Election digest | RNC boss to leave post in in January

WASHINGTON — Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Ken Mehlman, who guided President Bush's re-election campaign to victory in 2004 and saw his party suffer the loss of the House and Senate on Tuesday, will step down from his post when his two-year term ends in January, GOP officials said Thursday.

During his tenure, Mehlman, 40, traveled extensively to promote the Republican agenda. When he became chairman in January 2005, he said he hoped to tighten the GOP's grip on power in Washington.

Chafee considers leaving GOP

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Two days after losing a bid for a second term, Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he was unsure whether he would remain a Republican.

Chafee, 53, is a lifelong Republican who has represented Rhode Island for seven years. His father held the same seat for 23 years before that.

He is the most liberal Republican in the Senate and was the sole Senate Republican to vote against the war in Iraq. But that was not enough to prevail against Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, who shared many of Chafee's views but was a Democrat in a heavily Democratic state.

Rangel sees a move ahead for Cheney

WASHINGTON — Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., said Thursday he plans to evict Dick Cheney from an office the vice president uses on Capitol Hill.

That office has been historically designated for the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

Last week, Rangel called Cheney a "son of a bitch" after the vice president said the gravel-voiced New Yorker "doesn't understand how the economy works."

Rangel later said he should have confronted Cheney in private.

Iowa governor joins '08 presidential race

Outgoing Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, filed papers setting up a presidential campaign committee, becoming the first major candidate of either party to formally announce plans to run for president in 2008.

Vilsack, 55, has been Iowa's governor since 1999 and will step down in January. Iowa has the nation's first presidential caucuses, drawing presidential aspirants to the state years ahead of time to court local politicians and voters.

Vilsack filed his campaign committee papers with the Federal Election Commission, allowing him to begin raising money for his campaign.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat and potential 2008 presidential candidate, had $13.9 million in her Senate campaign account as of Oct. 18 that can be transferred to a presidential bid.

Mike Gravel, a Democratic former U.S. senator from Alaska, announced his presidential bid in April.

Wyoming senator has leukemia

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., hospitalized since Monday with pneumonia, began treatment for leukemia Thursday, his spokesman said.

Thomas, 73, who was easily elected to a third term while in the hospital, fell ill in church in Casper on Sunday and was taken by ambulance to Wyoming Medical Center. He and his wife, Susan, flew back to Washington later.

Thomas canceled campaign events Monday and was admitted to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., that evening, his spokesman said Thursday.

Seattle Times news services