Over the last 24 hours, several top Democrats have decided to retire, resulting in one of the “bleakest election outlook in years” for the Dems…

Politico reports: “Four top Democrats-including veteran Sens. Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan-all prepared to pull the plug on their campaigns in a 24-hour period that began Tuesday, and in the process, offered an unnerving glimpse at the perilous election year ahead. With Dorgan’s stunning retirement announcement Tuesday evening, Democrats are now facing their bleakest election outlook in years-and the very real possibility the party will lose its 60-40 Senate supermajority after the November elections. On the House side, the prospect of heavy 20-30 seat losses is already looking increasingly likely.”

Rick Klein of ABC’s The Note reports that the Democratic exodus will “roil” the 2010 landscape… “Who said Washington wasn’t ready to talk about a changing climate? There’s something in the January air, and it smells like the December air, and maybe even the winds of change we’ve heard so much about. In the space of a disastrous 24 hours for Democrats, two senators who combine for more than 60 years of service on Capitol Hill called it quits. Two top Democratic gubernatorial candidates in battleground states — one an incumbent, the other a shoo-in for the nomination — found better things to do with their time, too.”

Fueling GOP hope, the Washington Times’ S.A. Miller reports on the successful recruiting of the Republican Party for the midterm elections: “Conservative and Republican candidates who sat on the sidelines during the Democratic electoral surges of 2006 and 2008 are jumping into the 2010 midterm elections with renewed confidence after President Obama’s first year in office… The class of new recruits, who run the gamut from legislative veterans hoping for comebacks to promising newcomers, has Republican officials eyeing significant gains in the House, Senate and governors’ mansions after two disastrous election cycles.”