HuffPo: Are Democrats Blowing Their Chance To Take Back The House?

Last week Matt Fuller of the Huffington Post wrote a great piece outlining how national Democrats may be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, thanks in large part to their lackluster candidate recruitment efforts.

House Republicans are currently defending their largest congressional majority since 1929. And in the year of Donald Trump, it’s possible that Democrats could pick up a considerable number of seats, taking back control of the chamber.

But after Election Day, if those gains are more modest than considerable, Democrats might rightfully ask if thoughts that they could win the House were less of a possibility and more of a dream.

There’s no shortage of theories on why Democrats would have a hard time taking back the House. Ask aides at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and you’ll likely get some combination of factors including a gerrymandered map and some close districts ― take Staten Island, New York, for example ― where Trump isn’t such a drag on the ticket.

But ask aides at the National Republican Campaign Committee, and they’ll give you a simple answer: Democratic candidate recruitment.

“The DCCC’s recruitment efforts have been an unmitigated disaster, and that’s being kind,” said Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the NRCC.

On Thursday, NRCC Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) told reporters at a National Press Club event that Democrats had “multiple recruitment failures” that will help Republicans keep a healthy majority in the House.

Over at DownWithTyranny!, Howie Klein cites just one example of Democrats failing to recruit a good candidate and then giving up on a winnable seat once their preferred candidate did not prevail.

Let me start with an example: PA-07, the suburban Philly district– large swathes of Delaware, Montgomery, and Chester counties and slivers of Berks and Lancaster counties– that was formerly represented by Joe Sestak and is now held by weak and vulnerable Republican Pat Meehan. Obama won the district in 2008 with 53% and then lost it narrowly in 2012 with 49%. (On the same day Democratic Senator Bob Casey swept the district, running up massive landslides in Delaware and Montgomery counties and respectable wins in Berks and Chester.) Current polling shows Hillary likely to crush Señor Trumpanzee by at least 2-1 in the district. Earlier in the cycle, the DCCC pointed to PA-07 as exactly the kind of district it had to win back to take back the House. They recruited some Wall Street schnook, Bill Golderer, to run against the local grassroots candidate, Mary Ellen Balchunis, put Golderer on their laughable Red-to-Blue list, made sure he was loaded with cash– he spent $351,551 against Mary Ellen– and told Democratic donors to not contribute to Mary Ellen, aggressively sabotaging her campaign. Her door-to-door grassroots campaign spent less than a tenth of what Golderer and his DCCC allies spent but on primary day, she kicked their asses from Skippack and Whitmarsh down through Springfield, Upper Providence, Marple and Radnor and all the way up and around the gerrymandered district into the suburbs south and east of Reading. On primary night, Pelosi and Israel and Lujan were left in shock as their silly puppet candidate’s massively expensive campaign drew just 18,276 votes (26%) to Mary Ellen’s 51,525 votes (74%).

Goal ThermometerSo what does Pelosi, Inc do? Embrace Mary Ellen– when women win, America wins or something– and buckle down in a display of party unity to beat Meehan? Don’t be silly. Pelosi and her wretched DCCC left the district and wrote it off– the must win suburban district Hillary is crushing Trump in. Mary Ellen Balchunis is a mainstream progressive political science professor who backed Hillary in the primary but she’s too independent-minded, too much like Elizabeth Warren, for a DCCC that’s looking for zombie followers instead of dedicated leaders with actual ideas about serving their constituents. And… that was the end of the Beltway press ever mentioning PA-07 again. Right down the Cook Report memory hole– BOOM!… disappeared off the face of the map.

If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency in November and Democrats don’t win control of the House, it’ll be interesting to see who the Democratic blame, because it certainly seems like they have no one to blame but themselves.

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8 thoughts on “HuffPo: Are Democrats Blowing Their Chance To Take Back The House?

  1. A real problem with Democrats is croneyism. It starts with labor and goes right on through a prevailing misogyny. As Ron Johnson, R-WI, says “career politicians”. So that’s why bad Republicans make “politician” a dirty word and harp on our “broken” system. It’s the only system we have and it used to be recognized as the best in the world. So, how do you change perspectives? By having real grass roots candidates, and rallying around them locally. Quit soliciting every name in the national Democratic database with donation requests for every local candidate out there. Just work it. Remember, every media outlet in the country will be trying to “close the gap” that Trump created with his dumb comments in order to sell more publications and get ad money. So you are a big help, Zach. We need more bloggers like you for balance. How is your race doing?

  2. People need to understand that “We are the party.” The state party here in Wisconsin does not have the resources to do much in the way of recruiting. I have personally been involved in trying to recruit folks for assembly races and local county board seats…it’s really tough. I’m sure that problem is amplified when trying to recruit for Congress.

    Maybe the DNC can do more to “build a bench”, but I’m not holding my breath. I think it’s up to the people to take the reigns of the party, otherwise the continued focus will be on the presidency.

    1. Agree entirely with Guy from WI’s point. The DNC is nothing more than a top-down DC operation that’s entirely focused on the Beltway, their own consultant careers, and MONEY. They do not care about the states or the needs of specific districts.

      They don’t deserve a dime, and the DPW and Dem candidates in Wisconsin would be wise to run their oen campaign if they want to win here. That’s what Russ is doing right now, and I bet he leads by more than Hillary here when the next polls come out

      1. This may have been the DSCC in 2004 but I remember an Oklahoma Senate Candidate wanted to use the same tv ad firm Russ Feingold had from Milwaukee but the DSCC said no or they would cut off funds. At the national level its all about who gets what money and its why donating to specific candidates and being active in the DPW, specifically the county party level is the way to go.

  3. When the folks at the state or national Dem HQ stop providing (prostituting) my name to any or all outside of my district or State, we can begin to recruit and recognize and reward worthy talent

    It is so much easier to use the “delete” key or allow the phone to be unanswered.

    Their intention is pure; the method is putrid!

    Really!

    1. My concluding statement regarding a better method is borrowed from an old TV series: “Just give me the facts,Mam.”

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