This is a great way to build netroots support for 2008.
The New York Times is picking up on Chris Bowers' brilliant "Use It Or Lose It" campaign, which seeks to force comfortable Democratic incumbents to donate 30% of their useless war chests in order expand the field of competitive seats. The Times leads with Martin Meehan, a safe, Massachusetts Democrat with $4.8 million in the bank. He's donated $355,000 to the DCCC.
Now, Meehan won in 2004 with nearly 70% of the vote. This year is a Democratic dream and he lacks a serious challenger. A 30% donation from him would be $1.44 million, more than enough to fund a couple smaller House races and offer the Democrats a cleaner, less compromised majority. But he has no intention of giving more money. In part, that's because he dreams of eventually running for Senate. In part, it's because he doesn't see why he should have to. Kerry's spokesman, David Wade, sounds similarly entitled:
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, came under fire last week when it was pointed out that he had contributed only $15,000 this year to the party's senatorial committee. Heyjohn.org, whose creator has remained anonymous, highlights the fact that Mr. Kerry has $14 million in his campaign accounts.[...]
"Cowards can hide behind anonymous Web sites," Mr. [David] Wade said, "but Democrats out in the country, party leaders and real net-roots activists know how hard John Kerry has fought to win these elections."
Bowers doesn't look that anonymous to me. Nor am I. But to Wade, here's a hearty "fuck you". We have long memories.
Here's the bottom line -- safe Republican incumbents are ponying up in an effort to keep control of Congress -- to the tune of $2.3 million more than Democrats. It's why they win -- they work harder and sacrifice more than our safe, lazy, entrenched incumbents who would rather stew in the minority than actually extend themselves out a bit.
Ask any campaign around the country at this stage what they would prefer -- a campaign visit from Kerry (or anyone else save the Big Dog), or cold hard cash, and guess what they'll answer? Money and volunteers will help us close this election strong. Not campaign appearances that is more about Kerry building support and chits for 2008 as it is about helping our guys this year.
Ante up. It's that simple. Those of us in the rank and file have been doing so, taking money out of our household budgets. We're expected to sacrifice, yet these incumbents act like it's an insult to their honor to expect the same out of them?
And insulting people like Bowers doing heroic work to change the stultified culture in DC Democratic establishment circles isn't the best strategy.
Update: In the comments, people defend Wade for saying that he was referencing the HeyJohn.org website (which appears to be down at this moment), not Bowers. Problem is, the HeyJohn website is based on Bowers' efforts to get safe Democrats to ante up this year. This campaign isn't being waged by HeyJohn, it's a blogosphere-wide effort led by Bowers.
Wade's insinuation is that only anonymous cowards who aren't "real netroots activists" are pushing this. Yet there is Chris Bowers, very public, leading on this issue. Hence, the insult.