I really hope that this is representative of the Democratic party’s Congressional battle plan for 2014:
In January, [Sean Eldridge and husband, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes] bought a $2 million modern home here overlooking a reservoir, laying the groundwork for Mr. Eldridge’s campaign for their new local Congressional seat, New York’s 19th.
Word of Mr. Eldridge’s political plans has delighted the friends who make up his social circle: Donors to his exploratory committee include George Soros, the billionaire financier, and Sean Parker, the tech entrepreneur behind Napster and Spotify.
But his ambitions have puzzled some residents among the farmers, mill workers and small-business owners who populate this district, which rises through the Catskills and rolls north through cornfields and apple orchards to the Vermont border.
…because while it looks good on paper, parachuting in to run in a district is not exactly the easiest way to win it. Especially when you consider the opponent: the incumbent Chris Gibson was redistricted into this district in 2012 by a legislature that drew it to be swing. Despite that, and the fact that it was an election year, and the fact that Obama won that state, Gibson still won with a respectable 53% of the vote. Seriously, the NYT article itself admits the problems here, in the title:”Young, Rich and Relocating Yet Again in Hunt for Political Office.”
Which is not to say that the guy can’t win. Just that the DCCC has apparently decided to write the seat off in terms of actually growing a real candidate for it. Or, more charitably: the DCCC figures that they need time to grow a candidate, and in the meantime this guy’s ready to spend a good deal of that Facebook money to lose credibly. One hopes that somebody from the DCCC has not explained this to Sean Eldridge; it’s always better when the revelation comes as a surprise…
Same thinking that lead the DSCC to think all they needed to do to take out Mitch McConnell was to parachute in Ashley Judd because she attends basketball games at UK. That lasted until McConnell went all Remo from Casino on her and she figured out running against Mitch McConnell wasn’t the same as a tee time at the local country club and ran with her tail tucked back to Tennessee. As an aside this still ticks me off as I was planning to pawn her off on Kentucky. Heck, McConnell could have strung her along…
And the real unfortunate aspect of that was it basically chilled any desire of a primary challenge. Mark Bevin doesn’t want to be humiliated in front of his Fellow Republicans.