Dems Congressional Strategy

rimrocker · Nov 8, 2007

Via kos... Repubs will be on defense.

Democrats adopt new campaign plan
By: John Bresnahan
November 8, 2007 06:41 AM EST
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=1CAF4D99-3048-5C12-00C5501BE7D7234A

Top House Democrats, sensing an opportunity to pick up additional seats in 2008, are warning some of their more vulnerable incumbents that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee won’t spend money in their districts unless Republican leaders do.

Despite very poor public approval ratings for Congress, House Democrats are increasingly confident they can make solid gains next fall, and they’re willing to take some risks to do it.

Democrats scored big wins in Tuesday’s state elections in Kentucky, Virginia and elsewhere, further boosting the optimism among party leaders and strategists that they can repeat their 2006 electoral gains.

The DCCC chairman, Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and the Democratic Caucus chairman, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, have been putting out that message in a series of recent meetings with members of the “Frontline” group that helps reelect vulnerable House Democrats, according to members and staffers who have been attending the sessions.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who is the DCCC point person for the Frontline program, also sits in.

With a huge cash advantage over the National Republican Congressional Committee, Van Hollen and Emanuel are cautioning their colleagues that the DCCC wants to have money to put into 40 challenger races next year — and if these vulnerable Democrats are not facing serious races or any effort by the National Republican Congressional Committee to unseat them, the DCCC will spend its resources elsewhere.

In an interview, Van Hollen said it was always the goal of Democratic leaders to “graduate” members from the Frontline program if they were no longer in need of special fundraising help.

And he noted that the DCCC has been successful in recruiting viable challengers to take on dozens of GOP incumbents.

Van Hollen believes that Democrats have a chance to add a “significant number of seats” next year, giving them even tighter control of the House.

“We’re all part of a team,” Van Hollen added. “The goal of this team is to win more seats and increase our majority.”

One Frontline Democrat, who asked for anonymity, said Emanuel and Van Hollen “want everyone to know that they will be constantly evaluating where they stand.”

“Look, if you don’t have a serious challenger or someone who can pull out his checkbook and write a check for $500,000 or $1 million or something, the [DCCC] is not going to put money into your race,” the Democrat said.

The Democrat called the leadership’s message “sobering,” but acknowledged, “It’s a smart move. They can’t bail out anyone who isn’t getting it done for himself.”

Democrats participating in the Frontline program for vulnerable incumbents have had strong fundraising success already this cycle.

Only two of the Frontline Democrats — Reps. Michael Arcuri of New York and Brad Ellsworth of Indiana — reported having less than $500,000 on hand at the end of September, according to their most recent reports with the Federal Election Commission.

Some Frontline Democrats have more than $1 million in cash each, including Reps. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Patrick J. Murphy of Pennsylvania, and Ron Klein and Tim Mahoney of Florida.

Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas) is part of the Frontline program but has nearly $600,000 on hand and says he has “no problem” with the warning from Emanuel and Van Hollen.

“I gotta assume that I’m not going to get any help,” Rodriguez said. “Each member has to stand on his own.”

The DCCC reported having more than $28.3 million in cash on Sept. 30, compared with just $1.6 million for the NRCC.

The DCCC has just under $3 million in debts, compared with almost $4 million for the GOP campaign committee.

The DCCC has also done far better than its GOP counterpart in recruiting top-tier candidates to challenge incumbents, according to most independent political experts.

And Van Hollen wants to capitalize on that to help Democrats build on their 16-seat majority.

The NRCC, on the other hand, has recruited top-flight challengers in about a third of the roughly 60 Democratic-held districts they are targeting.

The NRCC chairman, Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), has also had to fight over staffing with his own leadership. And he faces the potential of even more Republican retirements, forcing GOP leaders to spend money defending open seats.

So far, 14 House Republicans have announced their retirements, compared with only four Democrats.

Some Democratic strategists, for their part, are concerned that that the DCCC is gambling that it will be able to first detect, then adequately respond to, any “527” nonprofit group or outside organization dropping into a Democratic-held district and launching a costly radio or TV campaign against the incumbent.

Failure to detect that, though, could risk losing a Democratic incumbent, a huge problem for an incumbent-protection organization like the congressional campaign committees.

But Democrats are confident they’ll have the campaign intelligence network and enough financial resources to ferret out such threats.

“There is concern about the 527s, that’s true,” said a Democratic lawmaker who participates in strategy sessions with party leaders. “But you cannot build a national campaign strategy based upon what some group may or may not do.

“If we are going to pick up seats, we are going to have to defeat some Republican incumbents, and we have to make sure we have the resources to do that.”
Click to expand...

As kos himself puts it...

House Republicans are essentially broke, and the RNC will be spending its money on the presidential race. They have no one to bail them out.

As such, the NRCC will be forced to husband its meager resources to try and save as many of its incumbents as possible. They have no money to go on the attack. Therefore, it makes perfect sense for Democrats to cut their incumbents loose (all of which are experiencing great fundraising successes anyway) and focus on putting as many Republican seats in play.

The best defense is always a good offense.
http://www.dailykos.com/
Click to expand...

danny317 · Nov 8, 2007

payback is a b

hopefully the dems heads wont get too big. they need to learn from the republicans mistakes.

rule from the middle and theyll rule for a long time.

rimrocker · Nov 8, 2007

Repub Congressional strategy?

Republicans can't agree on new image
By: Patrick O'Connor
November 7, 2007 08:11 AM EST
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=17BC432C-3048-5C12-0035B618795EE42A

An effort by House Republicans to “re-brand” their battered party with a new agenda and a new strategy to sell it has fallen behind schedule as GOP leaders try to referee ideological and tactical disputes among their members.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) began the project to refurbish House Republicans’ scuffed public image at the start of the year, amid widespread expectations among lawmakers that the results would be ready for public rollout this fall.

