Election 2010: Congress

MSNBC's First Read picks up on a Politico piece that included U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-1st, "among those who rank at the top of House Democrats’ retirement watch list."

So far, none have committed to running for reelection, and each holds a seat that could flip to Republicans in November," the Politico item continued.

A day before the Politico piece ran, WTOV-TV reported that a Mollohan spokesman told the station "of course, (Mollohan) is running for election."

Mollohan's office had earlier told The Associated Press that the incumbent planned to seek another term.

Neither Mollohan nor West Virginia's other two U.S. House members had filed for re-election with the secretary of state as of late Wednesday, according to that office's online roster.

As noted earlier, while the Cook Political Report has recently changed its ranking of Mollohan's seat from "likely" to" to "lean Democratic," other major election analysts had yet to follow suit.

However, Congressional Quarterly's CQ Politics has announced plans to re-evaluate its "Safe Democratic" rating for that seat, "in light of the vigorous Republican campaign against Mollohan in a district that gave John McCain (R) 57 percent of the vote in the 2008 presidential election."

CQ Politics mentioned its plans to review while reporting on the Washington, D.C. visit of would-be Mollohan challenger, Andrew "Mac" Warner, to promote his GOP candidacy.

"Warner will attend the weekly Wednesday meeting of Americans for Tax Reform, the organization headed by conservative activist Grover Norquist," that article said. "He will also visit a son who is working as a congressional page for 2nd district Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R), and he'll also meet with Rep. Geoff Davis (R-Ky.), a fellow West Point graduate."

The article comes amid an ongoing campaign by the National Republican Congressional Committee to tout another GOP contender, David McKinley.

Both Warner and McKinley have filed candidacy papers. The Intelligencer of Wheeling reports on the prospects for a contested GOP primary in that race.