Today's WaPo reports on D and R Congress election strategies

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"To woo voters, Democrats plan to cast selves as party of results" by Phillip Rucker

Democrats plan to run in the November midterm elections as the party of "results" after passing a health-care overhaul and will cast Republicans as political obstructionists, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said Wednesday.

"We think Americans will reward results rather than obstruction, and we think we have a capacity to do much better in these midterm elections than a lot of people think," said Kaine. He is confident his party would retain majorities in the Senate and House in November, but declined to be specific about the number of seats.

Kaine said the party learned valuable lessons from Republican Scott Brown's surprise victory in January, taking the Massachusetts seat long held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D). Kaine said the race gave the Democratic Party a "10-month advance" on what the November midterms could be like and that President Obama would be more aggressive in appealing to his supporters for his party's candidates on the fall ballot.

"Republicans hope to win three symbolic Senate seats" by Karen Tumulty

As things stand now, they are well within striking distance of winning President Obama's old seat in Illinois and Vice President Biden's former perch in Delaware, and of toppling Majority Leader Harry M. Reid in Nevada.

"I call them the trophy seats," said Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Winning all three would affirm a GOP resurgence and announce -- as Scott Brown did, when he won a January special election for the late Edward M. Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts -- that Democrats aren't safe anywhere anymore.

As is the case pretty much everywhere in the country, Republican candidates in Cornyn's three "trophy" races are the beneficiaries of a sour national mood. But Illinois, Delaware and Nevada also present unique sets of problems for the Democrats.

In Illinois, the seventh most heavily Democratic state in the nation, the party generally wins statewide races in a walk. But this year, it has picked a nominee whose background could hardly be less suited to the times. He is state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose failed family-owned bank was seized last Friday night by federal regulators. He is now running about even in the polls with moderate Republican Rep. Mark Kirk, who outraised him by $1 million in the first quarter of 2010.