While many polls show Republicans making major gains in Congress this November, a spokesman for Missouri’s Democratic Party says his party’s potential losses may be exaggerated.

“I believe that we will keep (control of) both the United States Senate and the United States House,” said Craig Hosmer, the Chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party.

The leader of Missouri Republicans told the Missourinet he was optimistic his party could take control of the US House, and possibly even the Senate in November.

“They may be a little overly optimistic about what is going to happen. I don’t think people are just going to forget that (Republicans) were in power, and while they were in power they didn’t perform as well as expected. I think a lot of their candidates, nationally, are basically re-treads of people they’ve had run before and people that were in charge before,” Hosmer said.

Hosmer says here in Missouri, he sees an example of that in the race for the US Senate seat being vacated by Senator Bond. Congressman Roy Blunt is trying to maintain that seat for Republicans. Hosmer says voters that would want “change” could bring in Democrat Robin Carnahan instead. The Secretary of State would be a Washington newcomer.

“You may be dissatisfied, but does your dissatisfaction cause you vote for somebody that is basically what we’ve already seen before?” Hosmer said.

A recent Gallup poll shows only 36 percent of Americans trust or have confidence in Congress. That’s an all-time low. Hosmer recognizes that is a challenge for Democrats, being the party in power.  He hopes the polls that are showing Republicans with an edge may actually help motivate Democrats to show up on Election Day.

“As the election gets closer, I think more and more people get connected with what is at issue and I think Democrats will realize that this is an important election. If we want to keep things moving in the right direction we’ve got to do something to keep those people in position,” Hosmer said.

Hosmer thinks Democrats in Missouri are in better shape than their counterparts in other states. He thinks Missouri Democrats will be able to maintain the congressional seats they already have, and possibly gain that Senate seat that is being vacated by Senator Bond.

AUDIO: Ryan Famuliner reports [1 min MP3]