Decision 2006: Sports Figures Running For Office

As voters across the U.S. head to the polls today, numerous figures from the sports world are running for office. Bucks Owner and U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) is up for re-election, NFL HOFer Lynn Swann is challenging Ed Rendell for the governorship in Pennsylvania and former NFL QB Heath Shuler is running for Congress in North Carolina, marking three of the many sports figures who are bidding for public office today. The chart below, courtesy of The Hotline, shows more from that list.

STATE	CANDIDATE	SPORT	NOTES
Running For Governor
California	Arnold Schwarzenegger - R	Bodybuilding	Seven-time Mr. Olympia
Florida	Charlie Crist - R	Football	Wake Forest Univ.
Georgia	Sonny Perdue - R	Football	Univ. of Georgia
Iowa	Chet Culver - D	Football	Virginia Tech Univ.
Maryland	Bob Ehrlich - R	Football	Princeton Univ.
Ohio	Ken Blackwell - R	Football	Xavier Univ.
Pennsylvania	Lynn Swann - R	Football	USC; Steelers; Pro Football HOFer
Rhode Island	Don Carcieri - R	Football	Brown Univ.
Wisconsin	Mark Green - R	Swimming	Univ. of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Running for Senate
Maryland	Michael Steele - R	Boxing	Mike Tyson's former brother-in-law
Virginia	George Allen - R	Football	Univ. of Virginia; son of Pro Football HOF coach George Allen
Wisconsin	Herb Kohl - D	Baskeball	Bucks Owner
Running for Congress
Arizona District 1	Rick Renzi - R	Football	Northern Arizona Univ.
Arizona District 8	Randy Graf - R	Golfer	PGA of America member
Colorado District 4	Angie Paccione - D	Basketball	Stanford Univ.
Hawaii District 2	Bob Hogue - R	Writer	Sports Columnist
Indiana District 9	Baron Hill - D	Basketball	Furman Univ.; member of Indiana Basketball HOF
Kansas District 2	Jim Ryun - R	Running	Univ. of Kansas; three-time Olympian; '68 Silver Medalist
New York District 1	Italo Zanzi - R	Baseball/ Handball/ Soccer	MLB VP/Int'l Broadcast Sales & Latin America/U.S. Hispanic Marketing; U.S. Handball Team member
North Carolina District 11	Heath Shuler - D	Football	Univ. of Tennessee; Redskins; Saints
Ohio District 4	Jim Jordan - R	Wrestling	Univ. of Wisconsin; two-time NCAA champion
Other Notables
Hawaii State Senate District 25	Fred Hemmings - R	Surfing	World Champion
Massachusetts State Auditor	Joe DeNucci - D	Boxing	Former middleweight boxer
Nevada Secretary of State	Danny Tarkanian - R	Basketball	Son of former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian
Texas 3rd Court of Appeals	Mina Brees - D	Football	Mother of Saints QB Drew Brees