Emanuel meets with DeLay challenger

[Judi Lynn]

April 14, 2005


Emanuel meets with DeLay challenger
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) yesterday vetted a potential challenger to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), meeting with Richard Morrison, who challenged DeLay last year and held him to 55 percent of the vote.

But Emanuel, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), declined to offer Morrison an early endorsement, instead giving the potential candidate a proposal for how the DCCC wants the race to unfold.

The DCCC wants to avoid a bruising Democratic primary in the Houston-area 22nd District.

“They made a proposal and we’re weighing it,” said Nathan Wilcox, Morrison’s spokesman.
“They’re very interested,” Wilcox added. “He’s the nominee. He can beat anyone in the primary.”
(snip/...)

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/041405/brief.html

[opusprime]

1. Love this strategy...

Chose the weakest, most valuable targets and go after them tooth and nail. Coryn should be in this list as well.

Santorum took a Walmart jet to the Terry Shiavo death watch, that bastard needs to go as well. Anybody but Santorum. Target acquired.

[LynneSin]

3. Santorum is already a goner

It looks like Bob Casey will be the challenger who is very well-known throughout the state and had the most votes of any candidate for any office statewide in the 2004 elections (He's state treasturer). Only issue is, always, the fact that Casey is pro-life which only in PA do pro-life democrats seem to do really well. I guess it's offset by the fact that repuke Arlen Specter is pro-choice. Personally I'd rather have the guy in the senate then in the statehouse when Ed Rendell is done (term limits).

Plus, the Secretary of State in PA just uncertified a bunch of electronic voting machines because of their unreliabilty. (SoS is appointed by the Governor). The 3 counties affected were suburbs of Pittsburgh which is an area that Santorum is going to have to do really well in order to compensate for the fact that PHiladlphia will overwhelmingly support the democratic candidate (especially since former Philly Mayor is up for re-election and he's really tough to beat with the philly vote on his side).

Maybe Santorum can run for US Senate in his home state of Virginia

[wakeme2008]

2. This could piss me off

with not a lot of money and then running against a much stronger DeLay Morrison did very well. I am still getting emails from his campaign....

DCCC should stay out of this.

[Gman]

4. That's what the DCCC was telling Morrison

The DCCC will not get involved in primaries. Never have, never will. Why should they spend money on a primary? The candidate that can raise enough money to win in the primaries will show the DCCC that 1) he/she can raise money and 2) he/she can win. Then, the DCCC may or may not get involved.

But even before the primary, an assessment of the chances of beating the republican is made of each district. If the republican is in a safe district, regardless of what the democrat does in the primary the DCCC is unlikely to help in the general election. However, if the democrat shows an ability to raise substantial amounts of money, the DCCC may help some too. Keep in mind that the ability for a democrat to raise money for a congressional race is directly related to how safe the republican is in that district. If a good democratic candidate cannot raise money, even in the primary, it could well be that not only the DCCC but everyone else that gives the big bucks thinks the race is not winnable.

[PATRICK]

5. Send the detectives, ops in

and be totally ruthless about vote fraud, rigged machines etc. Delay wa running scared last time and probably showed up on the campaign trail for pretext more than anything else. Make the vote fair and you'll get another block of numbers automatically.

This could be showcase for lasering an individual district to make it clean(er). If the Dems ARE serious about reclaiming their stolen votes that is.