Last week the NY Times revealed that reality was setting in for Democrats who were no longer able to pretend that the party was going to defy gravity in the midterms. As I noted at the time, one piece of evidence suggesting how bad things were looking came in the form of an announcement that the DCCC was rushing money into the district of DCCC chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney.

House Democrats’ campaign arm is spending big to defend its chief, New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, from mounting GOP threats.

The Maloney-run Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will spend just over $600,000 on air cover for him starting Tuesday as he battles challenger Michael Lawler in a more-competitive-than-expected race…

Many in the party feel they have no choice but to protect Maloney, whose loss as chair of the DCCC would be a massive embarrassment for the party.

That was bad but probably not as concerning as the latest news brought to us by Politico. A Democratic super PAC is now spending to defend an upstate Democrat in a district that went for Joe Biden by 20 points in 2020. Just savor this like a fine wine.

House Democrats’ top super PAC is making a last-minute buy to aid Rep. Joe Morelle, a New York Democrat in a deep-blue seat — the latest sign that the battle for the House is lurching toward the GOP.

Morelle, who was elected in 2018 to replace the late Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter, holds a Rochester-area district that backed President Joe Biden by 20 points in 2020. His Republican opponent, La’Ron Singletary, is a former Rochester police chief who has staked his campaign on rising crime rates in New York. House Majority PAC will go on air this week for Morelle with a $275,000 buy, according to data from the media tracking firm AdImpact.

The incumbent has spent close to $800,000 on TV, while Singletary has spent just $160,000, according to AdImpact. But there has been growing concern from Democratic operatives in recent weeks that blue states, such as Oregon and New York, are racing away from them.

There is a caveat here which is that La’Ron Singletary was a Democrat and so he’s a very moderate species of Republican. Still, the story goes on to point out that Morelle’s district is not the only deep blue seat where Democrats appear to be in trouble.

In Southern California, Rep. Julia Brownley is making personal appeals to Democratic colleagues to send her campaign cash as her internal polls show a neck-and-neck race with her GOP challenger, two sources told NBC News.

Democrats have spent millions of dollars, raised from party entities and outside groups, to protect Rep. Jahana Hayes, the former Connecticut Teacher of the Year who cruised to decisive victories in 2018 and 2020…

“Things are not great. Everyone knows that,” said one House Democrat who has seen outside groups spend millions of dollars in their blue district.

Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada’s first district tweeted this plea for help last week.

Kevin McCarthy’s super PAC is pouring nearly $9 million in attack ads to flip my seat. Please, can you make a donation tonight so I can fight back?https://t.co/OJ4c3nq69J

— Dina Titus (@dinatitus) October 28, 2022

So that’s the story in many blue spots around the country. Democrats are on defense in seats that normally wouldn’t be competitive and Republicans are on offense. What will it add up to? My guess has been 20-25 seats and the only reason it won’t be higher is that Republicans picked up 13 seats already in 2020 which means there really weren’t many competitive races left to start with.