Posted on 01/30/2016 11:09:42 PM PST by Impy
U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) announced late Saturday he will not seek re-election.
The former roofing contractor from Neenah issued a statement saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.
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Romney carried the seat by just under 4 points. Green Bay area. Usually GOP, it elected a rat in 1996 for 1 term, and in 2006 for 2 terms.
Ping
[Keeping a term limit pledge, he said 4 terms but he’s stopping at 3.]
He is doing the GOP-e thing - retiring a year early, then allowing a hand-picked replacement to serve for a year before the election.
This policy must stop. Voters elect an official for a full term.
He’s NOT resigning early, he’s just not running for reelection.
Interesting take. So he’s not finishing out the term? hmm.
dont know him. Is he a GOPe?
2006 and 2008 were very bad years for us. Hopefully we don’t see that again.
See post 4, he is not resigning early.
thanks.
Extremely bad years. It was open in 2006 or Mark Green would have held it, the rat took it in a close race. Obama carried the seat in 2008 over McCain and the rat’s reelection margin was similar to Obama’s in the district.
It was open and Clinton carried it in 1996 as a rat won narrowly, the rat was turned out in 1998 (not a great election for us) by Green. Before that it last went rat in 1974, another rat landslide year, the winner that year was a dem Catholic Priest named Robert John Cornell, perhaps FMDJ can tell us about him.
Unless the GOP nominee for President does very poorly in WI like McCain did, I expect a hold.
It’s too late for someone to run for his office. Will there be a special election, or will Gov. Walker appoint someone?
Um, what? I told you he is NOT resigning. He is declining to run for reelection. He will serve till next January when the term expires.
The filing deadline for the WI congressional primary is June 1st so it very far from too late.
Governors cannot appoint anyone to US House vacancies BTW.
Calm down. The filing deadline for the seat isn’t until June, 4 months from tomorrow. No special election and a Governor cannot appoint someone to any House seat, that’s unconstitutional. They’re only allowed to appoint Senators in most states if there is a vacancy.
We’re mind melding. ;-D
Perhaps you are confused by the PRESIDENTIAL primary being in April. The primary for Congress and state offices is not until August 9th.
Thanks for clarifying the deadlines in Wisconsin.
My post is from my observations in Illinois.
I’m in Chicago.
You are thinking of Tim Johnson, yes? What he did was win renomination in the primary and then LATER withdrew from the race (did not his resign his seat early, just quit running for reelection) allowing the GOP country chairmen to replace him on the ballot without a new primary, they chose his fellow RINO Rodney Davis.
That was indeed odious, but does not pertain to this normal pre-primary retirement.
Some people like Ginny Brown-Waite and others (like Steve Stockman) have withdrawn right before the filing deadline with a favored replacement waiting to file and giving everyone else little time to respond to the open seat. That’s bad enough, the Johnson incident was even worse , voters got no say on that one.
;p
What’s up with Robert John Cornell? I didn’t know there was another Drinan.
Fr. Cornell was a teacher and had been a local Democrat activist and also party chairman of that Congressional district. He took on 57-year old GOP incumbent John Byrnes in 1970 (Cornell was 51), and held Byrnes to an unimpressive 12% margin, his worst showing since he beat a Dem incumbent 26 years earlier in 1944. Presumably, he didn’t want to run another difficult race, Byrnes retired in 1972.
Former WI Assembly Speaker and sitting Minority Leader Harold Froehlich jumped in, though he was not the overwhelming favorite, winning 38% with no runoff. WI, which was trending Democrat during the early Nixon years, saw Froehlich get a very unimpressive 50-49% win over Cornell in 1972. That alone was a clear danger signal that he couldn’t take his reelection lightly.
As it was, he did not get a strong hold on his seat, and supposedly upset stalwart Republicans in the district for voting for 2 of 3 impeachment articles against Nixon (but he would’ve been in a difficult predicament if he hadn’t). Cornell beat him by 9% in 1974. Froehlich sought a rematch against Cornell in 1976, beating a Byrnes in the ‘76 primary (I’m not sure if it was the former incumbent’s son).
Even as Ford carried the district, Cornell won with just 50.9% of the vote, indicating that he was a bit too leftist for the district, although he was pro-life (unlike Fr. Drinan of MA). Froehlich got 47% and a larger number of votes that carried him to a win in 1972, but he had to contend with a 3rd party Conservative, though that didn’t make the difference.
Froehlich chose not to run in 1978, leaving Toby Roth and the 3rd party guy, Donald Hoeft, to run in the GOP primary. Roth won, and dispatched Cornell by a landslide 16% margin. Cornell was ginning up to seek a rematch against Roth in 1980 when the order came down from the Pope that all priests must withdraw from elective politics. Both Cornell and Drinan obeyed the order, the latter retiring and handing his seat off to Barney Frank.
Curiously, the weakest candidates for the 8th have all had one thing in common: they’ve all been Assembly Speakers. Absent Nixon’s performance, Froehlich might’ve lost in 1972. Flash forward 24 years later and Speaker David Prosser, who should’ve handily kept the seat in 1996 when Roth retired, lost to a Democrat tv personality, Jay Johnson. Prosser’s now on the WI Supreme Court, keeping it a Conservative majority.
When Republican Mark Green, who beat Johnson after a single term, ran for Governor in a terrible year (2006), Assembly Speaker John Gard ran, but lost narrowly to Democrat Dr. Steve Kagen, 51-49%. Gard didn’t stop running and ran again in 2008, losing this time by a wider 8% in the rematch. Reid Ribble, a roofer, came out of nowhere and dispatched Kagen by 10% in 2010 and won by 12% in 2012 and 30% in 2014.
I think one reason Ribble is retiring is because he does not want to be in Congress under a President Trump, especially when he attacked him publicly some months back. He was also starting to move towards the Establishment wing as of late, in contrast to his election to Congress as a Tea Partier, so he was living up to my “6 Year Rule.”
Frustratingly, with both the Johnson and Stockman withdrawals when they occurred, prevented credible Black Conservative successors, Erika Harold in IL-13 and State Rep. James White in TX-36.
To bad TN RINO Senator Lamar Alexander didn’t honor his pledge/oath of 2 terms and out.
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