The Web 2.0 kids on the right got behind Jim Ogonowski in MA versus Niki Tsongas. They raised money on-line, he ran an ad with 9/11 imagery, he hit Tsongas using "open borders" language (aka, be scared of them Mexicans). And he lost, by 5% in a race where two independents pulled in 2% and 1%.
Tsongas (D) 51% 46,542
Ogonowski (R) 46% 41,508
Murphy (I) 2% 1,428
Hayes (I) 1% 970
Thompson (C) 0% 429
As Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) said "You lose. You get nothing." But Patrick Ruffini digs in the feces for the pony and decides that "the change message works". Okay, you go with that when you are running candidates to be George W. Bush’s succesor. Please.
This vote was closer than I would like. It shows we still need to work on the GOTV machine before ‘08. We can’t rely on depressed Republicans to win the White House.
Not suprised that Tsongas won, but am surprised she only won by 5%; and this in one of the bluest states in the country too.
Josh Marshall has a post up about this that includes observations from somebody in the district…it seems that a lot of progressives either stayed home or held their noses to vote for Tsongas, who was not the candidate that the constituency really wanted. (The one they wanted got beaten in the primary, largely due to a machine that backed Tsongas.)
I live in Chicago and know from Democratic machine politics, and it very, very often leads to the same sort of malaise. Almost anybody with their senses intact knew that our current Cook County President Todd Stroger (D) was as corrupt as the day is long, the scion of a power-grabbing dynasty. His opponent was the only Republican I voted for that day, even though Tony Peraica had a lot of wrongheaded ideas about gay marriage and other issues.
Stroger still won, and now people act all surprised when they find out he budgeted County funds for a private elevator.
I’m all for letting the Rightroots have many more of these, um, what was the phrase? “Moral victories”?
Having lived in MA for a few years, machine-politics “his/her” turn politics truly sucks and pushes you to vote for unappealing people, aka Shannon O’Brien versus Mitt Romney.