Pickup Potential
Republicans got another bit of good news Tuesday when Rep. John Tanner, (D-TN), announced that he’s retiring at the end of this term:
Tanner released a statement late tonight confirming the news. “Betty Ann and I had considered retiring in 2007 at the end of the 110th Congress, were it not for the fact that our nation had the chance to elect an American as President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly at this critical moment in the war in Afghanistan,” he wrote. “However, we believed we owed it to our country to stay and fulfill this term of office as NATO PA President. This mandate expires in November 2010, and therefore, we have made the decision not to seek re-election to Congress.”
Earlier, I mentioned that Dennis Moore, (D-KS), was retiring, giving the GOP a great shot at picking up both seats:
Both men represent districts that voted heavily for Pres. Bush twice; in ‘08, Tanner’s CD gave Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) a 56%-43% margin, while Moore’s Kansas City-based seat gave Pres. Obama a narrow 51%-48% margin.
I’ve heard that two high quality candidates have emerged on the GOP side for Moore’s seat and that Democrats are shying away from running in that seat. Meanwhile, Tanner’s district should represent a strong pickup opportunity because the only thing that kept getting Rep. Tanner elected in that district was Rep. Tanner.
In that respect, it’s much like MN-7, where Collin Peterson is the only thing that’s keeping the district in DFL hands. The minute he retires, that district will likely flip into GOP hands.
It’ll be interesting to see if other veteran Democrats announce their retirements rather than getting defeated in November, 2010. Chris van Hollen has his work ahead of him to keep Democratic retirements to a minimum. Alot of Democratic open seats to defend will make his job that much more difficult. the last thing Rep. van Hollen needs is additional challenges. I suspect that he’s already up to his eyeballs in challenges.
Technorati Tags: Democrats, John Tanner, Bart Gorton, Dennis Moore, Chris van Hollen, House Seats, Republicans, John McCain, George Bush, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog