While things have gone well for Democrats in recent days in these 2 states, things have also gone poorly.
The lone decent challengers in West Virgnina, State Senator John Unger, has dropped his bid for the seat presently held by Republican Congresswoman Shelly Moore Capito. With Unger out of the race, West Virginia ia dead to Democratic challenges as we have no seats that we have a chance of taking in that state.
Kentucky has all but washed away that bad news with recent announcments and challenges already in progress.
Recent news in Kentucky’s 2nd CD has been a boon for Democrats as Republican Congressman Ron Lewis is retiring. State Senator David Boswell looks to be a strong contender though Judge Executive Reid Haire will challenge him in the primary. Haire was a last minute entry so he starts at a bit of a disadvantage though I have no FEC report to look at for Boswell at this time to see what advantage he’ll start with. The Republicans have a state senator as well as a no name candidate on their side of the aisle so they don’t lack a decent candidate as far as I can tell. This district isn’t hugely to the right as Lewis was held to just 55% in 06.
In Kentucky’s 3rd CD, the Democrats will have a fairly tough defense of Congressman John Yarmuth. Yarmuth’s 2006 opponent, the former incumbent Anne Northup is running again and while she seems to face what will be a nasty primary to get back her seat, she will have good name recognition in the district and a lot of cash. My belief is that since Yarmuth beat her as a challenger when she didn’t have a primary and he did, that he should beat her again, but she will atleast make the race interesting.