Posted on 08/31/2019 1:34:28 AM PDT by cotton1706
Longtime Illinois Rep. John Shimkus said Friday he would not seek reelection — becoming at least the 12th House Republican to call it quits after their current term is up.
Shimkus, who was elected in 1996 to represent the 15th District in the southeastern part of the state, made the announcement in an interview Friday with KMOX radio.
His announcement came after Georgia GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson said Wednesday he would retire at the end of the year as he continues battling Parkinson’s disease, setting up two elections for key Senate seats in the Peach State in 2020.
Shimkus was just the latest incumbent Republican lawmaker to not seek re-election.
Others House members leaving include Reps. Rob Woodall of Georgia, Susan Brooks of Indiana, Paul Mitchell of Michigan, Pete Olson of Texas and Martha Roby of Alabama.
Also, Reps. Rob Bishop of Utah; Mike Conaway, Will Hurd and Kenny Marchant of Texas; and Sean Duffy of Wisconsin.
Democratic retirements include Reps. Jose Serrano of New York and Dave Loebsack of Iowa.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Well within the margin of vote harvesting.
I would have thought that all voted against it.
The No voters can be replaced now and likelihood of a successful funding vote increases.
Shimkus is my congress critter. If I recall correctly, when he first ran in 1996 or 1998, he promised he would term limit himself to 12 years. Yeah. Right. He’s pretty do-nothing. Glad someone else is going to take the seat.
More draining of the swamp.
Forgive this rather jumbled reply that covers a lot of ground.
Maybe I’m being a little rosy and not paying enough attention to pitfalls like funding but I think you are being overly pessimistic re House and Senate, burned by the 2018 result and being wrong. Ticket splitting is at a modern low and Trump’s fate will by and large be our fate downballot. Zero Senate races split tickets with President in 2016, not even NH were both Pres and Senate were stolen by very narrow margins and despite Ayotte being anti-Trump. One or 2 may split this time but not by much. Most likely is Maine where the most likely result is Collins wins by I’d estimate around 5 points and Trump narrowly loses the state again.
I cannot imagine McSally running 10 points behind Trump, only a Moore or Akin style candidate would run that far behind. Unfortunately those kinds of candidacys do happen and we really feel it when it’s a Senate race. Which is why we need to make sure losers like Moore are treated with the disdain they deserve, we need to stop seeing them as “good people” and start seeing them as the dem-aiding enemies they are.
In 2018 we lost almost every seat carried by Hillary Clinton, that’s unfortunate but you know that’s realignment, the blue collar areas are getting more Republican and the suburbs less. For the most part previously rat blue collar areas that went Trump also voted Republican in 2018 or at least more Republican than they have in the past.
In CA, Hillary carried every House district we lost and only 2 (Rorbacher, only lost cause of his scandal, and Denham) were narrow losses for Trump. Of course you know about the ballot harvesting crap going on there, which is largely responsible both for Trump not carrying those districts and losing them in 2018.
Those “safe” (ie appreciably GOP for President) seats we did lose like OKC and Staten Island are almost certain to return unless Trump is losing badly, none of those bad losses from 2006 and 2008 stayed rat passed 2010.
I think the simple fact is, whether freepers want to admit it or not is that the President was not popular on election day 2018 (nor was Reagan in 1982), some suburbs realigned to the the rats, and it being a midterm of a GOP Prez, rats were simply energized to turnout as is typical and that gave them a boost for their “wave”.
AZ numbers are troubling for McSally now but be aware, MSM polls also have Bite Me and co leading Trump there, and Bite me even up in Texas which I don’t buy for a second. Also remember Enema was their blue chip candidate and gubernatorial races are different which is why it doesn’t matter that much that Ducey ran so far ahead of her. If you look at the results you’d see it was suburbanites that didn’t like Trump that voted for Enema (but still Ducey for Governor), Trump people voted for her and will again.
In Colorado, I agree the Pres/Senate result will be the same, which is bad news cause at the moment I do not expect the President to carry that state.
As for retirements, the always present chance that some loser might be nominated is not reason enough for me to hope dickheads like Shimkus (or Trump hater Will Hurd) run for reelection.
Some of these jerks quitting may think Trump is gonna lose (and therefore that the House will stay rat) and there is rodents fleeing a sinking ship mentality among them, but so what, screw them, weak-kneeed losers should take a hike, we need fighters, not twerps who don’t want to serve unless there is a committee chairmanship in it for them. Maybe they are also upset that cocktail parties at the country club are less fun under Trump. I wish a couple more fossils like Don Young would retire as well.
IF Trump is actually getting stronger and will carry what he carried last time +, I think we’re ok.
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