I love reading nonpartisan Marc Ambinder's blog, as he's very often good for insider tidbits on my favorite hobby of campaigns and elections.
But one little thing he passed off as merely incidental today is anything but......
Ambinder posted a lengthy scribe about the "meaning" of Chambliss' victory over Jim Martin in the 2008 GA-Sen runoff.
Key text, at the very very very end:
But... more Republican retirements are expected, including at least two in blue states (Chuck Grassley of Iowa and George Voinovich of Ohio.)
WOAH! Don't you dare try to pass that off as an aside, Marc! :-)
Seriously, I don't think Ambinder realizes this is not any kind of "common knowledge" or "open secret" in the world of political junkies, and I speak as one in Greater D.C. even though I'm far from an "insider."
If a bunch of insiders "expect" Voinovich and Grassley to hang it up, that's news to me and to almost every blog I read. In Grassley's case, yes, the 77-year old 5-term Senator is the speculation of retirement, but naked speculation is all I've read or heard. And I'd read or heard nothing about Voinovich retiring.
If these seats are open, then my home state of Iowa is a "should" win for us, with Dems having the much deeper bench these days, but Ohio could be much more competitive. Iowa is a state where I'd love to see Vilsack vs. Latham, in which case we very easily could pick up both the Senate seat and IA-04. Ohio is just a more ideologically conservative state than Iowa, and one that I think still has a very slight red tilt. Ultimately recruitment in Ohio is much more wide open on both sides.
But make no mistake, in either state a retirement only helps us pick up the Senate seat.