Report: Giuliani could help GOP ticket

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Some U.S. House Republicans see GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani as their best hope for winning back the majority in 2008, a report says.

They say that with former New York Mayor Giuliani at the top of the ticket, congressional races would actually become competitive in the Democratic strongholds of the Northeast, The Washington Times reported Monday.

"He would make it possible to knock off (Democratic) first-term members of Congress," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told the Times. "He would bring out a lot of Republican voters and get a large number of conservative Democrats and independents."

King's view is shared by New Jersey's GOP State Committee Chairman Tom Wilson and Robert A. Gleason Jr., chair of Pennsylvania's GOP.

"With Giuliani at the top of the ticket (Democrats) might lose control of the House," Gleason says.

Wilson adds the former New York mayor is "as close to a favorite son as there is" in the Garden State.

A Rasmussen Reports poll released last week shows Giuliani leading the GOP field with 24 percent of the vote followed by former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee with 15 percent.