Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: Republican Rep. Thad McCotter drops his write-in bid

Want the scoop on hot races around the country? Get the digest emailed to you each weekday morning. Sign up here. Leading Off:

' MI-11: So this is how it's going to end for Thad McCotter: A week after he failed to file a sufficient number of signatures to appear on the ballot for re-election, followed by a pledge to run a write-in campaign to capture the Republican nomination, the five-term veteran is now giving up and will instead retire from Congress. While the debacle that led him here remains as shocking as ever, it's not too surprising to see McCotter fold now, given that he faced a hostile GOP establishment, a criminal investigation over the signatures he submitted, a rather pitiful warchest, and a write-in campaign being waged by at least one other local Republican, former state Sen. Loren Bennett.

So now what? It remains to be seen whether GOP power players coalesce around Bennett'something he'd likely need to have happen in order to prevail, since there's an actual name on the primary ballot, tea partier Kerry Bentivolio, which will be difficult to overcome with a write-in effort. But there's also the possibility that one or more other local Republicans might jump in with their own write-in bids, which would throw this already-topsy-turvy primary into utter chaos. As for Democrats, they have a credible candidate here in the form of physician Syed Taj, who raised $200K before news of the McCotter disaster even broke. First, though, he'll have to defeat LaRouchie nutball William Roberts in his own primary.

Given that this swingish district went for Barack Obama by a 50-48 margin, and given the extremely unsettled nature of the GOP contest, this once off-the-radar race looks more competitive than ever. Therefore, Daily Kos Elections is changing its rating on this race for the second time in a week, moving it from Likely R to Lean R.