by Seth Michaels, Feb 4, 2008

Distracted by the race for the White House, we sometimes forget the election for president is only one of many taking place this fall.

In fact, voters this year will see new names on the ballot in dozens of U.S. House and Senate elections—primarily because Republicans are leaping off the sinking ship steered by the Bush administration. Twenty-eight Republican representatives to date, and still counting. That’s more than any Republican retirements in one session, ever. According to The New York Times, the next closest number for end-of-session Republican retirements is 27 in 1952. Five Senate Republicans also are joining the exodus.

With much of the public counting the days until Bush is out of office, thanks to mismanagement of the economy, health care and more, many retiring Republicans in Congress suspect—correctly—they may not be able to win another term. Longtime Republicans members like Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), who won in 2006 by a razor-thin 1,055-vote margin, are leaving voluntarily before the voters throw them out.

Plus, it turns out being in the minority party is not much fun. After 12 years in power, Republican representatives had gotten used to having their way, untroubled by a Democratic process that involves compromising with the other side. 

The floodgate of retirements hasn’t closed. In fact, five Republican representatives announced their retirement just last week. Among them, Rep. Ron Lewis (R-Ky.), who didn’t make any announcements—he just quietly declined to file papers for re-election. His retirement came as a surprise to most observers in Kentucky and Washington—but not to everyone: Rep. Lewis’ chief of staff, Daniel London, was in on the secret and filed to run at the last minute. Why did Lewis decide not to run again? Maybe he looked at the election results from 2007, when AFL-CIO-endorsed Steve Beshear won the race for governor by a wide margin.

Also last week, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) announced that he, too, won’t be running for re-election. He represents a swing district that in the 2007 elections, sent two Democrats to the Virginia state Senate from formerly Republican seats.

The flood started Jan. 24, when Rep. James Walsh (R-N.Y.) announced he wouldn’t seek re-election in the Syracuse-based 25th Congressional District. After several terms winning re-election handily, Walsh faced a challenge in 2006 and won by some 3,000 votes out of more than 200,000 cast. The next day, Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) said he also would retire at the end of this term instead of seeking re-election in the coastal 15th District.

It’s not just members of Congress that have decided they’d rather avoid facing the voters. In Missouri, the painfully unpopular Republican Gov. Matt Blunt, facing double-digit deficits in his re-election polls, suddenly decided last week that he’d accomplished everything he needs to do in just one term. Sensing an opportunity to get the heck out of Washington, Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) announced on Monday he would run to replace Blunt rather than stick around for another term in Congress.

In the coming months, special elections will be held to replace members who just couldn’t wait until November to get out of Congress and into more lucrative jobs. Former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will be replaced in a special election on March 8. Rep. Richard Baker (R-La.)—who’s resigning to take a high-powered job lobbying for the hedge-fund industry—will be replaced in a special election expected to take place April 5.

Special elections also will be held to replace former Reps. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), who recently was elected as Louisiana’s governor, and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who was named to the U.S. Senate as a replacement for departing Sen. Trent Lott. Lott—surprise!—retired in December in order to spend time with his future lobbying clients.

You can follow the 2008 elections at Working Families Vote 2008.

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