Tancredo Officially Enters GOP Race in Iowa

The field vying for the Republican Party's 2008 presidential nomination got even more crowded this week when 5-term Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo entered the race on Monday in an on-air radio announcement in Des Moines.

Tancredo, a former schoolteacher and Education Department appointee under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, has been the most vocal opponent on the Hill against illegal immigration since he took office in 1999. Until recently, Tancredo had chaired the 104-member bipartisan House Immigration Reform Caucus (now headed by California GOP congressman Brian Billbray).

Tancredo may be viewed in GOP circles as a single-issue candidate, but the congressman has been a consistent voice for change on this issue, which has significant support among the Party's conservative wing. The Republican congressman has frequently levied the harshest of criticisms at his own party members, leadership, and President George W. Bush for not enforcing America's federal immigration laws and for neglecting to secure its ports and borders.

In early surveys taken before Tancredo announced his candidacy, the Congressman was polling in the low single digits in most states. Tancredo polled at 2 percent in a January Zogby poll of likely GOP Iowa caucus voters and 1 percent in each of the last three American Research Group polls of Hawkeye State republicans. In a recent ARG poll in his home state of Colorado, Tancredo scored 7 percent of the support of likely GOP voters.

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Curse of the '4'?

May 22, 2013

Big-name Republicans are not coming out of the woodwork yet to challenge Al Franken in Minnesota's 2014 U.S. Senate race, and there is not much chatter of the GOP picking off one of the five DFL-held U.S. House seats either. Over the last century, Minnesota Republican U.S. House candidates have not fared all that well in cycles ending in '4' - losing seats in four of these cycles (1914, 1924, 1944, 1974), holding serve in four others (1964, 1984, 1994, 2004), and gaining seats just one time (1934, after redistricting had been delayed one cycle with all nine seats voted at-large in 1932). Perhaps the Republican Party's best chance for a pick up in the Gopher State in 2014 is if 12-term Democrat Collin Peterson retires after nearly a quarter century on Capitol Hill. The 7th CD has the second largest GOP lean in the state.

Seasoned Senators in Wisconsin

May 2, 2013

Of the 15 men and women that have served in the U.S. Senate from Wisconsin since popular vote elections were introduced a century ago, Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin rank among the oldest upon first entering the chamber. Johnson began his tenure at the age of 55 years, 8 months, and 26 days in January 2011, which is the oldest of any elected Wisconsin Senator during this popular vote era. The next oldest, Alexander Wiley, was more than one year younger when he took his seat in 1939 (54 years, 7 months, 8 days). Tammy Baldwin comes in at #6 being 50 years, 10 months, and 23 days when she took office in January of this year. The youngest elected Senator from the Badger State was Robert La Follette, Jr. at 30 years, 7 months, and 24 days (1925) when he took the seat of his legendary deceased father.