As it now stands, according to members and well-connected staff aides, the debut could happen as late as next spring, after the presidential primaries.

Boehner’s idea had been that the GOP could lift itself off the mat by borrowing from private-sector marketing concepts. Among those who have consulted in the effort were corporate brand experts such as Richard Costello, the man behind GE’s famous “We Bring Good Things to Life” campaign.

But modern business techniques have stalled amid old-fashioned political disputes. Lawmakers who think the party needs to embrace a more moderate image on issues like health care and the environment are at odd with conservatives, who believe the way back to victory is to reclaim the GOP’s traditional reputation for taking a hard line on spending.

Some of the divisions are about the language and style of the GOP’s public positioning. A survey polling House GOP members found many eager to “fight” and “attack” Democratic initiatives, while others favored a more accommodationist public image.

Part of the split is generational. During a retreat last winter, Rep. Scott Garrett of New Jersey polled his GOP colleagues about what direction they favored for the party.

Seventy-eight percent of the members who have served one or two terms favored a conservative agenda.

That number dropped 20 percentage points for lawmakers who had served three to five terms.

And, of the Republicans who have been in the House more than 12 years, 47 percent favored conservative politics, compared with the 26 percent who preferred a more moderate agenda.

“Most of the younger members campaigned on a conservative platform, so they’re excited about trying to implement that,” Garrett said.

The re-branding effort flows from conversations Boehner was leading about how to refashion the GOP’s image that began even before Republicans were bounced from their congressional majorities a year ago this week.

At a retreat not long after that humiliation, former Rep. Tom DeLay — whose legal and political problems helped contribute to the defeat — challenged his old colleagues to unveil a new agenda that the party could use to fight Democrats on more favorable political terrain.

But the obstacles Boehner is facing in the re-branding effort are a reflection of his broader challenges trying to revive a divided and demoralized party.

Some conservative members are complaining that too many Republicans voted for the expansion of a popular state-run children’s health care initiative that the president and party leaders opposed.

And some GOP lawmakers argue that time is running short to come up with a coherent, partywide issue strategy to take into the 2008 elections.

“We have an opening, but it’s going to close in February,” said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who unveiled a conservative agenda last week with the help of some GOP colleagues in the House and Senate.

Boehner tasked Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam of Florida with the communications efforts and Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter of Michigan with developing the actual policy behind this drive.

In borrowing from corporate image-building methods, the goal is for individual lawmakers to present themselves as the personification of the party, just as employees at IBM or Google are encouraged to present themselves as public ambassadors for the companies where they work.

But first, lawmakers must settle on just what the GOP brand is supposed to be.

Conservatives have been the vanguard for the GOP since Newt Gingrich and his band of Republican rebels — including Boehner — stormed to power in 1994. Conservatives now dominate the party on both a congressional and presidential level.

Moderates, meanwhile, say that one benefit of reduced power is greater freedom — now that leaders no longer have the leverage to force them to take unpopular votes. But many say they remain concerned about the direction of the party, even though their numbers diminished in the last election.

“The bottom line is that if Republicans are going to be in the majority, you need moderate members,” said Rep. Mike Castle (Del.).

“I can’t win my election with just Republican votes,” said Rep. Jim Gerlach (Pa.).

That dynamic has prompted the third-term lawmaker to embrace issues that play with voters on both sides of the aisle, such as the environment, health care and a balanced budget.

Minority status, he said, allows him to position himself as an outsider rather than have to defend the party in charge.

“We’re all running as challengers in our districts,” Gerlach said. “That gives us a little more of an advantage to run against the institution.”

McCotter, who helms the Republican Policy Committee, led the efforts to address each policy issue that would make up the GOP’s new brand.

Sitting in his office on the sixth floor of the Longworth House Office Building, surrounded by glass-enclosed bookcases jampacked with titles, the Michigan Republican referred to the branding project as “an independent work study.”

“I’m like the college professor who can assign you homework but can’t force you to turn it in,” he said. “But they’re turning it in anyways.”

His team is in the process of melding those results with Putnam’s branding team. Leadership staff walked rank-and-file chiefs of staff through the process during a retreat late last week on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

But leaders have decided to postpone their rollout until next year, in part because of disagreements and in part because the calendar is already too cluttered for the balance of this, senior aides said. Aides expect to complete their work by the member retreat next January.

Whatever the stumbles for his own team, McCotter argued, there is still more unity in GOP ranks than among Democrats.

The GOP, after all, has plenty of small issues over which lawmakers and their grass-roots supporters are divided, such as the stem cell debate, but party loyalists tend to rally around bigger issues, such as lower taxes and strong national security.

“I can get Mike Castle and [conservative] Mike Pence in a room and come up with something that both of them will agree on,” McCotter said, adding that it is often impossible to bridge the divides on the Democratic side between liberals and moderates. “How do you get Sheila Jackson Lee [D-Texas] and Collin Peterson [D-Minn.] in a room and come up with something they can agree on?”
Click to expand...

rimrocker · Nov 9, 2007

2 more Repub Reps announce their retirement today...

Barbara Cubin of WY... probably a hold for the GOP.

Jim Saxton of NJ... a good pickup opportunity for the Dems just got better.

Forums

Dems Congressional Strategy

rimrocker Member

danny317 Member

rimrocker Member

rimrocker Member

Share This Page

About ClutchFans

Rockets Content

Support ClutchFans!