The powerful Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, David Obey, D-Wis., is expected to announce that he will not seek re-election in 2010. First elected in 1969, Obey has not faced a serious challenge since the mid-1980s. Obey is being challenged this cycle by Republican Sean Duffy, a former cast member of MTV's "The Real World," and current District Attorney for Ashland County, Wisconsin.
Rep. Obey will become the second chairman of a House Committee to retire this cycle. In late 2009, Bart Gordon (D-TN), Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, announced that he would not seek re-election.
| There's a political earthquake. Granted he's been there since Moses, but in any year he should be a shoo-in. That puts Duffy in an interesting position, since the Dems will recruit a new face who will claim that he/she is not part of the current problem in Congress (of course, said new Dem still casts his/her first vote for Nancy Pelosi). |
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