Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-NY) left a message for Democrat Alex Sink, the candidate in the Florida 13th Congressional District special election, on Tuesday night but he said Wednesday that he still hadn’t heard back.
“I did call her last night and left a message and my message was that she ran a great race and that if this election were in November versus March I believe she would’ve won and encouraged her to speak with us about continuing this campaign in November,” Israel said in conference call with reporters on Wednesday. “I’ve not heard back from her. And this is just the day after the special so we haven’t started thinking about who else may be viable. I’m hoping that Alex and I can talk soon.”
A day earlier Sink narrowly lost to lobbyist David Jolly in the special election.
If it is a sign of some kind of post-election rift between the DCCC and the candidate, it’s not the only example in this special election. Throughout the campaign now-Rep.-elect David Jolly’s (R-FL) staff reportedly tussled with the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Earlier on Wednesday MSNBC’s Chuck Todd asked NRCC Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) about multiple reports on “real frustration” between Jolly’s campaign and Walden’s committee. One report, for example, quoted an NRCC official using expletives in response to criticism from Jolly over an NRCC campaign ad.
This post was updated.
