Wherever you fall on the
Herseth-Hate Amendment issue, there seems to be an interesting dynamic at work.
Herseth (and others) are getting quite a bit of support from, well, people like us on the 'sphere. Mostly money, but also a certain national and local visibility. There were some articles out there about
Chandler getting 'sphere support, and Atrios has a
post about an article in a
local Portland (ME) newspaper on Mary Beth Williams of
Wampum.
Now take the Herseth flap. She's probably catering to the local political climate in SD, which of course is quite conservative. But given the fact that now she has another constituency to attend (us), she already had to revise her position on the Hate Amendment. I, as others probably, already emailed her a note noting a) that I was a contributor of her campaign, and b) that I was disappointed about her stance.
This is an example of the power we can wield. This is why our donations matter. Not only we help elect Dems, but we can also (at least partially) pressure them into more progressive positions.
An interesting question is how will the local constituency feel about this external pressure on the candidate. Might the appearance of such connection to the 'sphere become the kiss of death by putting the candidate in question in the pinko-liberal category in the eyes of the locals?
Don't know. The Christian Coalition does it somehow. The difference there might be that the CC works more on the local level, while the 'sphere is trying to bypass that. That might be a problem. Maybe. I don't know. But the Dean campaign in Iowa might be an example of the possible underlying problem.
Finally, on the specific issue of whether we should still support Ms. Herseth or not, I think we still should. Two issues come to mind:
If there are scarce resources, shouldn't they be spent on more progressive candidates? Well, this race is strategically huge. The repugs are livid about Kerr losing to Chandler in KY. They don't want this to happen in an even more conservative state like SD. Another win here would be very damaging to the evil ones. And a win is very doable in this race. Remember this is an early race (June 1st). You can imagine the media pouncing on how vulnerable the Republicans are that they lost TWO House races in (very) red states. That helps us. A lot.
The other issue is a conscience one. One might not feel like supporting a candidate that opposes equal rights for gay people. I understand that. I am not gay, so this issue (shamefully to me) is less real, less immediate, less critical than for somebody who's been living in legal limbo with his/her partner. I can try to imagine, but imagining is not the same as living in your own daily life the miseries that not having the benefits of marriage entail.
Yet (and "yet" sounds so stupid in this context, but still allow me) Diedrich (her opponent) will also vote for the Hate amendment. And for a slew of other really noxious other repug laws. And he'll vote for Hastert as the Speaker. And he will be a DeLay clone who'll owe a lot to the Republican establishment (since he'll need a lot of help to win this one).
Herseth will owe us. She needs to run for reelection in November (yes, this November). And, remember, her support for FMA is pretty irrelevant anyway. That bird won't fly. It's DOA already.
Well, anyways, that's that.