We have the chance for a GREAT political year in 2014 !! Let me count the ways:

[RBInMaine]

Last edited Sun Mar 16, 2014, 02:57 PM - Edit history (2)

Any dooming a glooming about 2014 is really such a massive load of steaming horseshit. IF Democrats do what they need to do and campaign right, this will actually be a GREAT year. Yes, it is an IF because more D's than R's FOOLISHLY sit out in non-presidential cycles. But look at how we can do it.

* FIRST, DON'T BE THROWN OFF BY FL 13. Sink and her team lost mainly because they ran a flawed campaign. She was lackluster, from outside the district, and ran in a special election, which is a VERY BASE election, as a moderate who failed to be aggressive on some key issues that would have excited the base, and they failed to re-activate key voters less likely to vote in off-cycle elections. It was NOT due to hatred of ObamaCare at all, and the R won by a very small margin relying his HIS base voters ONLY. That was no banner win at all for the R. And they know it. The R's turned out a few more of their likely voters than did the D's. Simple as that. THAT is the lesson Dems have to take from this.

* LOOK AT VA LAST YEAR. It was close, but the D's SWEPT the state offices and SWEPT against historical odds because they targeted the less likely Obama coalition voters and got enough of them, such as African American women, to come out and vote, and this gave them the edge. McAuliffe also went on OFFENSE on some key social issues such as gay marriage, women's rights, and Medicaid Expansion which helped excite the D base while at the same time running as a moderate on fiscal issues. They also attacked the R BRUTALLY, defining him as the RADICAL that he was. THIS IS THE MODEL WE NEED TO USE IN PURPLE AREAS AND WHICH THEY FAILED TO USE IN FL-13.

* THERE ARE HUGE STATE LEVEL OPPORTUNITIES !! Scott Walker is now running TIED with Burke up there. Corbett in PA is in trouble. Carter in GA is doing well. Scott in FL is in trouble. With the right campaign, issues, and smart voter targeting, these and more are all winnable races.

* WOMEN WOMEN WOMEN ! Grimes is doing well in KY and that is a SENATE race. There are other women candidates around the country doing well. We need to excite and activate our women voters and our young voters.

* PUSH KEY ISSUES THAT WILL EXCITE BASE DEMS AND YOUNG VOTERS!! These are minimum wage increases, Medicaid Expansion, higher taxes for the rich, lower taxes for the poor and middle classes, reversing the problem of income inequality, making college more affordable, women's rights such as fair pay. Push these as both policies and VALUES. AND GET THEM ONTO STATE BALLOTS AND BALLOT INITIATIVES.

* LOOK AT WHAT WE ARE DOING IN MAINE: We just had RECORD Dem turnout at our party caucuses a few weeks ago. Our TeaBagger 2010 governor is VERY vulnerable. We have a great governor candidate in Mike Michaud and an exciting US Senate candidate in Shenna Bellows who is running a vigorous grassroots campaign. We are going to take the R's to the woodshed over their intransigent rejection of Medicaid Expansion and on other key issues too. We are going to beat our TeaBagger governor to a pulp. He's rotten. And we are going to get every possible D and D-leaning voter to the polls. We are gearing up bigtime for this, and people are very excited.

So, no more dooming and glooming. We have the issues. We have the candidates. We have a nutty GOP that is splintered and out in right wing field. All we need to do is get up, run smart and aggressive campaigns, and we can do very, very well.

[northoftheborder]

1. I'm wondering if any Tx party people are as enthused and issue oriented toward the progressive..

...view as you are there. I'm not feeling very optimistic at the moment. There's a lot of grassworks activity due to Battleground Texas, but the candidates are not sounding the right notes to get people enthused and excited to get out and VOTE. Most of the news is all about the Republicans' internecine battles.

[RBInMaine]

2. It's early yet. There will be a lot of excitement around those two women you have at the top of

your ticket. Strategy has to be different from place to place. Most see TX going blue in about ten years with the demographic trends. It's still an uphill battle there right now, but your campaign can do a lot to FURTHER the blue trend of TX even if not successful in every race. You are a red state, so it's tough. But PUSH IT. You are getting there. Make them work for it.

[kimbutgar]

3. Fight the power vote in 2014

Fight the corporate & religious power vote on any republican and Dino's.

[RBInMaine]

6. CAMPAIGN properly and TURN OUT THE VOTE.

[tweeternik]

4. You are correct RBInMaine!

[RBInMaine]

5. Thank you.

[JoePhilly]

7. Your thread would get more traction around here ...

... if you listed all the reasons Democrats suck and have no chance in 2014.

Those get kicked and rec'd like crazy.

I however, agree with you ... we need to GOTV in 2014!

[RBInMaine]

8. It is utterly insane to assert the Dems have no chance. Truly insane.

If the ultra TeaLeft wants to be as insane as the TeaRight, that is their right. I don't pay attention to radical insanity on either side. It's like trying to reason with a sofa. I have no interest in it.

