Senator Tom Coburn Retiring

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

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I'm sad to see him go, he's one of the few Reps that I respect and like.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/oklahoma-senator-tom-coburn-wont-serve-rest-of-term-102302.html#ixzz2qehrkyiq

[LeBron]

Ouch for OK Democrats. Brad Henry may have been considering a run in 2016 but now that Mary Fallin holds the fate at when the Senate election will be scheduled, she'll make sure it's on the oddest day possible to guarantee an R hold (and no Henry run).

Best wishes to the Coburn family. Hopefully, with partisan views aside, Dr. Coburn recovers. His colleague, James Inhofe also just had emergency heart surgery so the best to him as well, although Inhofe should highly reconsider his 2014 run now.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Damn, despite frequent massive political differences I always liked him. Hopefully, he'll recover, but it's sad to see him go.

[IceSpear]

Ouch for OK Democrats. Brad Henry may have been considering a run in 2016 but now that Mary Fallin holds the fate at when the Senate election will be scheduled, she'll make sure it's on the oddest day possible to guarantee an R hold (and no Henry run).

Best wishes to the Coburn family. Hopefully, with partisan views aside, Dr. Coburn recovers. His colleague, James Inhofe also just had emergency heart surgery so the best to him as well, although Inhofe should highly reconsider his 2014 run now.

Does it really matter when the election is scheduled? Either way it would be next to impossible for any Democrat to win in Oklahoma.

[LeBron]

Ouch for OK Democrats. Brad Henry may have been considering a run in 2016 but now that Mary Fallin holds the fate at when the Senate election will be scheduled, she'll make sure it's on the oddest day possible to guarantee an R hold (and no Henry run).

Best wishes to the Coburn family. Hopefully, with partisan views aside, Dr. Coburn recovers. His colleague, James Inhofe also just had emergency heart surgery so the best to him as well, although Inhofe should highly reconsider his 2014 run now.

Does it really matter when the election is scheduled? Either way it would be next to impossible for any Democrat to win in Oklahoma.

Republicans would have a slight advantage if Fallin scheduled the open election for say, June 2015 as opposed to the originally open seat for November 2016. I'm just saying that without the open election being concurrent with the Presidential now, Boren and Henry won't win or run anyways, but could have made it competitive if Coburn were to have served out his term. Whoever's elected to serve out Coburn's term (if I were to guess, likely one of the 5 Reps), is almost guaranteed to run for re-election and there's no way anyone can take down a Republican in a polarized state like Oklahoma. Even Democrats couldn't take down Inhofe in 2008.

[International Brotherhood of Bernard]

I read over at DKE that if Coburn submits an irrevocable letter of resignation, Gov. Fallin could schedule the Special to occur concurrently with the November midterm even though he'd still be in the seat. Considering that in 2016 a Democrat at the top of the ticket could potentially drag down whoever were to run (given how punishingly red Oklahoma is), Boren or Henry could easily not embarrass the party, at the least.

[RogueBeaver]

Guys, there is a thread up already.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I'm deeply saddened about this. Senator Coburn is among my favorites and will be in my prayers.

[Flake]

Oh no, I hope he comes out of this disease okay.