Lynn Sweet offers up some advice to the Duckworth camp and all of it would be a good start
Here’s what needs to happen, and it’s more than having all of the Democrats show up at Saturday’s DuPage Dems post-primary breakfast in Oakbrook Terrace.
*Cegelis, even if she turns it down, needs to be asked to be part of the Duckworth operation.
*Emanuel, whose presence in the race touched a raw nerve among Cegelis supporters, needs to reach out to them. Durbin and Obama also ought to be mending fences.
*And there is one person who really could help. That’s Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. It was his people-powered, grass-roots, Internet-based, anti-war 2004 presidential campaign that gave birth to the movement that yielded Cegelis 40.4 percent of the vote.
Lindy is left out, but I think he should be included as well.
More than all of this is the very real problem that voter intensity is in the toilet and needs to be improved. Despite three good candidates, turnout was down. Voter intensity was the reason 1994 happened–Republicans were very intense, Democrats were not. Right now, at least in the 6th, voter intensity isn’t there despite all the time and effort spent there by the three candidates.
It isn’t just mending fences that needs to happen, but a strong and fast analysis of why Democratic leaning voters are not engaged.
I got your reason – the Democratic Party has been running from us Democrats for as long as I can remember. Then, every election cycle, they try to get us ramped up. I got ramped up, worked and sweated, and we lost in 2000. Then Democrats dissed people like me. I got ramped up, worked and sweated, and we lost in 2002. Then Democrats dissed people like me. I got ramped up, worked and sweated, and we lost in 2004. Then Democrats dissed people like me.
Low turn out election, we’re going to lose seats, and the Washington Democratic Aristocracy will remain in power and continue to fail.
I think they may have just felt overwhelmed and annoyed by the level of politics in general, from all camps. its just not that common in the burbs, esp for Democrats. and I say this as a diehard Cegelis volunteer.
William Maggos
well, ultimately, it’s all about taking back the house. so now it’s time to learn more about Pavich and take out Weller.