27 is quite a good number. It is way too early to start dumping crucial resources on "possibly-kinda-competitive" seats like IL-10 until the candidates in those races move themselves up into closer position.

Rather than spreading too thin across too many districts and giving the likes of Shays or Roskam a light slap on the wrist, I'd rather saturate the 27 seats and keep the GOPers' negatives up until election day.

in its own GOTV effort. It's being headed up Michael Whouley.

Idiots -- they should have spread it out more and targeted more races.  

What, specifically, are the other races in which you think a TV buy would have an impact?  

I only know the area I live in and I can name two here -- Kuhl and Sweeney are both vulnerable in my opinion.  It is possible that they aren't spending much in NYS because the Spitzer/Clinton money will kick in here.  But I suspect they're doing the typical Dem thing of trying to narrow things down to a few races.  It's worked so well for us the past few election cycles, right?

If they were smart, they would have invested the money in Tivo stock.

The DCCC has yet to discover the 50-state strategy.  TV time is a lot cheaper in Idaho than in Florida.

That's always my response to the, "What concerns you about this year's elections?" Everyone else names Diebold or other creatures in the dark. I've read enough obscure online articles since late 2001 to realize we're getting out thought in terms of ground emphasis and strategy.

I worked GOTV on election day 2004 and also for one Democratic House candidate in 2002. We were unsophisticated as hell. I wasn't sure if that was representative until 2004 when my dad volunteered for a canvassing group in Miami, then was made the leader with just a few days left in the campaign. No previous experience. The other guy quit. My dad said the funding was terrible and the printouts could not have been less reliable. This was in the suburbs of a vital city in a vital state.

So yeah, I was hoping emphasis would be placed in that area, so the article in the Washington Post is troubling as hell. I haven't even been contacted this year. My Republican friend who does GOTV for them here in Las Vegas told me they have already had several meetings.

I think all the bickering is over future power/blame.  If the Dems retake the House and/or the Senate, then the DCCC gets all the credit for the big ad buy.  If the Dems fail, they need a fall guy, the DNC, for poor GOTV.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has reserved $51.5 million of television advertising in 32 congressional districts.

Is this a consultant pork fest or a wise investment?

Is there a skim off the top of that ad money by a consulting firm?

The unfortunate fact is that Reform Democrats have two enemies to fight --  the GOP and D(L)C NeoDems.

What tells you more than anything that the Dems are wholly owned by big business almost as much as Republicans is the MASSIVE amount they are spending for only like 3 weeks to "protect" Melissa Bean.

I'd bet if she weren't a "free" trader, they'd not spend 1/3 that amount, if that.  She's a grand waste of money.

I know for a fact that the DNC has spent good money in places for infrastructure that will work for GOTV.

phat

What we know about Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign is that he's a whiz at fundraising. But when it came to actually closing the deal on election day, he sucked.

We don't hear how much the networks are making. Why should corporate TV support public financing of elections when they see that gravy train coming every 2 years?

Our state party is organized around precincts and precinct committee officers (PCO). We meet monthly in legislative districts and elect officers. We also have county Dems and state Dems, as organizations with meetings and elected officers. PCO's are in charge of GOTV for the 100 or so households in their precincts. You have walking lists with names, phone and addresses and voting frequency history.

I thought this was how it was done everywhere - guess not! i guess that's why we need Dean's 50-state strategy. This is the structure that Dean and the state organizations are building. This is the borken infrastructure not tended for 30 years because of trending to TV advertising and corporate puchase of candidates. So the DSCC and DCCC just want the TV money and money to buy the lists? You get people's data and voting promises by asking, person to person. Neighbor to neighbor.

Howard Dean is right. DSCC and DCCC are old style TV money image making Dems. Dean is real. People want real.

The other good thing is that the DCCC ads have so far been really, really good this cycle.  The "Stay the Course" ad is pretty amazing.

Whoever they've got as an ad man, keep him.

Clearly, as someone suggested upthread, party bigwigs are more concerned about a strategy to protect their positions when the Dems lose in November than about any strategy that might see the party win!

What is notable in the Post piece is the amount of on-the-record bellyaching that the journo got.

As with this from Rahmbo:

I am not waiting for anyone anymore who said they were going to" build a turnout operation, Emanuel said. "It has got to be done."

Rep. Charles B. Rangel (N.Y.), who would become chairman of the Ways and Means Committee if Democrats picked up the 15 seats needed to regain the majority, said in an interview yesterday that he will quit Congress if the party does not capitalize on an unparalleled opportunity.

The only wonder for me is that yet another round of Dem infighting about the Dean/anti-Dean axis is thought by the Post as worthy of putting on A1.

To me, it's gotten desperately old.

Good questions: How is the money being spent? How is it divided? I'd like to know what percentage to consultants, to ad makers, to networks....

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has reserved $51.5 million of television advertising in 32 congressional districts.

Is this a consultant pork fest or a wise investment?

Is there a skim off the top of that ad money by a consulting firm?

A waste of money if the ads are produced by the same ineffectual, hacks they usually hire.

Maybe the DNC and the Campaign Comittees are psyching out the Republicans into thinking that the Dems don't have their act together on GOTV.

Cause I have to tell you, I have seen evidence that the DNC ground operation is going to rock in November, and that it will be better than 2004.