Vacant seat in the 71st District?

Will there indeed be a vacancy in the 71st District?

Whether or not that situation comes to pass depends on Republican jockeying for the Governor's race and a few political dominos falling in a particular way. With Jim Edgar's announcement today that he will not run for governor, it puts the ball firmly in Judy Baar Topinka's court.

If Topinka decides to run for Governor, which is in no way assured, some feel that this may precipitate Mike Boland's announcing a run for state Treasurer, the office currently held by Topinka, which is also in no way assured, and if this all somehow comes to pass, it would throw the 71st into an open primary situation.

That scenario has several "ifs". Yet within hours of Edgar's announcement, Dennis Ahern, who ran unsuccessfully for the 71st district seat last election and who apparently can't wait until there's actually an open seat to run for before beginning his campaign, sent the following to party officials, staff, and activists:

Fellow Voter:

The possibility exists that there may be a vacancy in the 71st, due to the potential announcements upstream, especially today for Governor of our state.

We are actively passing petitions for the 71st Legislative District Primary to be held March 21st 2006, due to the fact that every organization, be it political, business, or academic, must always plan for the unknown and the unseen.

Please contact me if you require petitions for your precinct.

I will keep you informed of developments as they pertain to the potential vacancy in the 71st Legislative District.

Respectfully,

Dennis Ahern

To which he added the following note:

The first event upstream has occured {sic} much to expectations.


Keep you all posted.

Dennis

Of course, adhering to the Boy Scout motto of "Be Prepared" is never bad advise, but beginning an overt campaign effort, within hours, of one Republican figure (#1) announcing that he will not run for governor which may or may not result in a Republican elected official (#2) deciding to leave her seat to run for governor, and IF that happens, depending on an incumbent state representative (#3) announcing his intention to leave his seat in order to run for the state office vacated by Republican (#2), and IF that happens as well, then, and only then, is there even a race to run in, is, well, what would you call it? Far-sighted, or far-fetched?