WASHINGTON  As bad as election night was for House Democrats, top party strategists say it could have been far worse.

After sorting through the debris left behind by the Republican wave that swamped them, officials at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said the difficult decision to cut off campaign spending on Democrats whose races had slipped out of reach and then spend the money elsewhere ultimately saved 15 to 20 seats.

As a result, Democrats say they kept the number of seats they will need to pick up in 2012 to regain the House to a more manageable 25 or so rather than the nearly 40 they might have had to win under a worst-case scenario.

“The margin we are beginning with is significantly lower than it might have been if the roof had been totally blown off and we hadn’t contained the damage,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the campaign committee.