The prospect of a GOP implosion at the top of the ticket suddenly has House Democrats energized about making a big dent in the GOP's 30-seat majority or even putting the majority in play. The only problem is that House Democrats don't look all that well-equipped to capitalize on a wave. Even though Donald Trump has been the GOP's clear front-runner for several months, we haven't seen a surge of top-tier Democrats jumping off the sidelines into races, and in many places it's now too late. Filing deadlines have now passed in 278 districts, and Democrats have failed to recruit credible candidates in many GOP-held seats that might have been considered "wave targets," such as IL-12 and IL-13 (seats Democrats drew for themselves in 2012), and NC-09, where GOP Rep. Robert Pittenger is under investigation by the FBI and IRS. By the end of April, filing deadlines will have passed in an additional 75 districts, or about 81 percent of all House seats. As we wrote earlier this month, a Trump nomination would create a high degree of down-ballot uncertainty
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