A Year When Everybody’s Vulnerable
Voter Anger, Aggressive Advertising Put Many Incumbents in Jeopardy
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6. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.)
Jack Abramoff. Scotland. Golfing trip. ’Nuff said. But even without the specter of scandal shadowing him, Feeney would have reason to worry. His Orlando-area district is turning more Democratic. And he has a tough, well-funded opponent in former state Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D). Did Feeney’s mea culpa ad on the Abramoff trip help him at all? In the ad, he described the trip as a rookie mistake. For a former state Speaker, that’s hardly credible.
7. Don Cazayoux (D-La.)
Cazayoux’s special election victory in May was one of the highlights of the cycle for House Democrats. But reality may be back to slap them — and Cazayoux — in the face come November. The Baton Rouge-area district is tough for Democrats under any circumstance, and Republicans have a much better candidate than they did in the special election. Cazayoux isn’t helped by the fact that an African-American Democratic state legislator is running as an Independent. Any vote he gets will be directly out of Cazayoux’s column.
8. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.)
Shea-Porter’s surprise win in the 2006 Democratic primary was a testament to her grass-roots support. But in her rematch with the man she defeated, ex-Rep. Jeb Bradley (R), the element of surprise is gone. And once you’ve led your grass-roots army to victory, you’ve got to govern, and Shea-Porter’s performance in office has been uneven so far. She benefited enormously from a huge Granite State Democratic wave in ’06; this year, the state’s political leanings seem harder to read, even though she was leading in a recent Roll Call poll. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is riding to the rescue, and that should help.
9. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.)
Mahoney is one of those class of 2006 Democrats who needs to prove that his election was no fluke. He won because he was running against scandal-plagued Rep. Mark Foley (R), whose name remained on the ballot even after he dropped out of the race. Since then, Mahoney has been working hard for his constituents and raising money at a steady clip. But his district still favors the GOP, and the strongest possible challenger emerged from the Republican primary, attorney Tom Rooney. Perhaps most troubling to Mahoney now are the questions being raised about where, and how, he lives. It may be incidental, but it’s something tangible that voters can grasp — and that Republicans can exploit.
10. Phil English (R-Pa.)
English has barely had to sweat re-election in his blue-collar district in the past, but that’s not the case this time. Businesswoman Kathy Dahlkemper (D) is running a classic outsider’s campaign, and even though English was prepared, particularly on the financial front, his poll numbers have been sluggish, and his prospects look increasingly grim. For a Republican, English has enjoyed strong support from organized labor in the past, but Dahlkemper is cutting deeply into it this year, and that could be the difference.
Schumer Advocates for Many on Panel
Nov. 16, 12 a.m.
As Senate Majority Leader, Lyndon Johnson once said of the Joint Economic Committee, “It’s as useless as tits on a bull.” But as that panel’s chairman during the 110th Congress, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) seized the opportunity to elevate the traditionally low-profile post to the forefront of shaping policy. Read Full Article
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