Congressional Elections 2008

Republican hopes of quickly reclaiming a Senate majority suffered an early blow Monday when a GOP senator from Colorado announced he would not seek reelection in 2008, opening a seat in a state where Democrats have won key recent races. Sen. Wayne Allard said he had decided to honor the pledge he made when first elected to his office in 1996 to serve only two terms.

The son of Rep. Duncan Hunter, the El Cajon Republican running a long-shot campaign for president, said Wednesday he was "strongly considering" seeking the congressional seat his father plans to vacate at the end of his term. Duncan D. Hunter, 30, said that when it comes to politics, he is "pretty much eye to eye with Dad's views." "I'd say I'm in the conservative wing of the Republican Party," he said.

President Bush's unpopularity and a string of political setbacks have created a toxic climate for the Republican Party, making it harder to raise money and recruit candidates for its drive to retake control of Congress. Some of the GOP's top choices to run for the House next year have declined, citing what Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) called a "poisonous" environment. And Republicans' fundraising edge, an important advantage over the last five years, has dwindled.

Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, who gained international fame by camping outside President Bush's Texas ranch to protest the war in Iraq, announced Thursday that she would challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her seat in Congress. "The country is ripe for a change," said Sheehan, citing her son's death in Iraq in 2004 as inspiration for her long-shot bid to unseat the first female speaker in history.

Republicans scrambled to find a candidate for one of the nation's most competitive congressional districts as Rep. Deborah Pryce, nearly a casualty of the 2006 Democratic surge, announced Thursday that she would not seek a ninth term. Also announcing that he will not run for reelection in 2008 was Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering, a six-term Republican from Mississippi. Pryce, once the most powerful Republican woman in Congress, beat Mary Jo Kilroy last year by 1,062 votes out of 220,000 cast.

Three-term Rep. Rick Renzi, an Arizona Republican facing a federal inquiry into his family's insurance business, said he would not seek reelection next year. Renzi becomes the fifth GOP House member in recent weeks to announce retirement plans, giving Democrats hopes of picking up seats next year that otherwise seemed not to be in play.

Niki Tsongas, widow of Sen. Paul Tsongas, won the Democratic primary in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan, who resigned his seat to become chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Tsongas will face Republican Jim Ogonowski, a retired Air Force colonel, in the Oct. 16 general election.

Former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner will announce today that he is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican John W. Warner, setting the stage for one of the most competitive races in the country next year, according to sources familiar with his decision. The former governor, 52, a self-described moderate Democrat, will make his announcement in an e-mail to supporters but won't formally begin his campaign until after the state races in November.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is expected to resign today to clear the way for a Senate campaign in 2008, Republican officials said in Omaha. President Bush plans a White House announcement this morning with Johanns, a senior administration official confirmed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made. The GOP officials in Omaha said Johanns, 57, who was governor from 1999 to 2005, would seek the seat held by retiring Republican Sen.