Tag: OH-07

The list of House Republicans who may retire in 2008 is an expansive one, indeed.  One name that I've heard a substantial amount of buzz surrounding is Rep. Dave Hobson of Ohio's 7th.  Unverified rumors claim that he will likely retire, but one local blogger is already calling it a done deal:

Ohio 7th District Congressman Dave Hobson will not seek re-election to a 10th term in the U.S. Congress.

The much expected retirement of Cong. Hobson has not been formally announced even though State Senator Steve Austria (Hobson’s hand picked successor) is already preparing for a Congressional campaign and at least two Repuiblicans are lining up for Austria’s Ohio State Senate seat.

With a PVI of R+6, Ohio’s 7th has a pronounced Republican lean.  It twice supported Bush by a 14-point margin (56-42 and 57-43, respectively), but much has changed since 2004 in national and state politics since 2004.  I expect a good number of lean-Republican seats to come open in 2008 (Hastert in IL-14, LaHood in IL-18, and Regula in OH-16 for instance).  If Van Hollen can deliver some solid recruits, I suspect that we may be able to pick up a couple.

(H/T: Buckeye State Blog)

Yep here we go again. With the dust not yet settled on the last challenge in FL-13 (Good luck Christine) we take a look forward to 2008.

Wander below the fold for the good oil.

Well well well. It seems so soon since we were celebrating the Midterm results and our record of contesting 425 Districts. That’s because it is so soon (LOL). Odd thing to do here in Australia watch the midterms but I took the day off work and had a merry old time watching it all unfold on the net and on cable he he he.

Nonetheless time for the 50 State Page to crank up for 2008 courtesy of the redoubtable Barry Welsh. This cycle we have some help however from the magnificent 2008 Race Tracker wiki. Go and take a look at them both right now and whilst you are there throw Barry some cash. He will be running again and is rightly a netroots champion.

Now for the good oil;
248 races with confirmed candidates. A confirmed candidate has either filed with the FEC, The Sec of State or has an active campaign website, or even if they come and blog and say yep I am running.

The 248 includes all 233 Democratic incumbents (yeh yeh I know some will not run but I am assuming we will find candidates in those districts, and all Dem incumbents are also listed as Running But Unconfirmed).

There are also 15 Republican held districts where we have confirmed candidates as follows:
FL-01,
FL-09,
FL-21,
IL-14,
IA-04,
MI-07,
MO-09,
NE-02,
NJ-11,
NC-08,
NC-09,
OH-07,
OH-16,
PA-03,
TX-04.

But wait there is more.
We also have 238 candidates who I believe are running but who are at this stage unconfirmed according to the above criteria. All 233 districts held by Democrats but also 5 districts held by Republicans as follows:

AR-03,
CA-04,
ID-01,
IN-06 hurry up and confirm Barry!,
NJ-05.

We also have 6 rumoured candidates. These guys are mentioned as considering the race in the following districts:
FL-06,
FL-13 *** depends on the outcome of the challenge,
NV-03,
NJ-07,
PA-15,
TX-06.

So we are off and racing for 2008. Use the 2008 Race Tracker wiki as the primary source of gossip and information as it is a fantastic site and I have spent a LOT of time contributing there also.

Any candidate news, particularly opponents for Repubs welcome in the comments!