#8 U.S. HOUSE RACES TO WATCH CLOSELY IN 2014: •CALIFORNIA (31): Republican Gary Miller won re-election last year in this Inland Empire-San Bernardino County district that President Obama carried by 16 points. Four Democrats are seeking to oust Miller, whose land deals have been the source of some bad press. Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar and former representative Joe Baca are the Democrats to watch. •ARIZONA (2): Democratic Rep. Ron Barber won a full term last year by less than 1 point in this Tucson-based district to succeed Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in January 2011. Republican Martha McSally, a retired Air Force colonel, has filed the paperwork for a rematch. Republican Mitt Romney carried the district by 2 points in the presidential election. •UTAH (4): This race is shaping up as a rematch between incumbent Jim Matheson, the only Democrat in his states congressional delegation, and Republican Mia Love, mayor of Saratoga Springs. Matheson, a Blue Dog, defeated Love by 768 votes in 2012 in a district Romney won by 37 points. •COLORADO (6): The southern Denver suburbs including Aurora are represented by conservative GOP Rep. Mike Coffman. He won a third term by 2 points, but Obama won the district with 52% of the vote. Democrats have high hopes for Andrew Romanoff, a former speaker of the Colorado House. •ILLINOIS (13): Rep. Rodney Davis, a Republican, eked out a victory in Central Illinois last year by 1,002 votes. Next year, he faces a GOP primary challenge from Erika Harold, a former Miss America. Democrats are touting Ann Callis, a former Madison County chief judge, in one of Americas most closely divided districts. •FLORIDA (13): The death this month of Rep. C.W. Bill Young, the longest-serving House Republican, pushed this district into the tossup category. Democrats would like to claim the district centered in the St. Petersburg-Clearwater area, which Obama won by about 5,000 votes. •NORTH CAROLINA (7): Rep. Mike McIntyre belongs to the dwindling group of fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats. He won a ninth term representing this district in Wilmington and the southeastern part of the state by 654 votes last year. Romney carried the district by a healthy 19 points. •New York (4): It is unclear whether 9 term incumbent Rep. Carolyn McCarthy will seek a 10th term in November 2014, as the 69 year old McCarthy battles lung cancer. Republican Frank Scaturro, an attorney, author and former consul to the Senate Judiciary Committee hopes to recapture the Democratic trending suburban Nassau County district for the GOP. Scaturro is confident of victory
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 05:59:57 +0000