Have you experienced a real congressional campaign?

[rob in cal]

Growing up in California's 16th district, I had never experienced an actual, traditional campaign, as we know it today, for our congressional seat, since it is a safe seat and the GOP never expends effort to try to win it.  The only time there was a fight for it was after I had moved away, when Congressman Panetta vacated the seat to become Clinton's chief of staff.
   By that time I had moved the Bay Area, to Tom Lantos's seat in San Mateo county.  Again, I never saw any indication of a real campaign, by him or his opponent during the 1990's.  I was becoming conditioned to the idea that active campaigns with door knocking, commercials etc was for governor, senate or proposition campaigns, but never for a house seat.
   This pattern continued when I moved to the 4th district east of Sacramento, where in the 2000's Doolittle would win easily, with no real campaigning either. 
   Imagine my shock and wonder when due to Doolittle's scandals, I experienced two actual real campaigns for a house seat, the elections of 2006 (where Doolittle narrowly held the seat), and that of 2008, which saw that unique phenomena for Northern California, an actual open seat caused by the incumbent not running for reelection.  In 2008 my family and I witnessed increidible scenes from that historical election.  We saw lawn signs, actual lawn signs for congressional candidates.  Until 2006 I don't believe I had ever seen a lawn sign for house election.  In 2008 we received lots of expensive mailers during the Mcclintock Ose primary and then in the general election as well.  2008 was special as well with both a hotly contested primary and hotly contested general election.  I also experienced meeting with actual street canvassers for Brown the democratic candidate. I had never met a street canvasser for a congressional candidate in California ever before.  Truly remarkable.
    2010 saw a return to normalcy without a vibrant campaign, as Mcclintock was easily reelected, and I don't know when I will again experience something so unusual as an actual contested California house election.  Having seen it happen for once in my life, I know that it is possible for it to happen again, that California too can experience this weird democratic exercise where there is an actual campaign for a house seat.  Maybe in 2030 I'll experience it again.
Anyway, I wonder if anyone else out there has had a similar experience of  moving into an area where all of a sudden there is an actual race where before they lived in safe seat areas.

[freepcrusher]

I was at UT Austin in 2004, but I was registered at home which was in Cockrell Hill. I had been represented by Martin Frost since I was born, but the texas legislature glued his district to some WASP areas (Park Cities, North Dallas, Richardson) and he was facing Taliban Pete in the general. I did a lot of door knocking to try to get everyone out to vote for Frost. I convinced almost everyone I talked to, to vote early by absentee or to go to the local library which allowed people to vote a month before the election.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Well, I grew up in MD-01, where there wasn't a contested race since 1992. Then I moved to VA-02 in 2006, and have seen competitive races in the past three cycles.

[SvenssonRS]

Depends on what you mean by "experienced," because believe it or not, Wyoming has actually had two in the past five years - or perhaps more accurately, one and another that was a real campaign by Wyoming's standards, but probably no one else's.

[Bacon King]

Both House elections while I've been in New Orleans, yeah. Campaigned hard for Richmond in '08 and was too busy with school in '10 but saw both campaigns out in full force.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

MN-01 in 2006, enough said.

[tmthforu94]

Well, I live in the "Blood 8th" so I get my fair share of exciting Congressional campaigns. 2006 was an intense campaign, and I remember it quite well. 2010 had a very hotly contested primary, and the general election was good too. However, due to redistricting, it looks like it won't be very competitive anymore. Good and bad, I guess.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Nope.  The last time the race was close was 1990 - Moran still won by 7%, and that was three years before I was born.

[Capitan Zapp Brannigan]

NJ-07 in 2006 was exciting, and Ferguson came closer to losing than any of us thought possible. In 2008 we were supposed to win, but the NY times endorsement gave Lance a huge boost.

Oh, how I miss the "Linda Stender. She's a Spender!" ads.

[Mexino Vote]

lol I live in OK-04 and OK-03. Take a guess.

[rbt48]

I live in Nebraska 2.  It had a fairly close race in 2006, an even closer race in 2008, but Lee Terry ran about 2% ahead of McCain. and pulled through.  It was supposed to be very close in 2010 as the Democrats put up a very strong candidate, but Terry won by over 20%.  Must have been the head wind.

No telling how redistricting will change things.  The Democrats solution would be to peel off more suburban precincts and leave CD-2 as basically just Omaha.  That would make it a less friendly district for Terry.  The Republican solution would be to split Omaha in two to create in effect, three solid Republican districts in the state.

By the way, it appears that the non-partisan (but actually strongly Republican) state senate is about to change the law for Presidential Electors back to winner take all.

[memphis]

Only in the primaries. TN-9 is D+23.

[California8429]

Yup CD-7 in CO.

2008 wasn't a real fight. But boy were '06 and '10 campaigns

Of course, I experienced it way more than the average person as I worked for the Frazier campaign, but still there were a decent amount of yard signs, and tons of commericals and literature. The primary was also hotly contested in the hard core, caucus type GOPers, but it wasn't a big district wide push as the general election. Sias didn't have that much money and Frazier was already expecting a victory, which was a landslide.