Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by fyngyrz on Thursday April 12 2018, @08:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the they're-all-ryan-through-their-smiles dept.

Many media outlets are saying "Paul Ryan Retires" (For example, Vox's original headline.) This doesn't mean he won't still be there until the new Congress is seated in January 2019.

Vox reports:

More and more Republicans are looking at how the 2018 elections are shaping up and deciding they want no part of them--with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL) just the latest to announce they won't run for reelection this year.

This makes 25 House Republicans and three GOP senators who are calling it quits, not counting several more who are stepping down to run for another political office (or who have already resigned). That's the highest such number[1] for just one party in decades.

Revealingly, only nine House Democrats and zero Democratic senators have so far made the same choice. (Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota resigned due to scandal, but his seat has already been filled by Tina Smith, who will run this fall.) That's a dramatic discrepancy.

Though the explanations offered for these decisions differ, and though many of these GOP-held seats are in no real danger of flipping to Democrats, these retirements are revealing how members of Congress currently view the national political environment. That is: they think there's a real possibility of a Democratic wave.

But the trend is more meaningful even than that. These very retirements could help make such a wave even bigger, because it's generally easier for the opposition party to flip open seats than it is to knock off incumbents.

[...] According to FiveThirtyEight's numbers,[2] the only time in the past 40 years there's been a bigger partisan discrepancy in [the who's not running for reelection stats] was 2008, which turned out to be a Democratic wave year.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @02:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @02:31PM (#665937)

    Libertarians are confused! Film at 11!

    In other breaking news, water is wet, ice is cold, and people eating Tide pods are morons! For more on that, here's our chief correspondent, Captain Obvious. Off to you, Captain...

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +5  
       Funny=3, Touché=2, Total=5
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   5