The Eye

Rigell donated to the 2008 presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney in July 2007 and John McCain in May 2008, after he clinched the GOP nomination. Interestingly, Rigell also donated to Barack Obama in March 2008, when he was battling Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination. (Rigell addressed his Obama donation here.)

Two other Republicans have filed FEC paperwork to prepare bids against Nye. They are Chuck Smith, a former Marine and retired Navy officer who reported raising $580 for his fledgling bid, and Ed Maulbeck, a former Navy SEAL.

Republicans are hoping to reclaim Virginia's 2nd, a military-heavy district that has long had a Republican orientation but narrowly backed Obama in the 2008 election.

Nye reported raising $381,000 in the first three months of this year, one of the highest totals for a first-term member, and will release updated fundraising figures by July 15.

A CQ study showed that Nye has sided with Democrats 75 percent of the time on votes that have essentially split the two parties -- the eighth lowest such "party unity" score among House Democrats.

UPDATE: I interviewed Nye Wednesday afternoon for reasons unrelated to this story, but I did ask him for his reaction to Rigell's announcement. His response: "It's anybody's right to run. I don't think any of that really affects my approach now anyway, so I'm really not that concerned. I'm just focused on trying to get some things done. I figure the voters gave me two years. If they give me two more, great. But in the meantime, there's no excuse for not accomplishing as much as I can after two years. That's what I'm focused on trying to get done."