Spin this

The Netroots candidates

by kos

Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 08:13:03 AM PST

When we chose our candidates for the ActBlue Netroots list, these candidates weren't even second-tier. They were all third-tier or worse. The point of adding them to our page wasn't to win, it was to expand the playing field, help build a 50-state national party, and work to build for the future.

Yet nearly all the races on the list became top-tier by Election Night, and we didn't just rack up a bunch of moral victories, but some real ones as well. Bowers tallies them up:

[W]elcome to our new generation of victorious netroots candidates:

PA-07: Joe Sestak
PA-08: Patrick Murphy
CA-11: Jerry McNerney
MN-01: Tim Walz
NH-02: Paul Hodes
VA-Sen: Jim Webb

I would like to point out that when we picked these canddiates, none of them were top tier. In fact, I'm pretty sure that right up until the end most people thought Murphy, McNerney, and Walz would still lose. But they didn't.

And we picked up a bunch more "hopeless" races as well, that dramtically expanded the palying field, and came far closer than anyone thought woudl come:

MT-Sen: Tester on the brink of victory.
WA-08: Darcy Burner. Votes still being counted--outcome unclear.
NC-08: Larry Kissell down by 400 votes, recount imminent.
WY-AL: Gary Trauner down by less than 1,000 votes, race undecided.
NY-29: Eric Massa not conceeding, down by less than 2%
NJ-07: Linda Stender loses by only 2%
ID-01: Larry Grant down by 5% with most votes counted.
IL-10: San Seals loses by only 6%

And there is this hsitory too:

CT-Sen: Ned Lamont shcoks world to win CT-Sen primary.
OH-02: Still competitve in 2006. We fought when few others would.

There isn't a signle one of these races that was top tier when we picked them.

We were trying to expand the battlefield. Even when we didn't win, we left a strong, local netroots scene in place for future challenges. The netroots page was an asotunding success, and it will be significantly responsible for our new majorities.

These candidates all did an incredible job, and I fully expect them to keep running through to 2008. Most were up against better-funded, well-known, entrenched incumbents. But they built their name ID, they built their fundraising list, they built their ground organization, and in 2008, many of them will close the deal. Heck, many of these incumbents, now relegated to the minority, may simply hang it up rather than have to deal with another tough reelection campaign.

This is a marathon, not a sprint.

And that doesn't include victories like Gillibrand and Shuler. We got rid of some bad people last night, some real bad ones