They are being told that the Democratic enthusiam is REAL….
That they will have to work hard….
But of course there is little mention of Donald Trump, eh?
Still… a lot of the lawmakers don’t see the recent loses as a problem…
Republicans on Wednesday struggled to explain their likely loss in the Pennsylvania special election: GOP leaders warned lawmakers that the outcome in the pro-Trump district could spell disaster in the midterms if they don’t respond forcefully, but many lawmakers dismissed the race as an anomaly and seemed to be in denial.
During a closed-door conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club, House Republican leaders said that Tuesday’s special election, where Democrat Conor Lamb is narrowly leading, could portend a monster Democratic year. They told rank-and-file members in no uncertain terms that they needed to get their campaigns in order or that they could be casualties.
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) led off the huddle by calling the race “a wake-up call,” said one person in attendance.
“Prepare to bear down,” he added.
…
Walking into the meeting, New York. Rep. Chris Collins, a close ally of President Donald Trump, called the race a “one-off.”
“We’ve won five [special elections]; they’ve won one. I’m feeling pretty good,” he added.
But Corry Bliss, who runs the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC, which is aligned with Ryan, said the party needs to reckon with what happened in Pennsylvania. Trump carried the district by 20 points in 2016…..
Paul Ryan said Trump “helped make the race as close as it was”
Just when you think that spineless twerp couldn’t give Trump’s balls anymore of a tongue bath he proves you wrong!
Again?
Trump’s endorsement batting average sucks!
Well, in fairness, Obama’s was really, really bad too, through two midterms, and a bunch of special elections, where the candidate he backed and campaigned for lost.
Democrats are motivated to hurt Trump via down ballot races just like Republicans were motivated and succeeded in doing the same thing to Obama.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
And if we were to conjure the PDog comments from the “wayback machine” somehow after those special elections, we would hear commentary from The Dog and others about how, “this has nothing to do with Obama” and “politics are local” and “the Democrat was just a poor candidate”, etc. etc.
Those comments were missing the big picture then, just like how Republicans who try to minimize this situation with Trump are missing it now.
As for Lamb and his new district for November, sure his name recognition has improved, and I assume his voting record will be cautious for the rest of the year, and the district he will run in is not one won by Trump by 20 points (that district is now getting even more Republican, so some Republican is going to get it back in November, possibly even that pathetic Saccone guy)
Lamb will be running against Rothfus, a more seasoned incumbent, without anywhere near the baggage of Saccone, or the dynamics of a special election where Lamb was a cause de jour nationally. One thing that will be different is Lamb will not have anywhere near the massive financial advantage against Rothfus that he had against a very weak Saccone.
All things considered, Saccone is probably a better bet to be in Congress in January than Lamb is, though Republicans would be wise to find someone better in the old district.
We’ll see
New incubants usually earn a voting advantage
And peoplevwon’t Forget Lamb’s win
Not with him in Congress for almost a year
New incumbents typically do not have to run against older incumbents.
The Obama 2010 midterm record could be at stake this November
“Republicans on Wednesday struggled to explain their likely loss in the Pennsylvania special election: GOP leaders warned lawmakers that the outcome in the pro-Trump district could spell disaster in the midterms if they don’t respond forcefully, but many lawmakers dismissed the race as an anomaly and seemed to be in denial,” Politico reports.
Politicalwire…
Keep in mind this isn’t a district that swung to Trump after voting Obama. It voted for Romney and McCain by a similar margin.
So it’s hard to see how this is “Democrats motivated to hurt Trump via down ballot races”
Unless all those Bush/Romney/McCain Republicans in the district are now Democrats.
If so I say “welcome”!
Typical CG response.
Of course he will minimize Lambs victory ,which really wasn’t the story anyway.
This election shouldn’t have even been competitive.
The fact that it was is the story.Lamb was a good candidate though and this Saccone character was likely the worst the Republicans could have come up with.
I mean, Democrats “hate” God?Is that all this ,uh shall we say “intellectually challenged” lout could come up with in adesperate effort to rally the Right Wing extremist vote?
Absolutely
Trump won by 20% a year ago there
I’ve far from minimized anything.
Nonetheless, the district is not going to exist in a few months and the Democrat who won it is hardly the kind of Democrat that is representative of the party nationally.
Yes you have and it’s obvious to everyone here.
I mean it’s no surprise.
Anytime a Democrat wins anything, even one you “claim” to have been for(not that I buy that) you minimize it.
I expect no less.
After all you’re a Republican.
No, if you were to read with a less biased eye, you would see that I am critiquing the Republicans who are minimizing or making excuses (which is what I did over on HHR all day yesterday), while also pointing out that the exact same sort of minimization went on here during the Obama years.
