This is more evidence of the timeliness of the 50 State Project.  Who knows how many of these races could really be competitive?  How many of these obscure "safe" seats have had no polling done?  And best of all, exactly how pissed off is America if the Dems have a shot at a Idaho House seat?

is this more proof that Dean's 50 state strategy is working? Or does the GOP just suck really bad that Rep. can't deny it any more?

I wanna hear more about our democratic challenger. Is this guy the real deal, or is he running a half-ass also-ran campaign despite the clear momentum?

It's funny how less than two years after Howard Dean instituted his 50 state program to rebuild the party, GOPers find themselves challenged almost everywhere and are even freaking out about a seat in Idaho.

It may be coincidence, but when Democrats take the fight to the GOP instead of conceding before the races even start, as has been the practice under DLC guidance, good things are bound to happen.

It's also possible that Republican leadership is trying to buy this guy for the future.  ROMP was started by DeLay and Blunt back in the 1990s to support candidates at risk but also to build support for themselves in their caucus.

I just looked up the Q2 FEC filings by both candidates:

Sali raised $543k Total for the year up to that point, and had $92k Cash on Hand at the end of June.  This includes a $3700 personal loan to his campaign.

Grant had raised $217k, but that includes a $56k personal loan.  He had $74k Cash on Hand at the end of June.

My guess is that Idaho is not an expensive media market and a candidate could wage a decent campaign with $200k.  However, Sali has the infamous "Club for Debt" on his side, and those folks can funnels thousands into his campaign in short order, and this would be in addition to the new RNC push.

I hope the DCCC understands that a little funding could go a long way here.  Better to give $50k to this race than to add another $100k to a race where the candidate already has over a $1 million.  There is a law of diminishing returns at some point.

The Dems are in this race because Sali is a nutjob and Grant is reasonable.  We can thank the Club for Debt for giving enough support to the nutjob to put this seat in play for the Dems.

Actually, Idaho(1) is fairly competitive.  Northern Idaho has large pockets of liberals -- albeit of the crusty, near-libertarian Rocky Mountain variety.  When I lived in Moscow (1990-93), our congressman was a Democrat, Larry LaRocco (now running for Lt. Gov.).

First off, it's an open seat.  Always contest open seats, no matter how Republican. If you don't fight hard when they're open, you'll never get them from an incumbent.

Second and more important, this particular Republican is so batshit insane that even other Idaho Republicans don't like him. Even other Republican politicians.  He's one of those feeps who loudly denounces as "liberal" anyone who disagrees with him on any one issue, no matter how slightly.

     The article excerpt says they raised money for 5 incumbents, 1 challenger, and 4 open-seat candidates, but only 6 are listed here. Who are the other four?

Mike Whalen, the Republican nominee for IA-01, is a self-funding multi-millionaire.  Why is the NRCC raising money for him?

Jonathan, many thanks for this post. It's great to see that the Republicans are scared of losing this seat. We're hopeful the DCCC will take notice, too, especially since the GOP has put up such a truly awful candidate in Bill Sali.

I'll just add that as a former vice president of Micron Technology (now Idaho's largest private employer), Larry Grant understands the power of the netroots. He hired me way back in November to coordinate a campaign blog at http://larrygrant.typepad.com/blog/; he's done several live blog town-hall-style sessions; and he's got a loud chorus of Idaho bloggers backing him up. (Seriously, Dem blogs outnumber GOP ones here in Idaho by a wiiiiide margin. For more info, see http://www.netrootsforgrant.com/idahosbl ogosphere.html)

One note about Idaho being a cheap media market: Larry actually has to run ads in two semi-major media markets (Boise and Spokane) and several smaller ones. This is a district that spans 500 miles north to south! If you have ties to Idaho, please Send Money Home to help Larry Grant beat Bill Sali and help secure a Dem majority in the House.

http://www.netrootsforgrant.com/sendmone yhome.html
 

Trying that link again! (The one above didn't "take").

http://www.grassrootsforgrant.com

Isn't it also possible that this is a bit of disinformation put out by the GOP to try to whip up a frenzy (especially among bloggers) but more imporantly within the DNC and try to get the DNC to spend some of its now considerable (and very threatening) cash on a seat the Dems have little chance of winning?