This Is Huge: Rep. Bart Gordon Will Not Run For Re-Election
Posted on December 14, 2009 at 9:23 amBoom goes the press release:
After more than a quarter-century of public service to his home state of Tennessee, U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon announced his plans to retire from Congress when his current term ends in 2010.
“I feel honored that the people of Middle Tennessee have allowed me to serve them for the past 25 years,” said Gordon. “Every decision I have made in Congress has been with their best interests in mind. I hope the people here at home feel that I have served them as well as their good advice and views have served me.
“When I was elected, I was the youngest member of the Tennessee congressional delegation; now, I’m one of the oldest. In fact, I have members of my staff who weren’t even born when I took office. That tells me it’s time for a new chapter.”
Gordon, the dean of the state’s congressional delegation, said he made his decision after consulting with his wife, Leslie.
“Turning 60 has led me to re-evaluate what’s next. I have an 8-year-old daughter and a wonderful wife who has a very demanding job. I am the only child of my 83-year-old mother, Margaret. They have made sacrifices to allow me to do what I love by serving in Congress, and now it’s my turn,” said Gordon.
There really isn’t anyway to spin as anything but bad for Democrats. Whatever their reasons, the retirement of both John Tanner and Bart Gordon mean that only two years before redistricting the Democrats will have to defend two marginal seats that will likely be carved up anyway.
It had always been assumed that the GOP would flip the 5-4 congressional delegation majority for Democrats to at least a 5-4 Republican and likely 6-3 or 7-2 in 2012. It just wasn’t expected to happen in 2010. Democrats can win these districts, no doubt. But it will be a struggle in a year Democrats in Tennessee don’t need any more problems.
Each man may have their reasons for retiring that have nothing to do with the Republicanization of the South or rising tea party sentiment in Tennessee but after this, I don’t think we can really blame national pundits for interpreting this decision as indicative of something bigger.
SEE ALSO:
Marc Ambinder
NashPo
TPM
Washington Post
RealClearPolitics
Jim Geraghty
JR Lind
Joe Lance
CQ
R. Neal
Firedoglake
NPR
Associated Press
David Weigel
Sean Braisted
Comments
45 Responses to “This Is Huge: Rep. Bart Gordon Will Not Run For Re-Election”
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ATTN. - Jim Cooper
It’s your turn !!
OH MY GOD!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Matthew Hurtt would like to thank Rep. Gordon for his two-plus decades of service to the people of Tennessee.
I was thinking the exact same thing about Cooper. While I disagree with his politics, I must agree that Rep. Gordon was known for his excellent constituent services. I thank him for that and wish him well in retirement.
Trey
Yes, JR. I would like to thank Bart. Now, it’s time for a change.
And oh boy is change coming…
Good riddance:
http://nighseencreeder.blogspot.com/2009/12/buh-bye-bart.html
Memo to Chairman Chip and the Chipinista: Welcome to your worst nightmare. You wanted the Blue Dogs gone. You got it. Now let’s see what you can do.
Chip Forrester has turned out to be a worse nightmare than we imagined. Democratic elected officials warned us, but the liberal wing of the state party didn’t listen. Now those very elected officials are retiring.
The blood is on Chip Forrester’s hands.
Tebaggers- people who were okay with torture, election theft, people dying due to health insurance companies, lying us into war, etc. under Bush. But spending for health care under Obama? The horror!!!
Not that the teabaggers won’t pick up some seats in 2010, the media is certainly trying to help them.
Sounds like Tom’s bitter.
Christmas comes early in Tennessee!
Matt, you might need to calm down. Im sure your boss at your cushy job in DC wouldn’t like to know that all he pays you for is to comment on blogs all day.
Tom:
What is your fascination with other men’s scrotums? If that is what you love, no problem, but this thread is not about scrotums.
This would be the canary in the coal mine. I thought Gordon would survive to 2012, still think he would have won re-election.
Open seat? Well, that’s different.
The media doesn’t need to help. Their many hindrances to constitutional government, much like those of bart Gordon, have set a chain reaction in motion.
Bart, fortunately, was smart enough to seek cover from the fallout. Now, we can use our valuable resources elsewhere.
