Matt .. (4.00 / 1)

what do you know about Paul Tewes? .. I am just wondering what we can expect from the DNC in the next 8 years.

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by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 15:06:08 PM UTC

Nice to see (4.00 / 1)

someone on the inside fighting for the Plan.  Good work Jay!

For those keeping score, both Merkley and Novick have signed on, as did Fischer.

Politics is the art of the possible, but that means you have to think about changing what is possible, not that you have to accept it in perpetuity.

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by: David Kaib @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 15:20:39 PM UTC

Merkley's narrow win was the worst case scenario (4.00 / 2)

jeff merkley narrowly winning the primary--hobbling to victory, actually, was pretty much the worst case scenario. for whatever reasons, the national blogosphere was not keen on this race and all the really got coverd were some fringe "issues--like like "novick insults bloggers", thanks bowers ;). but the dynamics of the race were mostly unexamined, so here's my little summary.

* novick entered the race early hoping to lure in one of the higher profile oregon dems; blumenaur, defazio, kithzaber and several others declined.

* merkley entered the race enticed by $93 from the dscc, stumbles out of the gate with some blunders, and the entire state democratic establishment gets behind him. merkley ignores novick, acts like victory is inevitable.

through the course of the campaign merkley secures the endorsements of almost all of the democratic groups (majority of unions, though novick got the teachers), environmental groups, etc. and is still not gaining traction, while novick is running an innovative, grassroots, viral campaign. merkley goes negative, attacking novick for "insulting dems", "supporting nader" (in 1996), being "pro-tax", and so on. none of this works, so in the end, merkley mortgages his second house for $250k, and runs a horribly misleading hit piece based on novick's blog posts from 2 years ago, and in conjunction the dscc puts on $300k in ad buys and gotv phone calls.

merkley wins 45% to 41% (by less than 20k votes) with a third candidate taking more than the difference.

i am personally concerned that merkley cannot win against smith, my biggest concern beyond merkleys weak campaign is that smith is going to be able to blur the iraq issue to death.

despite all that, and the fact that i have a baby arriving in less than two month, i am going to get my act together and find a way to help beat that republican hair mongering SOB. merkley is a decent center-left progressive with mostly the right priorities (who will likely do a better job of bringing pork back to oregon than novick), and gordon smith is george bush with good hair and a few strategically places moderate votes.

end the blurring--vote steve novick for u.s. senate in oregon

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by: petrichor @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 15:21:54 PM UTC

Merkley is a strong candidate statewide (4.00 / 1)

and he is not center-left, he is a solid progressive. He's been against the Iraq War from the start, wants investigations into war profiteering, was outspoken on the need for a FISA filibuster, is a proponent for UHC, is for investing in solar and wind power and is for marriage equality. Sounds pretty progressive to me.

We were very lucky in Oregon to have two good candidates to choose from. When you look at the map from last night's primary, you can see how well Merkley did statewide. This is very important. We cannot bank on Portland to bring us this seat in November. It won't happen. We need a candidate who can appeal to rural Oregonians and blue colllar workers outside of Portland. Merkley can do that. He also was recently polled in a statistical tie with Smith.

I know you're unhappy with the results, but I do hope you'll join us and help oust Gordo.  

Netroots Director for Oregon Senate Candidate Jeff Merkley

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by: sarahlane @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 21:53:45 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

actually, i somewhat expected these results (4.00 / 1)

after the dscc threw all in for gotv and a final round of ads, there was just no way novick could match that. yeah, i really wanted steve to win, but i wasn't in it just for winning, i was in it to show that principles matter and to help create a democratic party coalition in oregon that appeals to the dissaffected voters on the left who exist all across the state. i think we succeed in that part. i will not be joining the merkley campaign, though i will definitely vote for him and i will do whatever i can to help get rid of gordon smith. if the merk wins he will be a good, perhaps great senator, but i cannot endorse what he did to get there in this primary; it represents everything i hate about contemporary politics that has kept me out of politics for most of my adult life.

oh, and merkley is indeed your standard mainstream center-left progressive, much like wyden, though they both tack left or right on a different set of issues (wyden goes right on healthcare, trade. merkley goes right on immigration, gay marriage. they both go left on the war, etc). that is not bad, in fact, for the senate it is pretty left. i'll take it, anyway.

end the blurring--vote steve novick for u.s. senate in oregon

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by: petrichor @ Thu May 22, 2008 at 01:45:21 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Correction (0.00 / 0)

The L.A. Times has corrected their story on the Clinton campaign's debt. The actual figure is $20 million. Someone counted what Hillary loaned her campaign twice. That's doesn't mean it's not a bad situation, just less so.

It's not clear to me that Tewes is replacing Howard Dean. The way I read it he and Dean were going to have separate positions. What's the story?

You might want to do a story on Blue America and Carney and FISA, because of your Bush Dog campaign. Blue America is promising to take on more Bush Dogs in the future. It's in the context (reported on by Digby and others) that there will be more Blue Dogs in the new Congress because of Democrats being able to take seats in what have been Republican districts. It seems we heard the same thing in 2006, that many of the new members were conservative. How has that actually played out in terms of votes in this Congress and how is it likely to play out in the new Congress?

