Both party contests are expected to be runaway affairs, with Democratic state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici and 2010 GOP nominee Rob Cornilles expected to cruise to a general election matchup on January 31, 2012.
Voters will head to polls in Oregon's 1st District on Tuesday for the first step in picking a successor to disgraced former Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., who resigned in August after reports he had an unwanted sexual encounter with the teenage daughter of campaign donor.
Both party contests are expected to be runaway affairs, with Democratic state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici and 2010 GOP nominee Rob Cornilles expected to cruise to a general election matchup on January 31, 2012.
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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is launching radio ads in 25 GOP-held districts on Monday, November 7, hoping to capitalize on what they say is buyer's remorse one year out from the 2012 House elections.
The ads are part of the DCCC's "Drive to 25" campaign in the Democrats' campaign to win back control of the House, and will also include phone banks, web advertising, and live and automated calls. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel told reporters Friday that Arizona voters should consider impeaching Gov. Jan Brewer after she engineered the impeachment of the state's independent redistricting commission chairman.
The redistricting committee's proposed map would have given Democrats an opportunity - if everything went their way - to win as many as five of the state's nine House districts in next year's elections. It also would have forced at least one primary pitting two Republican congressmen against each other. Republicans currently control five of the state's eight House seats. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel's advice for the party's recruits next year: "Run like mayors."
House Democratic leaders have put renewed emphasis on recruiting nontraditional candidates, like doctors, police chiefs and military veterans. They've avoided going after candidates who've spent most of their career in politics. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., may be facing a familiar foe in next year's GOP primary -- and this time he could have a conservative group that wields significant influence on his side.
Former state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk challenged the 13-term Upton in the 2010 primary, and took 43 percent of the vote, despite being vastly outspent by Upton. Hoogendyk met on Wednesday with the Club for Growth, and the anti-tax group walked away very impressed. Former Nevada Democratic Rep. Dina Titus announced today that she'll be running for Congress again but passing up an opportunity to seek a rematch against Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev.
Instead, Titus will be running for the solidly-Democratic 1st District seat being vacated by Rep.Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. (Berkley is running for the Senate.) Titus's decision sets up a competitive Democratic primary with state Sen. Ruben Kihuen, who also announced he was running in the 1st District last week. Update, 8:30 p.m.: Brewer released a statement confirming she had called a special session: "The Arizona Constitution provides that the Governor has direct oversight of the Independent Redistricting Commission, as well as the ability to remove any member due to 'substantial neglect of duty' or 'gross misconduct in office.' I invoked that authority today with my decision to remove IRC Chairwoman Colleen Mathis, and I've called the Arizona Legislature into Special Session so that the State Senate may concur with this removal, in accordance with the Constitution. I recognize that my decision will not be popular in some quarters. I certainly did not reach it lightly. However, the conduct of the IRC - led by Chairwoman Mathis - has created a cloud of suspicion that will not lift. A flawed redistricting process has resulted in flawed district maps. As Chairwoman of this Commission, the buck stops with Ms. Mathis. Today's action isn't the easy thing, certainly. But I'm convinced it's the right thing. I will not sit idly-by while Arizona's congressional and legislative boundaries are drawn in a fashion that is anything but Constitutional and proper. Arizona voters must live with the new district maps for a decade.
Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer is preparing to call a special session in order to remove members of the state's independent redistricting commission, believing that the map unveiled last month gives Democrats an unfair advantage. |
Jessica TaylorNon-partisan political analyst Archives
January 2013
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