U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) had announced long ago that he would not seek re-election. Well, it is amazing what life in the majority does to you. Rep. Gutierrez has reversed directions and is now a candidate for re-election. This was never a competitive district, so this is not shutting out the republicans from being able to pick up a seat.
The only, thus far, open democratic seats that remain are those of Rep. Mark Udall (CO-2) and Rep. Tom Allen (ME-1) who are both seeking challenges to move up into the senate.
If anyone from Chicago is reading this, I would like to know how this afects the ground game for any democrats who were trying to move up to the house.
The original CQ article is posted below the flip.
With Democrats now running the House, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill., said Thursday that he will seek re-election in his Chicago-area 4th District, reversing an earlier decision to retire from Congress at the end of 2008.
Gutierrez made his announcement in Chicago, where he was attending the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Business Expo.
“In terms of effectiveness, I believe that my position in Congress is where I can be the strongest, most effective advocate for the people of Chicago and for our nation's immigrant communities,” Gutierrez, a leading advocate of overhauling immigration laws, said in a statement.
Gutierrez originally said in December 2005 that he would seek an eighth and final term in November 2006 and explore a run for Chicago mayor in February 2007. He won re-election with 86 percent of the vote last November, then decided against challenging longtime Democratic Mayor Richard M. Daley in a primary.
Even though he had disclosed his retirement plans nearly a year before the 2006 elections, well before it was clear that Democrats would win a majority of House seats, he had confirmed his retirement plans to a Congressional Quarterly reporter in March 2007.
Gutierrez said that his decision to run again was influenced by his wife's recovery from thyroid cancer and the possibility that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a fellow Chicagoan, will be elected president in 2008. Many Chicago-area officials were encouraging him to run again.
[…]
Most, if not all, of the four Democrats currently seeking Gutierrez's seat are expected to defer to the congressman and not challenge him in the Feb. 5 primary election. The would-be successors are Cook County commissioner Roberto Maldonado and Chicago Aldermen George Cardenas, Manny Flores and Ricardo Munoz. The top candidate in this quartet appears to be Flores, who reported raising nearly $500,000 through the end of June. […]
…state clearly: “Don’t copy-and-paste entire copyright articles.”
You’ll understand, then, that I’ll have to edit the bottom half of your diary.