Yet another Ohio Republican announces his retirement!

A few days after Ralph Regula announced his retirement in OH-16, another aging Ohio Republican is calling it quits: David Hobson will not run for re-election in OH-07. It seems Regula's retirement combined with the death last month of another Ohio Representative and close friend (Paul Gillmor) pushed Hobson towards the exit.

OH-16 is reliably Republican. Bush prevailed here 57-43 in 2004, which means that this race will not be at the top of Democratic targets in 2008. Republicans have plenty of candidates to run in the district, and a name that keeps coming back as a very likely candidate is state Senator Steve Austria.

But the GOP will face a very difficult cycle in Ohio. They have to defend four open seats (Gillmor's in a special election, and OH-07, OH-15, and OH-16 next November), two of which in competitive territory. And they also will have to fight back strong Democratic challenges in OH-01 and OH-02, where Reps. Chabot and Schmidt won very close races in 2004. In addition to these five races, OH-18 will feature a very competitive election, but the roles will this time be reversed. Republicans will attempt to take down freshman congressman Zack Space, who won in 2006 in one of Ohio's reddest districts. Check how all these races are rated in our House rankings.

Ohio will clearly be at the center of the political world in 2008, just as in 2004 and 2006. If there is a strong Democratic breeze in the state (and the latest Quinnipiac poll suggest there might be), expect Dems to pick-up most of these seats.

Meanwhile, Tom Davis is keeping his intentions unclear over in VA-11. By deciding that their party's Senate nominee would be decided at a convention rather than at a primary, Virginia Republicans made life much more difficult for Davis. I speculated two days ago that this might lead Davis to renounce a Senate run and stay in the House instead, which would be a major blow to Democrats who will be favored to pick-up the seat if Davis retires. Today, Davis let it be known that he would be announcing his plans on November 6th only -- so we will have to wait a few weeks to know whether VA-11 will open up, and whether Tom Davis will attempt to give a Senate run a go.

Update: MyDD points out that both Strickland and Brown won OH-07 in 2006 on their way to becoming Governor and Senator, so the district can definitely go for Democrats under the right circumstances. Granted, both of them won comfortably, but their races were still competitive (especially the Brown-DeWine).