Chris Van Hollen announced today at a press conference that no House Dem freshman turned down help from the DCCC’s Frontline program. Last cycle, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) initially spurned Frontline but later had the sense to change her mind, which is why she’s still in Congress. Meanwhile, the only member who strong-armed the DCCC until the bitter end apparently learned her lesson the very, very hard way:
Van Hollen also said [former KS-02 Rep. Nancy] Boyda left him a regretful voicemail that she told him to play for any other vulnerable member toying with the idea of skipping out on Frontline.
“All of our new members have learned from the mistakes of two in the former class who did not participate,” Van Hollen said. “Nancy Boyda has been very clear about the fact that she made a mistake.
“It’s a great message, because she clearly felt that not participating was a good part of the reason she failed.”
Good, at least, that she is putting herself out there as a cautionary tale for others. The DCCC is quite skilled at incumbent protection. It’ll be long time before anyone forgets that.
but they are pretty solid on defense.
I wonder if Boyda wants back in? Not sure how successful she would be though.
bad call.
You guys say CSP was the other but then that she changed her mind and did accept help. Did Van Hollen goof and mean just one then?
Boyda had a base problem too.
There were numerous base precincts where there were significant under-votes. There were actually more under-votes than the margin of loss. I know there is some Open Left bashing here, but Chris Bowers was spot on when he said that every last Democrat elected to congress depends on registered Democrats and liberals. Boyda alienated quite a few of them.
It is also worth noting that Perot got his second largest margin in 1992 in the KS-02.