By Owen Paine on Monday February 20, 2006 07:31 PM
One guy's view:
Runs against the likes of St Hill and Feinstein are the bunk. We need to avoid token runs -- symbolic quests -- gestures of goodness and light.
I say pick 15 toss-up House races -- races with a chance to be tipped to the elephants by a good third candidate run from the left, in the general election next November.
My belief -- '06 is a warning shot election. We need to make our points:
- We can beat you Orthrians;
- The donkeys retaking control of the House don't mean doodle to us.
Comments (4)
A lot of the strategy depends voting process integrity. Just sayin'.
My first choice would be to go after any of the more odious blue dogs who can be beaten, and I'd take quantity of defeated donkeys over celebrity any day. But I'm not as averse to gestures. Spoiling the race for a widely loathed, well known giant would be a great coup. Going after someone everyone has heard of, like Hillary Clinton, might attract more popular support. The amount of money the giants have on hand shouldn't inspire too much caution. Not if the strategy is to spoil the election for them. Their prominence ensures some coverage of a spoiler effort, not matter how badly it's spun.
I looked, but my Google-Fu is off right now, for Clinton's margin of victory in 2000. If someone has a whopping margin of victory and megabucks, I agree that it would likely be a heartbreaker to go after them.
Posted by J. Alva Scruggs | February 20, 2006 9:17 PM
Posted on February 20, 2006 21:17
I agree that primaries are largely exercises in vote rigging and general mendacity. I also agree that an (anti)Democrat House would be about as useful as lips on a brick. However, electoral reform is the first step in dumping the duopoly.
Posted by AlanSmithee | February 22, 2006 8:11 AM
Posted on February 22, 2006 08:11
Electoral reform would be a good thing, undoubtedly, and it's certainly necessary if we want any democratization of the process.
But there's a chicken-and-egg issue -- the duopoly isn't interested in reform, and the existing corrupt process maintains the duopoly. I figure that reform will only happen when the public puts some kind of monkey wrench in the works of the existing system, such that it no longer operates satisfactorily for its proprietors.
Posted by MJS | February 22, 2006 9:18 AM
Posted on February 22, 2006 09:18
I'd really like to see one of the Green contenders for OR Governor put the scare into the DP. Right-wing nutball Kevin Mannix lost the last election to "liberal" milquetoast Ted Kulongoski by the slimmest of margins. Kulongonski has been about as useless as you'd expect, and he happily signed off on that 2614 bullshit. Whoever runs on the Demo ticket this time can scarcely be any better.
You know that all the twits who whined at the Greens to "go local" are going to be no more receptive to them at the statewide level than they were at the national level. Plus, the media will stonily ignore all 3rd-Party comers as they always do. I hope to wring some entertainment out of the whole spectacle, anyway-- since I hate *American Idol.*
Posted by alsis39.5 | February 22, 2006 12:22 PM
Posted on February 22, 2006 12:22