Most of them are safe Democratic. I'm wondering who we are likely to send to Washington in 2004. Here's a list of the open seats (along with percentage of Gore votes in parantheses):
CA-20 Cal Dooley (54.9) FL-20 Peter Deutsch (68.0) FL-23 Alcee Hastings (76.7) MO-3 Dick Gephardt (53.7) PA-13 Joe Hoeffel (55.8)
We actually have very few retirements this year, which is a good thing (incumbents are much harder to beat). Several other people have been rumored to want to retire, but none have announced this so far. The only things I really know about these races is that both Allyson Schwartz and Elaine Bloom are rumored to run for open seats.
A lot of congressmen wait awhile until they retire. Ralph Hall is expected to retire but that really isn't a loss at all. Mark Udall of Colorado may run for senate and Alan Boyd may as well in Florida. Other possible retirements that have been mentioned include Charlie Rangel and Jim Moran. Any long time veteran could like Ike Skelton or John Conyers unless they have already announced they will run and I've just missed it. Also, there seem to be at least a few surprises every year. This year the republicans got Scott McInnis and the democrats got Cal Dooley. There may be more in the future.
Rangel's been rumored to want to retire for years. Unless he says something, I'm assuming he's running again. I agree, Ralph Hall's district isn't a great loss. Mark Udall's district should be safe. I hope he runs for the Senate.
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