The Associated Press has a story on a recent self-administered post-mortem by House Republicans following the back-breaking special election losses of seats in Illinois, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The verdict? GOP candidates lost because they could not overcome the "negative perception of the national party."
Gee, you don't say?
But the report also included an interesting nugget on some early DCCC expenditure plans for this fall. The DCCC has booked some advertising time in advance for three key races:
The DCCC has reserved $2.1 million for advertising for a seat in New York City in which Republican Rep. Vito Fossella intends to retire. Fossella, who is married with children, recently acknowledged fathering a child out of wedlock.
Democrats also said they will spend $1.2 million in the Portland, Ore., area, hoping to hold the seat of Democratic Rep. Darlene Hooley, who is retiring.
The third target is the seat held by Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado, where Democrats said they had reserved nearly $700,000 in advertising time.
Tom Cole has criticized the DCCC in the past for reserving time this far in advance, saying that such moves tip the committee's hand. But I like the aggressive buy planned in New York's 13th. If Staten Island Republicans are having a hard time recruiting a candidate now, how much harder is it going to be when prospective candidates (of which Guy Molinari assures us there are still a couple in existence) see that $2.1 million ad buy coming down the pipe?
I'm not as convinced that Kurt Schrader needs that much help, as Mike Erickson is seriously damaged goods at this point, but I'm sure the DCCC can scale back their ad time at their discretion.
