RISING REPUBLICAN STAR ANNOUNCES NOT RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION
Florida Rep, Tom Rooney
Rooney resigns to pursue
a private-sector job and to avoid all the Trump and GOP scandals.
I had recently
reported that we had not seen the last Republican that was not going to run for
re-election for the US House of Representatives. Well, there were five more after I had made
that prediction and today the five-term Florida Representative of District 17,
Thomas J. Rooney announced that he plans to retire at the end of the year. This leaves behind a deeply conservative
district in central Florida.
Rooney is only
47, and he was considered a rising star among Florida Republicans. However, he could never hid his frustration
with the gridlock that gripped Congress for most of his decade in office. Rooney is a believer in “political compromise” for
making government work, but today with his “Party of No”, that is an
impossibility.
With this announcement,
Rooney is the 28th Republican that will not be running for
re-election. Many House and Senate
members don’t want to support the president, but mostly it’s his whole
administration. They have decided they
can make better income and have more impact by NOT supporting the inexperienced
individuals that are currently propping up a president that may get nailed by
the special investigation of Robert Mueller.
That group
includes several key committee chairmen and a handful who resigned in pursuit
of private-sector jobs or amid all the Trump and GOP scandals. Fourteen additional House Republicans are leaving their seats to
run for other offices, some for governorships..
Many of the
districts are in states where Hillary had won over Trump and some are former
Red districts that are now looking to go Purple or Blue.
Rooney stated
this week: “After what will be 10 years
in the United States Congress representing the good people of Florida’s
Heartland, it’s time to ‘hang em up’ as my old football coach used to say,”
Rooney, is a grandson of Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney.
Rooney was a member
of the powerful House Appropriations
Committee, and was on track to potentially become chairman of the powerful
panel that controls the federal purse strings.
However, that would have required sticking around for another decade or
so.
The Democrats
only need to win back 24 seats, and 23 seats are already polling better for
Democrats than Republicans. It is
somewhat understood that if the election were today, because of Trump’s low
approval rating and his many supporters that are having 2nd thoughts,
he probably would not win. And with
Robert Mueller’s investigation getting closer to Trump day by day, it’s not
looking good for him in going forward.
Last week,
after the school shooting in Florida that left 17 dead, Rooney issued a
statement denouncing Congress for inaction on school violence. “We have failed in our duty to keep our kids
safe,” he said in the statement Saturday.
But as
expected, as a true Republican, Rooney did not voice support for any new gun
laws but he did call for a large boost in money for school security and
increased funding to community health centers to specifically deal with mental
health issues.
Here are the
28 Republicans that are NOT running for re-election:
Tom Rooney-Florida, Bill
Shuster-Pennsylvania, Blake Farenthold-Texas, Bob Goodlatte-Virginia, Charlie
Dent-Pennsylvania, Darrell Issa-California, Dave Reichert-Washington state,
David Trott-Michigan, Edward Royce-California, Frank LoBionde-New Jersey, Gregg Harper-Mississippi, Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen-Florida, Jeb Hensarling-Texas, Jim Bridenstine-Oaklahoma, Joe
Barton-Texas, John Duncan Jr.-Tennessee, Lamar Smith-Texas, Lynn
Jenkins-Kansas, Patric Mechan-Pennsylvania, Rodney Frelighuysen-New Jersey, Sam
Johnson-Texas, Ted Poe-Texas, Trey Dowdy-South Carolina
Copyright G.Ater 2018
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