A closer look at the GOP's two dozen minority candidates

Republicans' claim that they will have about two dozen minority candidates in 2010 is starting to cause a stir.

The claim was initially reported to be made by House GOP Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and NRCC Recruitment Chair Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and it was suggested that it was part of their goal of having 100 strong candidates overall.

McCarthy said in an interview last week, though, that the minority candidates aren't necessarily part of that stable of 100. And according to a list of the races provided to The Hill, the number of top races featuring minority GOP candidates is closer to one dozen.

“They extrapolated that to 25 percent of those 100 are minority candidates,” McCarthy said. “And that’s not the case.”

As for the others, McCarthy says many of them are in “Rostenkowski districts,” which are huge long shots but could flip because of the incumbents’ problems. For example, one candidate on the list – Michael Faulkner – is challenging Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) in a 93 percent Obama district.

“They’re not districts that maintain Republicans, but they may throw out their person because they’re so disgusted if this person doesn’t retire,” McCarthy said.

Others on the list include former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) and Florida developer Armando Gutierrez, whom the NRCC isn’t particularly fond of, to say the least.

Here is the list of candidates, broken down into three categories by The Hill (i.e. not the NRCC):

Legit targets:

AZ-03: Vernon Parker

CA-19: Richard Pombo

CA-47: Van Tran

CA-47: Quang Pham

CO-07: Ryan Frazier

FL-08: Armando Guitierrez

FL-22: Allen West

HI-01: Charles Djou

NM-01: Jon Barela

NC-08: Lou Huddleston

TX-17: Bill Flores

TX-23: Quico Canseco

VA-02: Ben Loyola

WA-03: Jaime Herrera

WA-03: David Castillo

Small-timers in legit races:

CA-11: Tony Amador

CT-04: Rick Torres

FL-24: Deon Long

ID-01: Raul Labrador

TX-23 David Aguillar

Long shots:

FL-17 Corey Poitier

IL-02: Isaac Hayes

IN-07: Carlos May

MD-05 Charles Lollar

NY-15: Michael Faulkner

TX-15: Dan Garza

TX-15: Eddie Zamora

TX-27 Jessica Puente-Bradshaw

TX-28 Daniel Chavez