The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced Monday that 40 potentially vulnerable Members have been named to the committee’s “Frontline” program for the 2010 election cycle.

DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) also named Reps. Christopher Murphy (Conn.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) to lead the Frontline effort, which funnels resources to the most politically endangered Members of the Democratic Caucus. Wasserman Schultz is also serving as the DCCC’s vice-chairman for incumbent retention this cycle and Murphy, who ousted an incumbent in 2006, was a member of Frontline in the previous cycle.

At 40 Members, this is the largest initial Frontline list since the program was launched in the 2006 cycle — the same year that Democrats won back a majority of seats in the House.

But one change in the program for this cycle is that Members who are initially named to the list but find themselves without a serious challenge will be “graduated” from the program and removed from the list. In the 2008 cycle, the DCCC’s Independent Expenditure campaign invested significantly in only 10 of the 34 districts held by Frontline Members, amounting to 15 percent of the IE’s overall budget.

“As a result of House Democrats’ historic success over the last two elections, we have named 40 Members to the DCCC’s effective and successful Frontline Program,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “Frontline will give Members an added boost so they can continue to focus on the issues their constituents care most about.”