Tracking the Top 2008 Congressional Races

There are some useful sites for tracking the Congressional 2008 races: Race tracker is one. The Green Paper covers primaries well. Sourcewatch has Congresspedia - wiki the vote to cover the Congressional elections and they have a Texas portal. They also have race lineups like the Oklahoma Congressional race lineup.

Some of the key races? Wash Post - The fix in April mentioned TX-22, where Pete Olson is running, as the top pickup opportunity for the Republicans in 2008. This remains the case as Olson has been strong on fundraising (although does not have as much as Lampson) and got a visit from the President himself. The Fix also mentioned:

• Alabama's 5th District (OPEN, Dem.-held): The retirement of Rep. Bud Cramer (D) in a district that gave President Bush 60 percent of the vote in 2004 gives Republicans a real chance at picking up an open seat. Wayne Parker is the Republican candidate.
• New Mexico's 1st (OPEN, GOP-held): Former Albuquerque City Councilman Martin Heinrich is the Democrat and Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White the Republican candidate.
• New Jersey's 3rd (OPEN, GOP-held): Republicans convinced Lockheed Martin vice president Chris Myers to run in this south-central New Jersey district.
• Ohio's 16th (OPEN, GOP-held): Democrat state Sen. John Boccieri faces state Sen. Kirk Schuring. DC was ready to call it for the Dems, but Boccieri didn't live in the district and Schuring is using it: " Kirk Schuring has lived in the 16th Congressional District his entire life. He has the pulse of the people in the district and understands their needs."

There are a number of open seats where Republicans are retiring that Democrats are also targeting. Some like Illinois 11th, the Republicans don't have a candidate for. There are also some GOP incumbents being targetted by the Democrats. For example: Marilyn Musgrave, CO-4.