What we have to do to keep our House seats?

[JeremyWestenn]

We won 31 house seats that gave us our majority, most of the people here probably don't live in those contested districts. I happen to. I live in the second district of Kansas where Nancy Boyda came for a come back, she was essentially a stealth candidate that no one took seriously, got some national party attention around the last two weeks of the campaign and won with 51% of the vote against a 5 term 10 year ultra conservative religious incumbent. I'll be honest, I was surprised, I knew it was going to either be a close win or a much closer loss then anyone could have predicted but I was hopping happy after November 7th.

The best thing I can figure out for us to keep these seats is to just follow through. Enact every promise we made, all 8(I believe) of those things, increasing minimium wage, enacting 9/11 commission report suggestions, etc. Then come back and say you delivered and continually tell the constituients you delivered when the things you promised to support passed.

My stomach reels at the thought of loosing this seat in 2 years, but it's a real possibility. The truth is that there are a lot of viable Republican candidates in the second district who's eyes probably lit up on election day when they realised that they will eventually have their shot. Were in for a battle here, just like other districts are in for such a fight.

What can we do to keep these seats? And what can we, as the constituients, do to help? Suggestions?

[Kagemusha]

1. Yes: stop worrying.

Bush isn't going to change over the next 2 years and will provide many compelling reasons not to elect more Republicans. The leading candidate for President on their side is McCain, who is, if anything, even more of a warmonger than Bush is, or at least, believes in warmongering with a higher number of troops committed, including his own sons. There's no reason to believe that America loved the congressional Republicans so much that they will overcome their revulsion at the Iraq war being made even worse over the next 24 months that they will miss Republican control of the House and Senate.

[DaveinMD]

2. we need to get some things done

that are members can run on. We need to keep a constant campaign for them and they need to raise serious cash to withstand the onslaught. We'll do okay.

[stillcool]

3. elect Al Gore?....... n/t

[IndianaGreen]

4. Stop the war in Iraq

Enabling Bush's war will be the death knell of us all.

[Monkeyman]

5. Keep our promises to the American People

[jaxx]

6. Yes. Remember why they won those seats and do what they said they would.

Even if they don't get everything passed, at least they will have tried. We're looking for results........not miracles.

[Mabus]

7. Nancy was not a stealth candidate

She had run before and people knew her. The reason she was ignored by the DC Democratic machine was because she told them to butt out. She worked the grassroot Democrats in her district, she went to the churches, she talked to people and she wasn't afraid to speak her mind. In addition, this time around Ryun couldn't use the fact that Nancy protested the Iraq War in D.C. against her. Instead he was fighting his own battles, like whether or not he knew Foley. Ryun denied it until it came out that he and Foley threw a block party together. He couldn't hide his association with or the money he got from Abramoff and DeLay. That's why Nancy won. (see http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4179/is_20061108/ai_n16827497)

As for Boyda retaining her seat, Pelosi is doing what she can to make sure that Boyda returns to the House in '08.

Nancy Boyda of Kansas, who startled Democrats by winning with 51 percent of the vote, was given her first choice, Armed Services, after, she said, she informed Democratic leaders of the prevalence of veterans in a district that had largely escaped Democratic notice until the final week before Election Day.

“They are doing everything they can to match up my district with committee assignments,” Ms. Boyda said. “That has been a huge help.”

House Democratic aides said the group would be named sponsors of bills that Mrs. Pelosi is planning to press through in the first 100 hours in office, in particular, raising the minimum wage, expanding stem cell research and toughening rules on lobbying and ethics. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/us/politics/22protect.html?ei=5070&en=01e0f8c272c8e842&ex=1167454800&emc=eta1&pagewanted=print

Finally, in case you haven't been paying attention, the local GOP is imploding on itself. There have been more high-profile defections from the GOP because of their continued emphasis on personal agendas rather than focusing on the issues that are important to other Kansans.

[JeremyWestenn]

10. Let me re define what I meant by stealth candidate.

I didn't mean to say that the national party completely ignored her. Now whether or not you want to believe that she actually told the national party to butt out or whether they said, " Were not siphoning money to a race that we can't win, " is something we can argue till were blue in the face as she and her campaign is probably the only peoples word we have to go off of. I think she made up her mind about how she was going to run the campaign regardless of whether or not she had the big money support from D.C., to me it's irrelevant except that she did it without them.