[Reter]

9. This is going to be a very interesting year in politics

I can't wait until the it starts heating up.

[BlueDemKev]

10. Keeping The Senate...

Last edited Mon Mar 17, 2014, 08:58 PM - Edit history (1)

Okay, we know we have an uphill battle to keep the Senate for two big reasons:

1) Seven (7) Democratic-held seats are in red states which Romney carried in 2012 (and McCain carried all but one back in 2008)

2) Democratic voters are notorious for their apathy in midterm elections.

Two other reasons are Obama's low approval rating and the Koch Bro's super-pacs pouring $$ into Republican coffers, which we cannot compete with. However, there is one thing that can beat money in politics, and that is VOTING.

Which leads us to the need to embrace a "lowest-hanging fruit" strategy as we did in 2010 which, consequently, helped us keep the Senate. First off, the eleven (11) states where Democratic seats are in danger of changing hands are as follows (the most likely to flip to "R" are listed first):

South Dakota
West Virginia
Montana
Arkansas
Alaska
North Carolina
Louisiana
Michigan
Iowa
Colorado
New Hampshire


Basically, whichever party wins a majority (i.e.--at least 6) of these 11 races will most likely win control of the Senate.


The four states at the top of the list--ND, WV, MT, AR--are extremely-conservative states and will likely be picked up by the Republicans (barring a candidate screwing up by letting something stupid slip out of his mouth, i.e.--Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock).


The four states at the bottom of the list--NH, CO, IA, MI--are blue states where we absolutely must focus our GOTV efforts. We can only lose these seats if we let the opposition beat us. In Michigan, for example, we need to do everything possible to get voters in Detroit to the polls on Nov. 4.

As for the three (3) in the middle--AK, NC, LA--well, these are anyone's guess. Polls are showing neck-and-neck races in each of these states, and don't be surprised if the inevitable December runoff in Louisiana will determine who controls the Senate in January (such a scenario may actually help motivate our voting base in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, to get out and vote).

North Carolina will be very tough, but it is possible provided we get as many Democrats out to vote as possible and succeed in painting the Republican candidate as a tea-bagging fanatic. As for Alaska, I don't know what to make of it. The politics of that state is very foreign to me. I remember back in '08 calling the Begich campaign offering to do some phone banking for him from my home, but they told me that Alaska politics is such that it looks bad if outsiders to get involved in their campaign efforts, so unless you wish to travel to Alaska to help with the campaign locally, there's not much else you can do).

There are only two Republican seats we have a slim chance of picking up this year--Kentucky and Georgia. However, given the heavily rural populations in both these southern states, winning either of them would be a major accomplishment.

So there we have it. This order wouldn't be as difficult had we not allowed the Rethugs to win the Senate seats in PA, WI, and IL back in 2010 (we'd have a 58-42 majority right now instead of 55-45), but unfortunately we did and we've got a tougher job now as a result. Focus primarily on the bottom seven states on the last above: NH, CO, IA, MI, LA, NC, and Alaska and make sure that our get-out-the-vote machine is in place and well-polished. Those seven states will give the Democrats a 51-49 Senate majority for the last two years of Obama's presidency. Then, in 2016, we will need to focus not only on keeping the White House, but also capturing those three (3) blue-state Senate seats we never should have lost in 2010. With turnout being inevitably higher due to the presidential election, that fruit should be ripe for the picking.

[bornskeptic]

11. There is a Senate election in South Dakota this year, but there is not one in North Dakota.

I assume you meant SD, and I agree that will be our toughest seat to hold. I think you are too pessimistic about WV, AR, and MT. Democrats hold a 54-29 registration edge in WV and have won every Senate election in WV in the last 58 years. The only reason Republicans figure to have a chance is that Shelley Moore Capito will probably be their nominee. She is one of the very few popular Republicans in the state. Natalie Tennant should give her a pretty good race though. AR also has more registered Democrats than Republicans, but they aren't very reliable in their voting. Pryor does have the advantage of incumbency, so I can't see this as any worse than a tossup. MT is a maverick state. Anything could happen there.

[BlueDemKev]

13. I did! Sorry, I meant SOUTH Dakota

[davidpdx]

14. I think we will hold on to LA since Landrieu is such a conservative D

The other middle two I wouldn't try to guess which direction they will go. I have a feeling we will need to pick up either Georgia or Kentucky if we want to hold on to the Senate. IMHO Kentucky would be the larger slap in the face to the GOP.

I am excited about voting this year. I'm pretty sure in Oregon there aren't going to be any surprises in terms of Congressional races. The gov race is going to be interesting. Kitz almost lost the last time around, he just eeked it out. He's running against an egghead who is from the area I grew up in. He'd have to really screw up to lose. The GE ballot is going to be a very long one in Oregon I think. I'll have to really study up on some issues to prepare for voting.