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This hasn't been talked about yet as far as I know, but coat-tails from a Presidential candidate CAN make the difference in Congressional races during Presidential years. For example, we could have beaten Conrad Burns in 2000 (Schweitzer ran against him) but he narrowly won re-election in part because of Bush's coat-tails in Montana. Likewise, in 2004 we could have picked up Senate seats in Alaska (against Lisa Murkowsi) Kentucky (against Jim Bunning) and Florida (against Mel Martinez) but we narrowly lost each race, likely in part due to Bush's support in those states.
At the same time, I can remember instances in 2000 and 2004 where Democratic Congressional candidates had to run away from Gore and Kerry in terms of associating themselves with candidates who were almost sure to lose in certain states. We cannot allow for this to happen again in 2008 if we want to keep control of Congress. Remember, in the elections after wave elections, the party that gained seats can often lose a lot of them. Case in point, a lot of the Republican Class of 1994 was defeated just two years later in 1996, when the Republicans ran a shitty candidate in Bob Dole, versus our strong Bill Clinton.
So, which candidates could help us the most in the area of coat-tails to keep Congress? I would say that Wes Clark John Edwards, and Evan Bayh fit this description the best. While Bayh is a little too conservative on me for some issues (being a member of the DLC) I won't be upset if he is the nominee, because he will play well in Congressional districts and Senate seats that we need to pick up or retain (especially in the three Indiana Congressional districts we picked up this year.)
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