Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) expressed his confidence Monday that Democrats will retain the Tennessee 6th district seat of retiring Rep. Bart Gordon (D) in 2010.

“For the last quarter century, Chairman Bart Gordon has been a bipartisan leader in Congress determined to always put families in Middle Tennessee first,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “We are confident that a Democrat who shares Chairman Gordon’s commitment to putting progress before partisanship on behalf of Middle Tennessee will succeed him as the next Representative of Tennessee’s 6th District.

Gordon is a 13-term Congressman who went unchallenged by a Republican in 2008. Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen won the 6th district with 52 percent in 2002 and 67 percent in 2006.But as Gordon has become more loyal to his party — he voted with Democrats 74 percent of the time in the 109th Congress and 90 percent of the time in the 110th Congress — the suburban Nashville counties in his district have become one of the fastest-growing Republican areas in the state.

Among the early names being floated by Democratic insiders as possible replacements for Gordon in the 6th district are state Rep. Mike McDonald, Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe. state Rep. Hank Fincher, Murfreesboro Mayor Tommy Bragg and former state Sens. Andy Womack and Joann Graves.