Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Republican Governors Association Chairman, predicts the GOP could pick up as many as 14 governorships in November. Credit: Office of Mississippi Governor

Tapping into voter anger, Republicans across America are targeting Democratic congressional seats and governorships.

With anti-incumbent fever spiking and public approval ratings of the Democrat-controlled Congress at a low ebb, a GOP takeover of the U.S. House appears mathematically possible, party strategists say. If so, it would be an historic shift in power.

Meanwhile, Republican Governors Association Chairman Haley Barbour predicts his party will pick up at least six and as many as 14 governorships, setting the GOP's mark somewhere between 30 and 38 governors.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich forecast last week that the party would outstrip its gains in 1994, when it won 10 -- nearly double the historic average of 5.5 in a president’s first midterm election.  

Democrats call the GOP's flirtation with tea party groups an "extreme makeover" that will blow up the party's chances.

In a Sept. 8 memo, Nathan Daschle, director of the Democratic Governors Association, noted that "brutal divisions within the Republican Party persist in key states, including California, Colorado and Florida."

Still, acknowledging "tough political headwinds," Daschle predicted that "at least 70 House races are in play," along with six Senate seats and a "couple of dozen" governorships.

But Daschle said the GOP's own "civil war" will keep Democrats' hopes alive in these contests.

"This is a much weaker Republican Party than 1994, both in intellectual vigor and in unity. Polling shows that Americans are turned off by the 2010 GOP, which in race after race is lurching to extremes, leaving behind festering division," Daschle declared.

In Florida, for example, GOP gubernatorial nominee Rick Scott finds himself in a statistical tie with Democrat Alex Sink. A Sunshine State News Poll showed this week that Scott is dogged by high negatives lingering from his knock-down-drag-out primary battle with Attorney General Bill McCollum.

While Scott, who received a set of tea party endorsements Thursday, is viewed as borderline extreme by some in his own party, Sink has captured the lion's share of independent voters in the middle of the political spectrum.

Both national parties are pumping money into the race in an effort to take the seat being vacated by Gov. Charlie Crist, who bolted the Republican Party to run as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate.

Republican campaign consultant Rick Wilson said, "Alex Sink comes into this race dragging the very heavy weight of a Democratic base that has lost its energy and direction. There's a strong correlation between voting in the primary and voting in the general, and as you can see from the turnout in both the Republican gubernatorial and Senate races, GOP voter enthusiasm is at a very high pitch."

In Florida's congressional contests, at least three Democratic districts could swing Republican this year. Reps. Allen Boyd, D-Tallahassee; Alan Grayson, D-Orlando; and Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach, are seen as vulnerable. Grayson and Kosmas are both freshmen, and a recent poll showed Kosmas trailing GOP nominee Sandy Adams.

Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, also is facing a tough challenge from Allen West, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. Klein narrowly won re-election in 2008 to the seat that the GOP had held from 1980-2006.

Republicans currently hold a 15-10 majority in Florida's congressional delegation. None of the major polls has suggested that any of the state's Republican congressmen are in trouble.

In the Senate race, a Sunshine State News Poll last week showed Republican Marco Rubio, a tea party favorite, dominating the contest by double digits as Crist and Democrat Kendrick Meek split the center-left vote.