Printable Version Tell a friend

ID-01: Another GOP "safe" seat under pressure

(The Daily Kos)

by kos

Wed Jul 26, 2006 at 09:53:16 AM PDT

It's getting harder and harder for me to remain pessimistic about November with all the great news as of late. It's bad enough when Republicans have to worry about their House seats in states like Kentucky, Indiana, and even Nebraska and Wyoming.

But now the GOP is worried about their seat in freakin' Idaho? It's true, as the Republicans betray in their "Retain Our Majority Program" list.

The final ROMP fundraiser is used for candidates in the most desperate need of campaign money. Three of the recipients trail their challengers in terms of cash on hand. Most of those who are ahead in funds have only modest leads.
The ROMP list included five incumbents, four open-seat candidates and one challenger. The other beneficiaries were Minnesota open-seat candidate Michele Bachmann; Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.); Jeff Lamberti, who is challenging Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa); Idaho open-seat candidate Bill Sali; Rep. Don Sherwood (R-Pa.); and Iowa open-seat candidate Mike Whalen.

[...]

Sali is competing for the seat being vacated by gubernatorial candidate Rep. Butch Otter (R-Idaho), which is normally a very safe Republican district; President Bush won it 69-30 in 2004. But Sali survived a heated primary with just 26 percent of the vote, and there have been rumors of Republican supporters defecting to Democratic candidate Larry Grant.

Jonathan Singer over at MyDD tells us why this is huge news:

To this point, I knew that House Republicans were concerned about the possibility that they would lose control of the chamber. Yet I had no idea that they were in such a state of panic that they would divert hundreds of thousands of dollars to Idaho, one of just two states in which a majority of residents approve of President Bush; into a district in which President Bush received more than two-thirds of the vote; for a candidate who has already raised more than $500,000 -- especially at a time when the NRCC is trailing the DCCC in cash-on-hand.

As Chris noted earlier today, of the 61 House races mentioned by The Hotline's Chuck Todd as competitive or potentially competitive, the Republicans must defend 51. So if House Republicans believe they need to raise serious dollars for a race not even among their 51 most vulnerable, then we may be in for an even larger potential gust in November than we had previously assumed was possible.

This is nothing short of remarkable. Nebraska? Wyoming? Idaho? The potential for November seem to get bigger by the day.

Now I am still pessimistic, in large part because of our turnout woes, in part because of the GOP's ability to motivate, energize, and turnout their core base in what will be a base election. But there is clearly reason to hope.

You know what this all means, right? That no one has an excuse to sit this election out. People-power requires you guys to hit the pavement on behalf of your local Democrats. If Idaho can have a congressional seat in play, there's something happening in your backyard that can change this country for the better.

On the web:

• Larry Grant's official campaign site
  
• Grassroots for Grant (blog)
  
• Why Republicans hate Sali, from Swing State Project:

  Here's what the former GOP speaker of the ID House had to say about Sali:

  "That idiot is just an absolute idiot. He doesn’t have one ounce of empathy in his whole fricking body. And you can put that in the paper."