| I hate to sound like I'm starting to do a victory dance about five yards shy of the end zone, but for practical purposes, the presidential race is all but over. (John King from CNN just reported that the McCain campaign has more or less ruled out the possibility of winning Colorado along with Iowa and New Mexico, which is tantamount to ruling out the possibility of winning the election. King reports Team McCain's considers its last hope to be a triple-bank-shot approach of holding all the other battleground states and somehow picking up Pennsylvania.)
That doesn't absolve anyone of doing the hard work of GOTVing, of course; it just should lead to some discussion of what we might do with the Obama campaign's gigantic financial bounty. Considering that I write for Swing State Project, you might assume (correctly) that I would call for some of that money to be released to be spent on downballot races. The Obama campaign has seemingly read my mind, as he seems serious about not just bringing with him the 60-seat Senate and progressive-heavy House that he'll need to enact his agenda, but even building at the state legislature level.
The Washington Post is reporting, in an aside in a piece of Obama's advertising plans, that some of the campaign's money may go to the DSCC and DCCC:
The campaign has raised so much money that it is considering passing some along to Democratic Party committees to try to help grow the party's majorities in Congress, according to a campaign source.
Marc Ambinder also reports that the DNC may be moving money to state legislative races (as much as $20 million), especially in key contests like the New York Senate, Ohio House, and Texas House. This is, to my mind, extremely important, as expanding state legislative majorities serves to build the Democratic bench and Democratic brand, and will help establish as much Democratic control as possible over the 2010 redistricting process... one more example of how both Obama and Dean are playing 3-D chess after decades of Democratic committees playing tic-tac-toe. (H/t Kos.)
Which brings me to one more item on my wish list: that Obama himself, in the last week of the campaign, hold some rallies in Mississippi and Georgia, even if it means passing up the chance to try to nail down, say, the EVs of Indiana or West Virginia. Part of that, of course, stems from the need to call attention to and bolster enthusiasm for the campaigns of Ronnie Musgrove and Jim Martin, either of whom could be that Senate Seat #60. But there's also the sheer symbolic power of it: the nation's first African-American president marching confidently into the reddest corners of the Deep South, and making his last stand there. |
