December 2nd, 2009 • 2:16 pmPickup Potential
Republicans got another bit of good news Tuesday when Rep. John Tanner, (D-TN), announced that he’s retiring at the end of this term:
Tanner released a statement late tonight confirming the news. “Betty Ann and I had considered retiring in 2007 at the end of the 110th Congress, were it not for the fact that our nation had the chance to elect an American as President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly at this critical moment in the war in Afghanistan,” he wrote. “However, we believed we owed it to our country to stay and fulfill this term of office as NATO PA President. This mandate expires in November 2010, and therefore, we have made the decision not to seek re-election to Congress.”
Earlier, I mentioned that Dennis Moore, (D-KS), was retiring, giving the GOP a great shot at picking up both seats:
Both men represent districts that voted heavily for Pres. Bush twice; in ‘08, Tanner’s CD gave Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) a 56%-43% margin, while Moore’s Kansas City-based seat gave Pres. Obama a narrow 51%-48% margin.
I’ve heard that two high quality candidates have emerged on the GOP side for Moore’s seat and that Democrats are shying away from running in that seat. Meanwhile, Tanner’s district should represent a strong pickup opportunity because the only thing that kept getting Rep. Tanner elected in that district was Rep. Tanner.
In that respect, it’s much like MN-7, where Collin Peterson is the only thing that’s keeping the district in DFL hands. The minute he retires, that district will likely flip into GOP hands.
It’ll be interesting to see if other veteran Democrats announce their retirements rather than getting defeated in November, 2010. Chris van Hollen has his work ahead of him to keep Democratic retirements to a minimum. Alot of Democratic open seats to defend will make his job that much more difficult. the last thing Rep. van Hollen needs is additional challenges. I suspect that he’s already up to his eyeballs in challenges.
Technorati: Democrats, John Tanner, Bart Gorton, Dennis Moore, Chris van Hollen, House Seats, Republicans, John McCain, George Bush, Election 2010
Cross-posted at California Conservative
Entries RSS2 Feed
[...] Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog [...]
Pingback by California Conservative » Blog Archive » Pickup Potential • 02Dec2009 @ 2:19 pm
Sounds like a smart move on aging incumbent’s part. They go out on top while backing their preferred heir who may or may not have what it takes to win, but at least they gain the visibility of running so two years later they can take a serious shot at the 1-term incumbent.
Comment by Ed Kohler • 02Dec2009 @ 7:11 pm
Gary, do you have any idea, percentages by Dems and GOP or in aggregate, but percentages of those “retiring” that actually leave DC and spend more time with family? My bet is that’s said a lot, and lobbying just sort of happens to sweep them back or keep them to where they never leave and go back “home.” Anyway, both parties have people stepping down, so that there is no incumbency advantage. You are correct, it will be interesting to see if the Obama coattails while in office are effective. He did have a landslide victory, but Bush has slunk away and not said boo, and people do have such short attention spans and memories, in politics. Has Newt figured a way to form a website and organization to make money off of flogging candidate possibilities for “open” situations? It seems a natural that he’d be there, doing that.
Comment by eric z. • 03Dec2009 @ 8:24 am