Notes that Republicans had more money in 2006, but still lost
Democrats forced to jump off the ship might be advised to learn how to practice the "dead man's float," since it will help them conserve energy that could otherwise be wasted.
Monday morning, New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny told CNN's Drew Griffin and Kiran Chetry that congressional Democrats are pulling money from races that they see as unwinnable to focus on other races.
On Sunday, RAW STORY's Sahil Kapur reported, "Democrats are taking issue with a New York Times story Sunday asserting that the party's elections arm is planning a 'brutal triage' against some of its endangered incumbents in a desperate attempt to retain the House."
In the Times article, headlined "Democrats Plan Political Triage to Retain House," Times journalists Jeff Zeleny and Carl Hulse reported the following:
As Democrats brace for a November wave that threatens their control of the House, party leaders are preparing a brutal triage of their own members in hopes of saving enough seats to keep a slim grip on the majority.In the next two weeks, Democratic leaders will review new polls and other data that show whether vulnerable incumbents have a path to victory. If not, the party is poised to redirect money to concentrate on trying to protect up to two dozen lawmakers who appear to be in the strongest position to fend off their challengers.
"We are going to have to win these races one by one," said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, conceding that the party would ultimately cut loose members who had not gained ground.
"Today's New York Times story erroneously suggests that the DCCC has decided not to allocate resources to specific campaigns," Van Hollen said in a statement e-mailed to Raw Story on Sunday. "That simply is not the case."
CNN's Drew Griffin said to Zeleny Monday morning, "You wrote a piece that makes me tell you that the Democrats are in a true tail spin. When you are talking about a triage kind of approach, it is not about survival. I mean, it is about survival for the democrats, not necessarily about winning in November."
Zeleny responded, "Well, I think those things are linked hand in hand. if they are going to win, the Democratic leaders in Washington realize they have to trim the field a little bit. In some respects it is a story of their own success. Over the last two election cycles, Democrats picked up 55 seats in districts that normally are held by Republicans. They know that a lot of these are not going to stay in Democratic hands."
"So at this point, sixty days out, they view the only way to hold their majority -- they know it will be a very small majority if they do at all -- is to throw some of the people overboard, if you will, and to focus on races they can win."
Zeleny later added, "The democrats want more money and the reason Pelosi wants more money is to define some of the Republican candidates. As Jim Acosta's party mentioned earlier, there are Tea Party candidates in house races, the democrats are trying to define them as extreme, and they need money to do that. In 2006 if we can remember when Democrats won control of the house, Republicans had a money advantage. Republicans had more money. So having more money, being on TV does not necessarily mean you are going to hold your majority."
This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast Sept. 6, 2010.
