House News & Analysis

Same Party but Two Very Different Candidates

June 24, 2010 · 9:00 AM EDT

As we crawl toward November, I’m fortunate to interview more and more candidates. Each candidate is unique, but I don’t know that I’ve seen two so very different candidates in a matter of one hour as I did recently, when I interviewed Arizona Democratic Senate hopeful Rodney Glassman and…

Link Between Grayson, Tea Party Questioned

by Nathan L. Gonzales June 23, 2010 · 9:00 AM EDT

One of Rep. Alan Grayson’s pollsters is running for the state House in Florida as a Tea Party candidate, fueling Republican suspicions that the Democratic Congressman is using a newly formed third party to boost his own re-election bid.

On Friday, Victoria Torres, 44, of Orlando qualified to…

Let’s Poke Holes in the ‘Anti-Incumbent’ Hype

June 18, 2010 · 3:00 PM EDT

My heart sank when I saw my friend Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post write about this cycle’s elections and whether they really deserved the “anti-incumbent” moniker that they have received. Damn it, I thought, there goes another half-written column that I have to toss into the trash.

But Chris…

Virginia 2: Shifting Tides

June 18, 2010 · 2:59 PM EDT

Republicans don’t believe Democrats won Virginia’s 2nd District in 2008. They believe they lost it, and they plan to take it back in November.

GOP Cong. Thelma Drake narrowly survived the Democratic wave in 2006 but was swept out two years later. Now freshman Cong. Glenn…

Melancon Takes On a Second Opponent: BP

by Nathan L. Gonzales June 17, 2010 · 1:44 PM EDT

Rep. Charlie Melancon hasn’t made much headway in his contest against Sen. David Vitter (R) over the past seven months, but now the Democrat has a new enemy in the Louisiana Senate race: BP.

With oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak threatening the shores and marshes of his…

We Come to Bury Sodrel, Not to Praise Him

by Stuart Rothenberg June 3, 2010 · 9:00 AM EDT

Mike Sodrel has been in my life forever. Or maybe it just seems that way.

Every two years for almost a decade, the Republican businessman has been on the ballot in Indiana’s 9th district, either trying to oust Rep. Baron Hill (D) from Congress or, once, seeking re-election…

A Primary Loss Does Not Equate a Lost Cause

by Nathan L. Gonzales June 2, 2010 · 11:17 AM EDT

Democrats are reveling in the primary losses of candidates preferred by the National Republican Congressional Committee in the last couple of weeks. But they only have to look back four years within their own caucus to see that upset primary winners can get elected to Congress.

In Idaho’s…

PA 12 Special: Only One Piece in Bigger Picture

by Stuart Rothenberg June 1, 2010 · 9:00 AM EDT

Less than a day after the polls closed in the May 18 Pennsylvania special election, I left the country.

But e-mails followed me everywhere, and I read with some surprise the post-election assessments of the meaning of Democrat Mark Critz’s substantial victory over Republican Tim Burns in the…

Sean Duffy, Welcome to Your New Real World

by Nathan L. Gonzales May 26, 2010 · 12:33 PM EDT

Wisconsin Republican Congressional hopeful Sean Duffy probably now feels like he’s a victim of a classic bait-and-switch. But in this case, it’s Duffy who is a victim of his own success as a candidate.

After running for months against veteran Democratic Rep. David Obey in Wisconsin’s sprawling 7th…

PA15: Difference of Opinion

by Nathan L. Gonzales May 25, 2010 · 3:00 PM EDT
There may not be a race this cycle with such a dramatic difference of opinion between the two parties.

 

Cong. Charlie Dent is a rare Republican who represents a district that both Barack Obama and John Kerry carried in their presidential races. But even with the…