Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced Wednesday he will retire from Congress. [snip]
Issa narrowly won his re-election race against Democrat Doug Applegate in November 2016 by just 1,621 votes. It was Issa’s first competitive race in more than 15 years.
Applegate has already announced plans to run for Issa’s seat in 2018.Another California Republican, Rep. Ed Royce, also announced his retirement on Monday. Buh- bye!
Issa joins a growing list of rats leaving the ship in advance of what we hope will be a blue wave in the 2018 midterms:
House Republicans are announcing they're leaving office at a significantly faster rate than any other recent Congresses, suggesting Democrats could pick up seats in the 2018 midterm elections. On Tuesday it was Pennsylvania Republican Bill Shuster, the influential chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Already, at least 29 House Republicans have announced they are retiring, running for another office or resigning outright. They're leaving from all over the map, from southern New Jersey to southern New Mexico. (our emphasis)These are professional pols; clearly they see what we're seeing in polling.
