Targeted NRCC chairman launches campaign

NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) found out last week that his Democratic opponent raised $146,000 in the fourth quarter.

By Monday night, Sessions announced the opening of his new campaign headquarters.

Coincidence? Maybe. Regardless, the overseer of all House campaigns will effectively launch his own bid on Saturday in Dallas, and he’s already handing out yard signs, according to an invitation.

The seven-term congressman has found himself an unlikely target for a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) with a dearth of them this cycle. But attorney Grier Raggio’s solid fourth quarter haul backed up the DCCC’s claims about going after the NRCC chairman.

It remains to be seen how viable Raggio really is, as well as how genuinely competitive Sessions’s 53-46 McCain district is. And that goes double in a year that’s shaping up to be good for Republicans.

Be that as it may, the race has already drawn a visit from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who did an even for Raggio last week, and Sessions told supporters Monday that he’s taking nothing for granted.

“We’re not taking anything for granted,” Sessions said in an e-mail. “But more importantly, I always view a campaign as a special opportunity to have a conversation with the taxpayers of the district. I look forward to listening to their concerns and letting them know more about my priorities in Congress over the next several months.”

The DCCC went after then-NRCC Chairman Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y) at the end of the 2006 cycle, when self-funder Jack Davis was spending heavily on their side of the ballot. Reynolds survived, 52-48.