“There really isn’t anyway to spin as anything but bad for Democrats.”
Not for ACK, stenographer for the TNGOP. Booooring, ACK.
So, who do the Democrats run? if Tracy-Zelenik gets knock-down-drag-out enough, a Democrat could still win, although it would be harder, no doubt.
Is it just me…or is there an exodus underway? And why is this happening?? Is it because they can’t take the heat? Or is it because they see something bad coming down the Pike and they want nothing to do with it? The UberLeft of this party is on a collision course and could care less of the ramifications…
Tom, turn on your brain. TEA, of your “tea-baggers” fantasy, stands for TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY. It’s pretty self explanatory.
I suggest the Democrats hope for less than 16% turnout and run Chris Sanders!
The reason they are leaving is so the can vote freely on healthcare and other American theft bills (knowing it’ll cost them their election) while at the same time letting a new dem candidate get their campaign running with enough time to distance themselves from the ‘retirees’ vote.
Tom,
I don’t have to look too far back to see how ACORN has ‘manipulated’ elections for the Democrats. Look at Minnesota where the idiot Franken was put in office. The Florida Bush/Gore deal was examined and scrubbed over many times by the Liberal media and they could never come up with anything other than a Bush win so keep holding onto that dream.
Insurance Companies do not kill anyone! Any person in this country can walk into a hospital and get care. Does the system need some reforms, absolutely. I’m sure you think that be just giving everyone “free” care that things will change. All it will do is reduce services for everyone and the costs will go up. Your a typical free lunch liberal.
Its always someone elses fault for all the ills in the world. You progressives have all the answers. You have been running all the big cities in the US for 50 years or more and the resulting high crime, unemployment, low quality of life, and corruption should be a lesson for everyone. Your way doesn’t work. People who aren’t empowered and who exist only for the next handout do not prosper.
I’m sure it is all Bush’s fault.
The reason they are leaving is a sign of the power of “T”
Man I actually thought we were going to make it through a post without TN Vol 73 posting in on his endless wisdom.
Are we still going to be able to reduce Medicare spending by $500 billion by expanding the program to people between 55-64. Or have the people powered progressives just admitted the $500 billion was b.s.?
Wait a minute.
I thought that the conservative, Blue Dog ideology was a slam-dunk for Democrats to get re-elected in Tennessee.
You mean the people who were responsible for the asskicking the Democrats took here in 2008 and in the Ty Cobb race are cutting and running even though they still claim to posess the secret formula for winning elections?
Say it isn’t so.
Hey Matthew! I agrre with you “change” is coming and I “hope” it soon! I was already committed to doing whatever I could to unseat the honorable Bart Gordon. Let the exodus of liberals continue…
Hahahahaha! Spaz, you beat me to it.
I’d buy this line of “blame liberals” if EVERY candidate who hadn’t come out increasingly rightward on social issues - and who had nothing to offer on jobs, finances, education - hadn’t had his hat handed to him.
Now the hard work is gonna have to start, in the sense that TNDP is gonna have to rebuild from the ground up. I’d hazard this is what happens when you turn positions on the state Party executive committee into patronage jobs and fill them with good ‘ol boys of both sexes.
I can name several off the top of my head who’ve had those jobs for decades. These are people whose mentality is mired back in 1950, when the Dems didn’t actually have to work to win anything.
I’m not happy that right-wing lunatics are now going to have a frightening amount of power in the state, but I can’t sit here and say the Dems didn’t have this coming to them. They’ve walked into every trap Republicans ever set for them, from putting these absurd Constitutional amendments on the ballot to various electoral issues to refusing to elect any offices but Gov statewide, which would have increased the bench.
Rev. Terry Frazier wrote:
“I was already committed to doing whatever I could to unseat the honorable Bart Gordon. Let the exodus of liberals continue…”
I’m pretty sure there’s nothing liberal about Bart Gordon. It shows what kind of political fantasy land people make for themselves that they can believe he is. He’s a moderate Democrat in a Republican leaning district. At least now he can vote without fear of electoral repercussions.
Our prayers have been answered!! What better Christmas present than to have Ol Bart Gordon out of Tennessee politics!!! This should prove to non believers that there is a God!!
