Kapanke was far to the right of his district & Hopper was embattled by scandal. To not knock off both of them would have been a complete failure for the Democrats.
And we all know that even those circumstances can sometimes not guarantee a win. Both are good wins.
Of course not, though none expected Kapanke to survive & Hopper's prospects were not great either, not to mention others who could have fallen in Hopper's stead. It wasn't the worst feasible scenario for Democrats, but it was still far from the best.