House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said that Democrats "know 2010 will be a tough election year. But unlike 1994 when they were swept out of power for the first time in 40 years, they're ready this time," the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Hoyer: "In November 1993 nobody was discussing that we may have tough races coming up in the election year of 1994. We were pretty cocksure that what was, would be. As a result, we weren't as on guard as we should have been. That is definitively not the case in 2009."
Hoyer also noted that only 11 House Democrats have announced their retirement so far, compared with 13 Republicans.