Rep. "Van Hollen: '10 Won't Be Like '94 -- We'll Be Better Prepared"

[Clio the Leo]

Van Hollen: '10 Won't Be Like '94 -- We'll Be Better Prepared
The Legendary Brian Beutler | April 6, 2010, 10:24AM

It's about the ground game, the base, and using the Republicans' weaknesses against them--and even then it will be a hard slog.

In the clearest articulation yet of his strategy to avoid huge losses at the polls this November, the chairman of the House Democrats' re-election committee, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) says vulnerable members will be better prepared than their counterparts were in 1994, when a huge wave of Republicans swept into office and took control of Congress. And this time around, the Republicans have a number of problems of their own: Sarah Palin, the radicalized tea party movement, an association with Bush-era economic policies, and, more generally, a sense among the electorate that they don't represent a real alternative.

"To the extent that there's a national message, the message will be, again, do you really want to go back to the Bush economic policies, because one thing is pretty clear is that that's question is fresh in voters minds," Van Hollen told me and two other reporters after a breakfast roundtable discussion this morning. "When you ask them who's responsible for the huge deficits, they still appropriately lay more of the responsibility ."

<snip>

Separately, Van Hollen said, Democrats will use Republican weaknesses to their own advantage--and those weaknesses are by and large a factor of their association with polarizing and controversial members of their party, factions of their base, and the tough votes they've had to take as a result.

"The fact that every single Republican in the House voted against Wall Street accountability is something that voters will be hearing about in the next election," Van Hollen promised.

Van Hollen believes that Palin, and her work on behalf of Republican candidates, "will energize Democratic activists. It will remind them of all the reasons its important for them to come out in these elections."

<snip>

"To the extent that the Republican nominee makes wild statements in order to be embraced by certain elements of the tea party movement, I think that will come back to haunt them in the general election," Van Hollen said.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/jiu-jitsu-armed-with-renewed-enthusiasm-dems-will-draw-sharp-contrast-to-republicans.php?ref=fpb

[Captain Hilts]

1. And the Republican Party is still self-destructive. nt

[tabbycat31]

2. locally the Republican party IS Wall Street

this is from a state that just voted for a Bush clone over a former Wall Street CEO as governor. So our local GOP decides to run a Wall Street billionaire's wife against a popular Congressman.

However the race is a little bit more interesting than that.... the teabagger candidate lost at all the county conventions and still hasn't conceded. I hope that she runs as an independent. (It's a district gerrymandered for a Democrat)

[David__77]

3. There are many reasons for this.

- The anti-Obama sentiment is concentrated in the south, which ALREADY went Republican.
- The right lacks ideological cohesion.
- The demography of voters has changed substantially in 16 years.

There are others as well. We will fundamentally transform this country, whether this petulant minority likes it or not.

[Juche]

4. The demographics will keep changing

Young people will replace older voters. More non-white voters. more secularism and multiculturalism. The trend is going to continue for the next 20+ years which will push the country even further leftward.

Even if the GOP does gain seats, most will be blue dog seats, and there is no telling how long they'll hold them.