From The Hill:
Nine months before Election Day, Republican Mike Enzi is mum about whether he will ask Wyoming voters to send him back to the Senate for a third term. […]
The low-profile Enzi won’t provide a timeline for his decision, but Wyoming candidates have to file their paperwork between May 15-30 and primaries aren’t held until Aug. 19. […]
Some suspect that Enzi might be leaning towards leaving after he fumed about the decision by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bypass him for a vacant Finance Committee seat.
McConnell appointed Sen. John Sununu (N.H.), a first-term senator and one of the most vulnerable Republicans up for reelection in 2008, to the committee, which has broad jurisdiction over taxes, trade and healthcare issues.
Enzi, an accountant by training, has long sought a spot on the committee, and last week’s snub was the second time this Congress he has been bypassed in favor of a more junior member. […]
Asked for his reaction last week after the latest snub, Enzi told The Hill: “Sure. I’m pissed.”
2008: The greatest political horse race year in decades?
That’s the only way we’d win it.
He has been a faithful party guy. He is not an a-hole who draws a lot of negative media attention. He just…well…does his job.
Usually, seniority is still recognized, except in the case of ideological issues (not putting a moderate in charge of a committee in favor of a junior member who is more conservative/liberal, for example). In this case, it was solely about trying to give Sununu a nice place to accumulate chits that he could cash in about 9 months from now when he is running for his political life.
Kind of a crappy move, IMHO….
We haven’t been able to get a good candidate in the first open seat, I have very little faith that we will get a good candidate in this second open seat. There is a former governor, a former gubernatorial candidate, and a state legislature that I have heard mentioned but nothing has come out. Unless we get some movement NOW, we aren;t going to be getting into these races with anything meaningful.
This would make six open Senate seats and two others (Wicker/ ex-Lott in MS and Barrasso/ex-Craig Thomas in WY) with short term incumbents. Last cycle, six incumbent Republicans lost and they won their open seat in TN. That’s 15 Senate seats in two years. Add in possible losses in NH, OR, MN, and AK and the Republican side of the aisle needs a moving van.
Funny thing, besides a third of the Republican Senate seats a similar percentage in the House (or higher) will turn over in the same two years. They ought to be sponsored by Allied Van Lines.
The math on the House:
Open seats, 2008: 28
Deaths, 2007-08: 3
Open seats, 2006: 20
Defeats, non-open: 22
2008 defeats: ?
That’s 73 plus another 10 or 20 in the hopper in the House.