MyDD :: Republicans Running Into a Buzzsaw with Recruitment

Republicans Running Into a Buzzsaw with Recruitment

by Matt Stoller, Tue Jan 03, 2006 at 11:46:40 PM EST

Nothing better illustrates the real dynamics at play than recruiting woes on the Republican side, and recruiting successes on our side. Politics is about a lot of little decisions adding up, and the most difficult decision to make is the one to run for office. One thing that both Chuck Schumer and Rahm Emmanuel have done is work heavily on recruiting. Meanwhile, Liddy Dole's failure to recruit good candidates is much worse than her fundraising failures (the RNC can just transfer some of their huge stash.) Republicans across the country saw what happened in 2005, and they don't want to end up catching a falling knife.

Practically speaking, we're going after them everywhere. Democrat Harris Miller is now running against Republican Presidential hopeful George Allen in Virginia for the Senate in 2006.

Meanwhile, the Republicans still can't find anyone to run against Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton in New York. That's Hillary Clinton, by the way, the most profitable direct mail target in right-wing history. If they can't find a candidate just to make money for their direct mail firms you know there's a HUGE problem on the right.

I don't care what the Sunday talk show losers say. Voters do not like Republicans, and they will vote against them, as they did in 2005. They did it in New Jersey. They did it in Virginia. They did it in California. They did it in Nassau County. George Bush has destroyed the Republican party brand that Ronald Reagan built. They are no longer in favor of low taxes, a strong military, and family values. They are the party of incompetence, corruption, and big brother. The Republican recruiting failures are real - when you can't convince people to join your majority party, you're in trouble.

It's gotten so bad that the right is trying to spin the 'Santorum upset' story right now, which is remarkable because Santorum is the incumbent. Pathetic. And good for us.

Thank you, George Bush. You have destroyed the Republican and conservative brands.

Tags: Senate 2006 (all tags)

Permalink :: 15 Comments :: Post a Comment

GOP troubles (none / 0)

GOP will be a near extinct species in NY and will suffer further losses in CA, and severe losses in OH. However, dont underestimate GWB..if anything Rove will resurrect the old nemesis by taking a old video and doctoring it right before the elections..He will somehow appear around November 3.

by Boilermaker on Tue Jan 03, 2006 at 11:51:49 PM EST

Re: GOP troubles (none / 0)

Agreed, besides the state-wide races we also have the chance to pull some more Congressional seats that should be blue!

Check out John Hall in NY-19

http://www.johnhallforcongress.com

District is 49.2 dem performance.

The incumbent, Sue Kelly, has taken the most money from Delay of any R in the NY Congressional delegation and votes with him almost 90% of the time.

This is also the first time she will be facing a well-financed and experienced challenger.

http://www.johnhallforcongress.com

http://www.johnedwards.com/nh

by epv72 on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 09:47:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

texas (none / 0)

Nothing demonstrates the disparity more crisply than deep red Texas, where Democrats just achieved challengers for all but one of 20 Republican-held House seats, and yet only 4 of 11 Democrats have challengers, if the Texas GOP's website is to be believed (see also this cautionary note - but more than 24 hours after the deadline, I'm inclined to suspect that the list is correct other than that one omission.)

Recognizing that challengers aren't the same as high-quality challengers, there's nonetheless a smell of change in the air.

by arenwin on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 12:00:04 AM EST

Re: texas (none / 0)

Correction: that should read "all but one of 21 Republican-held House seats."

by arenwin on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 12:03:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: texas (none / 0)

you ask the million dollar question- what is the quality of the challengers? has anyone bothered to find out?

by bruh21 on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 12:03:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: texas (none / 0)

I'd love to know the answer to that question. Texas folks, do you know? Annatopia, are you reading?

by arenwin on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 12:09:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: texas (3.00 / 2)

I've personally met David Harris (CD06), Jim Henley and David Murff (CD07), Shane Sklar (CD14 - I think his chances of winning are higher than Courage's), and Nick Lampson (CD22). I've spoken on the phone with John Courage (CD21) and Mary Beth Harrell (CD31). All of them are damn fine people.

I'm sure that's also true of many of the others, but I can't as yet attest to that personally. Here's one testament for CD02's Gary Binderim, though.

