Earlier I noted that tonight's State of the Union would not only be the last for George W. Bush but that it would also be the last for a whole lot of congressional Republicans, both those who will be defeated in November and those who are retiring. Well, you might be able to add one more name to that second list, according to CQPolitics.com.

Missouri Republican Rep. Kenny Hulshof reportedly has decided to run for governor of his home state this year, and will forgo a campaign for a seventh House term in the 9th District.

Hulshof will announce his plans Tuesday, according to the Kansas City Star, which cited Republican sources. He would be seeking to succeed retiring one-term Republican Matt Blunt -- the son of House Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri's 7th District -- who was viewed as a rising star when elected governor in 2004 at age 33 but struggled with mediocre approval ratings ever since.

According to the Cook Political Report (.pdf), this would mark the 26th open seat that the Republicans have to defend this cycle (counting both retirements and resignations) -- or about 13 percent of the seats the party won on November 7, 2006. With every extra retirement, the Republicans' task of limiting their losses (let alone picking up seats, let alone retaking the House) becomes that much more difficult.

It's true that Missouri's ninth district, which Hulshof represents, does lean about 7 points more Republican than the nation as a whole in presidential elections. But this doesn't mean that the Democrats wouldn't have a realistic shot at winning this seat. Going through the 13 districts across the country that have that same partisan lean, the Democrats already control nearly half (six). In 2004, the Democrats picked up a similar district in the neighboring state of Kentucky with Ben Chandler's victory in a special election, and in 2006, alone, Democrats had three victors in districts with a lean of R+7: Heath Shuler in North Carolina, Baron Hill in Indiana Nancy Boyda in the neighboring state of Kansas. Perhaps more importantly, it looks like the Democrats may already have a strong candidate in the race in state Rep. Judy Baker.

Hulshof has yet to officially announce that he's not running for another term, so we need not yet get too far ahead of ourselves (though here's the Kansas City Star article for those interested). But if he does indeed retire from the House, as CQ suggests, there's likely to be a real race to replace him.

Just to add... Swing State Project sees another potential GOP retirement in the works.