THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

And by next November we should find out if the change in political winds was long term shift or just an errant breeze. Until then we will see Democrats stepping up to challenge Republicans in districts that were quietly safe before the shutdown.

Here and nationally, the Democratic Party is enjoying something of a boomlet in newly declared candidacies for the House. Since Oct. 1, five candidates have lined up to contest Republican-held seats, with at least four more in the wings, Democratic officials say. Almost all say they are driven to run — ostensibly, at least — by disgust over the shutdown, first espoused by Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and embraced by Tea Party Republicans in the House and, eventually, most others as well.

Nonetheless, most of the Republicans viewed as most vulnerable are moderates, not those who pushed for the shutdown.

Mr. Festersen, 42, a business consultant, said he was driven to run by “the dysfunction, the widespread dissatisfaction with Congress’s inability to get anything done.”

In Arkansas, former Mayor Patrick Henry Hays of Little Rock announced his candidacy for the seat of Representative Tim Griffin, a Republican who is retiring, by denouncing the shutdown as a travesty. Last Thursday, Bill Hughes Jr., a former federal prosecutor, opened his challenge to a New Jersey incumbent, Representative Frank A. LoBiondo, by railing against what he called the Republicans’ “irresponsible brinksmanship” in closing down the government.

And on Wednesday, Alex Sink, Florida’s chief financial officer who narrowly lost a 2010 bid for governor, entered a special election race to fill the House seat of Representative C. W. Bill Young, a Republican who died at 82 on Oct. 18. He had announced his retirement the week before.

“I, like everybody else I know, is angry and mad about the logjam, about shutting down the government, about not understanding the impact it was going to have on small businesses and people,” she said in an interview with The Tampa Bay Times announcing her decision.

All but Mr. Crawford, of Lincoln, are viewed as credible contenders in next November’s election, said David Wasserman, a top analyst of House races for The Cook Political Report in Washington.

“The climate for candidates to jump into races has improved significantly,” he said in an interview. “Who knows whether they would have run had the shutdown not occurred? But the fact is, they’re running.”

All it took was a mere government shutdown and near destruction of the country's credit to get them moving. I hope there are more to come. There should be no such thing as a safe seat.