GOP Reps. Saxton, Cubin to retire

Politico ^ | 11-9-07 | Josh Kraushaar

[Anti-Bubba182]

Rats-Sinking Ship.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Cubin does the right thing. Saxton is a bit more troubling. If State Sen. Diane Allen is the nominee, they might as well give the seat to the rodents. She’s a Connie Morella type.

John Doolittle, Don Young, Ted Stevens — DO THE RIGHT THING !

[Clintonfatigued]

Don’t be surprised if Cynthia Loomis runs to succeed Cubin. As for Saxton, a Rodent state Senator is already running, and the district is trending to the Rodents politically.

[Radix]

"So far, 16 House Republicans have announced their retirements, compared with only four Democrats."

Likely Hillary had their FBI files.

[darkangel82]

Saxton used to be more conservative. Morella was a lifelong ‘rat running Repub like Bloomberg, so another one of her would not be good.

[knarf]

Any conservative American, with no skelatins .. could win ... I want to believe.

[fieldmarshaldj]

The Saxton district apparently is one of the most historically Republican in the state. Although there have been numerous redistrictings (previously the 13th (1983-93); previously the 6th (1967-93), previously the 1st (prior to 1967)), I couldn’t find a Democrat in the seat since the 19th century. It will be quite disturbing if we lose it.

[Clintonfatigued]

Well, the demograhpics there are changing. John Kerry nearly won it in 2004.

Interesting that you mentioned Diane Allen:

http://cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000002625532

[Galactic Overlord-In-Chief]

Saxton's district:

[freespirited]

She’s a Connie Morella type.

Can she beat Adler?

[fieldmarshaldj]

I have family in that district and the one just adjacent to it to the north... although the bulk of them are now buried. New Jersey is somewhat an ancestral state of mine, my earliest direct ancestor in the U.S. landed here during the Revolutionary War... a Hessian mercenary recruited by the English. :-P

[fieldmarshaldj]

It’s still a GOP-leaning district, even absent Saxton. The question is whether she’ll have a free ride in the primary. If she does, it will benefit her. We’re going to need fully-funded candidates, though.

[Norman Bates]

“She’s a Connie Morella type.”

That bad, huh?!! ;)

[JerseyHighlander]

Saxton’s seat is a permanent loss for Republicans.

It would take stupendous amounts of street level campaign support for a Republican to win that seat.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Great news out of WY, but bad news in South Jersey. The posted article actually did a good job describing the political situation in Saxton’s CD, which is refreshing. I think we need a pro-life, pro-gun, environmentalist Republican with deep roots in the district to hold it in an open-seat race. Diane Allen does *not* fit the bill, and even if she could win she’d make a terrible Congresswoman.

[chimera]

Dropping like flies. We may lose more seats to retirement than outright election defeats.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Could be. Too bad because this election would be the time to hold on when the party is weak.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Allen is militantly anti-death penalty. She was hammered in 2002 when she ran for the US Senate because she allegedly would oppose the death penalty for Osama. That’s extremist even by liberal standards.

[chimera]

I agree. I understand you can’t make people stay in a job they no longer want, for whatever reasons, but I was hoping a few of these potential retirees would hang in there for another cycle or two until we got back on our feet from the drubbing we took in ‘06. Then again, if we take another drubbing in ‘08 (which looks likely), we could make the same argument then, and the retirees would have to wait yet again. As someone getting close to (non-political) retirement myself, I can understand how you’d want to get out and enjoy the time you have left.