Sunday, November 12, 2006

Teh Stupids

Confessore:

They were also sometimes poor judges of what will sell in the larger political marketplace; most of the 19 netroots-supported candidates listed on ActBlue, an online clearinghouse for donations to Democrats, lost on Tuesday.


For the millionth time betting on winners wasn't the point. The "obvious" winners would have plenty of backing from the big money people.

But, in any case, let's see how the powers that be did. Rahmbo's first Red to Blue list had 22 names on it.

Darcy Burner (Wash. 8th)*
Phyllis Busansky (Fla. 9th)
Francine Busby (Calif. 50th)
Joe Courtney (Conn. 2nd)*
John Cranley (Ohio 1st)
Jill Derby (Nev. 2nd)
Tammy Duckworth (Ill. 6th)
Brad Ellsworth (Ind. 8th)
Diane Farrell (Conn. 4th)
Steve Filson (Calif. 11th)**
Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y. 20th)
Tessa Hafen (Nev. 3rd)
Baron Hill (Ind. 9th)
Mary Jo Kilroy (Ohio 15th)*
Ron Klein (Fla. 22nd)
Ken Lucas (Ky. 4th)
Patricia Madrid (N.M. 1st)
Harry Mitchell (Ariz. 5th)
Chris Murphy (Conn. 5th)
Lois Murphy (Pa. 6th)
Heath Shuler (N.C. 11th)
Peter Welch (Vt. At-large)


Bolded are wins, non-bolded are losses
*race not yet resolved, listing reflects current known vote count.
**Was defeated in primary by Jerry McNerney, who went on to win.

So, the sentence which was not written but which could have been was:

They were also sometimes poor judges of what will sell in the larger political marketplace; most of the top 22 candidates supported by the DCCC, the party organization dedicated to winning House races, lost on Tuesday.



There were subsequently more races added to the Red to Blue list (I haven't gone through them all yet), but that was the first crop and most of them lost. So, we can conclude that Rahm and pals are "poor judges of what will sell in the larger political marketplace."