I wonder...

what the NRCC or Boehner offered him to get him to change his mind.  Extra fundraising assistance?  A choice committee seat in the next Congress?

Are there any recent precedents (last decade or so) of members of Congress announcing a retirement and then going back on it and running again?  Were they successful?  I hope that "portray him as someone who is not committed to serving in Congress" angle could resonate.

Check out the Guru's blog at http://www.senateguru.com

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by: senate2008guru @ Thu Feb 21, 2008 at 21:57:19 PM CST

Elton Gallegly in CA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

unfortunately, he still won

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by: writestuff @ Thu Feb 21, 2008 at 22:16:34 PM CST

[ Parent ]

The Gallegly situation was different in one key respect

Which is that he fucked up the timing of his announcement - he tried to bail after the filing deadline, under some mistaken belief that this would extend the deadline somehow, or allow the party to appoint a replacement candidate, or something like that.

When the GOP realized that Gallegly had utterly fucked up (ie, almost immediately), they quickly pressured him to stay in office. The weird thing is, he said he was leaving for health reasons. Then he un-retired, saying his health issues were fine. The whole thing was bizarre.

The Shadegg thing of course is strange in its own right. About thirty GOPers have bailed so far, yet none of them received this kind of begging to stay on, including several in far more competitive districts (eg, Deborah Pryce). Maybe Ramstad comes sorta close, but that doof still hasn't made up his mind.

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by: DavidNYC @ Thu Feb 21, 2008 at 22:26:49 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Ramstad

We havent heard anything lately here in Minnesota about Ramstad unretiring.  Also, State Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Eden Prairie) had waited a bit before officially announcing his candidacy which was during Ramstad's indeciveness.  He has since officially announced and kicked off his campaign, a huge sign that he got the go ahead from Ramstad.

Paulsen is much much much more conservative than Ramstad was so we'll have to win this one!

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by: Andrew @ Fri Feb 22, 2008 at 08:10:54 AM CST

[ Parent ]

One possibility

based on the timing is that Shadegg looked at the headlines in the newspaper yesterday, decided that whatever remaining chances of McCain becoming president just vanished, and realized he should hunker down in his current job rather than banking on a promotion to the Senate.

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by: Crisitunity @ Fri Feb 22, 2008 at 13:12:49 PM CST

[ Parent ]

A damaged brand

Consider "retiring Republican House Member from Arizona." Oh, is he the one who was indicted? No, that's the OTHER one. Talk about a damaged brand.  

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by: WoodyNYC @ Fri Feb 22, 2008 at 20:00:26 PM CST

[ Parent ]