Winning Back Congress in 2006 - Run against Bush

[CTLawGuy]

The key to winning back Congress is to be able to knock off Repug Congresspeople who have been in their districts forever. This may seem impossible (considering a 96% reelection rate).

But, when you can't beat the person you are running against, run against someone else.

This was done very well in New Hampshire Senate race(sadly by now-senator John Sununu) in 2002. He ran against the sitting governor, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen. She was relatively popular.

One of Sununu's TV ads criticized Jeanne Shaheen's endorsement of the Democratic Nominee for governor, Mark Fernald. Mark Fernald supported an income tax, which is anathema in New Hampshire.

John Sununu's ad criticized Shaheen for supporting Fernald and mentioned how he supported the income tax.

This ad was brilliant because it tied a relatively moderate and popular Shaheen with an "extreme" candidate. When I saw the ad, I thought "It's like he's running against Mark Fernald."

I think that the Democrats, as a party should do the same kind of thing in 2006. Don't run against the popular incumbent in the Repug district, run against Bush. Run against the guy with 35% popularity as opposed to the guy with 75% popularity.

I live in NYC now and I saw ads for the NJ governors race from now-Gov. Corzine. They attacked "The Bush-Forrester plan" and called Forrester "Bush's choice for NJ".

The Dem candidates for Congress should talk about Delay, "Duke" Cunningham and Bush, and tie their opponents to those people.

If we present ourselves as the alternative to the corruption and incompetence of Delay and Bush we will attract votes and force the popular incumbents to explain their support for such corruption and incompetence.

I think it is the best chance we have of making a sea-change in Congress.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Yes there's that.. but what about the Diebold states?

[CTLawGuy]

3. beat them bad enough so they can't cheat

that's all we can really do in general. I agree it is a concern, but each Diebold situation specifially needs to be dealt with according to its circumstances.

And who knows, if our strategy works, maybe someone in the chain of Diebold corruption will turn on Bush and the Repugs.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Except that can't be done. These aren't static paper ballots they are

stuffing. They can fix the numbers as they go along on any machine that can be dialed into.

[bambo53]

2. That's the only way to deal with these bastards.

Make them cry & beg for mercy, but don't stop or let up. Never.

The Diebold states? A constant barrage of letters to the editor to expose the issue, starting NOW.

[welshTerrier2]

5. yes, but ...

the Democrats need to nationalize next years elections ... bush's poll numbers are in the toilet ... republicans control the Congress, the WH and the courts ... Americans do NOT like what they see ... so running a nationalized campaign, i.e. it's time to give 'the other guys' a chance, is a good idea ...

but, if we really too heavily on that, we'll do poorly ... Americans are not exactly thrilled with the Democratic Party either ... we cannot afford to be seen as the "at least we're not republicans" party ... Americans need to know that Democrats will really make their lives better ... and they are not at all convinced that is the case ... we have work to do and until we resolve the rift over the war, it ain't getting done ...

and one last point ... while any given Democrat may try to run against bush, it's not always easy to do that ... republican opponents may even distance themselves from bush to show how independent they are ... being "anti-bush" may even become a net positive for them ...

the strategy of linking republican candidates to bush is a good one; the overall strategy better be a whole lot more than that ...

[CTLawGuy]

7. you're right

Dems must present themselves as a substantive alternative to Bush.

[kentuck]

6. I disagree....run against the Congress...

Bush is not running again. If we can win a few Congressional Districts, we can win the presidency. Those voters will vote the top of the ticket if they vote Democratic for Congress. Also, Repubs are very good at PR and personal attacks when it is one on one, for example, Kerry vs Bush, but they cannot defend the entire incompetent Congress.

[CTLawGuy]

8. I know Bush is not running again

but it doesn't matter. Everyone with an R next to his or her name is tied to Bush in a way that is hard to get rid of.

We should run against Congress too, but Congress is too abstract of a concept. It is better to run against a person or specific people, like Bush or Delay.