McCrey will likely endorse the eventual Republican nominee, giving him/her his fundraising tools. The RNC won't have to spend anything on this race, as McCrey's endorsement & fundraising outfit will be lent to the R nominee and the seat will be kept fairly easily.

the Challengers Helping Obtain the Majority Program. CHOMP.

Couldn't the challengers just help 'achieve' the majority? make the acronym 'champ.' Typical Republicans. How can they be trusted to run the country when they can't even conjure a proper acronym? This has been a problem for them ever since the days of Nixon's Committee to RE-Eelect the President was indefensibly shortened to CREEP.

anticlimacus

bhoomes you seem to have turned into a whiner just like zouk. in fact you sound like you share the same 'brain'. too bad for you.

bhoomes -- exactly.

Claudia: When Huck is President, you better dust off that Bible in your basement. You and your ilk will be required to attend Church on Sunday like rest of Red America. Jerry Falwell Jr. will be Homeland Security Director to keep an eye on you subversives.

I live in Congressman Dave Hobson's district and cannot see how the dems get it. Just about all of my neighbors are conservative and Republican, Of course we are all homeowners and not a bunch of losers whining about life being so unfair and why can't the Government just strip the successful of their assets and just give them to us so we don't have to work.

new poll out:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- While presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is surging in new polls of GOP candidates, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Tuesday shows he would lose to all three leading Democratic candidates by double digits in hypothetical contests.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is the Republican front-runner in the polls in Iowa.

In head-to-head matchups -- the first to include Huckabee -- the former Arkansas governor loses to Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York by 10 percentage points (54 percent to 44 percent), to Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois by 15 points (55 percent to 40 percent) and to former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina by 25 points (60 percent to 35 percent).

The poll comes on the heels of a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Monday that showed Huckabee doubled his support nationally among likely Republican voters in the last month and is in a statistical dead heat with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

bhoomes, in many places a competent honest candidate has an edge over a dishonest incompetent, regardless of party affiliation.

That is less true for LA, but as far as I know, McCrery was good one. That may mean that the quality of the candidates will matter in that district.

However, Shreveport-Bossier politics may also suffer from an infusion of gambling money. I have no friends in that district, so I am guessing here.

My guess is that this district will tilt with the political winds in Nov 08. Baring a seismic event, I cannot see how the republicans can win either the House or Senate. But if Hillary is the nominee, I do believe we will gain seats, just not enough.

The answer to Blank Zero winning a few years back is simple. She was well known around the state and Jindal was well known in Baton Rouge.

So many from outside the south get their politics wrong down here. It is NOT Dem and GOP it is Liberal and Conservative, as well as known and not well known. Outside of the Dems in lock step with the liberals in New Orleans itself it is not that way in the rest of the state. Remember that it was not many years back that if you were a registered Republican in LA a short time back there were no local candidates to vote for unless you were in the New Orleans area. And very few there to vote for. LA suffered the longest and harshest of all the Reconstruction after the Civil War and even my parents were taught and also taught me not to ever vote GOP because they were just a bunch of carpet baggers. I remember my mother whispering to me in 1981 that she had voted for Reagan and that that was the first GOP candidate she had ever voted for.

If you look at who Jindal is selecting for his close circle of advisers and cabinet as the incoming governor, you will find a lot of Dems however unlike those from the North, Midwest or West (Nationwide) they are conservative, not liberal.

In the latest governor's race, Jindal spent a lot of time winning over the voters of North LA (including McCrery's district) over the last several years. Outside of the Shreveport MSA you have to sit on the front porch (so to speak) and visit for awhile to win votes. You have to win over the ministers and local leading citizens and the rest will follow.

Off topic, a guest op-ed worth reading:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/07/AR2007120701618_2.html?hpid=opinionsbox1&sid=ST2007120900919

I had a friend [now deceased] on the UT Psych faculty - brilliant, witty, and a really excellent writer - who was by our worldly standard a moderate conservative. By the standard of UT social science faculty, he was far to the right.

This article explains the phenomenon.

You know, I can't find a sketch on CA-52, which will be an open seat as Duncan Hunter is campaigning for President, and everything I've seen says he isn't running for reelection. I realize the heavy red bent of CA's Republican districts, but I think it still deserves a look. Hunter's son (currently on active duty in Afghanistan) vs. recently-retired Navy Captain and SEAL Mike Lumpkin.

Sorry I posted the wrong link, I meant here: http://www.campaigndiaries.com/2007/12/afternoon-poll-democrats-strong-in.html

A stunning new poll from Alaska has both Republicans up for re-election next year (Senator Stevens and Rep. Young) trailing their Democratic challengers -- which is really a stunning finding. Link to the poll numbers: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/us/politics/11cnd-poll.html?hphttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/us/politics/11cnd-poll.html?hp

Mikeb - another clinton smear merchant. hope you all like losing again.

Ohio 15 won't be competative? Wow KOZ, looks like your '08 predictions are going to be as accurate as your '06 predictions. Kilroy almost beat Deborah Price last time. The District is getting bluer every year. But otherwise, spot on analysis.

Geez, Foley, Lott and Craig are heading for the exits, and now *another* hypocritical closet case/"evangelical" is leaving?

http://www.blogactive.com/2004/10/take-action-still-hiding-from-his.html

At least the gay ol' party still has Lindsey, Mitch and David Drier to poke around town!

yet another district where the Dems will be able to force the GOPers to spend money they don't have.

But hey, borrow and spend -- it's the GOP way!

Ohio 15th is not going to be competative - Stivers will easily win there. On top of that - Austria is going to easily win Hobson's seat.

To think that LA would even consider a Dem after how badly the Dems muffed the Katrina response, is ludicrous. a little more reporting on what the Dem congress has done and next year will be a nice return to Repub political domination.