Survey USA’s poll showing Nikki Tsiongas only leading Jim Ogonowski 51-41%, has given me (and should give Democrats) some pause.
And frankly, the Democrats have underperformed in
special elections this year. In GA-10, the runoff was between two Republicans. We lost a seat in the NY state assembly. Additionally, the
Dallas mayor’s race was a terrible result.
If this seat goes Republican, especially to a candidate who says we should be in Iraq indefinitely, this may be a bad omen for holding on to the House next year.
Given that the GOP has their strongest possible
candidate with 9/11 connections (his brother piloted one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center), is this a race to worry about? Comments appreciated, especially those with some local knowledge.
and that is the only reason it is this close. Plus Tsongas had a contested primary while Ogonowski had a walkover. I doubt it ends up any closer than this.
The only reason that this race is close is that Republicans are blanketing the airwaves with ads and Democrats are not running a single ad. This is why Democrats lost the New York Assembly seat. You don’t let your opponent define the debate with ads and not run a single one.
The DCCC should immediately force Niki Tsongas to spend some of her $500,000 cash on hand on some serious attack ads tying Ogonowski to the national Republicans and their attempts to cut Social Security and Medicare in the latest budget as well as Ogonowski’s opposition to S-CHIP.
As for the Dallas race, that was nonpartisan, but the result still was not good.
and think that Democrats will lose this seat and Republicans will have picked up a House seat a year before the election. This is the exact same feeling I had before the New York Assembly election. The only positive development that may come from this is that it should light a fire under the feet of Democrats.
Frankly, I am getting sick and tired of everybody talking about how Democrats already have 2008 won. At this rate, Democrats would be lucky to do as well as John Kerry did in 2004. In just 11 months, the wind has shifted from our backs to our faces.
I really, really hope this is just a case of the Dems thinking they can’t possibly lose a seat in Massachusetts of all places, so they can hoard their resources for elsewhere. Which is a really stupid way for them to think, especially when there might not even be another election for a year and change, but I can’t help thinking it doesn’t really reflect the way they’re going to look at the bigger picture.