Filings for 2006 House Races --We're kicking ass!

One of the main goals of the Democratic netroots is to not let the Republicans have any free rides this election -- to contest every House seat.

Two filing deadlines have now passed for candidates in two states Illinois and Texas.  Things looked fairly bleak for Texas two weeks ago  -- several districts were listed as having no competition.  But when the smoke cleared only one Republican Representative will be faced with no Democratic challenger.  Every district in Illinois will be contested.

This is quite impressive considering that we failed to file candidates in 3 districts in Illinois in 2004 (15, 16 and 18) and 4 districts in Texas were similarly uncontested that year (3rd, 10th, 13th and 14th)

This year, only Mike Conaway of the 11th District will get a free ride.  The Democratic filings for Texas House races can be found  here

In contrast the Republicans are giving Rep. Jerry Costello (D. Ill.) a free ride, while the list of Republican House filings (or lack thereof) is mindblowing.  The listings can be found here. (leads to Adobe Acrobat document)

That list, which was updated today lists no filings for the House races in the following districts -- the 7th,9th, 16th, 18th, 20th, 25th, 28th and 29th.

Strangely enough, the 7th district's Representative is John Culberson.  If the data from the GOP's own site is accurate this would be quite a coup.  1 uncontested Republican House seats against 9 uncontested Democratic seats.  Including one sitting Congressman who forgot to file on time.

Now excuse me, but after visiting the Texas GOP site I need to shower.