The news came last night, Mike McIntyre won’t be running again.

Earthquake in #NCPol MT @politico #Breaking: Democratic Reps. Mike McIntyre (N.C.) … retiring, according to multiple Democratic sources.

— Clark Riemer (@clarkriemer) January 8, 2014

Might be just as well, because he barely beat Rouzer before the Obamacare trainwreck hit back in 2012.  That race was pretty expensive (5th in the nation) and was so close Rouzer asked for a recount. McIntyre emerged and won by 654 votes. It’s doubtful McIntyre wants to repeat that and be on the losing end – especially since according to OpenSecrets.org, it seems like the money faucet has turned off for him in the last year.

Representative Mike McIntyre has reported a total of 166 contributions ($200 or more) totaling $122,350 in the current cycle.

The bigger picture here is that Democrats don’t want to be seen as losing because of Obamacare. McIntyre didn’t vote for Obamacare and even voted to defund it along with Utah’s Matheson. In December Matheson announced he wasn’t going to run again. Now we have McIntyre retiring.  Despite his voting record, not much was going to save McIntyre from the Obamacare wave and his retirement suggests he knows that.  Huffington Post has a related read on this wherein they seemingly are trying to shift the focus off Obamacare and onto Obama himself.

Snippet from Politico:

The 57-year-old McIntyre, who was elected in 1996 to the Wilmington-area congressional seat, narrowly defeated Republican state Sen. David Rouzer in 2012 and was poised to face him in a 2014 rematch. His retirement from the heavily Republican district will further thin the ranks of Blue Dog Democrats. It comes less than a month after another Blue Dog, Utah Rep. Jim Matheson, said his current term would be his last.

Republicans, who are trying to defend a 17-seat House majority, say those retirements show that Democrats in conservative districts are growing concerned about running for reelection when a debate over the bungled Obamacare roll-out is taking center stage.

McIntyre’s been in there 18 years.  What did he do while there? Well, during the last term these were his reported stats:

• 11 Sponsored Bills (Ranks 373 of 440) 0 Made Into Law (Ranks 141 of 440)
• 261 Co-Sponsored Bills (Ranks 192 of 440) 7 Made Into Law (Ranks 303 of 440)

He didn’t really add to that. At all. (OpenCongress.org) 

• 11 Sponsored Bills (Ranks 127 of 433) 0 Made Into Law (Ranks 34 of 433)
• 160 Co-Sponsored Bills (Ranks 166 of 436) 3 Made Into Law (Ranks 247 of 436)

Rouzer could have used this same ad this cycle.  It will be interesting to see who the Democrats decide to put up against him this time around.

UPDATE – I forgot all about Jonathan Barfield, who had announced a while back and I’m hearing rumblings of Woody White maybe entering into the fray. Both are New Hanover County Commissioners.