Freshman Members of Congress can be a nervous lot – after all, if you’re going to lose your job in a place where more than 95% of incumbents win, it’s generally going to be after your first term. Jay Inslee, Maria Cantwell and Mike Kreidler can all tell Suzan DelBene how it happens.
DelBene is the most nervous of Washington’s three freshman members, as she has a very credible opponent, a district that by definition can swing since Rob McKenna carried it in the 2012 gubernatorial election, and a husband who is now in charge of fixing the Obamacare website.
And now, she can see a Republican wave coming her way, courtesy of the results in a special election yesterday in Florida, won by a (Republican) DC lobbyist and former congressional staffer over a former (Democrat) statewide elected official and gubernatorial candidate.
As the highly-respected National Journal characterized it:
“The results from tonight’s Florida special election are serving as a wake-up call to nervous Democrats concerned the president’s health care law is shaping up to be a major burden for their party in 2014.”
And that wake-up call will be keeping DelBene awake plenty of nights in the next few weeks and months.
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