(Bumped – promoted by James L.)
If you ever had the misfortune of being on being on the receiving end of an National Republican Congressional Committee media alert last cycle, you’ll know that they took special delight in mocking DCCC Chair Rahm Emmanuel for his supposed recruiting failures in key House races. These press releases always were marked by the title “DCCC Delusions”. Since the NRCC has had some notable difficulties in recruiting top-shelf challengers in a number of districts (OH-15, anyone?) this year, why don’t we tally up all the candidates who took a pass on efforts by the national and state Republican parties to recruit them into House races.
I’ve got a few so far, but I have a feeling that I’m just scratching the surface. Post any additional recruitment failures in the comments section below, if you know of any.
AZ-01: Ex-state Sen. President Ken Bennett
CT-02: Former US Rep. Rob Simmons
FL-16: Former state Rep. and ’06 candidate Joe Negron
FL-22: Boca Raton Mayor Steven Abrams
FL-22: State Rep. Adam Hasner
FL-22: State Sen. Jeff Atwater
FL-22: State Rep. Adam Hasner
FL-22: State Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff
FL-22: Palm Beach Co Commis. Mary McCarty
IL-11: State Sen. Christine Radogno
ME-01: State Sen. Jon Courtney
MN-01: Former US Rep. Gil Gutknecht
NC-11: State Sen. Tom Apodaca
NH-02: Former US Rep. Charlie Bass
NY-19: Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer
OH-15: Former state AG Jim Petro
OH-15: Former Columbus Mayor Greg Lashutka
OH-15: Former WBNS-TV anchor Dave Kaylor
OH-15: State Rep. Jon Husted
OH-15: State Rep. Jim Hughes
OH-15: State Sen. Steve Stivers
OH-15: Former Franklin County Commissioner Dewey Stokes
PA-04: Former Pittsburgh Steeler and ’06 Gov Nominee Lynn Swann
PA-10: Former Deputy state AG Joe Peters
PA-10: U.S. Attorney Thomas A. Marino
TX-22: Sugarland Mayor David Wallace
TX-22: Harris County Tax Assessor Paul Bettencourt
TX-22: State Rep. John Zerwas
Not to threadjack your list of good news (and politically smart Republicans who know which way the wind probably is going to keep blowing), but here in Indiana it looks like Mike Sodrel is going to run against Baron Hill next year. If this comes about, it will be the 4th time in a row the two have squared off, with Hill winning in ’02 and ’06, and Sodrel winning in ’04. This immediately puts the race square in the toss-up category, and I don’t see anything moving it off of there until election day.
In better news keeping with the intent of the post, our other two pick-ups in ’06 so far have not drawn any major competition. I haven’t really heard any talk at all of former Rep. Chris Chocola trying to get his job back by running against Joe Donnelly again (so far Donnelly has drawn the Blackwater nutjob discussed her a few days ago, and that’s about it). No serious competition has emerged to take on Brad Ellsworth in Indiana 08 either.
I’m from TX-22 (Clear Lake end) and have never heard of this guy.