Not bad for a sophomore (then again, so is fellow vice-chair Bruce Braley):
New Jersey Rep. Albio Sires has been tapped as vice chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
In his new position, Sires will be charged with heading up the committee’s member participation and outreach, meaning he’ll be pushing Democrats to get more involved in fund raising and close races.
Over at Congress Matters, though, Kagro makes a good point:
How does this bode for the 2010 cycle in Florida’s 18th, 21st and 25th districts, currently held by Cuban-American Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, respectively? In 2008, Wasserman Schultz, though chair of the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” program, famously refused to go all in for the Democrats running there. Now she goes into the 2010 cycle as a vice chair. And although it won’t necessarily be Sires’ job to turn those districts blue, you wouldn’t be crazy to wonder whether his heart won’t really be in that job, either. R or D, the Cuban-Americans in Congress don’t tend to get in each other’s way, at the very least, and in some cases are in fact very close friends.
That doesn’t make Sires a bad choice for the job, though. Just that it’s not likely to get better for Democratic Cuban-American candidates in Florida in terms of support from incumbent Dems.
Sigh. He’s probably right, especially with DWS being the other vice-chair.
Rather than in the district next door he has less reason to be deferential than DWS. Give the guy a chance.
From Politico.com today.
Too bad for Jim Bunning, it seems he can’t get any respect even from his own Republican colleagues. I really hope this doesn’t happen though.
To clarify my position since some on this blog have mistakenly confused my positions regarding some Senatorial hopefuls, I would just like to make it official my endorsement of Senator Jim Bunning in the Kentucky Republican Primary. I hope Senator Bunning receives a strong mandate from Kentucky Republicans to…..carry on a hopeless battle into the general, hehehe.
trying to get them to pay their dues, raise money for other candidates, etc., and if Wasserman-Schultz is mainly dealing with Dem incumbents (trying to get them not to retire), then Braley can still go all in on our key red-to-blue districts.
That’s how I thought the work was going to be divided among the three vice chairs:
http://www.swingstateproject.c…
There are still 5 Republican districts in NJ. Before he ran for Congress, Albio Sires served in the NJ Assembly, so he surely knows plenty of possible Democratic candidates for Congress. A sought after Democrat such as Jeff Van Drew is used to hearing “Please run for Congress” from the DCCC, but it will mean more when it comes from former colleague Albio Sires.
We will also need to focus on NY-03 next cycle. Perhaps he has conatcts in the NYC metro area that will help him recruit there.
Endorsements don’t matter. What matters is whether those running get help in fundraising and whether the candidate chosen can lift the burdens himself.
We’ve heard time and time again that “so and so” was a great candidate and only if the DCCC had dumped a ton of money into the race they would’ve won.
Successful candidates create their own success and the party just gives them a little push to help them get over the top.
According to politico he spoke with Gillibrand Wednesday morning and she is the apparent frontrunner.