Campaign Diaries

Here’s the third installment of my weekly 2010 update, in which I list all the changes I have logged in during the week to the “retirement watch” and recruitment pages. Written in red are those politicians who announced their definite plans rather than simply expressed interest or stroke speculation.

Most of the action this week was concentrated in New Hampshire, where President Obama’s decision to tap Judd Gregg created a fair amount of down-the-ballot agitation and created the Democrats’ first dangerous open race of the cycle (NH-02). The DSCC also convinced Robin Carnahan, its top candidate in Missouri, to jump in the race. The third state that saw major news was Alabama, where Democratic Rep. Artur Davis announced he would run for the Governor’s Mansion while GOP Rep. Jo Bonner ruled out a statewide run.

I did not write a post about their decisions because my gubernatorial rankings will come out tomorrow, so my Alabama analysis can wait until then. Furthermore, neither of their districts is competitive, so this has no impact on the House’s partisan balance. One important House-related consequence, however, is that it allows a progressive Democrat to replace the centrist and business-friendly Davis in what is a staunchly blue and heavily African-American district.

First, updates to Retirement Watch:

Second, updates to the Senate recruitment page:

Also: To spice things up in a relatively slow week as far as 2010 news were concerned, I just published a database of polls, regrouping all the Senate and gubernatorial surveys of the 2010 cycle that have been published so far. (I am still working on how to present them best, so bear with me for now.)