GOP Congressmen giving up on retaking House

Greg Giroux at CQ Politics has posted an article that Democrats will find enjoyable. The recent announcements by Dennis Hastert (R-Ill), Debra Pryce (R-OH), and Chip Pickering Jr. (R-MS) along with two earlier retirement announcements (Ray LaHood (R-IL) and Duncan Hunnter (R-CA))makes it five Republicans leaving the House. Speculation is that more Republicans, looking at their continued minority role in the House in the future, can be expected to join those five.

Hastert and LaHood had to announce their retirements this early because the Illinois Primary was moved to February 5, 2008, the earliest Congressional Primary in the U.S. ever. The very early filing deadline requires them to have already begun distributing filing petitions which are due November 5. If the party is going to nominate someone else of those two seats, LaHood and Hastert are forced to get out of the race now. Other states have filing deadlines as late as January, so we may well be seeing additional Republican retirements.

On the Democratic side of the Aisle, only two congressmen have announced that they are not running for reelection. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Tom Allen (D-ME) both are leaving the House to run for Senate. The Colorado Senate seat is open and the Maine seat is held by Republican Susan Collins who is facing an increasingly Democratic electorate, so both Senate campaigns have realistic possibilities. The only Republican who has announced that he is not running for reelection so that he can run for higher office is Duncan Hunter. Rep. Hunter's run for the Presidency has never been anything more than a tremendous long shot.

In the Senate, only Wayne Allard (R-CO) has announced his retirement. No Democrats have made an announcement. This might be because the Senate is so close to parity right now that Republicans think they might have a chance to return to the majority, so they aren't ready to give up before the 2008 election. However, of the 33 Senate seats up for election in 2008, 22 are held by Republicans and only 11 by Democrats. That makes the Republicans more vulnerable to a net loss of Senate seats.

2008 is already shaping up to be an interesting election year. As of right now, it certainly looks like it will be more fun for Democrats than the recent decade has been.