Discussion: Dem Super PAC Spending To Elevate GOP Hardliner In California House Race

Doesn’t this work better if the Dems don’t advertise their strategy?

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Obama should be endorsing and cutting campaign adds/robo-calls for a candidate in each of these districts, not making movies for Netflix.

Or get Harris and Feinstein to do an endorsement. Please, we have an election upcoming in which we HAVE to take the House. Losing two or three seats in CA because the candidates are too sure about how right (or “progressive”) they are to drop out is pure stupidity.

I am tired of tip toeing around this, too much is at stake. We need to start big footing some of these ego driven candidates.

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I wish they wouldn’t do this. This is my district and Liberatore is a POS – my household received a mailer from his campaign and it was absolutely disgusting. I do not want a chance in hell that this POS is elected to represent me. (I have already voted.)

ETA: There are 17 people running for the seat – 7 Rs, 6 Dems, 2 American Independents and 2 no party preference. We have a “jungle primary” and the top two vote getters go head to head in the general.

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This is probably more effective, and certainly better for the Democratic Party as a whole, than the DCCC’s ill-fated alternate strategy of picking one Dem and dumping on the rest.

So I say, go help Liberatore. It’s as good a strategy as any I can think of.

Because of California’s unusual jungle primary system, the top two candidates in the state’s June 5 primary will advance to the November general election regardless of party.

Well this must be something new, right?

It’s a couple of years old.

Two years ago, in 2016, the two people running for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat were Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez, both of whom are Democrats.

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Seventeen? That’s not a jungle, it’s a whole eco-system.

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Complete with bottom feeders.

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This is a fairly common GOP strategy in California. It was used on Emilio Heurta’s challenger in the 2016 primary, and we see McCarthy itching to run against Wendy Reed again (he obliterated her) in a 51% Latino district.

There were 17 Republican candidates running for President, they were all pretty homogeneous, and look who won. Cautionary tales only work if you pay attention to the outcomes.

Had to add this

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I was being snide (was going to say ‘dickish’ but then there would be esplanin’ to do).

Jungle primary makes it seem like ‘nature of the beast’ problem but why the apparent last minute crisis environment? Don’t understand.

I don’t know. I’ve already voted. I think the Dem who I am supporting is expected to be one of the two primary winners.

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That’s one of their best, that doesn’t have squirrels in it.:slight_smile:

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I’m sorry this is happening to you. I find this strategy horrifying. I think some dems were rooting for Trump because, well, right wing hard-liners can never win, right? And now, well now we have now. The democratic party should never support a non-democrat for any reason. This is the kind of thing that makes run-of-the mill working dems (dems who are active in their counties and cities) tear their hair out and jump ship.

If I didn’t know so many amazing dems in my area who work darned hard to keep things going (in a 7 person primary), I’d question whether to become an independent just to avoid being associated with this right-wing-supporting malarchy. Supporting a fascist is supporting a fascist – no matter what the reason. Oy!

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i get the strategy, but the tactic is dirty pool.

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Stupid. Why give them the publicity? Why give them prominence? They should all be relegated to oblivion. Don’t waste Democratic contributions doing something this dumb.

Remember when Democrats were hoping Trump would win the nomination because he could never win the presidency??

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Why is it dirty? The ads are truthful, they attack the republican for being tied at the hip with Trump, and supporting his raciest views. That these mailers are being mailed to registered republicans that are into this kind of thing, well that is the kind of business we are in.

Obama-care was not repealed by ONE vote. And their are 49 D’s in the senate. One of those votes (the key 49th) is Clare McCaskell. Do you know how she won in 2012? Well she spent a lot of $$$ running adds in the republican primary attacking Todd Aiken for being “too conservative” while highlighting the things that people I know find horrible, but get Republican’s all excited. As those with any knowledge of history know Todd “legitimate rape” Aiken did not do so hot in the general election.

Again, we have an existential problem given (a) Democratic enthusiasm creating lots of candidates, (b) Green Party/Naderites running as democrats, and © the Jungle Primary system, in how it works in reality in a district where the primary vote may be 50% of the vote. We can all do the math, if two republicans each get 23% of the vote, and 4 democrates each get 12.5% of the vote, well then the Republican Candidate For Speaker of the House has a vote come January.

Too much at stake, these are not normal times, and they deserve maximum effort, including some ugly triage.

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This system is simply ridiculous. I think you & I have agreed on that before!

Meanwhile, all the yakkers swing between “why doesn’t’ the party do something”" and “why is the party interfering?” It is a game with the most important stakes in the world, but no clear way to play. Funny, too, many of us are phone banking, etc. Yet, I hate getting those calls from volunteers just like me, so I politely hang up.

There is a downside to the you-should-run meme. We don’t actually want EVERYBODY to run!

best wishes,
CA17 Voter

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Sadly, yes. It has not worked out well. @katscherger

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