The 2006 mid-terms and the NY 26th Congressional District.

[TheWraith]

Let's talk about 2006. Here in the usually Repub NY 26th district, our (and I use that word loosely) Congressional Rep is Tom Reynolds, shill of big business, who's also the head of the Repub National Congressional Committee. In the 2002 mid-terms, Reynolds won reelection by a margin of 50 points. I'm not kidding. He never even ran an ad or bought a lawn sign. From my spot on the ground, you'd never even have known that he was up for reelection.

In 2004, we actually got a Democratic challenger, Jack Davis. Running on his own money with no DNC backing, Davis brought the race into contention, so close that Reynolds had to actually start campaigning. Reynolds ended up winning the race, but his margin of victory was only ten points. In this district, without backing, that's phenomenal.

There also seems to be a significant anti-Reynolds sentiment brewing. In my heavily Republican (64% of the county, and even larger locally) area, I saw at least a dozen Davis signs (not counting my own) leading up to the election--impressive given that I'd previously seen only two Dem stickers or signs in this town, ever. There were also some homemade "No to Tom Reynolds" signs posted around town. I'd put it on the fact that the local economy sucks, and Reynolds is on the side of exporting jobs to Burma or Freedonia or wherever his campaign contributors can make an extra nickel. He'd be a great target to take out, since he's the head of the RNCC, he votes with Bush 100% of the time, and this is supposedly a Republican safe district.

So, it comes down to this: is Davis going to run again in 2006? If so, is the DNC going to back him? If they aren't, what do we have to do to make them?