I assume that idea, where there’s like a national command center with like Josh and Leo and President Bartlett strategizing on various races is just West Wing fantasy. And that they’re mostly concerned with figuring out how they’re going to funnel as much of the monies as possible into various yacht-based initiatives.
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Wouldn’t surprise me. Wasn’t the DNC pretty much bankrupt prior to Trump? I remember reading a bunch of stories about that lol.
That’s really more the job of the DCCC and DSCC…unfortunately. DNC sets the platform and raises money.
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lol no wonder we lose so much. It’s clear a ton of these house races would have benefited greatly from significantly more competent organization after what I’m reading. Sounds like they completely blew the florida races through sheer incompetence.
Then again whoever the establishment picked probably wouldn’t be much more competent either judging by how shit they are at messaging.
oh, don’t even get me started on the DCCC. Seriously incompetent. and racist.
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They have AOC sitting there just dying to give them the cheat codes but they don’t even let her in the room because she isn’t 100 years old and loyal to the ghouls in charge.
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I’m always curious to hear more of your perspective on the DCCC.
What do you view as their most major and glaring areas of incompetence? And what in your view would be the best or easiest structural issues that could be addressed?
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I could give a lot of specific examples here, but what they all boil down to, I think, is arrogance which leads to inflexibility. This might get a bit philosophical, so let me place a disclaimer here. When I say “campaign” I am talking about the apparatus/organization, not just the candidate. There are people who run, and people who run those who run. I’m usually talking about the latter here.
When you run a successful campaign, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of believing that your way is the best and only way. Especially if you win (campaigns can be successful, imho, and still lose the race. See: Bernie’s campaign in 2016). So you think your way is the only way and refuse to listen to other inputs (Se: Bernie’s campaign in 2020).
The trouble with the DCCC is that it takes a father knows best approach to “helping” congressional campaigns. It’s chaired by a congressperson (in 2020 it was Cheri Bustos), often chosen for purely political reasons. DCCC will support you, but only if you use their consultants, and run your campaign their way, and use their tools. If you stray, you’re cut off. This approach is mostly fine for D+10 districts. Whatever, it doesn’t matter, the Dem is winning there anyway. But the very districts the DCCC claims to care about most, the flippable ones, are the ones hurt the most by this mindset, because these are the districts that take nuance to win.
So…more listening, less telling. More cooperation, less directing.
I think a big step toward fixing it would be to have the DCCC/DSCC chaired by an experienced campaign staffer…preferably a field director/organizing director. Someone like Stacey Abrams. Most candidates know little about the science of running a campaign, and having an elected congressperson/senator and their staff (who also are different from campaign staff) run the campaign arms of the party just seems so stupid to me. Let them be run by people who know how to run campaigns.
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My closest experience with a government administration (political appointees) was in the Clinton Dept of Housing and Urban Development and arrogance was the big problem. The appointees with no housing experience to speak of thought they could redo everything and that they knew better than career housing people.
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https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1351229769002725390
https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1351236478811201540
https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1351234485463953408
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Yee haw.
Brooks is about to get himself banned permanently from Nashville, lol.
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I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. All of my campaign work/experience is related to working on issues or propositions rather than candidates, so your perspective is valuable to me.
2 follow up questions if you have the time.
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Considering that replacing the DCCC chairperson with someone who has more of a field director-type background would be impactful, but also a tall task, what would be something that someone in your position or mine could do that would have a positive impact towards improving or resolving the structural issues?
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When you say that the candidates don’t know the science behind running a campaign, what exactly do you mean? Are you talking about like advanced analysis of their digital spend, or like the nuts and bolts of doing GOTV or canvassing? Or both, or something else?
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Looks like Chris Gaines will be making a comeback soon.
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lol, he’s been pissing off rednecks since the early 90s.
He’s been banned from country stations before, lol
He released a video made in 2002
“when we’re free to love anyone we choose” line rustled a lot of jimmies back in the day
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So why is he a Republican? Open-carry AR15s in pre-schools? No-choice? Pro-war? I guess he just likes low taxes. Probably especially low/no inheritance tax.
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idealism?
My first thought, that song sounds like it was written by a full blown bleeding heart liberal.
So you think his ideals of people loving one another prevent him from being a Democrat? I guess that’s a reasonable take.
j/k - or not really, but I don’t see how that makes him a Republican
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I mean he probably realizes claiming he’s a democrat would surely fully end his career. Maybe he secretly votes that way though lol.
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A liberal who doesn’t want his daughters to pay taxes on their $150M inheritance.
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