The exodus continues:

Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) is expected to announce that he will retire from Congress at the end of this session, a Republican source confirmed Friday.

The surprise announcement comes within hours of the congressman's daughter, Katie Weldon, being arrested and jailed, accused of attacking an employee at a Brevard County bar.

(I'm not going to touch that last part...)

This one's another tough one for the Republicans given that Weldon represents a seat that while not necessarily a swing district is definitely a competitive one. According to the Cook Political Report, Florida's 15th district leans only about 4 points more Republican than the nation as a whole in presidential elections. For reference, the Democrats already hold six of the 19 districts (or about 32 percent) with a similar partisan lean. Perhaps more importantly, Weldon's retirement decision ups the number of GOP open seats in districts that lean 6 or less points more Republican than the nation as a whole to 14.

Additionally, word has it that popular former Broward County commissioner Nancy Higgs, a Democrat, should announce today that she will be running in the district, so the Democrats should already have at least one credible candidate in the race.

But that's not the limit to the Republicans' retirement concerns. As I suggested a couple of nights ago, the stream of retirements from within the House GOP camp isn't likely to slow down any time soon, as evidenced by the back-to-back announcements by Jim Walsh in New York and Weldon down in Florida. And now it seems that another endangered Republican in a potentially competitive district may be mulling retirement:

Another area congressman who narrowly won reelection in 2006 is Randy Kuhl, a Republican from Hammondsport, Steuben County. He represents the 29th district, which covers Monroe County's southeastern suburbs.

A Kuhl spokeswoman said today he had not decided whether he would run for reelection. [emphasis added]

As you might remember, Eric Massa, who is running again this cycle, nearly knocked off Kuhl in 2006, holding the Republican to about 52 percent of the vote in the district. If all of the Republicans who faced tough challenges last time around and whose reelection hopes are in real danger this year decide not to run for another term, there might not be any Republicans left in the House still representing Northeastern states -- or potentially competitive districts around the country, for that matter.