[Cross-posted from Red County.com]

I’d heard over the weekend that Assemblyman Van Tran would announce formation of a congressional exploratory committee later this month.

"Later" has come early, as Van announced today he’s formed his exploratory committee to take on Rep. Loretta Sanchez, according to Total Buzz.

Van will be the first real opponent Loretta has had since, arguably, her 1998 re-match with Bob Dornan (although few doubted the outcome of that race. In the meantime, she had benefited from a strong of underwhelming or downright weird GOP general election nominees — much like Bob Dornan benefited from a string of underwhelming and downright weird Democratic opponents before newly-minted Democrat Loretta Brixey Sanchez came along, and snuck down the middle of the Democratic primary as favorites Ron Prince and Mike Farber.

This is gonna be a good one.