There is an article in The Hill on Baron Hill’s race against Mike Sodrel. Apparently the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2004 spent a ton of money on losing efforts attempting to help incumbent Democrats survive Tom DeLay’s Texas redistricting (which was of dubious legality and which is one of the thing that caused his fall from power.) The National Republican Campaign Committee spent $1 million more on Sodrel in the last two months of the 2004 campaign than the DCCC spent on Hill. This year the DCCC has promised to make Hill a priority.
I hope there is some yet unpublished pledge to support Joe Donnelly in IN-2 as well. The DCCC poured money into Nick Clooney’s ill-fated campaign in Kentucky in 2004 while Joe made a better showing with a fraction of the money Clooney received. Joe later received a call from a very high ranking congresswoman who apologized for the DCCC not supporting him more strongly. Rahm Emanuel recently stopped in South Bend and pledged to not repeat the mistake his predecessor made: not supporting Joe Donnelly.
Someone recently told me that the races in IN-8 and IN-9 are races we should win, judging by the numbers in those districts. Races like IN-2 are races that we need to win to really have a shot to take back the House in November. I could not agree more. The Democratic party needs to win all of the races we are supposed to and a lot that are up for grabs. IN-2 is up for grabs; we could win it without the DCCC’s support, but we hope it does not come to that. Surely the number crunchers in D.C. can see what we know: Chocola is vulnerable and people are ready for a change.