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Today is primary day in Georgia. I expect progressive state Senator and Better Democrat candidate Regina Thomas to be blown out by John Barrow for two reasons. One, Obama endorsed Barrow, a very significant setback for Thomas's chances. She was banking on a change message, and the primary messenger of change has endorsed her opponent. Two, she did not raise money and is not running a professionalized campaign. Her bet is that she and her family can work their personal networks and the churches to drive turnout in a low energy primary against John Barrow. While she has some reach, in any district there's a reason that mail firms exist and radio and TV are important. Barrow is sitting on more than a million dollars in cash, and has been running ads and doing voter contact. This was similar to Leonard Boswell and Ed Fallon; the campaign did not use a credible voter file, and so their numbers were way off.
That's not a statement on Fallon or Thomas; it is brave to run a primary campaign, and very people will help you. Donna Edwards couldn't get good consultants her first race in 2006. But it is something that needs to be fixed.
Even though she is unlikely to win, I'm a contributor to Thomas, just as I gave to Ed Fallon before her. One of my biggest regrets in 2006 was not supporting Marcy Winograd, who really gave Jane Harman a run for her money and changed the voting patterns in the district. There's almost no support for primary challengers anywhere in the country; we on the internet have the ability to change that equation, but we have a lot of learning to do. I remember three years, from 2004-2006, when the we had to put up with the argument that we couldn't win, until we defeated Lieberman in the primary. And then Lieberman won the general, and Al Wynn narrowly beat Donna Edwards, and I had to hear about how the Congress was composed of conservative Democrats.
And then Donna Edwards crushed Al Wynn, and FISA happened. That fight will be turned into an attempt to revise the Patriot Act in 2009. It's going to take a long time to turn this ship around, but we're doing it. The losses are as important, more important perhaps, than the wins, because that is how we learn. Next cycle, Obama's infrastructure is going to leave a lot of fresh campaign operatives unemployed, and a lot of new talent looking to run for office. There will be people who know how to run a voter file, know how to micro-target, understand field campaigns, and mail, and radio, and TV, and paid media online, and integration with the blogging world. They will have learned this on the Obama campaign, and will be able to deploy these skills elsewhere.
In fact, the energy is clearly there. This cycle, there were primary challenges against John Lewis, Ed Towns, Leonard Boswell, Carolyn Kilpatrick and Dennis Kucinich. Not all those challenges were from the left, but the jostling loose of the incumbent protection racket will in general help progressives. And so it's important to have test runs with people like Regina Thomas and Ed Fallon. Tonight, we'll learn a lot more about how far we have to go.
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