It is my great hope to see Charlie Brown take the seat being vacated by John Doolittle in CA-04 this year. He's a great guy, worth a visit over to EENRblog to catch Charlie's liveblog. - Todd

Retired Lt. Colonel Charlie Brown is running for the open seat in CA-4 district. It was left vacant by Republican John Doolittle and has quickly become one the most contested races in the House. Republicans Tom McClintock and Doug Ose are battling it out to see who will be facing Charlie Brown in the general election. EENR is proud to announce that Charlie Brown will be liveblogging with us at 5pm pacific time! I hope you'll join us and take the opportunity to ask Charlie any questions you have about the race.

Who is Charlie Brown? Follow me below the fold to find out more about the Democratic challenger of CA-4th district.

Sarahlane and the whole EENR team invites you join us directly at EENRblog for a conversation with Charlie Brown NOW.  

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The beginning of the month brought the Senate rankings. Two weeks have passed, so it is time to look at the picture in the House. As bad as this week was for the GOP on the Senate (and make no mistake about it, between Hagel's retirement and Warner and Shaheen jumping in the race, this was as bad as it can get), House Republicans did their best to beat that. After a month of recruitment failures and retirement announcements, Republicans are not at their best in House races, and while some of them were hoping that they could reconquer the House in November 2008, that looks increasingly unlikely.

Read full ranking at Campaign Diaries.

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Senate Republicans have not been doing well for a while now. But the GOP's disarray is now extending to the House! The series of Republicans congressmen (Pryce, Hastert, LaHood, Peckering, ...) declaring their intention to retire in August started the wave of bad news, but this past week shows the GOP's House problems go much deeper than these open seats.

Read full analysis here,  on Campaign Diaries.

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Congressional politics is defying all electoral norms these days. Usually, parties fear retirements more than anything and do as much as they can to get their representatives and senators to run again. Last week, however, Republicans breathed a small sigh of relief when Rep. Renzi announced he would not seek re-election in AZ-1. Stuck in ethical investigations, Renzi was playing right in the hands of the Democratic argument that Republicans are ethically challenged, and he could have doomed GOP chances in his district. Republicans learned the lesson of 2006, when they lost many of their House seats in heavy Republican territory because the incumbent was embroiled in scandals. (The worst were girlfriend-beating and mistress-strangling allegations made against Sweeney in NY-20 and Sherwood in PA-10). An open seat, Republicans reason, might actually be easier to defend.

The same thing is happening now: the resilience of Senator Craig, Senator Stevens of Alaska and Rep. Doolittle (CA-4) in the face of scandal are making their seats pick-up opportunies for Democrats. If any of these Republicans were to retire, Democratic chances would diminish.

Read full analysis - as well as an analysis of the South Dakota Senate race, where Republicans are also looking for a resignation to have any hope of having the seat - here, at Campaign Diaries.

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