Just a few house keeping notes on retirements and people who will change the amount of time that they spend with their lawyers.
First Trey Gowdy (R-SC-04) is retiring.
First Chaffetz quits, now Gowdy announces he's not running again.
It's almost like being the chairman of the House Oversight Committee means nothing in a GOP Congress that's devoted to providing absolutely no oversight of this particular administration.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) January 31, 2018
There is a freshly opened judgeship on the 4th Circuit. Given how he phrased his retirement letter, I would not be surprised if he is nominated to the bench.
Secondly, Bob Brady (D-Philly/PA-01) is retiring as well.
Democrat Rep. Bob Brady will not seek re-electionhttps://t.co/DhNL1k3Wcu
— Axios (@axios) January 31, 2018
He has been under investigation by the FBI for allegedly paying off a 2012 primary competitor.
From a Fall 2018 perspective, PA-01 is a D+31 district. Any map that the GOP state legislature and the Dem governor (Wolf) could agree upon would probably protect incumbents. Removing an incumbent from a Democratic vote sink seat allows for some more precincts to shift to other seats so that a D+31 seat could still be safely Democratic at D+20 instead of an incumbent protected seat at D+25.
Finally, in some surprising news:
BIG NEWS: Justice Department drops all charges against Sen. Bob Menendez following hung jury last year and judge's ruling last week acquitting him on 4 of 13 remaining counts https://t.co/kV3f7bVAEo
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) January 31, 2018
Removes the prime opportunity for Democrats to shoot themselves in the foot this year.