What I meant to say by stealth candidate is that she was under the radar. Ryun didn't take her seriously, I saw a little stir in the news about the Foley connection but I doubt even a decent sized monority of the voters that went to the polls knew of that issue with whether or not they lived near each other. By stealth candidate I meant to say that by the time they figured out there was blood in the water it was to late for them to save him.

I'm well aware of the implosion of the GOP in Kansas, it's really just been going on for a long, long while and now coming into greater effect since the incredibly stupid actions of the Johnson County Republican Chairs electing Phil Kline(Barf!) in place of Morrison. However, don't underestimate your opponents. The issue with the moderate and conservative divide so evident in the third district is part of what got Nancy to win but not all of it. I think we still have a major battle ahead of us in 08. And I'm also well aware of that article, as you know since your more then likely saw me post on that thread in the Kansas forum.

By the way am I the only one who caught onto their spelling her name as " Ms. Boyda, " she was married last I checked. :\

[Mabus]

11. As someone close to the campaign

but not officially a part of it, I can confirm that she and Steve told them to butt out. Nancy and Steve had decided how to run her campaign before she announced and part of that plan was not refuse help from the national Democrats. Throughout her campaign this year, that's exactly what she told people. She refused money from a number of different PACs and she wasn't afraid to name them. For example, she refused money from AIPAC because she didn't want to be beholden to them. She refused money from DCCC because they wanted to send in their campaign people and she didn't like they way they ran her campaign last time. Instead, Nancy ran her campaign with the 20/20 plan. That is, a concentration on grass roots participation where people donated $20 and got 20 people to do the same. As a result, she wasn't happy that the DCCC decided to run campaign ads on her behalf - and without telling her campaign - in the last two weeks of the race. In the end, Nancy won because people saw the real Nancy this time, not the Nancy who was listening to D.C. consultants but the Nancy who spoke from her heart and connected with people.

fwiw, when you call someone a stealth candidate it usually means people who are running with the intent to enact a different agenda than the one they professing when they run. In other words, they have an agenda that they are concealing while they are a candidate. Take Jesse Hall for example. He got knocked out of the primary back in August because he was a stealth candidate. He challenged Janet Waugh, a real Democrat, in the primary. He claimed to be a Democrat but one was his big supporters was "Celtie Johnson, an anti-evolution crusader." Jesse thought that Waugh spent too much time on things that were already decided, like creationism and opt-in sexual education. http://www.bonnersprings.com/section/schools/story/8712 In other words, Jesse had no problem with the science standards and curriculum that the evolutionist BOE had put in place.

They knew Ryun was in trouble. That's why Cheney and Bush made appearances here in Kansas. There were articles in all the papers about Ryun and Foley - first Ryun didn't know him, then he couldn't deny it. There were articles in the paper about Ryun and Abramoff/DeLay and Ryun's response was he didn't know and then all he could say was "no one has been convicted yet" and he refused to return the money or explain his house deal. Ryun thought he could just remain silent and all would be well. Ryun lost because he he ran in race like he ran his mile races, he showed up but fell short when he counted. Ryun just kept shooting himself in the foot.


I didn't know you had read that article. I posted it on 12/22 and no one but proud2Blib commented on it for days. What puzzles me is why you made this post after reading that article that spells out what the two Nancys are doing to maintain and build on Boyda's popularity here in Kansas. For the most part, all Boyda needs to do is to be responsive to constituents, something Jim failed at miserably. Nancy won because she did something Ryun never has, she went and asked for people's votes and when they asked questions, she was willing to talk to them.

[Kiouni]

8. Hit it on the head

the key to success is simply, "follow-through." If more administrations, management, execs and people did this we might live in a utopia instead we live here.

[bullimiami]

9. ensure honest elections. republican voters are a minority.

and eliminate impediments to voting.

[enough already]

12. Get the fuck out of Iraq right now

Simple as that

[Doctor_J]

13. Indict approx 2 GOP criminals per week for the next two years

while enacting a populist economic agenda. Give incumbents like Boyda a long list of accomplishments to run on in two years.