Posted on 07/30/2012 4:23:37 PM PDT by Typelouder
Longtime Republican congressman Steve LaTourette of Bainbridge Township will announce his retirement from Congress tomorrow, according to GOP sources in Ohio and Washington, D.C.
(Excerpt) Read more at cleveland.com ...
LaTourette has scheduled a "major announcement" at 10 A.M. press conference in Painesville on Tuesday morning. His office would not discuss its subject but said "you shouldn't miss it."
LaTourette was unopposed in the March GOP primary, and was not deemed to have a strong strong opponent in November's election. The Democrat on the ballot against him is perennial candidate Dale Virgil Blanchard.
County Republican chairmen in the district LaTourette represents - which includes Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties and parts of Cuyahoga, Portage, Summit and Trumbull counties - will select his replacement on the ballot, Republicans said.
LaTourette, 58, was first elected to the House of Representatives in a 1994 election that swept Republicans into power for the first time in decades. The former Lake County prosecutor won his seat by defeating incumbent Democratic Rep. Eric Fingerhut.
He displayed an irreverent streak early on, inviting humor columnist Dave Barry to serve as a temporary press aide . He also established a centrist voting record that kept him from being targeted for defeat by organized labor.
A recent voting evaluation by National Journal magazine cited LaTourette as the second most liberal Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, behind North Carolina’s Walter Jones.
High profile breaks with his party have included opposing the TARP bank rescue program and backing extended unemployment benefits during the recession. When a congressional "supercommittee" wrestled with a plan to cut the federal budget deficit, LaTourette was among a bipartisan group of 100 Congress members who sent them a letter that said nothing – including tax increases – should be off the table.LaTourette helped establish an arbitration process that saved hundreds of auto dealers that were scheduled to close after the federal government bailed out General Motors and Chrysler. When Cleveland’s Defense Finance and Accounting Service office was in danger of closing during a military base consolidation process, LaTourette led efforts to save it.
LaTourette is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which directs federal spending. His ability to use that post to steer money to Ohio projects has been hampered by a recent ban on congressional earmarks.
A close ally of House Speaker John Boehner, LaTourette served as the congressional liaison to Republicans in Columbus who redrew the new congressional district lines. He has said the the new lines of his district encompass a "swing" territory that could elect a Republican or a Democrat, unlike many districts that were drawn to favor one party or the other.
Welcome news...maybe. Depends on who the party orgs put up to replace him...might just be the same story over again or worse. WaPo article on the same thing called him “one of the few moderate Republicans left in the House”...if only that were true. The good news is that the Dems’ already chose their candidate as a token candidate as they were expecting to have LaTourette as an unbeatable oppenent...so the GOP will likely still win the seat if they pick a decent candidate.
Hmm...well, I guess he wasn't all bad.
It sez he ran unopposed in the primary, and that the Pubbie ballot spot will be filled by Pubbie chairs in three counties and parts of four others. Opposition includes a perennial failure Demwit, a Green, and a Libertarian. Thanks Typelouder.
It’s about time that f^%#head, s(#$head, j(*$off, arsehole, c*nt, etc. left Congress.
Sorry, that’s my LaTourette’s kicking up again.
Nice of him to wait until AFTER the primary so the elites can choose his replacement.
He must have been a real rip-snorter, I never heard of him.
Maybe his replacement will not be a EUNUCH
*snort*
Awfully late to bail out now. Was he caught in bed with a boy?
I won’t shed any tears if LaTourette retires, particularly given the timing of his announcement (which will allow the county GOP, which I believe is fairly conservative in that part of OH, to pick his successor on the ballot). Whoever runs for the GOP should be able to beat the third-tier Democrat in November in a district that was made a bit more Republican in redistricting (but only leans Republican).
A few years ago (before he moved on to bigger and greater things), Josh Mandel would have been an ideal candidate to replace LaTourette in Congress. Do any FReepers have any idea of who the GOP could nominate in this NE OH congressional district?
On each ranking, LaTourette is the lowest ranked Republican congressman (there are 12), and on the Club for Growth he ranks below Kucinich!
All 5 ratings were based on votes cast and whether they were voting with the nation's best interests in mind, or their own reelection prospects.
From the article:
“Potential candidates include Geauga County Prosecutor David P. Joyce, former Ohio Rep. Matthew Dolan, and U.S. Marshall Peter J. Elliott.”
I don’t know anything about these individuals.
Of course, had he retired prior to the primary that Democrats would have recruited a top-tier challenger as well, and the general election could go either way.
I think that the timing of LaTourette’s retirement could work out as well for us as the late retirement by execrable RINO Jim Greenwood in 2004; the Bucks County, PA GOP picked conservative Bucks County Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick, who easily won that November. (Fitzpatrick would go on to lose reelection in the Dem-leaning district by the skin of his teeth in über-Democrat 2006, but won the seat back in 2010 and should win reelection by a comfortable margin this November.)
Will his seat go republican or to the party of the ass?
LLS
If he switches parties tomorrow and admits that he is a gay pedophile... the dims will make him minority leader.
LLS
LaTourette syndrome...
If his replacement turns out to be a conservative, even though his replacement would be a Republican this could be considered a pick-up based on this joker’s voting record.
The Dem is a perennial office-seeker with no $$.
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