How successful will Democrats be in convincing potential recruits that a ballot led by Hillary Clinton in 2016 presents their best opportunity for a promotion? Given their historic low point and difficult map, can Democrats compete in seats that gave President Obama between 45 and 50 percent of the vote? These are a few of the questions an early look at the 2016 House landscape yields, but so far Republicans' grip on the chamber looks secure. Democrats would need to pick up 30 seats to take back the House in 2016. However, as we wrote last week, the initial playing field of competitive races is extremely narrow. Today, we rate just 28 seats out of 435 in our Lean and Toss Up columns. Of these seats, 21 are held by Republicans and seven are held by Democrats, meaning that even if Democrats swept all 28 of these seats, they would still fall nine seats short of a majority. Below are our first looks at these contests. Based on early candidate decisions and each party's initial maneuvering, we are also shifting
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