Big trouble for small minds!
posted by
Clyde
3:29 AM
With Three Already Down, Eight More House Incumbents Face Primary Worries
Republican Rep. Chris Cannon's loss to challenger Jason Chaffetz in Utah's 3rd District Tuesday marked the third defeat of a U.S. House incumbent in this year's congressional primaries. With Cannon joining the two Maryland representatives, Republican Wayne T. Gilchrest and Democrat Albert R. Wynn, who lost their seats in their state's Feb. 12 party voting, the number of primary-defeated House members already exceeds the total for all of 2006.
With the primary season extending all the way into the early fall, will more members fall to intraparty dissent?
Recent election history suggests there will not be many more incumbents ousted by their own party base. Only two, Republican Rep. Joe Schwarz of Michigan and Democratic Rep. Cynthia A. McKinney of Georgia, were denied renomination by primary voters in 2006, coincidentally on the same day of Aug. 8. Only once in the previous six election cycles were more than three House members denied renomination. A list of incumbent defeats in primary elections dating to 1968, can be found on CQ Politics' "Greg's List" feature.
Yet it is still quite early in the 2008 primary season, with roughly half the states still left to go. The next primary elections aren't until July 15, when Georgia will vote and Alabama will hold Republican runoffs in two congressional districts. And CQ Politics has identified eight incumbents facing primary challenges in the remaining states that are to some degree threatening -- two of which are in Georgia.
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