TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida may not have any statewide elected offices on the ballot this year, but it will have plenty of competitive congressional races.

The races were set Friday after qualifying for the ballot closed at noon. The only incumbent among Florida's 25 Congress members not seeking re-election is Rep. Dave Weldon. Many others are facing challenges as Republicans and Democrats continue to battle over control of the U.S. House. Florida has 16 Republicans and 9 Democrats there.

Among the notable races: Democrat Christine Jennings will seek a rematch with Rep. Vern Buchanan for the Sarasota-area seat he won by 369 votes two years ago and Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney will have to defend the seat he won after Republican Rep. Mark Foley resigned in shame.

Also, Republican Rep. Tom Feeney will face a strong challenge for the seat he carved out for himself six years ago and three South Florida Republicans will have to defend seats in races that could test whether political attitudes are shifting among Cuban-Americans.

Democrats are buoyed by their success in picking up two Republican seats in 2006. They are also hoping to provide strong competition for Republican Reps. Ric Keller and Gus Bilirakis while Republicans hope they can make freshman Democratic Rep. Ron Klein work to keep his job.

Democrats are being much more ambitious this year, with at least seven Republicans on their target list, as well as the seat Weldon is giving up.

"They're hunting with a shotgun when they probably ought to be hunting with a rifle this year," said Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee.

His counterpart at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, responded, "Our view is you pursue as many opportunities as you can. I'm sure they would prefer us to limit our efforts to one seat with a rifle shot, but we think there are more opportunities than one."

Republicans are hunting with a rifle.

After the 2006 election, they originally set their sights on taking back the two seats they lost, which now belong to Mahoney and Klein.

But at a recent Republican Party of Florida news conference, Chairman Jim Greer predicted the party would be able to hold all its seats and pick up one Democratic seat. Asked which one, Greer said, "We're focused on Mahoney."

Mahoney had a bullseye on him as soon as the votes were counted in 2006. He got lucky, Republicans said. Foley's name was still on the ballot after he resigned over news that he sent inappropriate sexual messages to boy pages, and that's the only reason Republicans say Mahoney was able to beat their party-picked replacement, then-state Rep. Joe Negron. The race was decided by less than 5,000 votes.

Now three Republicans hope to challenge him in the district that stretches from Palm Beach County across to Charlotte County on the Gulf Coast: Tom Rooney, a lawyer and former Army officer; Hal Valeche, a wealthy investor who served on the Palm Beach Gardens City Council; and state Rep. Gayle Harrell.

Mahoney has raised more than $2 million for his re-election. While the Republican hopefuls also have significant resources -- all have raised more than $500,000 -- they'll also have to spend a lot to win the nomination. Mahoney has also built a reputation as being in the political middle, which could help him in a district where Republicans significantly outnumber Democrats.

Klein is challenged by retired Army Lt. Col. Allen West, but Klein had raised nearly $2.8 million for his re-election through the first three months of this year compared to more than $100,000 for West. The district represents parts of Palm Beach and Broward counties.

Jennings fought Buchanan's 2006 victory for more than a year, questioning whether touch-screen voting machines lost votes. More than 18,000 ballots in the race didn't register a vote. A congressional investigation ended with no evidence that the machines malfunctioned. She won't be helped by the fact that Jan Schneider, who has run for the seat three times as a Democrat, will be on the November ballot with no party affiliation.

Democrats have picked Feeney as their top target. They are repeatedly reminding voters that he took a golf trip to Scotland with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Democrats are placing their hopes in Suzanne Kosmas, who owns a real estate business and served in the state House while Feeney was House speaker. Kosmas is considered Feeney's strongest challenger since he won office in 2002.

As state House speaker in 2002, Feeney oversaw the creation of the district, which has 29,000 more Republican voters than Democrats. Democrats, though, believe Kosmas can do well there.

"She fits the district well in the sense that she has a small business, she's a pragmatist," said Van Hollen. "We think that given her strengths and Feeney's weaknesses, we can win that seat."

Feeney thinks he has a huge advantage -- his focus on the space program and what it means for the district that stretches from the east side of Orlando to the Space Coast.

"Politically, in my district, it's a big asset for the space community to know that you've been there fighting for them," Feeney said.

In what may be a study in political science, three strong Democrats have emerged in South Florida to face three Republican House members who previously haven't had a tough time holding their seats. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and brothers Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart will face, respectively, Annette Taddeo, Joe Garcia and former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez.

The three incumbents are Cuban-American, as are Martinez and Garcia, a former state Public Service Commission chairman and previous executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation. Taddeo is founder and CEO of a language translation service.

The large Cuban-American population tends to heavily support Republicans, but the challengers are trying to show that the incumbents focus too much on Cuban policy while ignoring issues like the housing crisis, rising gas prices, health care and more.

"The incumbents have been able to go for a very long time without having to engage on a lot of important domestic policy questions. Bread and butter issues -- voting against children's health," Van Hollen said. "That's just one example."

Cole thinks differently.

"There's a reason why Ileana is a ranking member (of the House Foreign Affairs Committee), there's a reason why Lincoln is number two on the Rules Committee, which is incredibly powerful, and there's a reason why Mario is one of the most rapidly rising figures here. It's because they're good," he said.

Among other races: Democrats have targeted Keller, though they have to get through a primary to take him on. Attorney Michael Smith and business consultant Charlie Stuart, who unsuccessfully challenged Keller two years ago, are considered the top two Democratic candidates.

Republican party officials have coalesced behind state Sen. Bill Posey for the seat Weldon is giving up. The district represents parts of the Space and Treasure coasts inland to the center of the state. Democrats are pinning their hopes on Paul Rancatore, a commercial airline pilot and lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve, who recently got back into the race after reconsidering his run.

Freshman Bilirakis, who took over the seat his father held for years, is also on the Democrats' list. Van Hollen mentioned John Dicks, a lawyer seen as a conservative and a former Plant City mayor, as a strong candidate to face him, though Dicks will have to win a primary first. The oddly shaped district runs north, east and west of Tampa.

In southwest Florida, Republican state Sen. Burt Saunders is on the ballot with no party affiliation in hopes of taking Republican Rep. Connie Mack's Naples-area seat.

In Pinellas County, Max Linn, who ran as a Reform Party candidate for governor in 2006, earning less than 2 percent of the vote, is among two candidates hoping to challenge longtime Republican Rep. Bill Young. The other Democrat is Dunedin Mayor Bob Hackworth, who switched parties before getting in the race. The seat is not on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's target list.