[Dog Gone]

Hopefully the Dems will appoint some loser.

This is at least a ray of hope in that district.

[My2Cents]

benefitted from a bipartisan, pro-incumbent redistricting plan implemented in Illinois before the 2002 elections.

I thought Republicans were the only ones who gerrymandered.

[Clintonfatigued]

The likely Democrat nominee will be state Senator Mike Jacobs. Indeed, I wonder if Evans timed his retirement to assure Jacobs the nomination?

As for any shot at winning this district, Andrea Zinga has a better shot than before, but the race still leans to the Democrats. A former newscaster, she's attractive and articulate and has potential, but Evans's retirement doesn't automatically put this race in the first tier.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Lane Evans's retirement is great news for conservatives. He had used his seniority to stay in Congress despite being far more liberal than his constituents. The 2002 redistricting made the IL-17 much more heavily Democrat, but they are fairly conservative Democrats, as can be gleaned from the fact that President Bush's vote percentage rose from 44% in 2000 to 48% in 2004. Given that Evans's retirement comes after the primary, I think the most likely result is that the Democrats will select a conservative Democrat from the Quad Cities area as the nominee, and he or she will be favored in the general election. But a Midwestern district that gave President Bush 48% in 2004 is far from unwinnable for us, and we are running an attractive and experienced candidate in Andrea Lane Zinga: http://www.andrealanezinga.com/

[Clintonfatigued]

I think that this race is a possibility.

[Charlemagne on the Fox]

Mike Jacob's father already engineered similar shenanigans allowing Mike to succeed him as state senator. Had Evan's announcement come before last week's primary (!) Rock Island mayor Mark Schweibert would have been the likely nominee.

Lane Evans is one of the final vestiges of Watergate; this distict had been a safe GOP seat for years (save for the 1964 debacle) and had been held for many years by Tom Railsback. Railsback, however, as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, voted for the Articles of Impeachment. Conservative bitterness festered until the primary of 1980 when Railsback was stunned by the unknown Ken McMillan. McMillan was then narrowly defeated by the even more unknown Lane Evans, who simply happened to be in the right place at the right time.

When the Democrats realized how liberal Evans was(the media calls him a "populist") they set out to protect him through redistricting and he's held on to the seat until now.