DCCC Releases 6th Wave of “Red to Blue”

The DCCC has unveiled an unprecedented sixth wave of their Red to Blue program, adding eight new candidates to the list:

AL-03: Josh Segall

CA-50: Nick Leibham

IA-04: Becky Greenwald

LA-01: Jim Harlan

MN-06: Elwyn Tinklenberg

NJ-05: Dennis Shulman

SC-01: Linda Ketner

TX-10: Larry Joe Doherty

The committee also upgraded a number of candidates to their slate of “Emerging Races”: Bill Durston (CA-03), Rob Hubler (IA-05), Bill Mitchell (FL-09), and Georgianna Oliver (OK-01).

We saw in 2006 that the later a candidate gets added to the program, the less meaningful that endorsement is. Although keep in mind that the DCCC added a fourth wave to Red to Blue on October 27, 2006 — far too late to have any meaningful impact, and five of those candidates are serving in Congress today.

16 thoughts on “DCCC Releases 6th Wave of “Red to Blue””

  4. Like a “pat on the back” type of wave.  And there may be one race here where they nuke it with money at the last minute.  

  6. We’ve been running some numbers and we believe this to be a dead heat. Hopefully if this doesn’t mean direct money, this will encorage donors to give again if they haven’t maxed out.

  8. I’m glad the DCCC is finally recognizing Bill Durston as a serious candidate.

    Durston can win that race against Lungren and people are starting to notice.

    Two years ago, Lungren – who is completing his seventh term in Congress – beat physician and Vietnam War veteran Bill Durston by 21 points. But the economy has taken its toll, and Lungren’s district has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. In a newly released Democratic poll, Lungren leads Durston by just 3 percentage points.

    (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14552.html)

    This race mirrors CA-11…

    The math was undeniable – if there was any seat primed to break through, it was this one.  The demographic shifts mirrored CA-11, and Dan Lungren was arguably a less powerful incumbent than Richard Pombo, with less resources to draw from.  Durston’s first race against Lungren, in 2006, yielded the exact same result as McNerney’s effort in 2004 (around 60-40), and since then the registration gap has tightened significantly (it’s under 3 points and by election day it’ll be closer to even).

    (http://calitics.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=7171)

    Help get the message out to the voters of CA-03. Support Bill Durston for Congress: http://www.actblue.com/entity/…

  10. I like seeing Shulman on the list. He’s a good candidate and trading Garrett for him would be a big gain.

    While the last polling on Sept. 21 had him down 13 points, it was taken before the financial crisis blew up after which we have seen substantial Democratic gains at the presidential level and many downticket races, and before either Shulman or Garrett were up on television. It wouldn’t be a bad bet that this race is closer now.

    I know he and his staff are working hard, and I’ll be watching the returns on election day.

  11. The Republicans know it and I’m glad the DCCC finally put that race on their list. Recently the incumbent told the editorial board of the Anniston Star “I might be defeated” this year.  And the publisher wrote that he said it like he wouldn’t mind if he was defeated.  

    The voters in Alabama are mad at the status quo — they just turned out a huge number of mayors in municipal elections across the state — and Republicans are demoralized.  The local drive-time right wing talk show today was a pity party talking about ripping McCain stickers off their cars.

Comments are closed.