An inverse of my Hillary-hurts-Democrats-in-the-South-and-West hypothesis…

New Jersey Republican State Committee Chairman Tom Wilson said Mr. Giuliani is “as close to a favorite son as there is” in the Garden State, and Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Robert A. Gleason Jr. called a Giuliani ticket the “best-case scenario.” “With Giuliani at the top of the ticket, [Democrats] might lose control of the House,” Mr. Gleason said. “We believe we [in Pennsylvania] could win back the four seats we lost [in 2006] and possibly pick up another one.” Proponents of a “Giuliani bounce” at blue-state polls say it could propel challenges to Democrats including Reps. Kirsten Gillibrand and John Hall in New York, Christopher Carney and Paul E. Kanjorski in Pennsylvania, Steven R. Rothman in New Jersey and Christopher S. Murphy in Connecticut. Democrats dismissed the potential coattails of a Giuliani nomination.

Well, we didn’t expect their response to be, “yeah, we’re up a certain creek without a paddle in that scenario.”

Later in the story, Republican David Cappiello, who is challenging Rep. Murphy in Connecticut’s 5th District, says he doesn’t necessarily think in political “coattails” but he is convinced Giuliani would break Democrats’ lock on his state: “With Giuliani on the ballot, Connecticut would be a state both parties would have to pay attention to,” Mr. Cappiello said. “He puts the state in play.”

Could Connecticut really go from a Republican Senate candidate getting 9.6 percent of the vote in a three way race to turning red in a presidential race two years later?