I recall reading that Newt Gingrich advised Republican candidates who lost House races by less than 10% to run again in the next election; some of the infamous Class of '94 freshmen who rode the Republican wave into the House had run close races in '92, and some of '94's losers won seats in '96. I think this is one Gingrich idea we need to adopt -- and further, we need to push the DCCC to adopt it as well.
What I would ideally like to see is a petition with a huge number of signatures delivered to the new DCCC chair on his or her first day on the job. I think Moveon.org would be the ideal forum for collecting signatures -- on-line petition drives are a large part of what they do, and their mailing list can generate literally millions of signatures in a matter of days.
If anyone on MyDD has contacts in the management of Moveon.org, I would greatly appreciate your help in bringing this to their attention; I intend to submit it via their feedback form after incorporating any comments or suggestions from the MyDD community which seem useful. I'd especially appreciate any information on who the new DCCC chair is likely to be, what the selection process is, and when we'll know for certain.
(petition text below the fold)
The petition would read as follows:
In the interest of expanding the new Democratic majority in the house, we believe that any candidate who lost election to the House this year by less than 10% should be encouraged to run again in 2008 and strongly supported if they choose to do so and win their primaries. (We do not believe that the DCCC should involve itself in the primary election process.) We, the undersigned, ask that the DCCC pledge its full support to the following thirty House candidates in the event that they choose to run again in 2008 and win the Democratic nomination in their districts:
AZ-01 Ellen Simon (44% to Rick Renzi's 51%)
CA-04 Charlie Brown (46% to John Doolittle's 49%)
CO-04 Angie Paccione (43% to Marilyn Musgrave's 46%)
CT-04 Diane Farrell (48% to Christopher Shays' 51%)
FL-08 Charles Stuart (46% to Ric Keller's 53%)
FL-13 Christine Jennings (118,729 votes to Vern Buchanan's 119,102, assuming current totals hold)
ID-01 Larry Grant (45% to Bill Sali's 50%)
IL-06 Tammie Duckworth (49% to Pete Roskam's 51%)
IL-10 Dan Seals (47% to Mark Kirk's 53%)
IN-03 Thomas Hayhurst (46% to Mark Souder's 54%)
KY-04 Ken Lucas (44% to Geoff Davis' 51%)
MI-07 Sharon Renier (46% to Tim Walberg's 51%)
MI-09 Nancy Skinner (46% to Joe Knollenberg's 52%)
MN-06 Patty Wetterling (42% to Michele Bachman's 50%)
NV-02 Jill Derby (45% to Dean Heller's 51%)
NV-03 Tessa Hafen (47% to Jon Porter's 48%)
NJ-07 Linda Stender (48% to Mike Ferguson's 49%)
NM-01 Patricia Madrid (103,376 to Heather Wilson's 104,863, assuming current totals hold)
NY-25 Dan Maffei (49% to Jim Walsh's 51%)
NY-26 Jack Davis (48% to Tom Reynolds' 52%)
NY-29 Eric Massa (48% to Randy Kuhl's 52%)
NC-08 Larry Kissell (60,056 votes to Robin Hayes' 60,505, assuming current totals hold)
OH-01 John Cranley (47% to Steve Chabot's 53%)
OH-02 Victoria Wulsin (49% to Jean Schmidt's 51%, with absentee and provisional ballots still to be counted)
OH-15 Mary Jo Kilroy (49% to Deborah Pryce's 51%, with absentee and provisional ballots still to be counted)
PA-06 Lois Murphy (49% to Jim Gerlach's 51%)
PA-15 Charles Dertinger (44% to Charlie Dent's 53%)
VA-02 Phil Kellam (49% to Thelma Drake's 51%)
WA-08 Darcy Burner (49% to Dave Reichert's 51%, assuming the current ratio holds in the last 25% of precincts)
WY-AL Gary Trauner (92,227 votes to Barbara Cubin's 93,197, assuming current totals hold)
[Please let me know if I've missed any districts where a Democrat lost by less than 10%.]
We ask that Congress[wo]man [new DCCC chair] immediately pledge [his or her] general election support for these candidates and contact each of them personally to encourage them to run again in 2008. In addition, given the apparent vulnerability of the Republican incumbents in these districts, we ask that the DCCC at the very least seriously consider supporting whatever Democrats are nominated in these districts in the event that the listed candidates choose not to run or lose their primaries.
This election appears to have been stolen by voting machines which, whether by design or error, denied many voters in the district's most Democratic county the opportunity to cast votes for the Congressional seat.
Unless Grant runs for the Senate.
This was Murphy's second 51-49% loss to Gerlach, and she actually had strong DCCC support, so it might be time to try another candidate here. Chris Bowers would know more than I would about the particulars of this district.
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