Hey Kansas, We 're going to challenge all House seats in 2006.

[kansasblue]

Let's find some canidates and get to work.

KANSAS
1 Jerry Moran (R)
2 Jim Ryun (R)
3 Dennis Moore (D)
4 Todd Tiahrt (R)

From MyDD.com http://www.mydd.com/

DCCC & challenging all 435 seats in 2006
by Jerome Armstrong

A couple of months ago, I was in a DCCC meeting with their blogger Jesse Lee, and the new Executive Director, John Lapp, among others. Sitting around the table with them, it felt decidingly different then the last gang-- that this crew actually read blogs and was engaged in what we've been trying to do, and would work with the efforts out here to win.

Still, when I brought up the idea of contesting every single CD in 2006, I got mostly the same usual standbys for why that wasn't a priority. I'd been given a Project 90 document before meeting with them, which explains in mind-opening detail, what happens when you contest a race that would have been previously uncontested. Simply put, the safe Republican will go and spend their money helping the endangered or challenging Republicans in other districts, but the challenged Republican-held seat will siphon off money from those other Republicans. This document analyzed it in cold numbers over the past three cycles, and the conclusion was blatent-- it makes sense to challenge all the seats.

Yet, inside DC, that's still a foreign concept. There are 435 federal level seats up next year in the House, and contesting them all just doens't make sense, they say, regardless of the facts. They cannot see the forest for the trees. So, on behalf of the Democratic activists in the blogosphere, I asked for two things of Lapp's crew in the DCCC to research and compile.

First, put up on your website a list of every single CD with the filing dates and deadlines before the primary.

Second, update it when known Democratic challengers enter the contest.

And I asked that this be done before the end of this year.

Lapp is someone that we can work with, he took notes on those two requests, and said he'd deliver (I'm sure that BlogPac could fund such a minor project if need be, but heck, it's their job).

I don't fault the DCCC for not going into the OH 2nd right after the primary, when the campaign of Hackett's requested their input of resources. The DCCC looked at the numbers, and decided that they'd wait and see, and follow the netroots lead.

The off-cycle elections are years in which things are tested by the parties for using in the next cycle. It's pretty obvious that this 'experiment' with Hackett (and challenging every seat) works quite well. We have another special election coming up in California, and again, the blogosphere should lead the way to challenging the Republicans at every turn. Eventually, they'll get it in DC that was the DCCC strategy, whatever.

[mitchtv]

1. Well, we challenged the Puke in my district

But didn't give them any money. Believe it when you see it.