Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press

Could control of the House of Representatives really flip back to the Democrats next year?

Just over a year from Election Day, and with the presidential race seizing most of the political spotlight, Congressional strategists for the Democratic Party are hinting that it just might.

More than 100 Democratic candidates from more than 60 districts in 36 states will gather in Washington on Wednesday for a day of in-house discussions, training and boosterism.

Democratic officials say the gathering is evidence of the enthusiastic response they have gotten as they recruit candidates. They say the sheer number of candidates gives them a better than even chance of winning a net gain of 25 seats to take back control.

“We’ve put the House in play,” declared Representative Steve Israel, Democrat of New York, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “I’ve never guaranteed to anyone that we will take the House back in 2012. I am guaranteeing to everyone that it will be razor close.”

Republican officials in charge of House campaigns next year express confidence that their party will withstand whatever efforts the Democrats put forth.

They say the Democrats face numerous obstacles to regaining a majority that would oust House Speaker John A. Boehner and reinstate Representative Nancy Pelosi in her old job.

Redistricting in many states that were controlled by Republican legislatures have made the going tougher for some Democratic incumbents. Several Democratic incumbents have announced their retirements. And President Obama‘s political struggles are making it a tougher environment for members from his party.

“The biggest vulnerability for everyone on this list is that they all fully support President Obama’s job-destroying agenda,” a spokeswoman for the National Republican Campaign Committee said.

The dueling assessments of the year ahead are an early indication of what’s at stake in the Congressional elections. Democrats are eager to retake the House in part as a buffer against the possibility that they could lose the Senate — and maybe the White House. Republicans salivate at the possibility of winning everything in 2012.

The House races will not fully engage for months. Many of the Democratic candidates who will arrive in Washington on Wednesday will be running against each other in primaries next year. But national officials in both parties are eager to establish an early narrative about which way the political fortunes are blowing.

Mr. Israel cited recent fund-raising numbers which showed that the Democratic committee he heads has out-raised his Republican counterparts by $4 million in the last quarter. He also pointed to two recent public opinion surveys that suggest that Americans are more likely to say they would vote for a Democratic Congress over a Republican one.

“As a result of the buyer’s remorse that has set in, House Democrats are ahead in most of the generic polls,” Mr. Israel said.

To counter that impression, officials at the Republican committee pointed to races in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, where Democratic incumbents are running in districts that are much more solidly Republican than they were before redistricting took place in those states.

“It’s making it that much harder for them,” said Paul Lindsay, the communications director for the committee.

But Mr. Lindsay conceded that there are also a number of vulnerable Republican lawmakers who will need defending against the Democratic efforts. He said that Republicans have set up something called the “Patriot Program,” which will aim to provide money and support to those candidates.

“These are swing districts where obviously they are going to have races,” Mr. Lindsay said. He said those lawmakers — who already include Representatives Charles Bass and Frank Guinta in New Hampshire and Lou Barletta and Patrick Meehan in Pennsylvania — will get the help they need.

So who’s really got the advantage?

It is always harder to win back a majority in Congress than it is to hold one. And with the economy struggling and Mr. Obama falling in the polls, it’s a tough environment for Democrats to make major gains.

But in the end, it remains a numbers game. There are plenty of Republicans who won their seats in the wave of discontent that drove incumbents out of office in 2010. Now, the Republican lawmakers are the incumbents, and they face the anger that is still out there.

Democratic officials say the Congressional hopefuls who arrive in Washington on Wednesday will participate in a reception for the committee’s “Women LEAD” program and will attend policy discussions on economics, job creation and national security. Later in the day, they will have “media training” with Anita Dunn, a veteran Democratic strategist who recently served as the White House communications director.

But those candidates hoping to run as Washington outsiders are not likely to linger in the capital city for too long.

“My guess,” said Mr. Israel, “is they will be leaving skid marks on Washington to get back home and campaign.”