The Long Reach of the 50 State Strategy
As a result of the epic fundraising Obama has been able to do, the DNC is actually free to rethink its investments in House, Senate and State legislative races. Control of state legislatures is important for 2012 for the redistricting effort:
Some of this year’s cash could be sent to U.S. House races; most would be earmarked for races further down the ballot.
This year, having plucked the low-hanging fruit, Democrats have set their sights on tougher pulls, like New York’s state senate. “It’s the biggest toss-up on the map,” says Matt Compton, a spokesperson for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.Other targets for Democrats include: Ohio, Wisconsin, Delaware and the Texas House, where Democrats are five seats away from the majority; the Obama campaign has added organizers to help them.
Delaware! On the (possible) list for additional help for great candidates like Dr. Mike Katz and Rebecca Young and all the rest. And just as importantly is seeing Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy work the way he thought it would — playing everywhere makes you stronger.
Tags: 2008 Election, DNC
There’s really no excuse for the party not to go all out in the races right now. It’s looking like a Democratic year and some of these marginal races could flip.
Too bad about Castle. We let him get away with another steal this year.
I hereby denounce Tom Carper.
http://www.electoral-vote.com writes today:
McCain Concedes Colorado, Iowa, and New Mexico
CNN is reporting that McCain is making those tough decisions that politicians love to talk about. According to CNN, McCain is abandoning Colorado (9 EVs), Iowa (7 EVs) and New Mexico (5 Evs). If Obama wins these three he gets 21 EVs. Add these to the 252 EVs Kerry won and he has 273 and becomes President. McCain’s strategy at this point is to win Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada, and–get this–Pennsylvania. The first six are arguably swing states, but our three-poll average puts Obama 12 points ahead in Pennsylvania. McCain is effectively betting the farm on a state which looks like an Obama landslide. It is a strange choice. Colorado looks a lot easier than Pennsylvania. James Carville once famously said that Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama sandwiched in between. Maybe McCain is going to go all out to win the white working class men in the Alabama section of Pennsylvania. McCain can’t possibly do it on the economy. What’s left? Maybe run against the Wright/Ayers ticket? Any way you look at it, this has to be a desperation move.
Note that North Carolina had always been a Republican state, until Obama’s campaign. Now their comfortable senator, Elizabeth Dole, is in a fight for her life with a Democrat.
The 50-state strategy, executed flawlessly by the Obama campaign, is reaping wonderful rewards across the country.
I think Howard Dean deserves the most credit. Long before Barack Obama came on the scene, it was Dean who was saying the party needed a 50-state strategy for down-ticket races.
I think you are quite right — Howard Dean does deserve alot of credit. He understood that 50+1 necessarily limited your playing field, but also never gave voters a chance to actually hear a Dem message up close. Obama gets alot of credit for taking Dean’s ideas and getting them into play block by block.