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May 14, 2008
Congratulations Rep.-elect Childers
The Democratic Party pulled off a major feat Tuesday, taking a safe, historically Republican district in northern Mississippi and moving it into the Democrat column.
Despite the nearly $3 million spent by both sides combined, this race received little attention in the popular media, far too little given its larger implications nationally.
I watched CNN at the Capitol Lounge in D.C. for hours and had to get coverage on the Mississippi race from a friend (and seasoned Southern politico) who called in updates. It would have been nice if Wolf Blitzer had taken a minute or two to recap what was going on in the special election every hour or so.
One of the most important aspects of this Dem pickup is that it was seen as a test of Obama's downticket effect. The Republicans tried their very best to defeat conservative Democrat Travis Childers by attempting to link him with the more liberal national Party. They ran ads comparing him to Barack Obama, John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi.
Just like in the recent Louisiana congressional race, the Obama linkage doesn't seem to have worked.
The big story here is that Democrats have recently performed very well in three strong GOP districts. This gives the DCCC and the Democratic Party in general a confidence boost headed into the November elections.
At the same time this spells trouble for the Republicans, and should be taken as a sign that a major regroup and rethink of their strategy against both Obama and Democrats running for congress is in order.
The $1.27 million that the NRCC spent in the heavily Republican district amounted to nearly 20 percent of the committee's entire cash-on-hand. The committee has now spent more than $3 million to defend three conservative House seats, losing all three of them, and it is ill-equipped financially to compete fully in an ever-widening playing field for November. [Source: The Politico]
| By hpadam | 12:47 AM
