Snyder released the following statement:
“2010 will be a robust election year during which great forces collide to set the direction for our country for another two years. Over the last several weeks Betsy and I have had discussions with family and friends including other members of Congress (Rep. David Price, Rep. Susan Davis, and our own Sen. Mark Pryor) regarding the appropriate balance between family and congressional service when a family has very young children. I have concluded that these election-year forces are no match for the persuasive and powerful attraction of our three 1-year old boys under the leadership of their 3-year old brother, and I have decided not to run for re-election. It is the greatest professional honor of my life to represent Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives, and I am so grateful to the people of Arkansas to have had this wonderful opportunity. That honor will now pass to someone else at the conclusion of this term.
“This decision has not been an easy one. Two weeks ago my campaign manager came on board, but that first morning I advised him to do nothing to begin the campaign because of my doubts regarding running. The onset of the new year, the time I always begin organizing my campaigns, did nothing to remove these doubts.
This seat was already looking to be a very tough hold (especially given that SUSA poll released earlier today showing Snyder trailing ex-US Attorney Tim Griffin by 56-39). Now it looks to be even tougher, unless Democrats can find a candidate sprinkled with magical Mike Beebe dust all over their person in this Little Rock-based district.
UPDATE: Here’s an idea for a replacement candidate: Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who has previously been mulling a run for U.S. Senate. Halter lives in the district (North Little Rock), and was born there, too. I think he’d have to seriously consider the opportunity.
Just to give you a better sense of this district, it has a PVI of R+5. Al Gore lost the CD by 48-49 in 2000, Kerry by 48-51 in 2004, and Obama by 44-54 in 2008. Not a good trend, but that wasn’t as bad of a deterioration as seen in the districts held by Marion Berry (AR-01) and Mike Ross (AR-04), where the Democratic share of the vote fell all the way down to the high-30s in 2008.
RaceTracker Wiki: AR-02
What a god damn wimp.
I’m sure seeing the extremely-flawed poll that FDL commissioned had some role in Snyder’s decision (here is Nate Silver’s analysis: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com…
Those people are doing much more harm to our party than good heading into the elections next year.
There goes are one good representative. FUCK!
n/t
Like Bart Gordon and Dennis Moore (and Byron Dorgan) Snyder was a good vote in a tough district.
It seems likely that if we do manage to hold this district at all, it will be with a Dem far more conservative than Snyder.
He get banned or what because he would be flipping his shit right now over this.
looks like the “fundraise only in election year” idea is a bad idea when you have this sort of year.
But with term limits and the surplus of Arkansas Democratic legislators, a few good people can be found.
It is the Little Rock district after all, so I’d think there should be a lot of Democrats here who could make a good race of it. And some of us would like to see Halter focus on the Senate.
Snyder will be missed. He was a very good vote – the person in the delegation who comes closest to following in the footsteps of Dale Bumpers.
OMFG! We’re gonna lose the House and Senate! It’s 1994 again! Oh noes! Sky is falling! Run away!
I think my Tekzilla impression is coming along nicely.
But seriously, I’d love to keep Halter as an option for the Senate when/if Lincoln retires to spend more time with Vic Snyder’s kids. There’s gotta be a good State Senator or two just itchin’ to move up, yes? Anybody have any good names?
who works down in DC for Carolyn Maloney and we were talking about MA-Sen and this and she said one of the problems is Democrats feel that they’ve done all they can do and they won’t be able to do anything big again after the 2010 elections, so they’re cutting now.
One of the things she told me was that for some of these guys, healthcare was their issue and having passed a bill finally, they feel accomplish and want to leave.
She also warned me to expect more retirements after the healthcare bill passes and even some prominent Democrats are talking about possibly losing the House.
Term limited State Senator Shane Broadway. Not sure where he falls on the spectrum exactly, but he is one of the most respected people in state politics by folks of all political stripes.
It’s only been a few hours and already people are lining up to consider running or are being considered potential candidates. So far the names include Bill Halter, sen. Shane Broadway, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, state house speaker Robbie Wills, sen. Bob Johnson (ugh!), former AG candidate Paul Suskie, and one that particularly excites me, state sen. Joyce Elliott who says she’s seriously considering running.
I’ve got profiles of all of them up on Blue Arkansas (though for some odd reason the pics didn’t want to line up on the left hand side like I wanted them to, no matter what I did to try and fix the problem-thus explaining why it looks like crap until my tech guy can fix it):
http://bluearkansasblog.com/?p…