Wednesday Open Thread [10.1.14]

“You women don’t understand — guns are for men what jewelry is for women.”

— Rep. Steve King (R-IA), oh so popular with the ladies. And Mr. King, I, as a man, do not view a gun as a fashion accessory to be worn for display only. I, as a man, view a gun as a tool, a weapon that kills. Like a child, you view guns as a play thing.

David Atkins wonders why our Southern Senators in North Carolina, Louisiana and Arkansas are not only staying competitive, but also leading their races, given all the horrible headwinds being a Democrat in the South gives you in 2014. Indeed, how is it that we are also competitive in two states, Georgia and Kentucky, where our Democratic candidates may in fact topple the Republican incumbents? How I ask, and ah, so does David:

What seems to be happening more than anything else is that Republicans are simply failing to close the deal with enough voters. There is frustration with the Democratic Party in many places, but the Republican Party has made itself so toxic in so many places that they’re having a hard time benefiting from anti-Democratic headwinds even in an extremely favorable environment.

It’s important to remember that Democrats will almost certainly have a banner year in the Senate in 2016 barring some unforeseen calamity, and the White House doesn’t look so good for the GOP in 2016, either. And, of course, the demographic challenges only get worse for the GOP with each passing year.

Republicans may or may not narrowly edge themselves into Senate control this cycle. But either way, it’s clear that a large and growing number of voters simply don’t see the GOP as a credible governing alternative to the Democrats.

Another big reason may be that Democrats and their respective campaign committees have outraised the Republicans and their respective committees (i.e. the DNC v. RNC, the DCCC v. NRCC and the DSCC v. NRSC), and individual Democratic candidates have outraised their Republican counterparts. From the National Journal:

“Democratic candidates for Congress are crushing their Republican counterparts in small-dollar donations — outraising their GOP foes by an average of more than $100,000 per candidate in the nation’s top races. That’s the finding of a new National Journal analysis of federal records in the most competitive House contests in the country. In those, the average Democrat has collected $179,300 in donations under $200; the average Republican has brought in only $78,535.”