North Star Politics

I was skeptical when Eric Black reported yesterday that Rep. Jim Ramstad was considering unretiring, and still skeptical (though somewhat less so) when he reported that a "reliable source" put the odds of such an event at better than 50-50. However, a Strib article from last night has a statement from Ramstad's office that he still has "no plans" on running again.

As it says in the article, Ramstad has left himself a little bit of wiggle room, but he clearly doesn't have much interest in being in the House anymore and it's difficult to imagine what the Republicans could offer him at this point to entice him to stay. In addition, Ramstad's retirement announcement makes a re-election campaign much more difficult; in addition to fighting off the current crop of Republican candidates who might stick around and challenge him in a primary, his fundraising operation would have to be restarted and make up for lost time, and he'd be vulnerable to attacks from the DFL about flip-flopping, a lack of enthusiasm for representing the Third District, etc. Certainly, if he's going to change his mind, he needs to do it very soon, probably within the next week.

Ramstad's un-retirement flip-flop is an interesting possibility, but despite Black's source, it's a very unusual and unlikely move. Don't hold your breath.

Technorati Tags: Jim Ramstad MN-03 NRCC

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this. Sen. Larry Craig is going to be a member of the Idaho Hall of Fame.

With all seriousness, I think that Craig deserves this; it's a hall of fame, after all, and Craig's certainly the most famous (infamous?) Idahoan in recent memory. The best part of the article, however, is the Republican official:

Kootenai County Republican precinct committeeman Phil Thompson said Idaho Hall of Fame officials should consider at least postponing the induction.

"Maybe in 10 or 15 years we can think of this hall of fame stuff. Now is not the time," he said. "It's a sad day to be a Republican."

A sad day indeed.


Technorati Tags: Larry Craig