4. Competitive races build srong local organizations.

   If your county gets moved into another district after
   the 2010 Census, you don't want to start from zero.

5. Competitive races contribute to the national total.

   We saw already that Democrats outpolled R's by,
   what was it, 5 million votes in the total of all the
   Senate races? I guess the comparable House figure
   is not in because so many races are still in recount.
   But when the tally is completed, we want the maximum
   number of Democratic vote from every House district,
   so that the national total shows what it should:
   Complete repudiation of the Bush agenda, by the millions.