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GOP Congressman McCrery Retiring
Yet another House Republican is headed for the exits. Congressman Jim McCrery (R-LA), who helped shepherd the Bush tax cuts through the House in 2001, announced today that he is retiring after ten terms.
In his statement, McCrery acknowledged the GOP's minority status affected his decision — had they retained the majority, he would have become chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. "The chairmanship would have allowed me to play a leading role in addressing some of the biggest long-term problems facing our country," McCrery said.
The district is a Republican safe seat, going to President Bush with 59% of the vote in 2004, so the GOP will likely retain it unless the Dems can garner a lot of ticket splitting.
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Interesting
McCrery many years ago was the subject of a major expose by The Advocate (a national gay news magazine) which claimed he had lived as an openly gay man in Dallas before returning to Louisiana and being elected to Congress. They produced fairly compelling evidence (photos, testimonials from acquaintances) but McCrery denied it and it never really took root in his district (which probably wouldn't be very friendly to the idea of a being representated by a gay man). I've always been somewhat amazed that he managed to weather that storm.
I'll assume that his retirement really is the result of wanting to "spend more time with his family" and not a precursor to some kind of "outing" event.
And yes, this district is likely to stay Republican, but a Democratic victory wouldn't be entirely inconceivable. The district has a 30% African-American population, and 57% for Bush in a southern district with strong Democratic roots is not an overwhelming margin -- if 2008 turns out to be a strong Democratic year the Dems recruit a strong local candidate, it could be competitive.
December 7, 2007 11:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
In other major House news, the Democratic candidate in IL-18's open seat just withdrew from the race and the filing deadline has already passed!
December 8, 2007 1:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
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December 8, 2007 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink