It’s easy to argue that, strategically, the DCCC was probably right not play in either the Montana or Kansas special elections. While those races were closer than expected, no amount of input from the campaign organization would have changed the outcome. Still, they blew it.
The DCCC needs to better understand their job in this off-season. They need to re-build the credibility they’ve lost in recent election cycles. They also need to worry less about spending money unwisely and more about putting Republicans on notice that they’re competing everywhere. They need to redefine themselves as an organization that’s going to take the fight to the GOP and stand up for Democrats who are willing to get into the arena. There will come a time to pick and choose which races to support, but that’s in 2018, not when there’s nothing else happening.
Democrats across the country are alarmed and engaged. The challenge is to keep them engaged until the 2018 cycle is in full swing. These special elections give the Democrats an opportunity to rally the troops and fire shots at Republicans, even if the districts in which they’re running are relatively safe.
Conventional wisdom says save your money until you can fight on turf you can win. Given the deficit Democrats face in Congress, they should throw conventional wisdom out the window. They can certainly recoup the money they spend now, especially if they tap into a new source of low-dollar contributions from the fired-up base. They won’t get that money from silly email subject lines. They’ll get that money because people think the DCCC is fighting as hard everybody else.
Democrats are crying for leadership. The DCCC should give it to them. Activists, new and old, want outlets for their frustrations and special elections offer them. So far, Democrats have dramatically over-performed even when they’ve lost. The DCCC should be there taking credit for these accomplishments and thanking activists for their support—right before sending that email asking for their money.
Because of finance laws, the DCCC is the organization best positioned to offer direct support to campaigns. While races are few and far between, they should be engaged in all of them, testing their messages and new communications tools. They should be rallying the troops and defining themselves as the principle organization taking the fight to GOP. They missed opportunities in Kansas and Montana. After Georgia, they’ll have a few more opportunities in places like South Carolina. They should take them.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
I’m reluctant to give money to the the party for two reasons. They aren’t fighting the good fight. They should have been in Montana and Kansas. When the Republicans panicked and outside groups started running ads that was their cue to get moving. Secondly, I gave a small amount to ActBlue for the Montana and Georgia candidates thru DailyKos and the emails were never ending. Much worse than the usual pleas for cash. Not just daily, but multiple times a day. Dial it back folks.
Thomas: If the current DCCC staff is running the 2018 congressional campaigns, they are lost even before they begin. Both the DSCC and DCCC are run by good old boys who have a crony system developed over the years to move untrained, amateur staff into districts and states and then telling the candidates if you don’t take our advice you get no money or services. Many of these young, poorly trained staff are from small, rural states and have no concept of urban politics, targeting voters, and innovative campaign communications techniques (except paid TV ads and time buys which they give to their friends). They judge the success of campaigns by the number of TV ads they get on the air never really measuring the effectiveness of the ads. See Georgia and Montana campaigns.
You will remember what they did to Senator Hagan’s campaign and then bragged they (DSCC) had run a model campaign but the candidate had screwed it up!
Perhaps you will shake them up. But the Democratic Members of Congress who theoretically run these campaigns need to know the reality of this. Especially since the 2018 congressional campaigns will have a ton of money and strong motivation among the party workers to win. But, please tell them: don’t spend all of the money on TV production and :30 second ads–put it in GOTV where it makes a difference.
The Hillary staffers had this attitude that the whole thing was a coronation, and there was no real need to compete. In fact, the attitude was that actively competing with Trump was just empowering him – so don’t do it. And since this thing is “in the bag”, it is more important to solidify your own job in the new administration, than to “run up the score” in a game that was already won. So bringing in more personnel was just bringing in competition for those jobs. Giving subordinate staffers something real to do might mean they get the attention of the higher ups when those new administration jobs are handed out.
Hillary looked like she felt she was owed the election, and the idea that people were even considering Trump was “just ridiculous”. This attitude seemed to pervade the whole organization down to the local organizers – who were counting their chickens before they hatched, and little else.
People weren’t voting FOR either candidate. They were deciding which of the hated candidates they were going to vote AGAINST. And that negativity took a toll on motivation throughout the Party.
Forward your comment to the DCCC…
Seems to me the democrat’s biggest problem is the people running the party. Just my opinion