GOPer Rick Renzi To Retire
And another one drops, bringing the number of House GOPers who are retiring to five. And counting.
Muck-encrusted GOP Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona won't seek reelection, he says in a statement to Roll Call (sub only):
“I will not be seeking re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008. I am honored and thankful to serve Arizona’s first district and appreciate all that we have accomplished together over the past 6 years.”
Renzi's departure swells the list of GOP Reps. planning to step down at the end of the 110th Congress, a list that now includes Reps. Ray LaHood, Deborah Pryce, Chip Pickering, and former speaker Dennis Hastert.
Though Bush won the GOP leaning district by 54%-46% in 2004, the Dems are considered to have at least a decent shot at flipping it. Dem State Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick recently resigned and announced she'll make a bid for the seat, and at least two other Dems are talking about running.
Renzi's retirement, however, does allow the GOP to try to find a candidate for the district who isn't weighed down by his ethical baggage. Though he was able to survive a tough challenge last year, his political situation has worsened in the wake of an FBI raid of a business linked to his family, a raid that was part of a federal probe into his Congressional activities.
Check out our full coverage of Renzi over at TPMmuckraker.
Where's the obligatory desire to spend more time with his family?
I'm enjoying watching the GOPers drop out of the 2008 election but I was curious--what's the average rate of retirements for incumbents? Or is that even meaningful?
In other words, I'd like to think these Republicans are dropping because they sense they have no chance whatsoever in 2008. However, if the numbers are the same as they were, say, in 2006 or 2004, then there's no reason to dance around.
August 23, 2007 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good riddance. It is a very diverse district geographically-stretched, too). A Democrat can carry it. If we do (and if everything else remains the same), it will mean the first time that AZ's House delegation is majority-Democrat since I was a toddler*!!!
* OK, 1966, but I'm still not telling you how old of a toddler I was then!
August 23, 2007 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can we now officially call this part of a nationwide Republican "grand old strategy" to minimize their predicted upcoming election losses? A phone call in the middle of the night kindly asking any and all candidates up for reelection with ties to scandals to "retire" so as not to give a Democratic rival all that easy ammo.
Of course that will almost certainly be one hell of a phone bill the Republicans end up with.
August 23, 2007 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only 300 more Republicans in the House, Senate and White House to go then we'll be in good shape.
August 23, 2007 6:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
This Modern World has a few comments on the Rove/Cheney/Bush plan underway....Hey, maybe it is working!!
via Salon.com
http://tinyurl.com/3ygvy2
Here is background clip from 2005, also via Salon
http://tinyurl.com/32xs3z
August 24, 2007 9:51 AM | Reply | Permalink