DCCC bulks up expenditure team

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is bulking up its independent-expenditure operations, naming two leaders and adding two teams as it steps up efforts to take back the House in November.

Travis Lowe, the DCCC’s campaign director and former regional political director, will serve as executive director for independent expenditures. Kevin McKeon, who heads research for the DCCC, will now direct research specifically for the IE team, which cannot coordinate directly with campaigns.

“They have the right combination of experience, political know-how and superior understanding of our races to aggressively run winning races,” DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (N.Y.) said in a statement.

House Democrats have upped their IE teams from six to eight to enable them to focus on more than 75 races they believe to be in play. Democrats need to flip 25 seats in 2012 to retake the majority in the House.