Hope that helps.

by kuff on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 07:08:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: texas (none / 0)

Some are quality candidates and have great chances of winning - John Courage and Nick Lampson for example. Others are quality candidates that have almost no chance of winning due to the Republican lean of some of these districts, such as the Iraqi Soldier Mother who is running in the Temple area of TX... although that fight may not be as desperate as some others.

I'd say i'm most disappointed with TX-02, which is Beaumont/Port Arthur / Northeastern Houston Suburbs. A lot of this district used to be represented by Nick Lampson, and as the former conservative people in the suburbs start to moderate, I hope that this district can and should be in play once again (seeing as how Beaumont/Port Arthur is a decent base of Dem. support).

by KainIIIC on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 12:12:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: texas (none / 0)

Others are quality candidates that have almost no chance of winning due to the Republican lean of some of these districts

That part concerns me less, personally. The lynchpin of the contest-them-all strategy is finding candidates who can at least put up a fight. Quality candidates willing to throw themselves into improbable contexts bespeaks high morale. And, as always, there's the issue of diminishing Republican candidates' ability to siphon campaign money toward more vulnerable colleagues.

TX-02, which is Beaumont/Port Arthur / Northeastern Houston Suburbs

I gather from a quick web search that the Democratic challenger there, Gary Binderim, is an environmental scentist and local Dem activist. And I gather from your note that he lacks street cred. when it comes to this race. Yes?

by arenwin on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 12:25:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: texas (3.00 / 2)

I thought the R's recruitment was this bad too, then I read the Chronicle.

First of all TX-7 would read on the GOP website the incumbent did not file for re-election, John Culberson (R-Inc) did.

Also the Chronicle notes Sheila Jackson Lee and Gene Greene (both D-Inc) have R challengers. The GOP website omits this. Lee is safe, Greene should be safe enough.

Anyway, I just hear the Harris county R's didn't report their filings to the state GOP fast enough, so they missed 5 overall. Meanwhile we missed 1, the most conservative of the 32.

We did good. I'm glad Doggett didn't get a challenger, he and the other 4 should spend their time helping Chet Edwards and Nick Lampson if anyone. Maybe Courage and Sklar.

by Trowaman on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 12:43:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Kos says we have people in all but one (31 of 32) (none / 0)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/4/142824/1592

by Geotpf on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 03:00:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

i'll get cocky (3.00 / 1)

when we actually take control of the house, senate, presidency, supreme court, or even the majority of state governorships.

by snaktime on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 12:11:38 AM EST

Re: i'll get cocky (none / 0)

Oh I'm not optimistic for progressives, at least not anytime soon.

by Matt Stoller on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 12:14:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: i'll get cocky (none / 0)

Do you mean this in the sense that you're not optimistic for capital-P Progressives (in contrast to Democrats in general)? Or in the sense that you doubt the ability to take back one of the centers of power in '06? I'm trying to reconcile with: "Voters do not like Republicans, and they will vote against them, as they did in 2005."

by arenwin on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 12:30:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

K Street is History (none / 0)

Are Democrats a lock to regain either House. No. Do the Republicans retain the ability to run anything like the K Street Project in the future? Again No. Past Congressional scandals (Abscam, the House Bank) tended to target the rank and file. Jackoff is aimed right at the central powers (and I do mean central) of the GOP.

Are large corporate donors going to be scrambling to cozy up to Delay and Abramoff this year? Delay is on the verge of exchanging the Hammer for the Slammer, are Trade Associations going to continue to run scared? "You got a nice industry here, I would hate to see it smashed up, but if you hire Ralphie here for $500k for a no-show job, I can almost guarantee it won't get trashed". This isn't a plot line of the Sopranos, it is exactly the operating procedure of the K Street Project.

Out here in Seattle it was reported that Microsoft hired Ralph Reed for $500,000 as a lobbyist. Microsoft hemmed and hawed and neither they or Reed could show exactly what value Reed added. It didn't and doesn't make sense until you add K Street to the mix. Microsoft was told to pay, or else. And they paid. And Ralph kicked back.

The oddest thing about K Street is that they were so open. They bragged about it, they invited a major magazine to attend Norquist's Wednesday meeting. A great deal of its power was that it was so out in the open and so invulnerable to reprisal. Every bit of Permanent Majority was built on the premise that they would be a Permanent Majority and no one would even investigate when you had the permacover of a Popular Wartime President. Oops, that stopped working so well in 2005.

by Bruce Webb on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 06:54:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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