(This got buried earlier. Bumped. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
According to the Dallas Morning News the National Republican Campaign Committee has withdrawn it's reserved advertising buy as a demonstration of retreat in efforts to unseat the 20-year incumbent, Chet Edwards, in Congressional District 17:
The Republican Party has scrapped plans for a costly last-minute TV blitz on behalf of congressional nominee Bill Flores.
Democrats said the move signals that Republicans are giving up hope of unseating Rep. Chet Edwards. But Flores disagreed, saying that it means he's in such good shape, the national party can devote its resources elsewhere.
This is a story you're not hearing much of around the country-Republicans beginning to conduct candidate triage in which the NRCC and other Party entities are retreating in many congressional districts in order to conserve resources and invest in seats that Republicans have a better shot at winning. Pundits and talking heads love to pontificate right now about just how many seats Democrats are going to lose in the House. At times you hear 50+, and other times you hear as much as 100. I suppose we'll know on Election Day, won't we? One seat that Republican's were counting on though-Chet Edwards-may just be ok. That should give D's across the country some cause for hope.
What might prevent this massive tsunami of Teapot extremists being elected as Republicans across the country are a few nuggets that some aren't thinking about:
- Republicans have begun candidate triage. CD-17 is an example of the NRCC beginning to retract its initial investment, retreat, and move on to fight somewhere else. As we close in on November 2nd Republicans are forced to hone strategy down to where they are most likely to win and target districts they are within the polls margin of error. All of that costs a lot of money, which is something the NRCC has trailed its DCCC counterpart for all of 2010. In other words, you're seeing Republicans beginning to create their own electoral firewall of what they are capable of winning versus what they are quite likely not to win. Which brings me to point #2.
- Money. Democrats have consistently outpaced, despite gloomy predictions from talking heads, Republicans in raising money this election cycle. That is certainly a stark contrast to where Democrats found themselves in 1994, which is the mid-term election cycle pundits love to compare 2010 to.
- Field operations. The fact is that Democrats have become really good at voter targeting, communicating, and turnout. Arguably the Democratic field machine is more superior then the Republican one given the electoral success that Democrats have enjoyed since 2006. Those successful election cycles have allowed Democrats to perfect their field machine over time, while Republicans have been sent time and again for the last four years back to the drawing board to try and figure out how to compete in the field. Rest assured that Republicans are not capable of activating a field program and turnout machine in every single competitive congressional district across this nation. And where they may have a field program and turnout machine they still must compete with those on the other side of the political aisle which have become pretty good.
- Platform. Oh yeah, that thing Republicans need to actually communicate to voters about what you would do differently than the last decade of tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation of the market system, gutting of public education, ravaging the healthcare system, growing the divide between rich and poor, and otherwise causing the catastrophic economic mess this country now finds itself in. Hardly a Contract for America, right?
- Leadership. Who leads the modern GOP? John Boehner? No, I don't think so--although he is set to become Speaker should Republicans take back the House, he hardly is the spokesperson for the Republican Party. Michael Steele? Naw. Mitch McConnell? Hardly. Sarah Palin? Yeah. Glenn Beck? Yep. Rush Limbaugh? Oh my-uh huh, I think so. The entertaining wing of the modern Republican Party is what has usurped the perceived leadership that encompasses the GOP. Voters are realizing that although Palin-Beck-Limbaugh might be quite the three stooges comedy skit, it doesn't inspire much confidence in leadership or policy.
The fact is that as we close in on November 2nd voters are beginning to take stock of the fact that the Rand Paul's, Sharron Angle's, Joe Miller's, Bill Flores's and Christine O'Donnell's of the world aren't capable of governing and are so fringe and extreme from the center of this country that one can only conclude that extreme has become mainstream in the modern Grand Ole' Party. |
