Make your case for "Growing our Majority" in 2008

Let me beat up on the cliche some more: after winning back the House our work has just begun!

While many diaries are starting to speculate on who'll be the presidential nominee for 08', I would like us to also focus on growing our majority in the House based on the fresh results from Tuesday's election.

Many candidates came close including Tammy Duckworth and Christine Jennings (still to be seen). Let start making our case for races that we felt came close so that we can begin our preperations for growing our majority in 2008.

Below I'll make my case for FL-21.

Here were the results for FL-21 according the Florida Dept. of State: Division of Elections:

District 21

Lincoln Diaz-Balart (REP)
Total 65,271 % Votes 59%

Frank Gonzalez (DEM)
Total  44,910  % Votes 41%

Basically, Frank Gonzalez ran without support from the Media, the DNC, the Florida DEC, and even without much help from the Miami-Dade DEC (Broward County Dems helped out and Frank won the Broward portion of the district 57%-43%).

Also, Frank spent no more than $12,000 vs. Lincoln Diaz-Balart's $1 Million dollar war chest (according to the FEC filings).

Frank explains it best in his own words:

Bush Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart spent $641,077 and received 65,368 votes.  This equals $9.80 per vote.

I spent $11,472 and received 44,972 votes.  This equals just $0.26 per vote.

This supposedly "unbeatable" incumbent outspent me by nearly 56 to 1 only for what I would consider, if I was in his shoes, an embarrassing single-digit margin of victory, and only by refusing in cowardice to debate me publicly on Michael Putney's Sunday morning political TV show. (On ABC 10)

In summary, if I told you that a Democrat was going to run in one of the MOST conservative districts in the country, against a 13-year Republican incumbent, without Democratic party support, weak media attention, no television Ads, and just $12k to spend... would you believe me if I told you the Democrat squeezed out 41% of the vote in a midterm election?

If FL-21 isn't a strong contender for adding to our Democratic gains in 2008, then I don't know what is.

Watch this YouTube video to see why Frank Gonzalez' grassroots campaign was so successfully:


http://www.youtube.com/...

That's my case, for FL-21. Please recommend this dairy so that others can make their case for a district that they felt came close in 06' that deserves our attention in 08'. I'm curious to read about other possibilities that may exist for preserving our hard-won victory in congress.

Once again, to all the Democrats who ran and lost, THANK YOU! We're going to fight with you again in 2008.