Our PAC, Blue Catapult, is holding its first fundraiser next Tuesday in Washington, DC. We support Democratic congressional candidates who are challenging incumbent Republicans or Republican-held open seats. The idea is that incumbents should do well on their own in raising money, but if we want to expand the Democrats’ majority in Congress, then we need to help emerging Democratic challengers in their campaigns.
So we need some help right now in identifying good Democratic challengers, and we are hoping that you can provide some nominations. Here are our criteria:
1) The Democratic congressional candidate must be running for a seat currently occupied by a Republican, whether the incumbent is running for reelection or not.
2) The candidate must have a clear path to the nomination. No primary challenge.
3) The candidate must have a decent campaign operation. Our support is for candidates who, with some more support and attention, could become a competitive seat.
4) The campaign should not be a top target of the DCCC. We want to help emerging candidates, not ones who are already assured of good support.
If you know of any good candidates, please post them in comments. We will choose 5 candidates, and at our event next Tuesday the attendees will vote and the top two will be the recipients of our first contributions.
So, in the comments below, please nominate potential candidates for us to support with some explanation as to why they are good investments. If you want more info about us, please visit www.bluecatapult.com We will of course post our decisions and results as they are determined.
Thanks for your help.
After an exhaustive search I’ve come up with 4 great candidates who I don’t think are on the DCCC list, that seem to have decent organizations in place and could really become competetive if they have some help. I’d like to say that the no primary challenge rule, really kills the chances of some good candidates that have only token primary opposition, Joe McMenamin in Illnois 19 being one.
Feel free to correct me if any of these guys are on the DCCC list
John Thrasher Arizona 02
Nels Ackerson Indiana 04
Scott Harper Illinois 13
Michael Montagano Indiana 03
IN-03 – Michael Montagano
IN-04 – Nels Ackerman
OH-14: ? O’Neil
TX-07 – Michael Skelly
and of course (I have no idea how much the DCCC is dumping into but it needs to remain on the front line) WYOMING – TRAUNER!
Red to Blue has been announced (Round One) for eleven open seats. This will be greatly expanded probably by another 15 or 20 seats. Given that, Gary Trauner is “red to blue.” Maybe, though, he still should be considered.
Steve Dreihaus, OH-1. Not exactly off the radar but he’s unopposed, it’s a very winnable seat (Cranley gave it a good run in 2006), and it is not red to blue. Problem is, of course, that candidates like Eric Massa and Darcy Burner fit your criteria right now but they undoubtedly will be red to blue in the future.
In 16 days, PA has its filing deadline and PA-6. PA-15, and PA-3 could fit the bill for you.
A lot of competitive districts look likely to have primaries. One of the problems, of course, is that rather than strengthening the party by giving us battle tested candidates, primaries are now choking off the money faucet and closing the door for upsets in some districts. Unless you are Carol Shea-Porter and you win with little money. Primaries for example, shut out districts like OH-2 and WV-2 from your list. Ann Barth in WV-2 is certainly the favorite for the nomination but she’s got opponents. Each could be winnable.
I like NJ-5 based on the weaknesses of Scott Garrett but the district has at least two candidates and may get more.
Jim Himes in CT-4 may have a clear path but he is way above the radar screen. Good chance for a pick up.
which cover more than half the states so far…these are candidates who look strong and have no challengers in the primary. But I don’t know how to see if the DCCC is behind them. Some of these MAY face primary challenges in future.
AZ-02 John Thrasher
AZ-03 Bob Lord
CO-04 Betsey Markey
CT-04 Jim Hines – although he may not need money
FL-06 Dave Bruderly
FL-12 Doug Tudor – ought to be interesting campaign, as
Tudor is on active duty and can’t campaign himself
IL-11 Debbie Halverson
IL-13 Scott Halper
IL-16 Robert Aboud
IN-03 Mike Montagno
KY-04 Michael Kelley
MI-04 Andrew Concannon
NJ-07 Linda Stender
OH-01 Dave Dreihaus
PA-09 Tony Barr
VA-02 Glenn Nye
VA-05 Tom Periello
VA-11 Doug Denneny
I want to determine a list of 5 by the weekend and then choose finalists from that. Bill O’Neill who is challenging Steve LaTourette in OH-14 is an interesting choice — This should be a blue collar Dem district, but LaTourette has done a good job of being a pro-union Republican.
We are also now looking at Michael Kelley in KY-04 especially since Geoff Davis only got 52% of the vote last cycle.
Despite her Red to Blue Status Debbie Halverson is interesting — she has a clear shot at the nomination and it is a very winnable open seat.
We helped Angie Paccione in CO-04 last cycle and we were surprised that she decided not to run again. We need more info about Betsey markey but we always like to help challenge Marilyn Musgrave.
Any other names? Please keep them coming.
Judy Baker raised $100,000 in a little over a month from November 28th to December 31st after announcing that she was planning to take on Kenny Hulshof in the Missouri 9th congressional district (source for the $100,000 figure is a note from the candidate to her contributors in early January).
Now that Hulshof is out of the race and it is an open seat she is likely to do even better in fundraising.
Her campaign meets your criteria 1, 3 and 4 perfectly and perhaps better than any other campaign out there.
Currently it also meets crietrion #2, but I must add the caveat that others are considering jumping into the Democratic side of the race now that Hulshof is out.
So point #2 bears watching, but I’d strongly recommend putting this race on your radar, especially if the Democrats decide to unite behind Baker and avoid a primary fight.
Baker is a health care expert, a state rep, and a Baptist Sunday School teacher married to a Baptist minister. She is the rare liberal that can win in a slightly conservative district. She planned to take on an entrenched incumbent and was able to raise money when that was the task at hand. This is a seat that can swing to the Democrats (contrary to what national pundits, who only see Hulshof’s big margins against an array of really marginal non-candidates that the Dems have fielded in the past because they didn’t want to challenge a “safe seat”, think).