« Netroots Winners | Main | A Reporter/Blogger Opening In Washington »

Fallen Dems

Forget the war in Iraq. The political war in America this year proved to be a bloodbath for the "fighting Dems," who might more aptly be called the "fallen Dems" after Tuesday's election.

After Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, a Democrat, nearly scored a special-election upset in Ohio's strongly Republican 2nd District last summer, bloggers and other Democrats began touting war veterans as candidates for 2006. They touted dozens of such candidates as the antidote for the Democratic Party's long-running electoral ailments on the defense and security fronts.

But if Democrats have the same low tolerance for political casualties as they have shown for battlefield casualties in Iraq, their push to recruit and elect to Congress military veterans who run as Democrats will be short-lived.

A few of the anointed candidates dropped out of their races well before the general election, and 18 others were defeated in primaries, suggesting that the party as a whole is not eager to rally around veterans. Most of the other fighting Dems were soundly defeated Tuesday.

The outcome in Texas was particularly brutal for Democratic candidates with a military past. Not a single one survived the Election Day Alamo; in fact, none even came close to victory. The highest finish by a fighting Dem in Texas was 40 percent, and one of them, Rick Bolanos, only netted 2 percent in an eight-candidate race.

Here's a look at their results:

Losers In Open Seats
-- Tammy Duckworth (Illinois): 49 percent
-- Jay Fawcett (Colorado): 41 percent
-- Richard Siferd (Ohio): 40 percent

Losers To Incumbents
-- Ted Ankrum (Texas): 40 percent. Rep. Michael McCaul won 55 percent of the vote, compared with 84 percent in 2004.
-- Dick Auman (Illinois): 33 percent. Rep. Donald Manzullo won 67 percent, similar to the 69 percent he receive in 2004.
-- Phil Avillo (Pennsylvania): 34 percent. Rep. Todd Platts won 64 percent, compared with 91 percent in 2004.
-- Lee Ballenger (South Carolina): 37 percent. Rep. James Barrett, who had no competitor in 2004, won 63 percent.
-- Rick Bolanos (Texas): 2 percent. Rep. Henry Bonilla won 49 percent, down from 69 percent in 2004, while Bolanos and six other competitors split the rest.
-- Jim Brandt (California): 37 percent. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher won 59 percent, down from the 62 percent he won against Brandt in 2004.
-- Charles Brown (California): 46 percent. He held Rep. John Doolittle to 49 percent, down from 65 percent in 2004.
-- Dave Bruderly (Florida): 40 percent. Rep. Cliff Stearns won 60 percent, down 4 percent from his 2004 race against Bruderly.
-- Duane Burghard (Missouri): 36 percent. Rep. Kenny Hulshof snagged 61 percent, compared with 64 percent in 2004.
-- Jack Chagnon (Florida): 37 percent. Rep. John Mica, who had no competitor in 2004, won 63 percent.

-- John Courage (Texas): 24 percent. Facing six opponents, Rep. Lamar Smith lost only 2 percentage points from the 62 percent level he achieved in 2004.
-- Dan Dodd (Texas): 35 percent. Rep. Sam Johnson won 63 percent, compared with 86 percent in 2004.
-- Andrew Duck (Maryland): 39 percent. The 58 percent mark hit by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett was a decline of 10 percent from two years ago.
-- David Harris (Texas): 37 percent. The winning percentage for Rep. Joe Barton declined to 60 percent, from 66 percent in 2004.
-- Bob Johnson (New York): 37 percent. Rep. John McHugh finished with 63 percent, down from 71 percent in the last election.
-- John Laesch (Illinois): 40 percent. House Speaker Dennis Hastert saw his total drop from 69 percent in 2004 to 60 percent this year.
-- Jim Marcinkowski (Michigan): 43 percent. Rep. Mike Rogers won 55 percent, compared with 61 percent in 2004.
-- Eric Massa (New York): 48 percent. Rep. John Kuhl bested his 2004 finish by 1 percent, finishing at 52 percent.
-- Jim Nelson (Georgia): 32 percent. Rep. Jack Kingston, who had no competitor in 2004, won 68 percent of the vote.
-- Herb Paine (Arizona): 39 percent. Rep. John Shadegg finished with 58 percent, far less than the 80 percent of two years ago.

-- Rich Sexton (New Jersey): 41 percent. Rep. Jim Saxton was re-elected with 58 percent, down slightly from 63 percent in 2004.
-- Charlie Thompson (Texas): 36 percent. Rep. Jeb Hensarling won 62 percent, just shy of the 64 percent he scored two years ago.
-- Roger Waun (Texas): 23 percent. Rep. Mac Thornberry fell short of his 92 percent mark in 2004 but still demolished Waun by winning 74 percent.
-- Mike Weaver (Kentucky): 45 percent. He held Rep. Ron Lewis to 55 percent, a 13-point drop from two years ago.
-- Al Weed (Virginia): 40 percent. Rep. Virgil Goode won 64 percent against Weed in 2004 and only saw his victory margin drop 4 points in the rematch.
-- Bill Winter (Colorado): 40 percent. Rep. Tom Tancredo won 59 percent, just a 1-point decline from the 60 percent of 2004.

