Another House GOPer Retiring

by Jonathan Singer, Mon Jan 04, 2010 at 02:53:31 PM EST

For all the talk of Democrats defending open seats this fall, it turns out that it's the Republicans who keep announcing that they're retiring.

Republican Congressman Henry Brown, who has served South Carolina in the U.S. House since 2001, will retire at the end of his term, sources tell The Palmetto Scoop.

While Republicans will point to the fact that the district represented by Henry Brown for the last decade tends to lean about 10 percentage points more Republican than the nation as a whole, the most salient statistic related to this news is the sub-52 percent showing Brown made in barely eking out a reelection win in 2008. Had Brown managed to win the 60-90 percent of the vote he has traditionally pulled in, it's hard to imagine that he wouldn't be running.

Indeed, Brown isn't the only Republican to recently announce that he would be retiring rather thn sticking around for the possibility that the GOP would retake the House in November. Just before the new year, California Republican George Radanovich also announced that he would step down instead of stick around in hopes of being part of a majority in the next Congress.

These retirement announcements -- and there are now 14 House Republicans not running for reelection in 2010, or nearly 8 percent of the party's caucus -- don't represent the type of confidence the GOP is trying to convey to the politics watchers (a confidence too many in the Beltway seem inclined to buy). If Republicans really were on the verge of retaking the House, would so many of them be leaving the chamber just when they were about to become relevant and powerful again?

Tags: House 2010, Retirements (all tags)

Comments

8 Comments

Sort by

permalink

Pick it up and run with it.

Because the fact that 8% of the GOP House Caucus is retiring is too pathetic for words.

How many Democrats are retiring now, by the way?

by NoFortunateSon 2010-01-04 03:11PM | 0 recs

permalink

Pick it up and run with it.

Because the fact that 8% of the GOP House Caucus is retiring is too pathetic for words.

How many Democrats are retiring now, by the way?

by NoFortunateSon 2010-01-04 03:12PM | 0 recs

permalink

every open seat they have to defend

is a potentially bloody primary followed by a potentially costly general election campaign. I am not optimistic about 2010, but fortunately the NRCC is unlikely to have the resources to capitalize on the favorable environment for their candidates.

by desmoinesdem 2010-01-04 03:18PM | 0 recs

permalink

Part of the reason they have no money

is all the deals Rahm made. And radonovich retired due to health problems of his wife, though he had a teabagger in the primary.

by bay of arizona 2010-01-04 03:35PM | 0 recs

permalink

Is the GOP becoming a dangerous place to work?

I would like to point out that today the entire staff of the Blue Dog - parker griffiths whatever his name is - that switched over to the GOP, just resigned.

Whats going on here is important. It is the destruction of a political party - and it really needs to be destroyed. For the Dems to use a soft hand is to show the complicity of those who want to keep the GOP alive in a diminished capacity.

The independents all want a new party to arise. I say let it.

by Trey Rentz 2010-01-04 04:39PM | 0 recs

permalink

RE: Is the GOP becoming a dangerous place to work?

that is HUGE!

by Charles Lemos 2010-01-04 04:45PM | 0 recs

permalink

CA-19 and Radanovich

Pombo is now running for Radanovich's seat. There's no way in hell that a Democrat can win in Fresno. Free Republic is based there. Even Hispanics in the district are trending GOP. Issues like California's water wars and jobs (unemployment in the district is over 30%)

Furthermore Radanovich's decision had NOTHING to do with politics or political calculations. He's retiring to take care of an ailing wife who has ovarian cancer. To suggest that he's retiring because he doesn't foresee a GOP majority is misleading. Sometimes people, even Republicans, do tell the truth.

Radanovich has anointed a successor: CA state Sen. Jeff Denham who is termed out. Denham is one nasty character. He savaged Rusty Areias back in 2002 and eked out a win. Perata, the CA Democratic leader in Sacramento, tried to recall Denham in 2008 but that effort failed. Denham survived the recall vote by a 3 to 1 margin. Denham is one of the reasons we in CA are up a creek up w/o that proverbial paddle.

Basically at least in the CA-19 we are jumping out of the conservative pan and into the Tea Party fire. I suspect this is also true in other GOP leaning districts.

The GOP does have problems, money for one but I think the greater problem - and one that's likely to bit all of us in the ass soon enough - is that the right flank of the GOP, people like Denham, are seriously demented. The problem I see is that the GOP is doubling down on stupid. Allen Quist in Minnesota is making a comeback. Some of these characters will get through. And if you think the country is ungovernable now wait until you get some of these characters in power in Washington.

by Charles Lemos 2010-01-04 04:40PM | 1 recs

permalink

GOP Retirements

To be fair, 12 of those 14 are retiring to seek higher office. That's still good news for us - 14 open GOP seats - but it's not indicitive of a climate of electoral fear on their part.

by Nathan Empsall 2010-01-04 07:14PM | 1 recs