Posted on 05/22/2010 11:56:35 PM PDT by Steelfish
May 22, 2010 Republicans Capture House Seat in Obama's Hometown
Honolulu -- Republicans scored a midterm election victory Saturday when Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou won a Democratic-held House seat in Hawaii in the district where President Obama grew up -- the latest triumph for the GOP as it looks to take back control of Congress.
Djou's victory was a blow to Obama and other Democrats who could not rally around a candidate and find away to win a congressional race that should have been a cakewalk. The seat had been held by a Democrat for nearly 20 years and is located in the district where Obama was born and spent most of his childhood.
"This is a momentous day. We have sent a message to the United States Congress. We have sent a message to the national Democrats. We have sent a message to the machine," Djou said. "The congressional seat is not owned by one political party. This congressional seat is owned by the people."
Djou received 67,274 votes, or 39.5 percent. He was trailed by state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, a Democrat who received 52,445 votes, or 30.8 percent. The other leading Democrat, former U.S. Rep. Ed Case, received 47,012 votes, or 27.6 percent.
Republicans see the victory as a powerful statement about their momentum heading into November. They already sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts -- a place that was once thought to be the most hostile of territories for the GOP. Now Republicans can say they won a congressional seat in the former backyard of the president and in a state that gave Obama 72 percent of the vote two years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
So I was 0 for 2 then. Oh, well.
So when was the last time that the House representation of the birthplace of the president and VP swung from their party to the opposition within two years of their election?
I’ll have to research that one, I’m not sure off the top of my head.
I was thinking Hoover/Curtis. Hoover was born in West Branch, IA, which could well have been in the IA-02 that passed from Republican Dickinson Letts to Democrat Bernhard Jacobsen in 1930. However, Charles Curtis was born in Topeka, Kansas (a year before it became a state, actually), and while three Kansas Republicans lost their House seats in 1932, none did in 1930.
It’s possible there are maybe a couple of examples of one or the other (Pres or VP) having their birthplace fall, but both at the same time seems more unlikely. The other problem is that birthplace is one thing vs. their hometown, since quite a few “moved on.” Look at Clinton/Gore, for example. Clinton occupied three out of the four AR districts (born in Hope, which would’ve been the 4th), teaching career in the 3rd (where he ran against the GOP incumbent in 1974), and from 1976 onwards a resident of Little Rock in the 2nd. Of course, the birthplace had a Republican representing it in 1994 (indeed, Republican Jay Dickey won that seat even as Clinton won the Presidency, a flip right at the start !).
Although Gore was born in DC, he also lived in effectively three TN districts (the rural 4th, which he represented from 1977-83; the Nashville suburban 6th from 1983-85; and had a home here in the 5th (Nashville proper)). The rural 4th flipped to the GOP in 1994 with Jim Cooper’s retirement, and although he had left it to go to the 6th, it was considered the family’s ancestral fiefdom back to when his father won it in 1938 (and had been Cordell Hull’s seat prior to the 1930s, last having gone GOP in 1920 when Hull himself was swept out in the Harding landslide).
Does he have to run again in November ?
yes
Maybe the D’s will have to spend some $$$ there.
Presume it hasn’t quite happened before I hope Mayor Barletta makes history.
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