Stu Rothenberg, one of Washington's top election watchers, offered his latest House rating yesterday. The outlook, he says, is not good for Republicans.

Of nine pure toss-ups, Rothenberg includes four incumbent Democrats -- Florida's Tim Mahoney, Kansas' Nancy Boyda, Pennsylvania's Chris Carney and Nick Lampson of Texas -- and five Republican open seats, including AZ-01 (Renzi), IL-11 (Weller), MN-03 (Ramstad), NM-01 (Wilson) and VA-11 (Tom Davis). Another open seat, that of Rep. Deborah Pryce in Ohio, "tilts" Democratic, while Republicans might target four "tilt Democratic" incumbents and Democrats can take on three "tilt Republican" incumbents.

The rankings come the same day the Evans Novak Political Report rated both NM-01 and OH-15 as leaning toward a Democratic takeover.