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Saturday, December 03, 2005

House Race Comebacks

Posted by DavidNYC

I've already posted about Mark Nickolas's effort to get Ken Lucas to make a comeback. Here are a couple of other related tidbits:

• Democrat Chris John, who lost a Senate bid last year, says he won't run for his old seat, LA-07.

• And in still some more comeback news, The Hotline is reporting that Ron Klink may try to retake his old seat, PA-04, though my understanding is that redistricting has changed the contours of this district.

If you've got any other House race news, post it in the comments.

And, of course, please help out the Young campaign in CA-48 - the special election is on Tuesday. You can do virtual phone banking or volunteer in person. Also, you can check out their live Q&A feature which they've just launched.

Posted at 03:39 PM in 2006 Elections - House | Technorati

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Comments

OK, you're all probably sick of me posting about this race, but ... :)

Don't forget about the House race on the other side of the Ohio river from the potential Davis/Lucas showdown in Kentucky, in Indiana 9. Former Congressman Baron Hill has signed on for a 3rd rematch with Mike Sodrel (Hill won in 2002, Sodrel in 2004). Sodrel is a useless rightwing empty suit who only get elected because he used his millions and fought extremely dirty and had an R next to his name on the ballot. Charlie Cook just moved this race to the "tossup" category, and pretty much everyone has it listed in their top 10 closest races in the country. What was interesting about last time, other than it being so close (less than 2000 votes, and Sodrel was the only person to win a race with less than 50% of the vote last time), was that almost every single county was 55-45 or closer. This really is going to be a district-wide battle fought in every community, and if we're going to beat Sodrel, this is the time to do it. This is a rare case of the challenger being probably better known than the incumbent. It really was the abortion issue that killed Hill last time (he is pro-choice, but supports limitations -- and Sodrel turned this into him wanting to government-fund abortions in the 9th month for any reason -- a total lie, of course). Hill's going to be better prepared this time, and Sodrel has some explaining to do in voting for CAFTA and supporting cuts in veterans benefits -- two things that did not go over well at all in the district. Check out Baron Hill's website at www.bringbackbaron.com.

Posted by: IndianaProgressive at December 3, 2005 05:21 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Things are heating up in the race to oust Pombo in CA-11.

Jerry McNerney, a clean energy expert from Pleasanton just got an endorsement by a large labor group in San Joaquin County, which is where most of the voters in the district live. This was something of a snub to Margee Ensign, who lives in San Joaquin County and who was expected to get significant support locally. This was also something of a reality check for Steve Filson (at least IMHO), who came into the race claiming his union experience (he's a member of a pilot's union) would get him significant support from Labor.

Filson still has the fundraising advantage and that's likely to grow. This coming week he's reportedly holding a fundraiser in DC hosted by a number of Bay Area Congresspeople including Ellen Tauscher and Zoe Lofgren. He still hasn't generated any enthusiasm on the grassroots level, and the fact that he's being backed by the Dems in DC is causing a lot of resentment locally.

In other news, Scott Chacon, who some here might know from a couple of postings at Daily Kos, has officially dropped out and gotten behind Margee Ensign.

Also, as I mentioned last week, a new challenger, Steve Thomas, has entered the race. He looks like he's not a very credible candidate, but I mentioned it here to be complete.

All of this and more at my blog Say No to Pombo.

Posted by: Matt Lockshin at December 3, 2005 07:14 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

That's great news about Ron Klink in PA-04, although you're correct that the district contains only about half of Klink's old district. With the possible exception of Texas, no state has districts gerrymandered as ridiculously as Pennsylvania. The old 4th ran along the Ohio border with Democratic Beaver County as its population center. Much of Beaver County is still in the 4th, but the population center is now the Republican northern suburbs of Pittsburgh in Alleghany and Westmoreland Counties.

As for Chris John, I was under the impression that he was already strongly considering running for LA-07 again. Without him running, that district is very likely to remain in GOP hands.

Other suggestions for resurrectional candidacies off the top of my head:
David Phelps (IL-19), Tim Roemer (IN-02), David Bonior (MI-10), Tony Hall (OH-03) and Max Sandlin (TX-01)

Posted by: Mark at December 3, 2005 07:21 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Bonior's residence is now in Sander Levin's district.

I don't know the status of Hall's job either.

As for Roemer, he didn't seem too fond of a campaign against Lugar, and I think he wouldn't run himself when there's a 2004 Challenger running in that district.

Posted by: RBH at December 3, 2005 11:34 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I just had an exciting thought. What district in Kentucky is Dan Mangiardo from? If he lives in Ben Chandler's district, then never mind, but if he lives in the other four (particularly KY-03 or KY-04), he would be as strong of candidate as anyone.

Posted by: Mark at December 3, 2005 11:41 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Dr. Dan is in Hal Rogers district, and his State Senate seat is up in 2006 anyways

Posted by: RBH at December 4, 2005 01:34 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Mark and RBH -- As much as us Indiana Democrats would LOVE to see Tim Roemer take on Chris Chocola in Indiana 2, it's not going to happen next year (or I'd be really surprised if it did). Roemer didn't run against Dick Lugar for the Senate because he'd have been crushed, as any Democrat would be. I think Roemer would like to stay involved/become re-involved in politics and perhaps run for something again, but Joe Donnelly will be our candidate again next fall, as he was in '04 when he lost by 9 points. He's not a bad candidate, and has a shot at winning in this district, but he's going to have to: 1) Raise a lot more money than he did last time, and 2) Clearly win the northern, more urban parts of the district, to offset Chocola's strength in the more rural/small town parts. He only got like 51% of the vote in St. Joseph County (South Bend) last time -- and no Democrat will come close to carrying this district without coming out of there with a healthy margin.

Posted by: IndianaProgressive at December 5, 2005 10:17 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment