Aug. 11, 2010 DNC Memo on Primary Results

DNC MEMO

From: Tim Kaine, Chairman on the Democratic National Committee
To: Interested Parties
Date: August 11, 2010
RE: The Results of Yesterday's Primary Elections

The Results of Yesterday's Primary Elections

Yesterday, voters in four states went to the polls to elect their Democratic and Republican nominees for this fall's election ballot. For the President and Democrats, those primary elections could not have gone better. For Republicans, they could not have gone worse.

For example, in Colorado, Democrats nominated Mayor John Hickenlooper for Governor whose stewardship of Denver and strong business credentials make him a formidable candidate, while Republicans nominated their first gubernatorial Tea Party candidate, John Maes, a candidate so divisive that former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo is running as a third-party candidate who will split the Republican vote.

Similarly, Colorado Democrats nominated Michael Bennet - the President's choice and the candidate supported by the strong field efforts of the Democratic National Committee and its grassroots arm Organizing for America - for the Senate. The Colorado Democratic Party is planning a unity rally with Senator Bennet and his former opponent, Andrew Romanoff, which I will attend tomorrow, while the Republican establishment is still smarting from the loss of their preferred candidate, Jane Norton, to a Tea Party extremist, Ken Buck.

And Republicans didn't just have trouble in Colorado - in every state that held elections yesterday Republican voters were divided and Republican primaries were dominated by extreme conservatives. The results are troubling for the Republican Party. As Politico noted this morning:

"In each of the four states that held primaries Tuesday, the GOP either nominated or gave an overnight lead to candidates tarnished by scandal, gaffes or some other significant vulnerability."

In short, yesterday's elections resulted in the nomination of superior Democratic candidates who were elected with broad-based support among voters with the support of the President and the Democratic National Committee, and at the same time saw the rise of weak or divisive Republican candidates who will do more to hurt their Party's cause this November than to help it.

Organizing to Win

Yesterday's winning Democrats ran strong primary campaigns, building a solid foundation for victory in November. Those campaigns demonstrated their ability to bring core Democratic voters to the polls. At the same time, the DNC demonstrated our ability to bring 2008 first time voters and the President's strongest supporters to the polls in support of his allies this year.

For example, in Colorado the President's supporters made a strong showing in favor of Senator Michael Bennet, helping to push him over the top to victory. From the very beginning, President Obama made it clear that Senator Bennet had his support - a message he reiterated in a tele-town hall with Senator Bennet; a robo call directed at likely voters; an email to Organizing for America supporters in Colorado, asking them to volunteer and vote for Senator Bennet; and other forums.
The President's organization successfully road tested its Vote 2010 Get Out the Vote effort and the DNC and Organizing for America translated the President's support for Senator Bennet into a major organizing effort. We hosted more than 80 canvasses, phone banks, and other events to educate voters about the importance of electing Senator Bennet to continue to serve Colorado. Organizing for America volunteers and staff made tens of thousands of calls and knocked on thousands of doors to talk with voters about the importance of casting a ballot for Senator Bennet - making 11,500 calls and knocking on nearly 3,500 doors in the four days leading up to the election alone. OFA successfully turned out traditional Midterm voters and 2008 voters who cast a ballot for the first time in that election. It is that formula OFA is employing in states across the country as part of the DNC's $50 million Vote 2010 campaign plan for this fall's elections.

While such efforts can't work magic, they can make the difference in close elections - as they did yesterday in Colorado. With the President's Democratic allies on the line in campaigns across the country, the Democratic National Committee will be working hard to demonstrate, just as we did in Colorado, the importance - to the President and the country - of electing and reelecting those Democrats. And as they did in Colorado, we believe 2008 surge voters and the President's strongest supporters can and will turn out.

Democratic Unity vs. Republican Division and Extremism

Across the country, establishment Republican candidates suffered losses to extreme nominees, with Tea Party candidates such as Ken Buck and Dan Maes in Colorado defeating more mainstream Republicans and ultra-conservative Mark Emmer making it onto the ballot in Minnesota. In these races, as in other primaries this year, the Tea Party's win was the Republican Party's loss - the extreme candidates nominated yesterday might appeal to far-right primary voters, but their ideas are out of touch with the mainstream solutions Americans will be looking for this fall. In fact, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Tea Party and its candidates are becoming a millstone around the Republican Party's neck and could hold down the gains Republicans have promised this fall.

Those Tea Party candidates will be challenged to generate enthusiasm among general election voters over the coming months, but they aren't the only Republicans who will likely struggle this fall. In fact, as the Republican nomination of Connecticut Senate candidate Linda McMahon showed, some Republican nominees are struggling to inspire enthusiasm even among their Republican base.

Far from an experienced candidate, Linda McMahon's resume includes leading a business that exploits its workers and promotes awful stereotypes. In fact, McMahon's resume is such a negative that she couldn't even win a majority of support among Republican primary voters - she lost votes to candidates who had basically dropped out of the race.

Meanwhile, Democrats in Connecticut united behind Richard Blumenthal for Senator, a leader with two decades of experience fighting for the people of Connecticut. Linda McMahon can spend as many millions of her own money on this race as she wants - but she can never buy her way to the respectability and leadership credentials that Richard Blumenthal has earned. As such, the Connecticut Senate race is yet another in which Republicans have significantly decreased their own chances of success through the nomination of an unqualified and extreme candidate.

What This Means for November

Although this year's election climate presents a challenge for Democratic candidates across the country, yesterday's results illustrate, once again, that Democrats are prepared to meet that challenge head-on with sophisticated and effective organizing strategies. In addition, yesterday's primary elections show that Republicans also face significant barriers to success this fall - in particular, the nomination of extreme and divisive candidates will pose problems for the Republican Party. It is important when looking forward to the fall elections that analysts and commentators look closely at individual races rather than what is perceived to be the national political environment.

When you take into account candidates like Ken Buck, who has called for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and Wall Street reform; candidates like Linda McMahon, who has objectified women and tolerated steroid use among her employees; candidates like Rand Paul, who opposes portions of the Civil Rights Act and Fair Housing Laws and who criticized President Obama for holding BP accountable for the oil spill in the Gulf; candidates like Sharron Angle, who want to end Social Security and Medicare as we know them; and the chaos in the Georgia and Connecticut Republican gubernatorial primary contests, the picture for Republicans this fall is less rosy than they would have you believe.

In short, while there is still a long road ahead until the November elections, the horizon is looking brighter for Democrats and darker for Republicans.