One of the two Republicans challenging freshman Idaho Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick is ending his 2010 campaign in the state's 1st District.

State Rep. Ken Roberts said in a statement Tuesday that he was withdrawing "with great reluctance" because of an unspecified and "unexpected health issue that has affected my candidacy and hampered my ability to make this run."

"I feel that it is my responsibility to my family to step out of the race at this time and concentrate on my health," Roberts said.

Four out of every five House members who didn't side with their party on the health care bill represent districts that voted for the opposite party's presidential nominee in the 2008 election.

The party-buckers on the 220-215 vote on Saturday night included 39 Democrats who voted against the bill. Of them, 31 represent districts that voted for John McCain over Barack Obama. Republicans are targeting many of them for defeat in the 2010 election. Of the other eight, three are serving their first terms in districts in which they defeated or succeeded Republicans in the 2008 election.

Eighteen Democrats from McCain-voting districts backed the bill. Among this subset, seven-term Rep. Marion Berry of Arkansas represents the most pro-McCain district (59 percent). He's more politically secure than other "McCain Democrats" who voted for the bill, including first-term Rep. Tom Perriello of Virginia and second-term Rep. Zack Space of Ohio.

The conservative Family Research Council's political action committee plans to target 16 congressional races in 2010. The group's president, Tony Perkins, said the PAC has a goal of raising $1 million to boost grassroots activity in targeted races.

The group wants to spend money to help favored candidates take over the seats now represented by:

Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat who is running for a full term in Colorado after his appointment this year;

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, a Democrat who is running for re-election in Connecticut;

New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican who is retiring;

Missouri Sen. Christopher S. Bond, a Republican who is retiring;

Rep. John Boccieri, a Democrat who represents Ohio's 16th District;

The anti-tax group Club for Growth released their 2009 "RePork Card" rating House members' efforts to rein in public spending, and by the Club's standards, the Democrats failed miserably.

The one exception: Idaho freshman Rep. Walt Minnick, who along with 21 Republicans earned a perfect 100 percent score from the Club. That means he voted for all 68 amendments proposed in the House to strip out earmarked spending projects, or "pork," from the 12 annual spending bills. The average Democratic score, in contrast, was 3 percent, with a median of zero.

Republicans averaged 57 percent, with a median score of 69 percent.

The next-highest scores for Democrats were Tennessee Rep. Jim Cooper with 97 percent and Rep. Bobby Bright of Alabama with 61 percent.

Colorado Rep. Jared Polis has a lot of fundraising clout for a guy with a mere seven months of House service.

The Jared Polis Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee the wealthy freshman congressman organized in May, donated $139,500 in late June to 31 Democratic campaign committees, according to a filing Friday with the Federal Election Commission.

The largest chunk of funds, $30,000, went to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Democrats that will be defending the party's 256-178 majority in the 2010 elections.

Duncan Hunter, a retired Republican who once chaired the Armed Services Committee, has decided that Iraq War veterans are the perfect candidates to revive the Republican Party in 2010.

Hunter -- a Vietnam War vet who briefly sought the 2008 Republican presidential nomination -- is already backing two such candidates as they launch challenges to two of the more junior members of the House Democratic majority: Jesse Kelly, who wants to take on two-term incumbent Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona's 8th District, and Vaughn Ward, whose target in Idaho's 1st District is freshman Democrat Walt Minnick.

Hunter will be attending a series of brunches, receptions and a golf outing in Tucson this weekend with Kelly, who said Hunter is a big attraction in conservative circles in his district in Arizona's southeastern corner. "He did very well in early presidential polls down here," Kelly noted, referring to Hunter's 2008 bid.

During much of his House career, Hunter represented a California district that stretched from San Diego east to the border of Kelly's home state of Arizona, though for the past decade the 52nd District has been confined to San Diego County in California's southwest corner.