Defeated In Primary/Caucus
-- Mishonda Baldwin (Maryland, seat retained by a Democrats)
-- Rick Cornstuble (Indiana, seat retained by GOP)
-- Bern Ewert (Virginia, seat retained by GOP)
-- Bill Falzett (California, seat retained by GOP)
-- David Fierst (Ohio, seat retained by GOP)
-- Steve Filson (California, seat captured by Democrats)
-- Andrew Horne (Kentucky, seat captured by Democrats)
-- Tom Kovach (Pennsylvania, seat retained by GOP)
-- Jeff Latas (Arizona, seat captured by Democrats)
-- David Murf (Texas, seat retained by GOP)
-- Karen Otter (California, seat retained by GOP)
-- Rick Penberthy (Florida, seat retained by GOP)
-- Bert Smith (Oklahoma, seat retained by GOP)
-- Eric Streit (Kentucky, seat retained by GOP)
-- Terry Stulce (Tennessee, seat retained by GOP)
-- Peter Sullivan (New Hampshire, seat captured by Democrats). Another fighting Dem, Pete Duffy (see below), withdrew from the battle for this same seat before the primary.
-- Joe Sulzer (Ohio, seat captured by Democrats)
-- John Wolfe (Ohio, seat retained by Democrats)

Withdrew From Primary
-- Pete Duffy (New Hampshire, seat captured by Democrats). Another fighting Dem, Peter Sullivan, was defeated in the primary for the same seat.
-- Tim Dunn (North Carolina, seat retained by GOP)
-- Bill Mitchell (Florida, seat retained by GOP)

Winners
-- Chris Carney (Pennsylvania): 53 percent. He defeated Rep. Don Sherwood, who won 93 percent of the vote in 2004. But Sherwood, who narrowly survived a primary challenge, was tainted by a messy extramarital affair and an alleged attempt to choke his mistress.
-- Patrick Murphy (Pennsylvania): He defeated Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick by about 1,500 votes. Fitzpatrick won with 55 percent in 2004 over netroots hero Ginny Schrader, who last year withdrew from a planned rematch.
-- Joseph Sestak (Pennsylvania): 56 percent. He defeated Rep. Curt Weldon, who won 59 percent in 2004.
-- Tim Walz (Minnesota): 53 percent. He defeated Rep. Gil Gutknecht, who dropped from 60 percent in 2004 to 47 percent this year.

Posted by Danny | 11:50 AM

Comments

So what does it all mean? That Americans won't vote for veterans? I don't think so. I think they looked at THESE Democratic veterans and did not like what they saw. Some veterans did win (e.g. Jim Webb). I can't say what motivated voters in every district, but I think that generally, voters do not like Democrats who are weak on defense or security matters, even if they are veterans.

John N. | 11.09.06 12:34 PM

You forgot to mention that Paul Hackett, who was going to run for Senate from Ohio, dropped out of the primary after Sherrod Brown (the eventual victor) spread rumors accusing him of committing war crimes in Iraq.

Might I be so bold to suggest that Sherrod Brown is more representative of his party's attitude toward veterans than the party would like to admit?

Mike | 11.09.06 01:40 PM

I think what it means is that most people who admire the military and are strong on national defense and security are more likely Republican or strong conservative indys. They see "fighting Dems" as sort of a contradiction and are suspicious of the motives.

The loyal Dem voter is liberal and left of any independent center. The only military vet they admire are the anti-war vets like JFK and Hackett. To them it doesn't make a difference. So you are basically left with the more likely Republican and the conservative indy.

Jack on Track | 11.09.06 04:19 PM

"You forgot to mention that Paul Hackett, who was going to run for Senate from Ohio, dropped out of the primary after Sherrod Brown (the eventual victor) spread rumors accusing him of committing war crimes in Iraq."

I do remember Hackett being pressured to bow out, didn't realize Brown had a whisper campaign going. Where did you read this?

cabal | 11.09.06 04:45 PM

Let's do a rundown of the % of the vote all of the R incumbents that faced the fighting Dems received in 2004 compared to 2006, just two years later, shall we?

2004: Average % of Votes received by R incumbents in these districts: 72%

2006: Average % of Votes received by R incumbents in these districts: 58%

Yeah, those fighting Dems were quite a failure. Keep thinking that way.

tabasco jenkins | 11.10.06 01:23 AM

Yes, it was a striking success to cut the margins of victory of their Republican opponents . . . in a "blue wave" year when Democrats were winning seats they didn't expect.

Must be a "nutroots" guy if he sees victory in defeats . . .

Jim Addison | 11.10.06 05:23 AM

Hmm, this article seems to say that bloggers lost big because they were the ones who were calling for more "Fighting Dems," and yet most of these Dems ended up losing. Going down the list of the four victorious "fighting dems" that you listed here, and adding the one on the Senate side (Jim Webb), it turns out that four of those five were among the few that the netroots put on their ActBlue fundraising page (the fifth, Chris Carney, was also largely supported among liberal bloggers, though was not on the ActBlue page).

Take a look at the DailyKos/MyDD/SSP netroots ActBlue page:
http://actblue.com/page/netrootscandidates

The fighting Dems there:
Tim Walz (WIN)
John Courage
Jay Fawcett
Eric Massa
Patrick Murphy (WIN)
Joe Sestak (WIN)
Jim Webb (WIN)

Keep in mind that only Democratic *challengers* were placed on the netroots ActBlue page, so the fact that four out of seven fighting Dems on the page were victorious shows that the netroots actually were successful in this regard.

Francisco | 11.14.06 04:41 PM

Post a Comment