My quick spin around 2008 election news ends with this post on some new developments in the race for the United States Senate right here in the beautiful Northwest. In today's issue of The Hill, Aaron Blake is reporting that the Democrats have now found a credible candidate to run against the potentially endangered Republican Larry Craig in Idaho's Senate race.

Former Rep. Larry LaRocco (D-Idaho) plans to announce next week that he is running for the seat of Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) in 2008, LaRocco told The Hill yesterday.

LaRocco, who served two terms in the House until he was unseated in the 1994 GOP wave, was the last Democrat to serve in the historically Republican state's congressional delegation. He will try to rebound from an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor in 2006.

There is no doubt that the Idaho Senate race would be a difficult on for the Democrats to win; the last election in which an Idaho Democrat won a Senate campaign came in the decidedly Democratic year of 1974, when Frank Church won reelection. Yet there is at least some reason for Democrats to hope that with the right candidate (perhaps LaRocco, perhaps someone else) they might be able to win in Idaho. First, there are rumors that Craig will retire rather than face reelection in 2008 -- rumors that are not dispelled by Craig's mere $269,000 cash on hand as of the beginning of the year. What's more, Craig faces a primary challenge from an anti-immigrant activists, Robert Vasquez, which could sap his reelection hopes. As such, it's not entirely out of line to say that this race could at least have the potential to become competitive before it is out.

Across the border in Oregon, Democrats are ramping up their efforts to knock off two-term incumbent Republican Gordon Smith, the only member of his party to win a statewide election in years. Already, one candidate is said to be on the verge of announcing that he or she is in the race imminently. Now, on the heels of polling released recently by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and buzz around the blogosphere, Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio is now reevaluating the possibility of mounting a challenge to Smith, as Diane Dietz reports for the Eugene Register-Guard.

Courted by the Senate Democratic leadership and flattered on some political blogs - including DailyKos - Rep. Peter DeFazio on Monday said he is reluctantly considering a run for the Senate in 2008.

Democrats see Oregon Republican Sen. Gordon Smith as among the most vulnerable senators nationally in the November 2008 election.

But DeFazio, D-Ore., is hesitant to commit, citing a distaste for raising the millions of dollars he'd need in order to unseat Smith. It's the same reason he gave in past years for declining a run for governor or for other statewide office.

[...]

DeFazio said he would make his final decision about a U.S. Senate run next month.

There is still reason to believe that DeFazio will not, in the end, run for Senate, not only because of the amount of money he would have to raise for a race against Smith but also because he assumed the chairmanship of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit this year, which offers him a significant power of the purse. That said, DeFazio has shown an interest in moving across the Capitol building before, running in the Democratic primary in 1995 for the seat vacated by Bob Packwood. And the aforementioned polling, which shows him defeating Smith would certainly not discourage DeFazio from taking a serious look at this race.