Chris Bowers recently posted a diary at Open Left that contained a fascinating piece of information. Generic House Democrats were running 9 percentage points ahead of Barack Obama (who was tied with McCain). It is not like this has not happened before. Jimmy Carter ran barely 2 percentage points ahead of Gerald Ford in 1976 but nationally, Democrats share of the US House vote was 13% ahead of the Republican share. Carter repeated the feat 4 years later running distinctly behind Ronald Reagan and a sturdy 12% behind the national Democratic vote for the House.
The obvious point, of course, is that if generic House Democrats are clearly popular, House Democratic challengers would be lining up to run as Democrats rather than as non-partisan or unaligned types. Democrats should be wrapping themselves ever tighter in their popular brand as we get nearer to the general election. A review of the web sites for House challengers showed that some candidates are following that strategy but many are still running scared as if it was still 2002.
The trend to stress Democratic ties seemed particularly clear in Washington (all three challengers were clearly identified as Democrats), Florida, California and Texas. It was surprisingly weak in the Northeast. Specific data follows below thew fold.
One Northeastern candidate who is clearly pushing his party ties is Jim Himes in CT-4. Himes is easily labelled a “Democrat for Congress” and includes a picture with Barack Obama and a video with Nancy Pelosi. Karen Hartley-Nagle (DE-At Large), running as a long shot from the most democratic district held by a Republic follows the strategy to the max. Joe Courtney from CT is also upfront.
Following the opposite mode is Mike McMahon (NY-13) whose only use of Democratic or Democrat is in a list of endorsements: the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Otoh, McMahon basks in camapign appearance by Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. wtf.
Many northeastern Dems include the affiliation on the fron page but not on the logo: John Hall (NY-19), Dan Maffei (NY-25), Alice Kryzan (NY-26), John Adler (NJ-3), Dennis Shulman (NJ-5), Jennifer Dougherty (MD-6), and Frank Kratovil (MD-1) fit this picture. Others bury the affiliation in a bio page (Tom Allen for the Senate, Chellie Pingree (ME-1), Mike Arcuri (NY-24), Linda Stender (NJ-7), Josh Zeitz (NJ-4), and Eric Massa (NY-29). Pingree says she’s in the same mold as Donna Edwards. Kirsten Gillibrand identifies herself as a Blue Dog leader but not as a Democrat.
Those Democrats in other parts of the country who push the affiliation include Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15), Dan Seals (IL-10), Anne Barth (WV-2), Gerry Connally (VA-11), Mary Etta Riley (IN-5), Andrew Concannon (MI-4), Darcy Burner (WA-8), Mark Mays (WA-5), George Fearing (WA-4), Noah Lemas (OR-2), Robert Neeld (FL-14), Tim Cunha (FL-6), Alan Grayson (FL-8), Bob Hackworth (FL-10),Christina Avalos (CA-40), Ed Chau (CA-42), John Thrasher (AZ-2), Jay Stoddard (NE-3), Georgiana Oliver (OK-1), Tracey Smith (TX-12), Roger Waun (TX-13), Tom Love (TX-24), and Brian Ruiz (TX-31).