Republicans were hoping Rep. Vito Fossella would retire from his Staten Island House seat (which he now has). And the hope was that Daniel Donovan, the Staten Island DA, would run for the seat. The consensus seemed to be that Donovan was a solid candidate for the district. But now Donovan has decided to take a pass.

This is a good example of the compounding effects of a bad political season. This is a Republican district, though not by a big margin. In another year, presumably, Donovan would have gone for it. But it's not that great a prize since the House Republicans seem destined to remain in the minority for some time. For that and other reasons, it's not an easy environment to raise money in. And given how bad a year it looks to be for Republicans in general, there's a good chance that Donovan could lose.

So Republicans have a tough environment to operate in. And they strike out when trying to recruit a good candidate to overcome that bad environment because the bad environment makes the good candidate not think it's worth the risk.