Next Time I Give, I'd Appreciate Some Candor

OK...I did the "right thing."  I dug down and contributed to candidates I believed in...candidates who were challenging the status quo....candidates who were battling entrenched DINOs and who clearly needed help from small contributors to get things rolling.

I pulled my automatic contributions to the Democratic Bond fund after I watched the party march in lockstep with bush on continuing the war, FISA rape, habeas corpus and on and on and diverted those funds to selected candidates.

And just what did I get for my money?

So far, it seems, not a great deal.  Lipinski was a walkover in suburban Chicago against Mark Pera and it appears Donna Edwards did better but still failed to unseat incumbent Wynn in Baltimore.

OK...I accept the challenges of overcoming incumbency and the power that comes with it, including the power to call on party bigwigs like Pelosi to come campaign for you and raise funds even though everything you have done for the past X years has been a violation of what the party is supposed to stand for.

OK...I accept that it was a gamble and I was backing an underdog.

But what I don't accept is that after I gave my modest contribution, as the campaign drew closer to election day, I began to ask pointed questions about how those candidates were doing and all I got was....silence.  Oh I could find someone who could tell me an "anecdote" about how someone said they were switching their vote after a canvasser talked to them, but when I asked repeatedly for hard polling data....nothing.   If there was any response it was that there hadn't been any polling and that was plainly and simply nonsense.  I don't care who you are today.  If you are running a serious campaign for Congressional office you ARE polling from start to finish.  If you aren't, how can you possibly know whether your message is working.

And as soon as I began to get no response to my questions, it became pretty clear that things were not going well....but nobody had the decency to say so.

Ok...so you need to maintain a charade...fine.  But I stood up and contributed and I am disappointed that those to whom I gave my trust couldn't be honest in return.  

•  Edwards/Wynn? Not till next week.

  1.  Maryland didn't vote today. Our primary is next week -- Feb. 12.  

  2.  MD-04 doesn't include Baltimore -- it's Prince Georges and a sliver of Montgomery County, outside DC.

  Wait until next week on the Donna Edwards/Al Wynn race.  (There are actually 6 candidates in that race, IIRC, but they're the only two who are significant).

  by JanetT in MD on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:09:39 PM PDT

•  Don't give up on Donna Edwards yet -

  The election in Maryland isn't until next Tuesday, the 12th.  I haven't seen any hard polling on the race either, so have nothing to add in that regard, but she did come close to beating him last time, giving us hope that she can pull it off this time.

  Either way, thanks for your donations.  

  And you raise valid points - I have also donated to Pera and others based on recommendations here, and don't want to think my money was wasted on a campaign that never had a chance to begin with. But I keep hoping...    

  by Lujane on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 11:13:32 PM PDT

•  postpone disappointment

  Wait a week, and then see.

  IL-03 is a disappointment and it looks like (as of this hour) IL-14 is a nail-biter. MD-04 may yet pull us out of the doldrums.

  If we win only one of these contests this cycle it will add fuel to my conviction that netroots enthusiasm for dumping centrist incumbents needs to be honed down to just a race or two every cycle, not scattered across numerous districts. We are just not big enough fund-raisers to flip a lot of seats toward the Left within our own party. We leverage better when we're boosting the rank and file in an attempt to flip a red seat.

  After Feb 12 I think the last Congressional primary I'm concerned about is to make sure Steve Cohen keeps his seat in TN-09, against a challenge from the right, or, if that's exaggerating, a challenge from the centrist machine.

  I think after that contest I'll focus my remaining energies on the seats that can be flipped in the general, and on continuing to try to identify up and coming progressives running for seats in the state legislatures. That's the training camp for good congressional candidates of future cycles.  

  by Christopher Walker on Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 12:38:54 AM PDT

  •  You don't get it

    The diarist isn't expressing disappointment over Pera losing, they are expressing disappointment over the lack of transparency. That already happened, and can't be retroactive undone in a week, a month, or a year.

    by Free Spirit on Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 09:38:58 AM PDT

•  I can't speak to your issue. I don't know.

  In 06, I got involved in out state races, too - for the good of the cause, etc.  In return, our State races got ignored.  We have at least 4 viable contenders who got squat from the DCCC or the blogs.  The lesson I learned?  Zip your wallet - keep it local.  The gods help those that help themselves.  Fund raising on this might help the blogs gain political privilege, but there is no "netroots" movement or trickle down that I can see.

  by dkmich on Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 03:39:23 AM PDT

•  Meanwhile...

  ... this will be a lesson to Kos and the other Kossacks who waste time bashing a progressive like Dennis Kucinich, when they should realize that they will need to save every last bit of their time and energy going after people like Dan Lipinski.

  Not to mention that they've diverted energy from Kucinich supporters that could be used to unseating people like Lipinski to defending Kucinich, something that shouldn't be necessarily in the slightest.

  Good job, Kos and the rest.  Hope you're all truly satisfied with yourselves...

  by homoaffectional on Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 08:16:41 AM PDT

  •  Well said

    If in 2004 the Nader bashers had put half as much energy into defeating Bush that they invested in bashing Nader, John Kerry would be running for his second term as President this year.

    Personally, I think these people go after the little targets because they don't have the guts to take on the big ones.

    by Free Spirit on Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 09:36:39 AM PDT

  •  let me see if I have this right...

    You're saying Kucinich supporters would have made the difference in suburban Chicago IF ONLY people hadn't been making fun of Kucinich the presidential candidate?

    by dudemanguy on Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 12:00:00 PM PDT

    •  Not quite...

      What I'm saying is that the Kos community's hate of Kucinich is a microcosm of the overall problem.  Misplaced priorities by these types can cost people like Mark Pera dearly.  Every little bit helps.  Kucinich donors might have been able to put Pera over the top with the 5,000 donors Kos was aiming at, for starters.  Let's just hope Donna Edwards doesn't suffer the same fate because of the short-sightedness of people who feel Dennis Kucinich isn't attractive enough to run for president and be in Congress at the same time, but Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are.

      by homoaffectional on Thu Feb 07, 2008 at 07:00:37 PM PDT

•  You won't get it

  This is about crashing the gates, not about transforming politics as usual. The goal is to seize power the same way it has always been seized and to use it the same way it's always been used.

  by Free Spirit on Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 09:31:54 AM PDT

•  Polling isn't done in most Congressional Races

  In primaries you often have only one poll that you take at the beginning.  

  It's simply not the case that there was any polling available.  Beyond that, the campaign was hitting most of their targets on 1s and 2s and Lipinski got the vote out.  

  There was no sense things were going this badly.  

  by ArchPundit on Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 11:52:22 AM PDT

•  Good News!

  U.S. House, District 4 Democratic Primary Results
  Candidate Votes %
  Donna Edwards 36,010 59%
  Al Wynn * 22,148 36%
  George Mitchell 806 1%
  Michael Babula 657 1%
  Jason Jennings 607 1%
  George McDermott 476 1%
  Key: Red Checkmark Winner
  Precincts: 58% | Updated: 1:00 AM ET | Source: AP

  from here.

  by Lujane on Tue Feb 12, 2008 at 10:26:49 PM PDT