Eye on 2010

And, he continued, "I think we're heading down the wrong road. We've got to be more fiscally sound in our decisions."

Stouffer said he would have voted against the economic stimulus law and the House-passed "cap-and-trade" climate change bill, which the Senate will consider later this year. Skelton voted for both of them.

Skelton, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has long had a reputation as a conservative Democrat, but Stouffer said that in recent years he has been voting overwhelmingly with the positions of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

A CQ analysis of House votes in the first seven months of 2009 shows that Skelton has sided with the consensus Democratic position 96 percent of the time on "party unity" votes that pitted most Democrats against most Republicans.

I called and e-mailed Skelton's campaign office for comment and will update this post when I hear back.

Stouffer, a farmer, was elected to the Missouri Senate in 2004 and re-elected in 2008 to a district that takes in some counties in the northern part of the 4th. He is currently chairman of the Transportation Committee.

He said he would probably formally declare his candidacy sometime after Labor Day. The Republican primary in Missouri's 4th is likely to be contested: Former state Rep. Vicky Hartzler also is seeking the GOP nomination.

CQ Politics initially rated the contest in Missouri's 4th District as Safe Democratic, mainly because Skelton has almost never faced serious Republican opposition in his 17 House election campaigns. That rating will be reconsidered in light of the 2010 campaign plans by Stouffer and Hartzler in a district that gave Republican nominee John McCain 61 percent of the vote in the 2008 presidential election.

To follow the 2010 House races, check out the CQ Politics election map.

UPDATE: Here's a comment from Sheryl Steele, the assistant treasurer of Skelton's campaign committee: "We're not going to get involved in the Republican primary at this time."