After gaining 53 seats in the last two election cycles, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running short on places to recruit.

The DCCC’s recruitment team met Thursday morning and concluded that 2010 would be an incumbent retention cycle, according to a Democratic strategist with knowledge of the meeting.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the DCCC is done playing offense. 

The committee will continue to try to put pressure via paid and earned media on those who might vacate their seats — a tactic that contributed to some of the 30 GOP retirements in the 2006 cycle.

“Our opportunities at this point are smaller, but it was an effort to begin the process to identify opportunities and where we can go on offense,” the strategist said.

Democrats want expectations to be high for Republicans, whose new campaign chief has set the goal of retaking the majority in 2010, which would require about a 40-seat gain.

The DCCC began its 2008 recruitment effort in December 2006, and with Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) remaining at the helm for another cycle, the process this cycle is beginning before the calendar page is turning on November.

The talks were very preliminary and did not delve much into specific seats to target. The source said Van Hollen thanked the committee for its work last cycle, in which Democrats netted 23 seats, and focused on the delayed general election in Lousiana’s 4th district, where Democrats could take retiring Rep. Jim McCrery’s (R) seat.

The recruiting team met regularly every Thursday for the last two years. Present at the meeting this Thursday were Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), Russ Carnahan (Mo.), Steve Israel (N.Y.), Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Bruce Braley (Iowa).