Duplicit Democrats Shock Internet Activists
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
So, in a "disappointing decision" Paul Hackett has left (read forced) the race for Democratic candidate in Ohio's closely watched Senate race. Hackett stated, "This is an extremely disappointing decision that I feel has been forced on me." He said he was outraged to learn that party leaders were calling his donors and asking them to stop giving and said he would not enter the Second District Congressional race.
"For me, this is a second betrayal," Mr. Hackett said. "First, my government misused and mismanaged the military in Iraq, and now my own party is afraid to support candidates like me."
Hackett has long been the darling of internet activists. His fame rose exponentially last year when his House campaign in a conservative Cincinnati-area district raised $850,000 in two months, $500,000 of it through blogs. Hackett went on to lose his campaign but garnered 48% of the vote. He is also the first Iraq war veteran to seek national office.
To Mr. Hackett, and those shocked that Democrats could do this to other Democrats, I would simply ask, "How does that coffee smell?"
I suppose it easy for a candidate in a special election to be led up the garden path on party funding. The reality is that when you are the only gig in town--every one shows up!
General elections are whole other story. There are a million spineless, analysts who lack the ability and willingness to get out there and run for themselves. These self-appointed naysayers make a living handicapping races and pulling resources form "less-viable" candidates. Instead of working for change, much less making a case for it, our future is determined by a few self-defeating acronyms-DCCC, DSCC, DLC, and most hideously NCEC. Of course these organizations have good track records, they are prognosticators of self-fulfilling prophecies.
This pattern of self-flagellation is visible at the state level as well. We have only to look back at the 2005 General Assembly races to see this type of inner-party subterfuge.
Two prime examples are Bruce Roemmelt in the 13th District and Eric Ferguson in the 9th. Both candidates ran "give'em hell" campaigns that took no prisoners. Both were viable candidates who ran towards the mainstream. At every turn, the state organization tried to pull their legs out from under them.
Of course, the House caucus had done their homework. They knew if they poured money into Hilda Barg and Greg Werkheiser, they would win.
Here is the breakdown (cash only) ...
Hilda Barg
23,000 Democratic House Caucus
50,000 Warner's One Virginia
She garnered 48% of the vote.
50,000 Democratic House Caucus
30,000 Warner's One Virginia
He garnered 48% of the vote.
Eric Ferguson
3,000 Warner's One Virginia
He garnered 48% of the vote.
Bruce Roemmelt
5,250 Democratic House Caucus
5000 Warner's One Virginia
He garnered 44% of the vote.
What could $100,000 have done for Bruce or Eric? A post election analysis by the Roanoke Times answered that question for Eric Ferguson.
This type of circular firing squad is also evident in James Webb's see-sawing commitment to seeking the Democratic nomination to run against George Allen this fall. Political insiders say Webb received numerous phone calls from the Mark Warner camp telling him not to run. Of course the calls didn't come from Mark Warner himself (suppose Nextel has limited coverage in NH.) It would be interesting to see Mame Reilly's phone logs though. I suppose Warner is against Webb for the same reason U2 doesn't open for the Rolling Stones.
Sadly for Paul Hackett, politics is a contact sport. Sadly for us Democrats, the hits usually come from within. Hell, even Howard Dean agrees with that, "I think there was some skullduggery in Washington, that was going on, which I don't approve of. And I frankly think that's a shortcoming of the Democratic Party."
UPDATE: I missed a 5k donation to the Roemmelt PAC in May of 2005. I have updated the post to reflect that. I do not feel that 5k makes up for the vast difference in support.
posted by Libertas @ 2:40 PM,
5 Comments:
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At 12:48 AM,
James E. Martin said...
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Great Blog, its quite sad that the VA Democrats haven't figured out what’s right in front of their face. Personally, I believe if the dems really want to have a majority in the house of delegates and senate they need to contest every seat, not 30, but 60 (or 59 now), which is what the Republicans did in 2001, every single seat....
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At 2:43 PM,
Virginia Centrist said...
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Yeah. Ferguson and Roemmelt should have received more money.
I'd give Barg/Marsden/Werkheiser/etc. credit though. They worked the system, played the game they needed to play, and were rewarded with tons of money. -
At 10:50 PM,
bruce roemmelt said...
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in conversation with Eric we agree to split the $100k ;-)
this is a truly contact sport and our goal is to win. but to do it we need to build bench. and to that end '06 is a great opportunity to do that. i know in the 10th (where we live) we're going to put all our resources into Judy Fader's race and we will fully support our primary winner in the 11th.
the workers do more and more for the candidates. they move up in the organization. ultimately they provide the bench so we won't have to shake the trees to find people to run for office. we do need to challenge every seat Nova Dem.
we gotta get in the game
http://www.elise.com/quotes/quotes/arena.htm
b -
At 5:35 PM,
said...
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Just as an FYI - Warner donated $5k to Roemmelt
http://www.vpap.org/expends/detail.cfm?VendKey=ORP000239230&ComID=COM00684&CycleID=2005 -
At 12:05 PM,
KathyinBlacksburg said...
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Excellent blog and great article.