Bullseye

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee just released its target list and three California GOP House seats are in the cross-hairs -- those currently held by David Dreier, Brian Bilbray and John Doolittle. Doolittle has, of course, already announced his retirement. While the lame-duck Doolittle faced a tough race in 2004 due to a whole mess of legal trouble that ultimately lead to his retirement and Bilbray is on his second tour through the House, having been defeated in 2000 by Susan Davis, the inclusion of Dreier is a surprise, albeit a pleasant one.

Dreier's district is R+4.1. So, its Republican, but not prohibitively so. Bilbray's district is R+4.6. The Doolittle seat is heavily Republican, but Charlie Brown did pretty well there in 2006 garnering 46% of the vote compared to Doolittle's 49%, although part of that success must be attributed to Doolittle's legal woes. I suspect that the DCCC powers that be determined that the GOP primary between Tom McClintock and Doug Ose is likely to be costly and bloody. I am sure the fact that both Republican candidates are carpetbaggers factors into the equation.

By the way, what is it with Republicans hop-scotching the state in search of Congressional seats? Bilbray previously represented a southern San Diego district, while his current seat is North County. Dan Lungren used to represent Long Beach and now sits in Ose's old Sacramento seat. McClintock represents Thousand Oaks in the legislature, despite taking a per diem while living full time in Sacramento and is now moving into Doolittle's district. I guess blind ambition knows no boundaries. I also wonder how all of these chaps can support efforts to "reform" redistricting. They seem to have their own redistricting reform plan -- moving to a new district.

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