Will our party's leaders even TRY to take the House back in '14?

[Ken Burch]

As you see it...

Does the DCCC care about regaining a majority?

Does the White House?

Do our party's "pros" and strategists?

If not, how do we take it back WITHOUT them? How do we create an electoral People's Army to overcome what already looks like the total indifference on the part of the Beltway wing of the Dems to the absolute necessity of ending the nightmare era of the Boehnerhaus.?

If the House stays 'pug in '14, should Obama and Biden even bother showing up for work anymore, since continued Teabagger control of that chamber would reduce the administration to simply taking orders from the corporate toadies of Der Orangfuhrer?

This is a thread to discuss those questions and the realities of how difficult it will be to get our party's insiders to even TRY to win the midterms...and win them we must if it's to mean anything at all that we have a "Democratic" president.

[brooklynite]

1. Unrec

If you're going to suggest that President Obama and House Democrats don't WANT to regain the majority, please provide your evidence.

[Ken Burch]

2. The fact that they didn't try in '12 is pretty strong evidence, to start with.

As is the fact that none of them did a damn thing to take the House away from the 'pugs between 1996 and 2004(in '96, after Newt's shutdown, it should have been an automatic retake, and by 2006, it really didn't matter all that anymore).

A lot of our "pros" are comfortable with "divided government", and like the fact that the poor and the working class are left totally out in the cold by the split.

[brooklynite]

5. "They didn't try?"

Do you have evidence for THAT allegation (other than, "we didn't win, so we must not have really tried&quot ?

I ask this as someone who's met personally with Steve Israel (head of DCCC) as well as many of our major House candidates and fundraisers. But if you can make a more compelling argument, I'd be delighted to hear it.

[BuelahWitch]

12. Michelle Bachman's old challenger isn't even going to try for the seat

http://theweek.com/article/index/244998/why-michele-bachmanns-democratic-challenger-quit-too

If the Democrats cared about winning, they'd resurrect Howard Dean's old 50 State Strategy. Or put him, or someone like him, back in the driver's seat. They really don't seem to give a flying fuck about helping the country.

[brooklynite]

15. You don't actually know what the "Fifty State Strategy" was, do you...

It had to do with building State Party Organizations, not winning House seats. And the best State Party still can't realistically win a seat in a gerrymandered Republican district. Graves dropped out because, without a nut like Bachmann, the seat was likely to go to a reliable Republican. Yes, he could have stayed in the race, but I would have pulled my funding because, on the assumption we won't win 435 seats, I have to target the seats that are realistic.

[Ken Burch]

18. "I would have pulled MY funding..."?

Are you ON the DCCC?

[brooklynite]

19. Well, let's put it this way...

When I called Graves last year out of the blue to talk about his campaign, I got an immediate call back from him.

My wife and I are deep pockets financial supporters of House and Senate candidates (oh, right, Presidential candidates too). We support viable Democrats around the country, but we're limited by FEC as to the total $ amount we can give; hence I have to make triage decisions at times. Hakeem Jeffries won't get my money because he doesn't need it; Wayne Powell didn't get my money last year because, as nice a guy as he is, he never had a chance against Eric Cantor. And, unfortunately, DCCC does the same thing; they target their available funds (which are also not infinite) to candidates which are well-organized, able to draw their own financial support, and have a realistic chance of winning, or at least being competitive. I don't know how Steve Israel feels about this District, but based on my past meetings with him, I wouldn't expect it to be top of his list.

[MichiganVote]

3. Not if they get enuf' bribes not to.

[dlwickham]

4. since I live in WV

I agree with you

I don't see the Democrats here doing anything to try and take back the 2 republican seats and keep Rockefeller's seat blue

maybe it's too soon but the republicans have geared up and certainly have the momentum in their favor

[Ken Burch]

6. You'd think they'd see opportunities in your state.

After all, the backlash against what the rich boys are doing is as strong their as it is anywhere else, and it's foolish to assume that most West Virginians see themselves as prospective millionaires.

[brooklynite]

7. WV-1 is an R+14 district

that means the voters voted for a Republican House member by 14% more than Mitt Romney won the State. Explain how you would win back a seat like this, especially if you don't go with a Blue Dog, which we all know is a "no no" around here.

[dlwickham]

16. didn't use to be

up until the 2010 election, a Democrat had held this seat since 1970

the state party had a good candidate in 2012 but did nothing to support her

McKinley has done nothing but run against Obama since people around here don't like him.

[msongs]

8. as surely as harry reid & co have effectively ended republican filibusters lol nt

[NV Whino]

9. Our party has leaders?

Who knew?

[madrchsod]

10. one good example is my district in illinois

the old 14th was chopped up and to make sure the suburban counties gained democratic house members. the democratic party gave the republicans the new 16th by not running any democratic candidate. we waited until it was clear the state party were not going to help anyone who wanted to run. so what could be called" real grassroots democrats" we held our own nominating convention in dekalb il. we elected wanda rohl. without the backing from the democratic party she had to run her campaign with donations,free press and dedicated volunteers. i`m not sure just how much money she spent but it was pennies compared to the corporate sponsored republican. of course she lost but she took the third largest county in illinois and had respectable numbers in other counties that are pretty much solid republican.

the problem this election cycle is we still have`t anyone who might be interested,wanda probably won`t run again because of her disability and the lack of state party support. so a very large district in illinois will probably have no state party candidate again. of course we did have a democratic representative for a few years. bill foster won hastretts old seat and he sent my town close to 4 million dollars while he was in office. he even had two city blocks changed to a federal highway. so how did my city vote each election cycle..ya they voted for the republican.

my wife is her afsmce union`s chair of the political committee. i know the state union is gearing up for the next election and the house is important thing in the next election. it`s going to be a very interesting election cycle.

[Savannahmann]

11. Try as they might, or might not

With Gerrymandered districts the Repukes will keep their majority of the House, and possibly pick up a seat or two in the Senate.

[GoneFishin]

13. They'll try as hard as Harry Reid tried to end the filibusters.

They are corporatists and already have the support of the Republicans when it relates to allowing their corporate owners to run amok. And, they have a built in excuse for why they can never deliver shit for the 99%.

[dsc]

14. the House is a very, very long shot

the gerrymandering is brutal. We would have to win by about 5 points in the vote to have a shot, and even then, we might still not make it. We won by about 1.5% this time and still are down 33 seats (17 seats need to change hands) and most of the close victories last time were ours. In NC we have 9 seats where the dems could nominate Jesus, the GOP Satan, and we would still not have a 50/50 shot of winning.

[downbythelake]

17. its a really long longshot

Even if we could take back the house it would be packed with DINOs

We would have the same gridlock we have now.

We need to make sure we hold onto the Senate first. Which I am pretty positive we will.