AZ-03: And then there were 29

Republican House retirements, that is. Meet Rep. John Shadegg, and say goodbye (subscription required).

Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) will announce this evening that he will retire from the House upon the conclusion of his current term, according to a well-placed Republican source.

Shadegg tried last year to become House Minority Whip, and also tried for the Majority Leader slot pre-Democratic take-over in 2006. I guess the House GOP won't have John Shadegg to kick around any more. He's been dogged this year by an FEC complaint about his questionable fundraising practices.

Democrat Bob Lord is running a solid race, and has done some respectable fundraising, as brownsox noted a few weeks ago:

For once, Shadegg has a legitimate challenge on his hands from his Democratic opponent, Scottsdale attorney Bob Lord. Lord actually outraised Shadegg in the first quarter of 2007, and as of the September FEC filing trailed Shadegg by a mere $120,000 in receipts and cash-on-hand.

In fact, Lord's candidacy has been sufficiently strong so far to put this seat on the radar of the DCCC, which has placed AZ-03 on its initial list of targeted seats. That is no mean feat in a district with a PVI of R+5.9, where Bush received 58% of the vote in 2004.

Expect Shadegg's retirement to move this race up on everyone's priority list. Yet another demonstration of the wisdom of a 50-state strategy and challenging every seat.