumer (D-NY) admitted that "we’re not there yet, but every week it gets better. . . every week."  With three weeks to go before the election, he remained confident that the situation would continue to improve for Democratic candidates, citing the recently released campaign finance reports showing many Democratic challengers besting their Republican opponents in third quarter fundraising.

Sen. Schumer also spoke optimistically of the Democrats improving their voter turnout strategies, reporting that the DSCC planned to spend a total of $20 million on get out the vote measures in the coming weeks.  In the recent past, Republicans have outperformed Democrats in turning out their voters.  Schumer said Democrats would probably not beat the Republicans at the ground game this cycle, but that they’ll get a lot closer to matching the GOP turnout efforts than they did in 2002 and 2004.

Democrats need to win six Senate seats to gain the majority.  They are fighting on Republican turf in Pennsylvania, Montana, Ohio, Rhode Island, Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia.  The DSCC is also putting resources into New Jersey to protect that Democratic seat from falling into Republican hands.