Another one bites the dust.
Republican Rep. Dave Hobson announced his retirement today, just days before his 71st birthday:
Rep. David Hobson announced at 5 p.m. Sunday that he will retire at the end of this term. […]He made his announcement at a birthday party surrounded by staff, former staff and community leaders.
Hobson’s exit makes him the third Ohio Republican in the House to call it quits (Deborah Pryce and Ralph Regula being the others), and the 12th in the nation. His district, however, is fairly red — with a PVI of R+6, Bush carried it by a 57-43 margin over Kerry. It will be a tough district for a Democrat to win, but the surging fortunes of Democrats in the state could spark an interesting race here with the right kind of candidate.
Remember, Democrat Zack Space pulled off a victory in an Ohio district that’s just as red last year. Granted, his GOP opponent was deeply flawed, but who knows what kind of Club For Growth-style stooge the local GOP might spit out for us here.
Race Tracker: OH-07
(Hat-tip: Buckeye State Blog)
It really seems like that whenever we do a new House Open Seat Watch thread, another Republican or two retires immediately after. And here we have Regula and Hobson jumping ship soon after they checked out our post.
Maybe we should start posting these things weekly? 🙂
How many holes can the NRCC fill?
Are there any Republicans Left?
But I have come across one that I didn’t see on here, and we don’t have any fundraising open threads…
NY-26
To me that is kind of disappointing to me, since he raised around the same amount in a month in the second quarter. (Although I’m sure the fact that it’s the third quarter played into this).
OH-18 is traditionally Democratic. OH-7 isn’t.
OH-01
IL-14
NC-08
With Hobson’s announcement, we really need a credible candidate (and no, we don’t have one yet.)