It’s been an interesting kind of day for House races.
- FL-18. Rumor has it that endangered Democrat Patrick Murphy went to talk to the House Republican leadership about switching parties. Unconfirmed, of course – the same rumor has it that Boehner turned Murphy down flat – but Patrick Murphy switched parties once already and there’s that entire possible linkage between Murphy and the voter fraud in FL-26 (Murphy and Democratic Congressman Joe Garcia both employed accused election fraudster Jeffrey Garcia [no relation]). Certainly worth a further look.
- NY-19. The NRCC had a lot of fun cataloging all of the slams* on NY carpetbagger/seat-shopper [Sean***] Eldridge (who is of course trying to unseat wounded war veteran and freshman Congressman Chris Gibson):
[youtube]CsJQM0OIyDg[/youtube]
- Then there’s PA-08. This one’s fun: the DCCC apparently had two main choices to go up against Mike Fitzpatrick. The Democrats want to play War on Women, because the DCCC isn’t very original, and they have a choice between a female candidate, and a male candidate who wrote… I can’t repeat it here. Kids might see it. Let us just say that the male candidate (Kevin Strouse) once thought that it was appropriate to distill down a presumed sex partner’s identity into her genitalia, and Mr. Strouss’s presumed ready access to it**. Guess which one the DCCC picked. Go ahead. Guess.
Last but not least: this is a couple of days old, but still pretty funny. From CA-31:
Democrats likely won’t squander one of their top pickup opportunities in this blue-leaning district, like they did in 2012, but the clashes between four Democrats, Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar, former Rep. Joe Baca, attorney Eloise Gomez Reyes and school board official Danny Tillman, are already sparking fireworks as the race heats up.
The DCCC weighed in early to back Aguilar, in hopes of clearing the field and protecting Democratic chances at the seat. California’s “jungle” primary system means the top two vote-getters in a primary, regardless of party, move on to the general, and multiple Democratic contenders could split the Democratic vote.
…which is how we won CA-31 in the first place, last cycle. You may be noticing a theme, here: and it’s that the DCCC is not exactly firing on all cylinders this election cycle. Rumored defections, a reliance on self-funding candidates, contradictory messaging, an inability to maintain order… why, it’s almost as if the Democratic party leadership has written off the House for the time being!
But surely that’s just crazytalk.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*Seriously, Eldridge had Vanity Fair mocking him. Not auspicious.
**Come, I will conceal nothing from you: lots of people have written stupid things in college. Admittedly, apparently Mike Fitzpatrick isn’t one of them, because otherwise the DCCC would be screaming about it right this very second. They certainly would be if Fitzpatrick had written what Stouse did, and that actually is what makes this relevant to the topic at hand. The Democrats like to try to make Republicans act by a speech code that they themselves refuse to live by, largely because it is actually impossible to do so. I think that Strouse should at least crawl a little, just for the sake of avoiding hypocrisy…
[***Sleep madness.]