According to Huffington Post, CA-18 Blue Dog Dennis Cardoza made a surprising announcement that he was going to resign immediately.
"In light of the fact that nothing is going to happen for the rest of the year, and in light of the fact that (my wife) and I are facing increasing parenting challenges, this seemed the right time to make this move," Cardoza said in an interview published Tuesday by the Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert.
According to HuffPo, his seat will be vacated at midnight on Wednesday, and they'll be no special election to replace him. Congressman Cardoza had already declined to run for re-election in the face of strong Democratic primary challengers.
Cardoza made a statement on Tuesday lamenting the declining numbers of Blue Dogs in Congress: "'Long may you bark,'" he said. "The real honor of serving in Congress is not working in historic buildings, but in laboring with so many unbelievably talented and dedicated individuals who serve our nation daily."
And Huffington Post had also uncovered that Cardoza has joined the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phelps .
I suppose Cardoza just couldn't stand the thought of four to five more months of constituent services, and decided to get his first. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Congressman Cardoza.
Anna Eshoo is looking to take the CA-18. Donate to her on ActBlue here
4:42 PM PT: Links showing that Eshoo is running in the 18th:
http://www.opencongress.org/...
http://annaeshoo4congress.com/...
4:58 PM PT: Hat tip to craiger who in a post explained that the new CA-18 will be the old CA-14 and also brought to my attention some other Democrats that could use some donations:
Thanks for the shout-out for Anna Eshoo, who is our representative here in the Palo Alto area of Silicon Valley.
But to be clear, Dennis Cardoza's existing 18th CD is located out in the Central Valley containing Modesto and Merced. Anna Eshoo is a long-serving and very safe representative in the 14th CD, which will basically just be renumbered as the 18th in the new alignment following CA redistricting.
If you want to support Democrats out in the Central Valley, and they could really use some help, look for the newly drawn CA-10 (Jose Hernandez – Astronaut) and CA-16 (Jim Costa – Inc.).
5:11 PM PT: And here are the donation pages that I got off their campaign sites:
the new CA-10: Jose Hernandez, astronaut
the new CA-16: Jim Costa