Why the Gianforte body slam is reinforcement for the need to compete everywhere

[onyxw]

Regardless of the outcome of MTAL election tonight, this is why the 50 state strategy is needed, and why Democrats need to be identifying and running candidates in all races, and why the DNC, DCCC, etc need to make efforts to fund/support/campaign for all Dem campaigns.

Democrats largely wrote off this race early on, and while they've come around some, it's just reinforcement that you've gotta be in it to win it. Sometimes candidates make unforced errors. Sometimes facing competitive races causes added stress that can result in additional unforced errors. There's a viable D candidate that can hopefully capitalize today. That wouldn't be the case if it had been wholly written off as unwinnable and that we should keep our powder dry.

I'm not saying every race needs to be funded to the same level, and I'm aware there's a finite amount of resources to go around, but good things can happen if you set yourself up to be competitive and take some shots at areas long written off. Quist still might not win, the news might have come too late to make an impact, but it's not a gimme for Republicans - they've had to spend resources in a typically reliably red area, and even if Quist comes up short, it revitalizes and boosts the local Democrats in Montana, energizes them to see that it's not a lost cause area and even they can get some national D attention and resources. The investments might not pay off in this specific election, but it continues building canvassing teams for future elections, bringing together Democratic groups who can be inclined to work together more in other local issues, etc.

Yes it's critically important that we win elections. But rethinking our views about traditionally longshot campaigns as part of a longer term D investment strategy to build up D infrastructure and expand our map should also be kept in mind, and that's true regardless if it's a progressive, liberal, or centrist candidate, and regardless if it's a Hillary, Bernie, or O'Malley supporter candidate.

We don't have the luxury to write off races. This is an example (sure, probably fairly rare) of a positive that can happen when you don't. Hopefully this race is seen as a further call to be active everywhere and don't cede an inch.

[geek tragedy]

1. money wasn't the problem in MT, it's the fact that there weren't any first rate

candidates willing to step into the ring.

[leftstreet]

2. Quist has actually done really well for a red, red seat

Republicans: Montana special election 'closer than it should be'

It's the latest example of a tight race in a traditional GOP stronghold.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Republican Greg Gianforte’s closing motivational speech to voters ahead of Thursday’s special House election in Montana is the same thing GOP strategists are whispering in private: “This race is closer than it should be.”

It’s a recurring nightmare of a pattern for Republicans around the country, as traditional GOP strongholds prove more difficult and expensive for the party to hold than it ever anticipated when President Donald Trump plucked House members like Ryan Zinke, the former Montana Republican now running the Interior Department, for his Cabinet. Gianforte is still favored to keep the seat red, but a state Trump carried by 20 percentage points last year became a battleground in the past few months.

Democrat Rob Quist, a folk singer and first-time candidate, has raised more than $6 million for his campaign, including $1 million in the past week alone as energized Democratic donors pour online cash into political causes this year. Quist hopes that enthusiasm also contributes to an outsize turnout — as it did in special elections in Kansas and Georgia earlier this year — for the oddly scheduled Thursday election, happening just before a holiday weekend.

"I remember talking to people when it first started who said this was a slam dunk, Gianforte’s it. And it’s not there anymore,” said Jim Larson, the Montana Democratic Party chairman. “It is a lot closer than people ever thought it would be.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/24/montana-special-election-quist-gianforte-238746

[geek tragedy]

4. he's done well, but a better candidate would be doing better

Gianforte was not a well-liked guy before this crime.

[leftstreet]

5. Oh, absolutely

I agree

His one huge (only?) strength is healthcare. He's campaigned on personal experiences of getting financially screwed from healthcare bills after surgery. So, who knows...

[dawg]

8. Lots of Georgia seats were unopposed in 2016.

I almost felt guilty for not at least putting my own name on the ballot so people would at least have a choice. Someone needs to do so.

[underpants]

3. Yep. Same thing when Brat beat Cantor

There wasn't even a Democratic primary (part of the reason Brat won) so the Dems suddenly had to get someone on the ballot.

[Nay]

7. Exactly. And that Dem didn't get any $$ at all from the Dem establishment, although

he applied.

The same thing happened when Brat himself was up for election. He was enough of an idiot that he could have been easily beaten by a Dem who had some funding, but NOOOOOO, the Dem leadership just wrote that election off, too. It's just maddening.

[Demsrule86]

6. Would a candidate picked for the state...have been better?

[Blue_true]

9. Quist seems to have kept his nose to the grinding stone and campaigned hard.

Candidates that wait for the national party to come in and uplift them lose. Quist seems to have made it a race because he met voter where they live and work.