Although “jack” to your credit, you did say during those midterms that james’s Happy Talk/Cheerleading was wrong and that the elections would be brutal for Democrats.
I fail to see that any “minimization” eight or so years ago has anything to do with today.
What is being discussed,and as I alluded to earlier,is that this race shouldn’t have been close and that it may have broader implications.
I’m not predicting a”wave” or any such as there are a host of factors beyond one ,or even several by elections that could come into play eight or so months down the road.
Is it significant?
Sure it is and all the “rationalizing” and references to the past are irrelevant to the topic at hand.
In short,Lamb shouldn’t have even been in the race ,much less won.
That’s the story…
The whole story..
Your continuing reports here on remarks on another site quite frankly are of little interest to me at least,nor, I suspect, anyone else here.
and you are inventing things that I supposedly said otherwise, that I never said.
Of course, this race was not supposed to be close, but it was for a lot of factors and based on historical standards, is likely to be indicative of 2018 (but less so 2020)
What did I invent?
“Not the
“Not the kind of Democrat that is representative if the party nationally”
He ran against the Republucan tax cut.
And he ran attack ads on Pelosi.(and as mentioned, ran to the right of the NRA on guns)
Let’s see if the DCCC embraces that as a national strategy.
CG?
My argument is that Dem party should embrace flexibility
That they should and will have to let their candidates run as best THEY CAN AND WANT in their races
That means some Democrats will run opposite others views
Sticking to the Sanders progressive view is simply NOT gonna award the Democrats a majority in the House and ALREADY is not the way several Dem Senators are running
The Democratic Civil WR needs to go away
Winning the House is more important
Sure, all that makes sense. Just be careful who you nominate.
Republicans, as well as they did in 2010 and 2014, wound up nominating a lot of mismatched candidates for districts/states and left a lot of victories on the table. Democrats, considering how decimated they were, can ill afford to do that.
The “Tea Party of the Left” is something to fear for mainstream Democrats who just want to win. I can relate as I watched it happen on my side and you all saw what 2016 became for me.
The Democrats I believe are running people on EVERY COng Dist around the country..
Young motivated people like Conor Lamb
Why would an overwhelmingly Trump voting district vote for aDemocrat, whom Trump denounced, just because he said some nasty things about Pelosi and said he was “personally “opposed to abortion(So was Jimmy Carter) ,when they could have the real thing with the very conservative Trump backed guy from the party they have been voting with for years?
because they liked Lamb personally more than Saccone. He was certainly more telegenic and that matters a lot in politics with lower info voters.
It is also certainly true that a lot of Trump voters in that district just stayed home. Special elections do not have anywhere near as large of a turnout as Presidential election years or that of a national midterm in November.
Why did Scott Brown beat Martha Coakley for Ted Kennedy’s seat statewide in MA, less than two years after Obama won the state overwhelmingly?
So these people aren’t “real” conservatives?
that I “minimized” the election or claimed it should have been close or that “there will not be implications. A non-biased reading of all my comments would show that I have said just the opposite.
I am also saying though that Lamb is far from a “slam dunk” over Keith Rotfhus in November, in a district composed mostly of areas that Rothfus has easily won before. If anything, Lamb will be an underdog in that race.
At the same time, in districts with *weak* GOP nominees or open Republican seats, the opportunities for Democrats to make pick-ups should be there.
not on tariffs they aren’t.
Both parties nominated big government candidates on that issue, much in the news.
I probably would have written in “Mr. Belvedere.”
The entirety of your comments here have definitely been minimizing what happened .
Yes that’s my opinion of your comments.
As for unbiased?
No one here is unbiased,including you.
The difference?The rest of us admit it ,while you pretend differently.Seems to give you some weird psychic satisfaction along with a certain smugness.
You’re nothing different from what you’ve always been, a partisan Republican who doesn’t like Trump personally ,but supports almost all of his policies and appointments, your attempts to disavow such notwithstanding.
“I probably would have written in Mr. Belvedere”
And you have the nerve to call Lamb voters “low information”
You aren’t reading honestly “jack” Please point to a specific comment or post to back up your claim.
Mr. Belvedere has (or had) more international experience and problem-solving skills than both of the big government, pro-tariff candidates put together.
He’s also a fictional character and the actor who played him is dead but whatever makes you feel better about not having to actually make a choice
Why be forced into a choice that I do not like? That’s what cheerleaders do. I guess I might have considered voting for Lamb, just this once. As the numbers came in, I could not help but find myself wanting to see him hang on, but it was more about who would lose than who would win.
My own Congressional District is Safe D and the incumbent is very liberal. The Republican stands no chance of winning, but if he runs as a pro-Trump Republican, (don’t know a ton about him) I will probably just write someone in (maybe myself). Do you think it is wrong of me to not vote for the Republican in that case?
