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"If elected, he would enter Congress as a senior member"

Actually, he probably wouldn't. He would just have more seniority than someone sworn in on the same day, but since he'll be running on a special election, whoever gets elected will come in ranking 435th in the House. Sometimes the Speaker (or Minority Leader, as the case may be) will offer an ex-Congressman part or all of his old seniority if he runs, but in a heavily Republican district where Bilbray isn't needed to hold the seat I doubt that Hastert will offer anything to Bilbray---why would Hastert piss off the dozens of Republicans with less than 6 years of seniority who would be stepped over by Bilbray?

Then call Hedgecock's show and dispute Bilbray yourself. He accomplished a lot in his 3 terms and his seniority is in tact.

"I doubt that Hastert will offer anything to Bilbray".

I happen to doubt you are correct. Hastert gave Lungren his seniority back, just one year ago. Lungren was also in an even more heavily republican district than Bilbray is running in. It is a tradition that the speaker grants seniority to returning members and there is frankly abosolutely no reason to believe the Speaker would grant it to Lungren and not Bilbray. It is pretty much a given he will get it back.