Tom Sullivan writing at Digby’s Place explains the power structure/culture within the Democratic Party that keeps knee-capping promising candidates and maintaining a losing status quo with All In The Family. Here’s an excerpt. Read The Whole Thing.
...The support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) or the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) comes with strings. You want their money? You have to spend it with their friends. Jon Ossoff found out in the recent Georgia 6th District runoff. The relentless-and-breathless flood of Ossoff emails and the milquetoast television ads bore all the marks of the DCCC's pet consultants.
The party's relationship with its consultant class has to change, Sarah Jones wrote at The New Republic. "Amidst the wreckage of Ossoff’s campaign there emerges only one winner: Mothership Strategies, which reportedly earned $3.9 million for its work. Everyone else—voters, the party, the candidate Mothership promoted—lost."
It is not just the money. It is a culture. Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas wrote about it a decade ago in "Crashing the Gate." They begin one chapter with a quote by a Republican operative:
"I don't get it. When a consultant on the Republican side loses, we take them out and shoot them. You guys -- keep hiring them."
emphasis added
UPDATE: The key word is “consultancy” — the people with the contacts, polling data, etc. who ‘know’ what the issues are and how to ‘market’ a candidate. Sometimes they know their stuff, other times they don’t have a clue — but all too often they are between you and the resources the party controls. Either way you can’t ignore them and you have to deal with them.