Rep. Wally Herger (R)
I don't think he was on anyone's watch list, but here we are:
After a quarter century representing the north state, U.S. Rep. Wally Herger will announce today he is planning to retire at the end of his current term and state Sen. Doug LaMalfa will be running for his seat. [...]
First elected to Congress in 1987, Herger, 66, has a political career that spans more than three decades. [...]
Herger said as recently as August he had no plans to retire and he rebuffed rumors to the contrary.
“I’ve been in... elected office for a while now, and there’s been an active rumor that I’ve been retiring for at least 15 years,” Herger told the Record Searchlight in August, adding he remained “intrigued and excited” by his job and enjoyed the “big fight going on in Washington.”
Herger's August remarks were actually not quite so definitive: At the time, he said it was his "intention to run for re-election," which left open some wiggle room. Still, Herger's not particularly old and, unlike several of his Republican colleagues in California, didn't get the shaft in redistricting, so I'd have figured him for re-election.
And because this district—though the numbering changed, it's the clear successor to the old 2nd—didn't change a whole lot in terms of partisan composition, it's still rather red turf: It went 53-42 for John McCain in 2008. That means Republicans will be heavily favored to hold it, but there's still another point worth making: Herger's announcement makes this four GOP retirements in a row: Geoff Davis, Steve Austria, Elton Gallegly, and now Herger. A couple of those were redistricting-related, but still, you'd think being in the majority would hold a lot more appeal for Republicans. Apparently not.