PennyK what did Mejias need to win that he didn't have or do ?

[nedbal]

from the other thread it looks like DU'er PennyK worked on the Mejias campaign. I only donated and could not spend time getting rid of what used to be my congressman before new lines were drawn. I do realize the new lines were drawn to make sure he had the best repub district he could get, besides being the typical incumbent that is next to impossible to get rid of.

is there anything that could have helped Mejias ???

thanks

[PATRICK]

1. Completely crushing the GOP wall

Money, media, entrenched attitudes, the natural incumbent advantage of being known, the built in prejudices against "liberal democrats" that even intimidate some dem voters. Barring reforms of media and campaign OR redistricting, OR simply an incumbent meltdown because a safe candidate is likely an arrogant stooge anointed by kingmakers, here is what it takes.

A great candidate tirelessly meeting as many individual voters as humanly possible as EFFECTIVELY as possible. A huge enthused and knowledgeable trained army of volunteers who can themselves reach out to voters without alienating them. MY candidate Massa did all the right things and Kuhl all the wrong things. We had enthusiasm, but in our district with an appalling 60,000 GOP registration advantage, we needed a lot more volunteers and NO RNC robocalling and sneak ads scaring voters with impossible lies.
Even so, when the absentees are counted we likely fell short only a few thousand. With fairness it was a done deal. With even more voter turnout it would have been closer. Volunteers create a certain advantage. because it is limited it really has to be more boots on the ground. "Realism" and being disheartened because the effort was a lot bigger and more enthusiastic than usual should not discount the fact that a lot more volunteers could be raised.

You practically have to break the party back to get at the shielded hack. And we almost did on the sheer quality of the candidate and the abysmal performance of the GOP. Remember Hastert and Reynolds were REWARDED powerless and disgraceful second terms by inertial voting alone(don't give that "I vote for the person" crap, only Dems seem to take such a value seriously). Congress will sorely miss these candidates but it cost the GOP locally and nationally, sometimes permanently in further registration defections. As long as they put hacks and these hacks are even more useless now with their Bush King a
an empty crown, the payback for creating these "safe" havens may be the desertion of the abused GOP locals.

[GenDem]

2. We were following your race

We were rooting for Massa as we worked the 26th for Jack Davis. We had a 43,000 GOP advantage here to overcome, and ended up coming within 7000. The robo-calls in the last 72 hours completely shut down any GOTV efforts, and we may have lost a local coroners race because of that. They played every dirty trick. The social security lies kept us on defense calling seniors for 2 weeks, they started pulling out all of our signs, they played one negative ad after another. Everyday the mailbox was full of expensive full color mailers calling our candidate liberal (hardly - Davis was a lifelong Republican until 2 years ago) and putting him in the worse possible light. The Republicans in the 26th probably would have voted for Foley himself had he been on the ballot.

While I celebrate for our great victory nationwide, I'm sad that we couldn't stop that pig, Reynolds. To show just how red we are - Spitzer only won in Genesee County by 36 votes, and Hillary won by 51%.

My question now is for the future. Now that we have a Democratic majority and a Democratic governor, can our districts be redrawn fairly for the next election?

[PennyK]

3. Sorry, I was away

Spent the weekend in Jerry Nadler territory. To answer your question, all I can say is that King is strongly supported here. I think this is probably the toughest challenge he's ever gotten, and I think Dave did an amazing job.
Certain villages, like my own Wantagh, have majorities of Republicans...and they are pretty motivated to vote (you should SEE the bake sale at the elementary school), so I'm not surprised by the outcome. Dave should be proud of what he did, and like I said, at least King is out of his chairman's seat!

[nedbal]

4. Thanks for the responses......

King is strongly supported here. I think this is probably the toughest challenge he's ever gotten, and I think Dave did an amazing job.

Thanks for the responses;

He does have strong support, in times past when the lines were such he was my congressman he was the 1st politician I wrote a thank you hand written post card to, thanking him for being the only repug to vote against Clinton's impeachment. The last time my Dem supporting union listed the politicians our PAC supports he was like the only repug on the list. Dave was the 1st to oppose him I donated to, as this would be his only possible real challenge King ever faced, when I donate I give an amount just under the $200 public reporting limit, I like to keep my support private.

I didn't hear of any widespread dirty tricks such as gemdem reported in the 26th

thanks again