(From the Drexel Democrats Blog)
Around here the Dean/Obama 50 State Strategy is accepted wisdom. It's not controversial anymore, and it's clearly paid dividends both in special elections and in Obama's primary campaign. Republicans, however, have yet to catch on.
Case in point: The Republican challenger to Congressman Chaka Fattah (CD-2) here in West Philadelphia recently dropped out and blasted the local and national party for their utter lack of support.
Now, nobody expected Fattah to be in any danger; He's been reelected with over 86% of the vote six times in a row now. The 2nd CD is safely Democratic and heavily African-American, and Fattah is an excellent congressman. He has strong ties to the district and is a reliably Democratic vote in the house. But as Howard Dean showed us, you can't expect people to vote for you if you don't ask for them to.
The Republican Challenger, Michael Livingston, dropped out of the race and put out a press release attacking local and national party leaders. From that press release:
"From the beginning of my candidacy, it has been clear that, as a moderate Republican in a primarily urban district, the state, local, and national parties had little interest in my success. Despite investing a substantial amount of my own time, energy, and money in the race—and despite raising a larger amount than any recent Republican in the district—I was unable to garner meaningful support from the Party and, as a result, unable to be taken seriously by the media and other opinion-makers. If the Republican Party wishes to be competitive in Pennsylvania and the Northeast generally, it must take more moderate positions and make a more serious commitment to its candidates and their success."
In explaining his decision, Livingston cited a long list of slights including failure to secure endorsements from Republican elected officials; failure to invite him to an event, hosted by Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), held in his own district (Union League) for the specific purpose of supporting local candidates; and, most recently, the unwillingness of McCain campaign officials even to acknowledge his presence at a McCain appearance in Philadelphia next week. He further expressed frustration at the lack of Republican poll coverage on the April 22 primary day, despite repeated efforts to meet with ward leaders and other operatives. "I drove to ten different polling places in Philadelphia and didn’t see a single Republican at any of them," he said. "A visitor from another planet would have assumed that there was a Clinton party and an Obama Party with no Republicans, at all."
While critical of local leaders, Livingston reserved his strongest criticism for the national Republican Party, most notably its Congressional wing. "The NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee) spent $1 million on a by-election in Louisiana but could not even provide me with a weekend of candidate training," he explained. He also expressed frustration with the narrow conservatism of the national party, which he said had unfortunately infected the McCain campaign as well. "The message that is going out from the national GOP is that we will have perpetual war overseas and cultural war at home; and if you lost your job, your house, or your health insurance, it’s pretty much your own problem. That’s a tough message to sell in a poor district," he said.
Emphasis mine.
Keystone Politics dismissed the whole affair with this pointed post:
"Yesterday Keystone Politics received a Press Release indicating that Michael Livingston, Republican candidate for the Second Congressional district had withdrawn from the race against Democratic Congressman Chaka Fattah.
Mr. Livingston, in attempt to garner any media attention, has emailed again to see why we haven’t posted a story. Frankly, his running was not newsworthy and his abandoning the race is even less newsworthy."
This aversion to investing time or resources in any race not within 5 points 9 months before an election is the opposite of the 50 state strategy. Even when you stand no chance of winning, there are longer term benefits to running viable candidates, identifying voters, and making contacts in a community. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm pleased as Punch that Republicans don't have their act together, and I certainly don't want to let the cat out of the bag. I just want to highlight this as the flip side of the 50 state strategy, for any skeptics out there. Any reasonably competent candidate in CD-02 could have been an asset to McCain trying to keep Obama's Philly margins down. Instead, the Republicans have ceded the field.
This fits into a larger story as well, though. Republicans don't bother trying to organize opposition in heavily Democratic (usually minority) districts; it's apparently easier or more cost effective in their view to just engage in voter suppression. They're not interested in asking minorities to vote for them, and minorities get the message loud and clear.
(From the Drexel Democrats Blog)