DNC and DSCC on Hackett/Brown.

[longship]

I just talked to both the Dr. Dean's office at the DNC and the DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee -- in other words, Chuck Schumer's people). As would be expected the results with the DNC were very satisfying and the results with the DSCC very unsatisfying.

Dr. Dean's office and the DNC in general is not taking sides on the issue. They said they would fully support both Hackett and Brown if they chose to run against each other in the primary. That's good and I firmly believe that this is precisely what they will do. I explained that to many it looks like a dirty deal and that there are a lot of bad feelings about the situation. A time might soon come for the DNC to intervene to smooth over the situation. They concurred, but they said they would keep an eye on it.

I then called the DSCC. I was cautious, polite and non-committal as to my position. I merely asked for clarification on what had happened. The guy said that he could not comment on it. I asked him if the DSCC was supporting either candidate or not. He again said that he could not comment. I told him that this sounds very much like a tacit admission that the DSCC had taken sides because if they were neutral on Hackett/Brown he certainly would have said so. Again, he said he could not comment on it. I probed again, asking if the DSCC is neutral on the two candidates. The robot repeated his no comment comment. I explained that there is some confusion and some bad feelings about this deal and that any information might help smooth things over. Again, he can't comment and he had other calls to take.

I then shed my veil and explained that the Dems may lose a very good candidate because of it and that it very much smelled like a backroom dirty trick. If Dems are going to stoop to that kind of business than we are not much better than the Repug dirty tricksters. I rung off, quite perturbed about things.

I called back the DNC chair's office and related my unsatisfactory call with the DSCC. The woman said that this is typical caution of the Senate people, meaning the no comment. She indicated that Dr. Dean would be informed and they--meaning his staff, I think--would talk to some people about it.

Just reporting the facts.

[Tiggeroshii]

1. Wow.

That sounds fishy

[longship]

2. Or, it may be that I was talking to a robot.

trained to say "no comment" to anything.

I am troubled by that DSCC phone call, though.

[Tiggeroshii]

7. Maybe more people should be doing the same thing

If more people get the same response and report it to the DNC, maybe the DNC might actually do something about it.

[DaveinMD]

8. you probably

talked to some staffer who isn't allowed to comment on anything.

[LittleClarkie]

10. Did Mr. No Comment have a supervisor, I wonder?

And I wonder if that would have made a difference.

[longship]

11. Mr. No Comment

ended up being none too polite. By the end of the call I was quite perturbed with his lack of cooperation. I tried to be very diplomatic and polite while staying focussed on getting some inkling as to what was happening. All for naught.

[MaineDem]

3. The DNC usually won't support one candidate over another

Especially in a state or District-wide race.

I believe they should remain neutral.

[longship]

5. I understood this, but the issue is not the DNC but the DSCC

nt

[MaineDem]

9. Unfortunately, the DNC -and Dean - have little control over Capitol Hill

Maybe one day we'll all be working from the same page.

Thanks for making the calls. :thumbsup:

[longship]

12. But we cannot have these things happen.

They disillusion people and drive perfectly good candidates like Hackett away. Nobody wants to play the stupid games. If you don't bow down to the great Sr. Senator from a totally different state, you won't get a chance to be a member of his exclusive club.

Once Brown bowed out of the campaign, Hackett should have been free to jump into the void. But, "No", Hackett isn't an appropriate club member. We have to fix things so he can't join our exclusive club. He might mess on the floor, or something.

This stinks to high heaven.

[mattclearing]

4. Thanks for your story.

This isn't really surprising. Nice to hear that the DNC is being responsive.

[Columbus]

6. Thanks for the calls

I posted a thread (Hackett, Dems addiction, meeting) earlier regarding this situation.

I think it is a shame that Ohio Dems are going to waste millions of dollars fighting each other when that money is needed to get rid of Pryce, Boehner, Ney and the other really horrible Republicans in the Ohio congressional delegation, let alone DeWine.

I do think Brown bears the responsbility for this situation and I hope he reconsiders his decision (again).

There is going to be a meeting of Citizens for Hackett (David Woodruff, PH's former campaign manager will be there too). The information on the meeting is posted at
www.OhioHonestElections.org

Thanks for taking the time to call DNC and DSCC. I think Brown and the DSCC are delusional thinking they can run Hackett out of the race.

I highly recommend everyone read the Mother Jones articles (check the OHEC website for links) on Hackett.

[CAcyclist]

15. Welcome to DU!

Well, Hackett will get some California money from me if he stays and fights. I see this as a fight between the Democratic elites and the Democratic grassroots, specifically, the netroots. We need more common man - types and less millionaires in Congress.

[longship]

13. Just talked to Hackett Campaign

They are not happy about this. But they are getting support from the DSCC, at least they're getting advice. I made them aware of my calls to both the DNC and the DSCC.

I got the feeling that Hackett is going to continue. He'll need $12 million extra to do the primary. Maybe we need to pass the hat around here.

[iconoclastNYC]

14. Big test for Dean/Schumer.....

I don't care who wins....the biggest thing is that they don't attack each other.

If Hackett runs against Brown for being a Northern Liberal he's lost my support forever. I donated $50 to his OH-2 election and got about 3 others to do the same.

This will be a good test of Dean's and Schumer's leadership. We can't have bitter in fighting. The DLC/DSCC need to make these two need to play nice.

[longship]

16. Hi iconoclast

Here's what happened in sequence.

A. Dems need opponent to Senator Dewine (R-OH)
B. Rep. Brown says he will not run for Senate.
C. Hackett annouces candidacy for Senate since nobody else is running.
D. Brown speaks with Senator Schumer (D-NY).
E. Brown changes mind and is running for Senate in primary against Hackett.

Okay. Now do you understand?

[iconoclastNYC]

17. WTF?

I knew all that. Why do you assume I didn't?

[longship]

19. Because you've taken Brown's side.

That's okay, but I was wondering if you knew that events very much look like Schumer/Brown have stabbed Hackett in the back. I thought you might not have known that. No big deal from my perspective.

I, too, hope they both run a clean campaign and this thing works out okay. But I do not blame Hackett for being pissed about it.

Both Brown and Hackett are good people. I'm not too happy with Schumer these days.

[iconoclastNYC]

23. Nice.

Because I don't support your guy I must be ignorant. Great assumption there.

[longship]

24. Please do not put words in my mouth.

Get the f*cking chip off your shoulder. I was agreeing with you!

Yee-gods!

[gulfcoastliberal]

18. I'm uniformed. How many seats has the DSCC won for us the last 2 cycles?

I recall we had a majority for a very brief period some time ago and poof it vanished like a mirage. So what have the geniuses at the DSCC done for us? Please, enlighten me. No sarcasm intended.

[Left Turn]

20. The silver lining

In all of this is that even if they devote a lot of money to a primary race, we are going to have a strong candidate regardless of who wins the primary.

[Freddie Stubbs]

22. Schumer was not running the DSCC for the last two cycles.

He just took over this year.

[safi0]

21. Another piece of good news

Is that there was a domain name by the name of BobMcEwenforsenate that was recently bought. The website is currently under construction and there's no info as to who bought the website. Perhaps its just some far-righty that wants McEwen to run trying to start a draft McEwen movement or McEwen is running, and he bought this site.