So far, Eleanor wins the thread, with The Prof a close second.
You should always be careful what you wish and pray for because it almost never turns out the way you expect.
I think Tanner, and Gordon both strong Democrats until the Curse of Barak…
This is a sign the Democrat party is in Crash and Burn mode.
Pelosi wanted the Blue Dogs gone… She wanted to burn off the underbrush, But this may turn into a wildfire before this is over.
As Chairman of the Dekalb County Republican Party in Tennessee,I am thrilled beyond belief….I have met all four Republican Candidates and all of them are committed Conservatives.Great day for Tennessee!
Maybe he can un in the TN 24th.
Time for Gordon to live a less insulated life with the results and consequences, intended and unintended, of policies he enabled.
http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgrades.php3?District=TN06&VIPID=755
I don’t like the way things are shaping-up for 2010.
Look at the site these HATERS put up http://www.DumpChrisDodd.com
What a shame. Our FOUNDER liked him too. http://www.FATBOY.cc
Good Riddance, and to the dimwit that called Bart the F@rt a moderate, he is the third most liberal Democrat of the whole TN delegation. Lincoln Davis is a moderate, Gordon and Cooper are both knee-jerk Liberals with the emphasis on the ‘jerk”. The condescending goober is getting out before the death threats start showing up on talk-radio. Oh, and Cohen is the most liberal dummycrat.
Hey pal, looks like you got kicked to the curb.
Man I wish TN Vol would take the government up on that whole socialist public education system in the United States so he could learn how to spell.
“Tom: Tebaggers-”
Tom’s a filcher and pedophile. As are most Leftists.
“people who were okay with torture”
Tom’s okay with torture when its his family and city at risk. Otherwise, he’ll pretend to be against it so he can browbeat people with his self-righteous moral “superiority”. Also, it grants him a Papal Indulgence so he can continue to molest the babysitter.
“election theft,”
Florida 2000. And Acorn. Tom has no shame.
“people dying due to health insurance companies”
Under Tom’s system, people would die waiting in line.
“lying us into war, etc. under Bush.”
No one lied to get us into war. Clinton lied about sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual abuse. Tom still thinks it was “just about sex”.
“But spending for health care under Obama? The horror!!!”
Wrecking the current system so parasites like Tom and continue to thrive? Yes, horrible.
My bad, that should be sexual assault, not abuse.
Tom loves watching how his fellow Democrats treat their own women. He would have grabbed at a Kathleen’s breasts too, but his company no longer allows him to conduct interviews.
The report of the death of the Tennessee Democratic Party is premature. Unless, that is, we keep voting on unverifiable voting machines that seem to come in all shades of red these days.
According to the Gallup poll, Democrats enjoy an 8% advantage among registered voters in Tennessee (47% vs. 39%). Accordingly, Democrats need only attract 20% of TN independents to win races, while Republicans must sway almost 80% of them to win. Which seems easier to you?
And yet, the 2008 “victory” that had Republicans take control of our state legislature required that they win every open seat, something they have never done before. This “victory” was selected as the single biggest surprise of the 2008 election cycle by many political scientists nationwide.
Tennessee Republicans lurch from one scandal to another (think Stanley, Campfield and Hobbs, to name just a few), displaying behavior that is neither sober nor moral. They also continue to purge party officials who support free, fair and verifiable elections. This doesn’t seem to be the “face” of a winning party, here or anywhere.
Likewise, Secretary of State Tre Hargett continues to defy voters, the legislature, the Governor and the courts by refusing to implement the Voter Confidence Act. When the legislature reconvenes, Senator Ron Ramsey has vowed to delay or repeal that act.
These patterns seem unmistakable — and indefensible. There is one reason why some Republicans don’t want us voting on paper ballots that can be recounted — and it’s not because they enjoy the consent of the majority of the governed here.
The question is what Tennessee voters — regardless of their political persuasion — who want votes to be counted as they were cast are going to do about it.
Bernie Ellis
tracevu@bellsouth.net
[...] light of today’s announcement from Bart Gordon, yet another Congressional Democrat to announce he will not seek re-election, [...]