Reply #95: That's precisely why I only give directly to candidates

[Jai4WKC08]

I don't trust the DNC, DSCC or DCCC to use my money wisely. Maybe the candidates won't either, but at least I'll have made my own choices.

That said, I do listen to the DNC, DSCC and DCCC recommendations. These organizations are primarily interested in promoting the person they think has the best chance of winning. And if I'm giving to a candidate outside my own district, that's pretty much what I care most about as well.

Yeah, issues are important, of course. But if we can't win back the House and/or Senate, we can do NOTHING to reign in the administration we're likely to be stuck with for another two years after November.

I don't know whether the alegations of funds mismanagement up-thread are true. But I gotta think that guys like Durbin and Emanuel wouldn't have been shopping for another candidate to run if they thought Cegelis had the best shot at beating her Republican competition. They do know the individuals and the district better than I could.

I also have this gut feel that a lot of the resistance at DU to Duckworth, Hackett and the other Democrats being pushed by the DSCC and DCCC is pure prejudice against veterans, and that the idea that they just don't like the party elite picking our candidates is just an excuse. I've read far too many DU posts that slam those of us who believe our party must stand for a strong national defense (and no, we're not all pro-DLC or against progressive positions on domestic issues), or that say they'd never trust Wes Clark because he was a career military officer. It's an ugly fact that some people at both extremes of the political spectrum have just not gotten over Vietnam. On the right, they think Democrats hate the military. On the left, they actually do hate the military. Not all, of course. But enough that it's a serious problem for our party.

Lord knows the party insiders have ALWAYS had a big say in who got the kind of support needed to win primaries, but you never heard many complaints about it, not at the Congressional level, until the "Fighting Dems" started to get traction. That's not a coincidence imo.