In Close Losses, The Netroots And Local Dems Often Stood Alone
by Chris Bowers, Fri Nov 17, 2006 at 04:30:35 PM EST
http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/11/17/163035/06I am going to move on after this, but I need to get one more rant on this off my chest on the whole Carville / Dean / close races thing. First check out how Hotline on Call breaks down Carville's claims seat by seat:
14 Democratic candidates lost by 2 points or less, but many of the campaigns were funded to the hilt by the DCCC. Lois Murphy certainly can't blame her loss in PA 06 on inadequate funding; the DCCC spent over $3 million on her behalf. Patricia Madrid (NM 01) also had plenty of money - her razor-thin loss came because of an embarrassing gaffe at a debate. Mary Jo Kilroy (OH 15), Darcy Burner (WA 08), Phil Kellam (VA 02), Christine Jennings and Tammy Duckworth (IL 06) were all among the top-funded candidates by the DCCC. (In Jennings' case, the money was funneled through the Florida Democratic party.)
And in some conservative districts, the DCCC strategically declined to spend money because they felt national advertising from Democrats would hurt their candidates. Gary Trauner, who narrowly lost to Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY AL), was the "victim" of such thinking.
That leaves 6 other races where more money could potentially have made a difference. Larry Kissell, who lost by less than 1 percent to Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC 08), certainly would have benefited from some cash; the DCCC didn't give his campaign a dime. But it wasn't a lack of DCCC funds, it was a lack of strategic foresight in this case.
Linda Stender did better-than-expected against Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ 07), but the DCCC would have had to enter the extremely-costly New York media market. Without the benefit of Monday morning quarterbacking, would that have been a worthwhile investment?
The losing Democratic candidates that legitimately could have a beef are: Tessa Hafen (NV 03), Dan Maffei (NY 25), Victoria Wulsin (OH 02) and Eric Massa (NY 29). These candidates ran in the type of third-tier races where the DCCC was only able to fund late. The New York environment was uniquely favorable this year, and another week of attack ads against Rep. Jim Walsh (R) perhaps could have brought him down.
I would like to add something to this. You know who was trying to fund the seats that the DCCC left out? The evil, barbaric, left-wing netroots. The Dailykos / MyDD / Swing State Project Act Blue page raised money for Gary Trauner (since August), Larry Kissell (since June), Linda Stender (since June), and Eric Massa (since March). And in 2005, we seriously helped pave the way for Victoria Wulsin in OH-02 by adopting Paul Hackett in the special election in that district. Altogether, in the 2005-2006 cycle via Act Blue, the netroots dumped more than $1.7M, or 10% of total Act Blue donations, into the seven districts listed above that were not heavily targeted by the DCCC. And if there is one major regret I have about this campaign season, it is that I personally didn't do enough to raise money and build netroots infrastructure for Dan Maffei in NY-25, the district where I grew up. One canvassing trip and a few hundred bucks is just not enough for me to feel satisfied with my contributions there. But at least I tried.
If Carville wants to complain about money being left on the table, I didn't see him jumping on board with the netroots fueled Use It or Lose It campaign, designed to drive more money into districts just like the seven Hotline listed above. I also don't see him criticizing Hillary Clinton despite the huge amount of money she left on the table and the three narrow losses we suffered in my homeland, Western New York. But I wonder how many big-money Democratic "leaders" even noticed what happened in Western New York this year, since it has been long ignored and inexcusably written off as a conservative bastion for some time. In three different seats, we were inches away form sweeping the region, and making the Rochester Democratic Caucus a reality. We had these seats. We should have won these seats. We were leading in all polls in the NY-25 and NY-29 heading into Election Day. Whoever is at fault for coming up just short there, it certainly is not the netroots. We were a major part of bringing what little noise there was to the region and to many of the other seats that the national party ignored. Along with Jack Davis in NY-26, who refused to campaign, I think some of the big-money people form New York City who are supporting Carville's efforts need to look themselves in the mirror for this one, and make certain that it is a high priority we do not come up just short in Western New York once again in 2008.
If Carville wants to blame someone for this, he should note that the netroots, the same people who give Howard Dean a 96% approval rating, could hardly be any more squeaky clean in our efforts in the close seats that we lost. We stepped up in these seats, big time. When Carville criticizes Howard Dean, keep in mind that he is using Howard Dean as a placeholder to attack the entire progressive netroots and the entire progressive movement on behalf of big donors and consultants who once again want to rule the party with an iron fist. But we were the ones fighting for these seats, tooth and nail, along with local Democrats on the ground. National Democrats from the corporate wing of the party were nowhere to be found in these races.
End rant.
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