Via a press release:
Josh Segall, the 2008 Democratic nominee for Congress in Alabama’s 3rd district, announced today that he will mount a campaign against Mike Rogers (R-Saks) in the 2010 Congressional election.
“It’s time for a new direction. I am a fiscal conservative who will work to create and attract 21st Century jobs to east Alabama so that hardworking people can get ahead,” said Segall.
“Alabama is suffering under irresponsible policies that bail out greedy executives who created this mess and leave hardworking Alabama families holding the bag. Rogers supported the Wall Street bailout, but did nothing for Main Street Alabama. He voted to send Alabama jobs overseas, when what we needed was a plan to create good jobs at home. It’s time to stand up to special interest politics and put Alabama families first once again,” said Segall.
Segall, as most folks here know, performed impressively last cycle: The DCCC didn’t target this race, and Segall was outspent 2-to-1, yet he still held incumbent GOPer Mike Rogers to a 54-46 margin. He also outperformed Obama, who lost the district 56-43 according to the Swing State Project’s analysis – though Obama actually did a bit better here than Kerry did.
PVI-wise, however, the district moved from R+4 to R+9, because Obama’s slight improvement on 2004 trailed his overall nationwide surge. But I think Alabama is a classic case that demonstrates the limits of something like the PVI. As we saw last cycle, Democrats retained AL-05 (R+12) and picked up AL-02 (R+16), showing that candidates with the right local appeal can wind up with very different results from the top of the ticket.
Segall got in relatively late last time – this cycle, with greater name rec and experience under his belt, he’ll have more time to raise money and campaign. Also, with Artur Davis out at the DCCC (background here), this race could wind up getting some national help. I’m looking forward to following this one.
C’mon DCCC, Artur Davis is a governor candidate now and should not hold sway on your opinion here any more.
Let’s see a 4-3 Dem delegation from Alabama!
He ran a great race in 2008 and probably would have won had the DCCC made a late expenditure in the race.
I know some of y’all are all about electing more Democrats — we did a bit of that in Alabama last election. Now I want to elect a “more and better” Democrat in the person of Josh Segall. We’ve had enough of Mike Rogers shooting his mouth off while accomplishing nothing for his constituents.
I like Josh Segall, and I think that he has a good chance to win a rematch now that he has experience running for office and his fundraising will probably be better. This should be interesting to watch.
By jumping into the race at an earlier point this cycle, Segall may find himself at less of a financial disadvantage — Rogers has yet to file his first quarter fundraising report, but he ended 2008 with $42K in the bank (i.e. drained).
Last time, Rogers outgunned Segall by a $2M-$1M margin.
We’ve got him up on our Act Blue Page
I just donated $150 to Josh right now. I need your help folks. We have got to go early on some of these races.
But as I’ve stated before, his outreach to various college campuses in the district was just unimpressive.
And now, during a mid-term election, the turnout of young voters/college students is going to be lower unless he steps it up this time.
That district was drawn to be winnable for a Democrat, and I think Segall can do it. We should stop prioritizing guys that barely vote with us like Bobby Bright and Parker Griffith, and start investing in Democrats that at least won’t embarrass us constantly. Let’s get some real Democrats in there.
Rogers has less than 35k on hand – major difference from 2008 when had nearly a million in the bank