PSSSTT... WANNA BUY A MAJOR PARTY NOMINATION FOR A CONGRESSIONAL SEAT?

Essense of McCain captured by tw3k

Over at Firedoglake this afternoon, Blue Texan pointed out that there's a strong probability that poor John Boehner is off his meds again. He doesn't actually believe it, but he's further eroding whatever credibility he still has by predicting that the GOP, which is expected to lose between 15 and 30 seats in the House in November-- unless things get bad, in which case, the sky's the limit-- will pick up seats!

But maybe he was aiming his remarks at Republican prospects for congressional seats. The RNCC is having an awful hard time finding any. Well, let me rephrase that. They're unable to persuade any credible candidates to run and are flooded with third and fourth tier applicants. Most are just crackpots with some kind of cockamamie agenda-- like getting even with someone for shooting their elk herd. But what the Insiders want, now that they've given up on first or second tier candidates in most districts, is to find wealthy vanity candidates who can just fund their own campaign and not drag down McCain's already slim chances.

They're not taking "For Sale" ads out in the local papers but... almost. Today's CongressDaily ran a story by Erin McPike diplomatically pointing out that the RNCC is focusing on self-funders now. One Republican bright spot in Illinois, Tim Baldermann, dropped out after winning the primary because the state and national parties told him they're broke and to go raise money himself. He told them to go find another pasty. (And they did; one with far more money than ethics.)

Far right kook Jim Oberweis flushed $2.3 million of his own fortune-- plus McCain's credibility as a candidate who might have any coattails-- down the toilet trying to win Denny Hastert's congressional seat a few weeks ago. Other obscenely wealthy vanity candidates in Illinois include Steve Greenberg (who's running against reactionary Blue Dog Melissa Bean), Martin Orzinga (the one with the ethics problems who took over after Balermann bailed) and, silliest of all, Steve Sauerberg, who is running against Senator Dick Durbin.

But each of those self-funded Republicans has problems that may offset any financial edge. Oberweis has run several times on his own dime and has yet to win. Greenberg has come under fire from liberals for comments he made about Bean's Serbian background. And Ozinga's family-owned concrete business has been the subject of negative press reports about allegedly taking advantage of affirmative action laws. Democratic nominee Debbie Halvorson has demonstrated fundraising prowess in the early going.

A DCCC spokesman, Doug Thornell hit the nail on the head: "The NRCC has suffered from woeful recruiting this cycle. Internal problems and have forced them to rely on numerous right-wing 527s and wealthy controversial candidates who are poor fits for their districts."

And it is certainly not just in Illinois, where Republicans are running into these kinds of problems. Their whole New Jersey operation is a shambles and their plight in New York looks even worse, where their down to asking non-Republicans to run to replace retiring incumbents! They found a sucker to run against John Hall, a wealthy gentleman who spent $650,000 and dropped out of the race 2 weeks later, after he realized he and his shady business dealings would come under public scrutiny.

Today, another wealthy political novice tossed his hate into an upstate New York ring crowded with fifth rate candidates for the seat Republican rubber stamp incumbent Tom Reynolds knows he can't win again. Rich businessmen Chris Jacobs and Rick Lewis join a growing list of Republicans no one has ever heard of.

Early on, the race to find a GOP candidate saw some of the recognizable names that you would have expected, such as State Senator George Maziarz and State Assemblyman James Hayes. When they dropped out, the party went looking for a less expected but still recognizable face. Anchorman Don Postles' name was tossed around for awhile.

But the county's top Republican thinks it is time to go the other way.

County Executive Chris Collins has recruited fellow businessman Rick Lewis for a possible run. He is the president of the Talking Phone Book. But most voters probably have never heard of him. Collins said that can be changed, citing himself as a perfect example.

"It's amazing what a little advertising on the television can do for your name ID," said Collins.
And all that requires is a little money. Well, actually lots of money. The 2006 race for the 26th district soared to more than seven million dollars. But Collins said Lewis is prepared to spend at least a million of his own money if he decides to run. He said that, along with a proven track record as a highly successful businessman, could make people sit up and take notice.

And over in Washington state, the Republicans were facing a whole other set of problems even before McCain wrecked their chances by undermining Boeing and pushing millions of dollars worth of jobs towards a European competitor being represented by some of the 66 lobbyists who run his election campaign. This week Congressional Quarterly assessed the political situation in Washington and found it a place where Republicans should just not even waste their money trying. Last cycle Christine Gregoire won the Governor's Mansion by a hair and Darcy Burner lost the congressional race in WA-08 by a hair. This year both are likely to win, and probably win big. "[A]nalysts now say that the Democrats have upped their chancing of winning as the state GOP party faces structural problems and GOP efforts to appeal to the state's large number of moderate voters has been hampered by their strong conservative base." They rate Darcy's stand against the Iraq war as a key reason for why her campaign is surging and they also point out that Reichert's "got the albatross of the Bush administration hanging around his neck." Yes, he does... along with 170 or so other Republican rubber stamp incumbents.