Sometimes you have to make hard choices
And compromises on your vote
I believe that reason some people do NOT VOTE
And some people vote solely on one issue
That often ends up getting them screwed by the person they voted for
Anybody want to guess who fits that ?
AP hasn’t called this?
Did Greene, Allegany and Washington County give their numbers?
NY Times call it for Lamb
“I think the President helped close this race. I think you saw the public polling. The public polling wasn’t looking so good and the President came in and helped close this race and got it to where it is right now, which is within a few hundred votes.”
— Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), quoted by CNN, when asked if the Pennsylvania special election was a “wake up” call for President Trump….
Politicalwire…
We should be able to elect a box of hammers in this district. If we’re losing here, you can bet there is a Democratic wave coming.”
— Republican strategist Mike Murphy, quoted by the Washington Post, on yesterday’s Pennsylvania special congressional election….
Politicalwire…
ARemember when Ryan used to be described as a”policy wonk.”
Now?Well your description is as good as any…
“Trumps bootlicker.”
Apparently ,he enjoyed Trumps campaign rally in Pa. which Joe Scarborough accurately described as reminiscent of one of Benito Mussolini’s in pre World War II Italy.
Enthusiasm gap widening
But?
Double down
Do not be complacent
Remember Hillary
I thought Romney won the district that voted last night by 17 points and Trump won by 20 points.
I will say it is highly doubtful a national Democrat would carry it in a Presidential contest.
Who wouldn’t?
It was obviously a solid Republican District.
The district is composed of registered Democrat who vote Republican for President. We see that in lots of areas in the country, but the point is that Democrats or anti-Trump voters are more motivated to turn out and vote, etc, than Trump voters are.
The district has been voting Republucan for years. Hell Rick Santorum used to represent it. Who gives a damn about whether they were “registered ” or not?
Wasn’t yourvAmerocan Idol buddy on here still a “registered Democrat” in Texas?
No Democrat ran in the district for a long while I think..
“My voters weren’t motivated.”
Any losing candidate can say that’s
To the specifics though,their hero showed up for one of his “rallies.” He endorsed Saccone,Republicans are bragging about their tax cuts,Democrats “hate God,..
I mean how much more ”motivation” do these “Trump voters, need?
Yes Jack, in a district that Republicans should have been able to elect a box of hammers a Democrat won. (Of course the right wing blogs are saying he cheated).
This was a 20 point plus Republican District filled with angry old white men who turned their backs on one of their own to elect a young dynamic Democrat. Paulie Ryan should be shitting in his pants about now instead of sucking up to Trump.
Conor Lamb will now be running in the new (more Democratic 17th District) against another Trump clone in November. Lamb, after dropping millions these last few months in the media market that covers the 17th, probably has better name recognition than the incumbent Republican does and he certainly has a more favorable electorate.
The Lamb campaign has been planning on this switch since he first announced his campaign in the 18th and is already raising money for the race. The new Pennsylvania map will most likely send ten Democrats to the House, and given the wave that is now clearly building across the country the 17th will be one of them.
Being an incumbent Republican House Member who votes with Trump won’t be a plus this November — especially in the Pittsburgh media market. My money is on Conor, and will be participating in a nationwide conference call this afternoon with donors that will continue to raise money for this race as we over the next few months.
Organized labor is totally on board with this race. They delivered for Lamb on Tuesday, and I expect they will deliver big time in November.
Also….
Pelosi just got ANOTHER Democrat in on her side….
Just like Schumer….
Democrats are ALREADY widdling down the Republican margins in Congress…
Republican Rick Saccone concedes to Democrat Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania special election
….The Republican candidate confirmed he had called Lamb to concede.
“While there are less than 800 votes separating us, the people of the 18th District deserve to have a voice representing them in Congress,” Saccone said in a statement Wednesday night…..
More…
Yeah I can’t believe Saccone’s Democrats hate God and Trump’s Chuck Todd is a sleepy son of a bitch didn’t help Republicans hold on to this deep red district?
You can bet your bottom dollar though that Trump will keep on having rallies about himself under the guise he is “helping” the party.
And if Ryan’s bootlicking is any indication none will tell him no.
Trump last night here in Missouri said Lamb won because he was “like Trump”!
It was just a further spin of what we heard earlier in the day on FOX News and from Republican politicians and to a lesser extent our own “not much of a Republican” CG –that Lamb was basically a Republican.
If so I welcome them in seeing the light on supporting the ACA and opposing the tax cuts for the rich, as well as support of Roe v Wade.
Who knew Rockefeller Republicans came back to take over the party in less than 24 hours!