McCotter won't say if he'll seek reelection to House seat

Rep. Thad McCotter (R-Mich.) ducked on Tuesday a question about whether he'd seek reelection to his House seat while also pursuing the GOP presidential nomination.

McCotter, a fifth-term congressman from suburban Detroit, said he's focused on running for president, but wouldn't say whether that means he'd give up his seat in Congress.

"I'm focusing on the presidency," he said on ABC's "Top Line" webcast.

McCotter made a late entry into the presidential field last week, and hopes to mount a dark-horse campaign for the presidential nomination. He said that his effort was "no joke," and castigated other GOP contenders for low fundraising totals so far.

One of those other contenders, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), has said she won't seek reelection to her House seat while running for president. Like Bachmann, McCotter represents a relative swing district. That state lawmakers didn't carve up his district too badly — as had been expected — was thought to make McCotter less likely to run for president.

Of course, both Bachmann and McCotter might conceivably still have time to file for reelection should they lose out on the presidential nomination. But Democrats are salivating at the opportunity to run candidates in their potentially open seats or, absent that, use both lawmakers' presidential aspirations against them in an election.