Free Republic

Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick had been expected to face a tough re-election fight. Then he sided with GOP leadership and a tea party insisting that a federal spending plan to keep the government open must delay or defund President Barack Obama’s health care law. Now, with the partial government shutdown stretching into its second week, Fitzpatrick’s bid for a second term may be growing even more challenging. Voters in his suburban Philadelphia district talk of a widening sense of disappointment with their two-term congressman, while Democrats across Pennsylvania and other states claim new momentum in their quest to take back...

The decline of swing districts and the rise of partisanship spells trouble for House Democrats.The “Incredible Shrinking Swing Seat” really does keep shrinking. In August 1997, The Cook Political Report introduced the Partisan Voter Index, an attempt to uniformly measure the competitiveness of all 435 congressional districts by comparing each district’s performance in the two most recent presidential elections with that of the nation as a whole. With the tireless help of Clark Bensen at Polidata, we have updated the PVI six times: after redistricting in 2002 and 2012, and after the presidential elections of 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012.By...

Conventional wisdom dictates that Democratic voters are thrilled with their choices for president, bursting at the seams to rally behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) or whoever gets the party's nod next year. A recent survey by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, however, showed Clinton and Obama trailing former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) in the 31 Democratic-held House districts regarded as most imperiled in 2008, and even potentially serving as a drag on those lawmakers' reelection chances.

Bobby Jindal (R: LA-1) $977,025; Joe Driscoll (D: PA-15) $832,873; Geoffrey Davis (R: KY-4) $745,546; Lois Murphy (D: PA-6) $674,945; Ted Poe (R: TX-2) $595,033; Patty Letterling (D: MN-6) $552,547; Willie Mount (D: LA-7) $552,547; Goli Ameri (R: OR-1) $522,084; Donald Barbieri (D: WA-5) $504,155; Nancy Naples (R: NY-27) $451,203; Nick Clooney (D: KY-4) $431,757; Michael Fitzpatrick (R: PA-8) $424,067; Diane Farrell (D: CT-4) $422,367; Larry Diedrich (R: SD-1) $419,450; Charles Melancon (D: LA-3) $414,648; Roy Asburn (R: CA-20) $401,458; Tom Gallagher (D: NV-3) $385,277; Craig Romero (R: LA-3) $383,993; John Swallow (R: UT-2) $378,061; Calder Clay III (R: GA-3)...