Eye on the prize: We need to look at '04 Congressional elections

[stopbush]

Without getting ahead of the process, Dems need to start looking at taking back the Congress in '04. The repigs are already busy trying to steal elections across the country and are running scared. The time to strike is NOW!

There is no way the economy is going to turn around in a year, Iraq will stay a mess and more terror attacks may well be on the way. Bush is going down - I have no doubts about it. There may be a number of repigs who decide to get out at that point - they'll want to secure those high-paying private sector jobs while there's still a bit of shine left on their shit.

I would love to see our leading prez candidates like Dean, Kerry, Clark and Gephardt reaching out to state and local politicians to energize the '04 elections at ALL levels. Dean is already doing this, and Dems nationwide are coming to life.

We need to get the whole program up and running. And the sooner, the better!

[zekeson]

1. What seats are up, and what is in play

its been quite a while since I have seen anything on this - I hope to hell the DNC is working on it. I recall posts from a few months back and it didn't seem like a lot was in play - Georgia, now Florida are two that come to mind.

[Kenneth ken]

2. Think on this

I wrote it in regard to Dr Dean, but it could be applied to any Dem candidate (substiute your person, every time you see "Dean":

Given the large number of Meet-up groups, and their varying sizes; plus the underlying idea of Taking Back Our Country; would it not make sense for Dean supporters to not only focus on the Presidential election, but also to look within the various Meet-up groups to seek out potential candidates for both the US House of Representatives, and for the US Senate?

To this point, the DLC has been indifferent to hostile to the Dean campaign. I do not think they or their corporate-owned ciphers currently serving as Representatives or Senators will be strong supporters of the positions of a Dean presidency. It might be a worthwhile idea to consider replacing them as well. Certainly for Dean supporters who live in Republican-held districts, it would be well to replace those Representatives.

I don’t think Dean supporters should lose sight of the Presidency, but I also think that in the 2004 election, there should be no such thing as a “safe seat” in the US House of Representatives.
Any Senate seat up for election should also be non-safe.

It is not simply the Bush misadministration the country needs to be taken back from; it is the corporate oligarchy currently in control that needs to be defeated. To anyone paying attention, it must be painfully obvious that the corporate oligarchy owns members of both parties in both houses of Congress.

While I do not think all the US House nor the entire 1/3 of the Senate up for election can be won by the people in this election; it is certainly possible to win some of those positions, and in so doing, shake up the complacency and business-as-usual aspect pervading those two bodies at present.

I don’t have details, but I think a Dean Presidency would be able to accomplish its goals much more easily if it had an attendant Congress composed as much as possible with Dean position supporters, rather than opponents intent on blocking those goals.