MA Duers--Is Barney Frank in trouble?

[WI_DEM]

I keep hearing this but see no evidence to support it. I can't beleive that Frank would lose.

[FBaggins]

1. I would have said no until this morning, but I still don't believe it either.

I'm not aware of any polling. The buzz that he's worried has been entirely RW spin that he's running scared and the republican is surging. You'll hear that kind of spin from losing candidates quite a bit over the next week and a half.


But this morning I read that he had loaned $200k to his own campaign this quarter.

Frank isn't one of those politicians who gets rich in office. $200k is alot of money for him. I can't imagine why he would do this unless some internal polling showed the race as potentially competitive (which is not at all the same thing as saying he's behind).

I think he's just trying to be safe.

[Mass]

2. No evidence of this here. However, he has a campaign that is more difficult than in previous years

and locally, these last few days have been dominated by the encounter of his partner and his opponent (some mild heckling involved).

There are no polls in this district and Bielat is not proposing any internal polls that would show him even remotely close (a few weeks ago, he published an internal showing him down by 10 and nothing since http://www.wickedlocal.com/dover/news/x1389371294/Bielat-raises-more-money-than-Frank-in-the-congressmans-hometown).

But it is true that Frank had to campaign for this election, something he is not used to, and he does not want to become the next Martha Coakley, so his efforts for new ads attacking Bielat.


Apparently, he has not done a lot of fundraising.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1010/Frank_embattled.html?showall

[wmbrew0206]

5. I saw the encounter with Frank's partner. It did not seem like that big of a deal, so why has

it been dominating the campaign over the last couple days?

[FBaggins]

6. The news is at least as much about entertainment these days.

I suppose that if a candidate's wife was heckling the opponent during an interview... it would make the news for at least a couple days. It's pretty tacky regardless of what you think of the opponent (and then to seemingly hide behind a camera?)

The sad thing is that the stories about how the race is starting to worry Frank... may themselves create an environment where he needs to worry.

[wmbrew0206]

8. Has Frank or his parnter come out and said anything about the incident?

Like why his partner was talking to the other candidate?

[Mass]

10. This was in the Globe this morning.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2010/10/20/dude_show_some_respect/ (not that I trust this columnnist, but Frank has immediately said it was his partner).

And more context here:
http://chimesatmidnight.blogspot.com/2010/10/dude-give-us-some-context.html

[wmbrew0206]

12. Thanks for the info.

[FBaggins]

11. Not that I know of... I don't even know that it WAS his partner.

All I see is a guy with a camera and a republican candidate who should age another ten years before he comes out in public.

[wmbrew0206]

13. I might not agree with Frank's oppenent, but I don't think his age should be held against him.

[FBaggins]

14. I don't even know how old he is. It isn't his age...

...it's how he carries it.

He just had this goofy grin and didn't seem comfortable in his own skin.

Keep in mind... I've only been exposed to about ten seconds of the guy's life... so I'm hardly a judge.

[vaberella]

3. What can we do for him?! n/t

[Ian David]

4. A little. He needs donations. I kicked him a few bucks this morning.

According to NPR, the Democrat most at risk is Niki Tsongas.

Here's who needs help:

Niki Tsongas:
http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/17775

Bill Keating
http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/24487

Deval Patrick
http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/13863

Barney Frank:
http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/12750

Suzanne Bump
http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/25896

Martha Coakley
http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/8525

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. He must be confident of his chances, as he just loaned his campaign $200,000:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/20/barney-frank-loans-own-ca_n_769951.html

[FBaggins]

15. How does that make sense?

Why would you take out a loan against your retirement plan if you were confident of your chances?

Heck... doesn't that mean that Whitman is really confident of her chances (since she's spent more of her own money on the race than any politician in US history)?

[Freddie Stubbs]

17. Because he can easily raise that money next year to pay himself back if he is reelected

It would be a lot harder to do so if he loses.

[Arkana]

9. No, he's not.

Even Nate Silver, with his bleak reelection forecasts, gives Frank a 90%+ chance of reelection. RWers are targeting Frank because he's high profile and they want America to THINK he's scared.

[Mass]

16. He wants to be ready to reply to Swift Boating

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43909.html

In a statement, the Massachusetts Democrat said he dipped into his retirement funds to help his re-election effort because he does not “intend to be ambushed by the kind of right-wing spears that assailed John Kerry in 2004 and that led to the defeat this year of responsible Republican members of Congress whose records were badly distorted by tea party-backed candidates.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43909.html#ixzz12vwC5eto

He also has $1 M cash in hand.

[burning rain]

18. FWIW, he looked collected & relaxed on MSNBC yesterday.

Several weeks back, around the time I heard he was in trouble and Bill Clinton came in to campaign for him, he looked about ready to shit his pants in tv appearances.

[boston bean]

19. Not sure, but there is this theme being created that Bielat is out fundraising Frank in areas.

They are trying to construct a story that bielat is viable. It happened with Brown too.

You have to understand that the talk radio here in MA is extremely RW. And they helped scott brown win, and they are hoping to help others like him win too.


http://www.wickedlocal.com/dover/news/x1389371294/Bielat-raises-more-money-than-Frank-in-the-congressmans-hometown

[hughee99]

20. Other than using the private jet of a hedge-fund manager who got bailed out

the repukes haven't gotten any real traction on anything. He'll be fine and win by more than 7% at worst.

[wmbrew0206]

21. After reading this thread the other day, I looked a few things up and apparently

Frank's opponent is going after him over Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae. It doesn't come out and say it, but there is a dog whistle in there saying Frank is responsible for their collapse because he was trying to poor people into homes.