Let me tell you what I heard about a DCCC funded candidate

[undeterred]

who won an open seat in the Democratic takeover of 2006. He received about $2 million from the DCCC in a hard fought race that he barely won, even though he also spent a lot of his own money. He is a middle of the road democrat who promised he would try to bring an end to the war. All of his votes have been good, except that he did vote for contined funding for the war, and the voters have been complaining about it.

Yesterday someone who has been around these things a bit longer than I explained to me that this congressman is going to be challenged again and the GOP will give strong support to the same opponent. So, he will need a lot of money from the DCCC again to keep his seat and he knows it. Pelosi controls the purse strings, so Pelosi gets to tell him how to vote on certain things. Like funding the war.

I can't swear that this is true, but it makes more sense than him doing an about face after getting elected. If you take money from the DCCC you are beholden to others and your vote belongs to them and not to your constituents.

I worked for a grassroots candidate who lost. He was disappointed that the DCCC didn't give money to him but after I heard this story...

[JDPriestly]

1. So we need to spread the word: Donate to the campaigns of

specific liberal Democrats. Don't give any money to the DCCC. They don't know how to use it. Give money to Dean's Democratic Party, but not to Pelosi's DCCC.

[me b zola]

6. Russ Feingold's Progressive Patriot Fund is another option

http://www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/

[Cha]

2. Since pelosi "controls the purse strings"..

it's no wonder I signed democrats.org's pledge to not send the dscc and the dccc anymore money until things do a 180.

[undeterred]

3. I guess I wouldn't have believed this until I heard it

We get control of the House, a woman Speaker of the House, and she uses her power to keep us in an illegal war and to keep a wretched man in the White House. Its sickening.

[Cha]

5. I'm thinking in retrospect that

her daughter, Alexandra(and her puffffff piece on bushit), was a clue ..as obscure as that clue was.

[AuntPatsy]

4. It could very well explain alot, sometimes the answer is just that simple.

[OzarkDem]

7. Pelosi alone doesn't control the purse strings

Steny Hoyer and Rahm Emanuel have more control over DCCC and the chair they appointed Rep. Chris Van Hollen. There will doubtless be pressure on him to fund DLC oriented candidates, whether he stands firm and supports incumbents remains to be seen. It certainly wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility that leadership could pressure incumbents up for re-election to conform to the DLC agenda. In 06, the DCCC did fund some races against grassroots Dem candidates. Let's hope we don't see a repeat.

On edit: Its not surprising that Dem reps are being pressured to follow the Dem leadership's regressive agenda with the threat of no funding for their reelection campaigns.

[undeterred]

8. Yeah, well we still get to vote.

I am sick of money making all the difference. We need to get more boots on the ground and get out there and talk to people, tell them what is going on.