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Senior appropriator and progressive stalwart James P. Moran will step down at the end of this year, making him the third House Democrat in just three days to announce his retirement.
Now, while Moran was in a district that is decidedly blue, which Republicans don't have a snowball's chance in hell of taking, other retiring Democrats have held office in districts which were slightly red, thus making it hard to defend those seats. Earlier this year, I predicted that, while Democrats would pick up a few seats, Republicans would still hold the House in the 2014 elections. I now change that prediction. Democrats might actually lose a seat or 2 this year.
Why do I predict that House will remain Republican? It has to do with the paradigm each party is employing in it's races. While Democrats have a top down approach, which pushes mostly nationally, and relies on coattails of national figures to win local seats in many districts, the Republicans utilize a bottom up approach, concentrating on local races, and then leveraging their wins by taking over states and then gerrymandering their districts. The result is that, while Democrats seem to enjoy an edge these days in presidential races, many states which are considered purple, or even blue, are controlled by Republicans. Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are good examples of this. They all went for Obama in 2012, but their legislatures, as well as their congressional districts, are mostly Republican.
Before Democrats start whining about how unfair this is, I must tell them that, if they had thought of this, they would have done it. But it was Republicans who came up with it, and it is Republicans who are enjoying the benefits. Democrats snoozed, and they loozed. LOL.
Article is here.