How many House members from Florida have been defeated this decade?

a) 1

b) 2

c) 4

d) 7

Answer: b) With 25 seats, Florida has the fourth-largest U.S. House delegation. Yet only two House incumbents from the state have lost bids for re-election during the four elections dating to 2000.

The first was five-term Democrat Karen L. Thurman, who lost to Republican Ginny Brown-Waite in 2002. Thurman, hindered by a Republican-drawn redistricting map that made her 5th District less Democratic-voting, lost that contest by 48 percent to 46 percent. Brown-Waite easily won her re-election contests in 2004 and 2006 and is heavily favored this year to win a fourth term.

The second defeated Florida incumbent was 13-term Republican E. Clay Shaw Jr., who in 2006 lost his seat in South Florida’s 22nd District to Democrat Ron Klein by 51 percent to 47 percent. Shaw’s personable nature and focus on issues pertinent to his area’s large elderly population had kept him politically safe for years. But the 22nd District is a partisan battleground, and the national trend — combined with the strong fundraising skills exhibited by longtime state lawmaker Klein — proved too much for Shaw to withstand in the election two years ago. Klein is a solid favorite for re-election this November.

This short list does not include former six-term Republican Mark Foley, who resigned his 16th District seat in September 2006 because of a sex-related scandal but quit his re-election bid too late to have his name removed from the ballot. State election officials had made clear that voters choosing the Republican line with Foley’s name on it were actually voting for Joe Negron, the state legislator whom GOP officials had chosen as their replacement candidate. Democrat Tim Mahoney defeated Negron by a margin of roughly 2 percentage points.

CQ Politics published a story Tuesday on this year’s race in the 16th District. Republicans, citing the usual Republican lean among district voters, have made Mahoney one of their top targets for defeat. But the fresh memories of the Foley scandal continue to cloud the party’s prospects.