The inane attack the DCCC launched against Laura Moser was a weak argument that she was a carpetbagger. Thin evidence was that Moser wrote living in Paris Texas would be a horror. Ms Moser is seeking to represent Houston. The 4th largest city in America, Houston is further removed from Paris Texas than Poughkeepsie is from New York City. If that’s all they got….they needed to leave well enough alone.
This is not an attack on candidates the DCCC has favored. The DCCC makes trivial and counterproductive attacks on More than enough Democrats. The point of this diary is that the DCCC’s trivial attacks on Democrats out of their favor help only Republicans. These trivial attacks don’t work for the candidates the DCCC favors and they likely increase support for those candidates that are attacked. Most importantly they create divisions in the Democratic Party that will only help Republicans no matter who gets a Democratic nomination.
As for the motivation to inject such inanity into a primary it wasn’t necessarily ideological. It might be that the DCCC simply prefers wealthier members that can donate more to their war chest. Or, perhaps, all evidence to the contrary, they think that wave elections are still won by the most centrist appearing candidate. Centrist views might be important to winning a district. But the voters of the district should make that call mainly because they understand their own district better than do people with no understanding of the local political culture.
In Lizzie Fletcher’s defense despite the DCCC’s ‘help’ many much more blue chip candidates proved to be full throated liberals. Edward Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt hardly made a name protecting the class they came from — though their humane economic policies may have done better at that than do the heartless programs of conservatives of either party. Fletcher should not be dismissed only because of a likely unsolicited attack on a Democratic rival. Perhaps she will be an outspoken proponent of minimum wage increases and rolling back the many tax gifts to the wealthy that have destroyed the nations finances and pledging never to vote for more cuts to our tattered safety net. She will certainly have more need to demonstrate such sentiments than before the DCCC attack made the 7th District Democrats wary of the reason for trivial attacks on their own from unfathomable quarters.
Instead of a more bucolic runoff there will be a sharper edge to the race. That is the fruit of DCCC involvement. After the DCCC blunder of a trivial attack from on high I would tend to vote for the journalist in this race unless the lawyer proved herself closer to my own liberal beliefs. That would be more because of the inexplicable behavior of the DCCC than the professions of the candidates. That ceteris paribus preference was created solely by the DCCC’s heavy handed trivial attack.
If the DCCC has real evidence a candidate is corrupt, a racist. a homophobe or has any other undisclosed relevant character flaw then they should announce that proof before the primary. If their beef is trivial, like it was in District 7, then they should simply stop making things worse for the candidate they prefer in the primaries and for any Democrat in the General. We should speak evil of Democrats when there is some evil to speak. But a distaste for small town life is hardly evil…. We should not speak inanely of anyone.
Perhaps the DCCC should have a few more voices directing their efforts if we are ever to achieve a more united party. Liaisons with the last open presidential primaries top three significant delegate winners all with a veto over negative ads against democrats coming from the DCCC would suffice. Ms Pelosi and Mr Lejon have important offices. Their authority to harm Democratic candidates is hardly the most important and not a power that should be welded as often as it has been. It is not, hopefully, a power they relish or will be jealous enough to keep from sharing. Its current application is hurting party unity. Perhaps, if they are reluctant to reform, the next Democratic President will help roll sufficient logs to create a DCCC that wages fewer wars on Democrats and reserves scorn for the opposition.