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by: johnraymond @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 15:39:06 PM UTC

Bad performance? (0.00 / 0)

"What is odd is how badly the Clinton campaign is performing"
Matt, would you pls note that this has been yet another primary day when Clinton won the popular vote. A sign of bad performance? Hardly. Rahter, it's her bad performance at the start of the campaign, and in the caucusses, that's till haunting her.

If anything is surprising, it's that Obama's finale isn't much stronger, at a time when even many Clinto supporters see him as the inevitable nominee.

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by: Gray @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 15:42:27 PM UTC

Dean and Tewes. (4.00 / 3)

I don't think the idea is to replace Dean as chair (although they might decide to do that too at some point), but to have Paul run the day to day operations at the DNC in terms of where to place field staff, where to drop mail and calls, etc.
Paul is a very good operative who did an amazing job for Obama in IA and other states since, and who before that ran the coalition opposing Social Security privatization.

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by: Mike Lux @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 15:44:09 PM UTC

Didn't Dean say he'd only serve one term? .. (0.00 / 0)

and how tight is Dean with Obama? ... would Obama ask Dean to stay on for another 4 or 8 years?  And would Dean accept?

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by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 15:52:20 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Look at McCain (4.00 / 1)

I guess it's a good thing that nobody's paying any attention to McCain while Dems fight out the nomination. but I think the GOP side of the page is a strange and interesting experience. McCain, with the nomination long assured, only got 72 percent of the GOP primary vote in KY against Paul, Huckabee, and uncomitted. He got 85% in OR. The two Dems got 100%.

If this is the best an unopposed McCain can do with Republican voters at this late stage, his chances in the general have to be far more dismal than the national polls suggest. Something's wrong here.

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by: DaveW @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 16:06:30 PM UTC

Not really (4.00 / 1)

Since McCain's already clinched the nomination, these contests are truly beauty contests, and they're ones that McCain isn't trying to win. So who's going to vote in such things? People who want to vote just because it's their civic duty, people with a lot of spare time, and dead-ender nutballs who want to lodge a protest vote or two. The vast majority of McCain supporters probably didn't bother, even though they'll be there for him in the fall.

I'm not saying that McCain's chances aren't dismal. I think he's got a snowball's chance in hell of winning in the fall. But his performance yesterday just isn't a sign of that.

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by: corax @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 16:40:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

This would bodepretty well for Bob Barr as spoiler, (0.00 / 0)

if Bob Barr were getting ANY press at all. Unfortunate.

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by: sb @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 17:19:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Inslee likes him some Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq (4.00 / 1)

Is there any plan to get it introduced as legislation?

Also Tewes will not be taking over for Howard Dean as Chair. Tewes will likely run the Democratic White House Victory Fund which is the coordinated campaign between the DNC and the Obama campaign. Either that or he will run day to day operations straight out of the DNC. Both things are very good news.

Tewes is a fantastic, progressive operative. As Mike mentioned he ran the anti-privatization campaign, he also was one of the biggest progressive forces inside the DSCC for the last few years, ran Obama's amazing Iowa campaign, ran the Wisconsin Democratic Party, managed a primary challenge against a Corporate Democrat mayor of St. Paul who went on to endorse Bush. He is a fantastic guy and a brilliant operative. If true that news is very good for us.

John McCain: Beacuse lobbyists should have more power

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by: Populista @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 19:09:25 PM UTC

Tewes (0.00 / 0)

Sounds great. Now how about Dean for VP?

miasmo.com

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by: miasmo @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 19:27:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Dean is the party chair (0.00 / 0)

and will stay that way. He would be a awful VP choice for a lot of reasons.

John McCain: Beacuse lobbyists should have more power

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by: Populista @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 22:33:36 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Old Deaniacs die hard. (0.00 / 0)

I was under the impression that this Tewes guy will be taking over soon. I'm curious why you think Dean would be a bad pick for VP.

How about a cabinet spot? Dean's too awesome to go out to pasture. I think he has done a great job as party chair, but won't Obama be replacing him soon?

miasmo.com

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by: miasmo @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 23:01:29 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Taking out Smith (4.00 / 2)

This election's going to be wholly about change -- away from the destructive policies in D.C. and those responsible. Gordon Smith has been part of the problem for far too long, and it's time we reminded him just who he's supposed to be serving.

On the other hand, we now have Jeff Merkley as our nominee. He's the real deal: a progressive fighter with a remarkable record as Speaker of the Oregon house (which he flipped from red to blue!). He's a warrior on our progressive causes and will bring that fight both to Smith and to Washington... if we can get him elected. Now that he's been throughly challenged in the primary by two worthy opponents (and especially Steve Novick), he's battle-tested and ready to roll.

As the maps here show, his message has been received across the whole state. And, when the general comes and Multnomah County (and the city of Portland) come over to Jeff, we might actually have a shot at this!

If you have it, donate a little money today. If not, volunteer a little time. Or at least spread the word: Oregon's going blue this year in the Senate.

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by: bdupree @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 20:35:17 PM UTC

Remarkable is right (4.00 / 1)

Merkley was able to pass so many progressive bills through the House with a slim majority. I don't know many legislators who have pushed through that many bills in such a short period of time.  

Netroots Director for Oregon Senate Candidate Jeff Merkley

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by: sarahlane @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 22:11:21 PM UTC

[ Parent ]