Republicans Know They Can Always Count On DCCC Chair Steve Israel To Never Get The Balance Right

Looks like Sykes won't endorse Rick Scott after all, but he did switch parties

Southern Democrats are trying desperately to figure out how to balance the electoral need to keep up enthusiasm from African-American voters while distancing themselves from President Obama who is extremely unpopular among instinctively racist Southern whites.

In Louisiana, Sen. Mary Landrieu says President Barack Obama’s energy policies are “simply wrong.” In North Carolina, Sen. Kay Hagan has criticized the administration’s handling of veterans’ benefits. And in Georgia, Senate candidate Michelle Nunn won’t say whether she would have voted for the Affordable Care Act.

These Democrats, like others running in races across the country, are trying to distance themselves from a president who is deeply unpopular among white voters. But if they have any hopes of winning, they also must try to lock down the voters most loyal to Mr. Obama: African-Americans.

…Tharon Johnson, a co-chairman of the Democratic campaign in Georgia and regional director for Mr. Obama’s 2012 campaign, describes the party’s delicate balancing act like this: “We’re going to mobilize that core Obama coalition, but without Obama.”

Southern Democrats are counting on targeted advertising, the party’s voter-contact program and rallies headlined by first lady Michelle Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus and, possibly, former President Bill Clinton. On Monday, the last day to register to vote for the Nov. 4 election in Georgia, black elected officials and pastors, including Democratic Rep. John Lewis, a hero of the civil-rights movement, will hold a rally at the state capitol to urge voters to participate.

Three heavily African-American counties in Georgia also will offer early voting on a Sunday for the first time in the state’s history, an effort to get “souls to the polls” after church. Groups including the New Georgia Project are trying to parlay a massive migration of African-Americans from elsewhere in the U.S. into an army of newly registered voters.

…For Democrats, the challenge is to run stronger among white voters than Mr. Obama while matching his support among minorities. Mr. Obama’s approval among white voters has plunged to 31% in September from 54% when he took office, while approval among African-American voters has fallen far less, to 85% from 92%, according to the Wall Street Journal/NBC News polls.

One tactic is to tailor messages for particular audiences. In North Carolina, Ms. Hagan and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee are spending $1 million on radio ads airing on stations with large black audiences. Like her television ads, the spot accuses her opponent, Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis, of cutting state education funding. The black radio spot, however, also mentions “those Republicans rolling back our right to vote,” referring to a new state law that limits early voting and requires voters to show photo identification.

Getting the balance wrong can be disastrous. And getting stuff wrong always brings DCCC chair Steve Israel front and center. FL-13 (Pinellas County) isn’t a “typical” southern district. It’s relatively progressive and Obama won the district against McCain in 2008 and against Romney in 2012. It turns out for Democrats in statewide elections as well. DCCC and EMILY’s List greed-driven incompetence lost a special election to replace forever Congressman Bill Young earlier this year. Israel then compounded that catastrophic loss— he had named FL-13 the #1 Red-to-Blue target in the whole country— by recruiting a mystery meat independent, Ed Jany (not even a Democrat and not even from the district) to run against Republican David Jolly. First Israel had to force grassroots Democratic activist and local NAACP president Manuel Sykes out of the race, which he did in a typically ugly, heavy-handed manner. When Jany— who had already been shoved onto the Red-to-Blue program without any vetting whatsoever— was discovered to have faked his résumé, he withdrew from the race, leaving the Democrats with no candidate running against the ultra-vulnerable Jolly. So Jolly gets a free ride to Congress. Oh, it gets worse— much worse, and far beyond the confines of Pinellas County.

Florida Democrats— and the White House— are desperate to beat Governor Rick Scott in November. Charlie Crist needs a massive turnout in his home base, Pinellas County. He always wins that county big. So what could go wrong? Steve Israel, of course. Manuel Sykes is about to switch parties and endorse Rick Scott. When Pelosi reappointed Israel after his disastrous 2012 performance, she doomed the House Democrats to two more years of Speaker Boehner and his putrid leadership team. But Israel’s incompetence and corruption are infected Democrats on every level. This hit Sunday:

Prominent Democrat and St. Petersburg pastor Manuel Sykes, leader of Bethel Community Baptist Church and head of the St. Petersburg’s NAACP branch, is set to endorse Republican Rick Scott on Monday. Sykes is also likely to switch political parties from Democrat to Republican.

…Sykes’ move is the culmination of an increasingly fractious relationship with Pinellas County’s Democrats after the 57-year-old pastor received a harshly worded voicemail from Party chair Mark Hanisee earlier this year.

Hanisee told the reverend he would become “persona non grata” if Sykes followed through with plans to run for Congress, to fill the seat vacated by the passing of longtime Republican U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young.

Sykes told the Tampa Bay Times in April that Hanisee’s comments were disappointing, and “the party needs to be purged of these kinds of hindrances to its progress and progressiveness.”

All candidates must be both allowed and encouraged to run, he added.