THE CONGRESSIONAL DO-OVERS AND THE DCCC

This year we will see exact rematches of a half dozen very close races from the 2006 cycle. In all but one of these cases, the Democratic grassroots candidate probably would have won if they had been given timely and sufficient support from the DCCC. In order of closeness:

NC-08: Robin Hayes 60,926 (50%) vs Larry Kissell 60,596 (50%)
FL-13: Vernon Buchanan 119,102 (50%) vs Christine Jennings (50%)
WA-08: Dave Reichert 61,921 (51%) vs Darcy Burner 59,268 (49%)
OH-02: Mean Jean Schmidt 120,112 (51%) vs Victoria Wulsin 117,595 (49%)
NY-29: Randy Kuhl 99,926 (52%) vs Eric Massa 92,974 (48%)
IL-10: Mark Kirk 97,242 (53%) vs Dan Seals 84,625 (47%)

The race that did get all the DCCC support anyone could ever want was FL-13, where Christine Jennings was Rahm Emanuel's hand-picked, Republican-lite shill. All the other candidates are actual Democrats. (Jennings is an "ex"-Republican who I expect will vote something like Tim Mahoney, Emanuel's other Florida ex-Republican shill, who did win-- with the help of a little strategically placed leaks about his opponent molesting young pages.)

Of the 6 on the list above, 4 have already been endorsed by Blue America-- Larry Kissell, Darcy Burner, Victoria Wulsin and Eric Massa. Now that he's won his primary, we're looking into Dan Seals as well. We don't endorse Blue Dogs, Bush Dogs, DLC hacks or Republican lite-shills so Jennings isn't eligible.

All but one of the candidates on the list have been put on the DCCC Red to Blue Page. In their first round the DCCC signaled that their first priorities were:

John Adler (NJ-03)
John Boccieri (OH-16)
Charlie Brown (CA-04)
Debbie Halvorson (IL-11)
Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15)
Linda Stender (NJ-07)
Gary Trauner (WY-AL)

Decent list, mostly. When James Walsh announced his retirement a few weeks later, the DCCC immediately added Dan Maffei, another Blue America-endorsed candidate.

Then a week or so ago they announced round two for the Red to Blue program:

Kay Barnes (MO-06)
Anne Barth (WV-02)
Darcy Burner (WA-08)
Robert Daskas (NV-03)
Steve Driehaus (OH-01)
Jim Himes (CT-04)
Christine Jennings (FL-13)
Larry Kissell (NC-08)
Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24)
Eric Massa (NY-29)
Gary Peters (MI-09)
Mark Schauer (MI-07)
Dan Seals (IL-10)

Some seem like better ideas than other, but it's a perfectly respectable list. Except for one omission. Did you catch it? Mean Jean Schmidt certainly did.

Congresswoman Jean Schmidt’s campaign today said that the decision to remove the Second Congressional District from the Democrat target list and abandon Victoria Wulsin’s campaign is proof that she is out of touch with the district. The target, or “red to blue” list, released by the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) yesterday, did not list Schmidt as a target.

“This is a stunning change of course for the DCCC, and shows that they have lost faith in Dr. Wulsin’s ability to win in the Second Congressional District,” said Bruce Pfaff, Schmidt for Congress spokesman.

Schmidt is running for the third time and a second full term in congress. In last week’s Primary election, Schmidt won by a wide margin in all seven counties of the Second Congressional District.

Pfaff pointed out that the DCCC did include three other Ohio challengers on its list of targets, which makes the decision to abandon Wulsin’s campaign even more significant.

“Congresswoman Schmidt has proven to her constituents that she represents their issues, and the decision by the DCCC to remove the Second Congressional District from its targeted race list is a strong testament to that fact,” Pfaff added.

“Even Congresswoman Schmidt’s first Democrat opponent, Paul Hackett, who was quoted in an article about the DCCC decision, acknowledges she will be difficult to beat,” said Pfaff. “Congresswoman Schmidt will work hard to deliver her message to every corner and community in the district and expects to bring home a big victory in November for Republicans,” Pfaff concluded.

Obviously Pfaff is a ridiculous hack and shill spinning this for his pathetic candidate's own purposes. Vic was hardly "taken off" any list; she just hasn't been added yet-- though she should have been. As for Hackett, his comments may have been stoopid, ego-driven and misconstrued, but they were not anti-Wulsin. In fact, they say more about him than about Vic and have moved at least one Ohio blog to bid him a less than fond adieu.

As for the DCCC, they're probably still smarting from the thorough thrashing Vic gave to their ex-Executive Director/Emanuel lapdog, John Lapp. Lapp ran the filthy Rovian campaign against Vic by lifelong Republican Stephen Black who tried getting into the race as a Democrat, something that fooled very few actual Democrats in OH-02, but had the DCCC all excited at the prospect of... of what? Helping elect another "Democrat"-- like Heath Shuler, Jason Altmire, Brad Ellsworth, Joe Donnelly, Nick Lampson-- who will reflexively vote with the GOP on crucial substantive matters whenever it takes his fancy?


UPDATE: IDAHO

If I had made a list of the 7 closest do-overs, instead of just the half dozen closest, I would have included ID-01 where Larry Grant was/is challenging freshman wingnut Bill Sali. In 2006 Sali only managed to win 50% of the vote to Larry's 45%. Three independent candidates accounted for the other 5%.