The issue of the day is Money.
As this article in the Post this morning explains, there are two debates going on right now within the Democratic party. 1) Whether to pile money into the most competitive races or try to expand the playing field to go after 2nd and 3rd tier races that may just now be getting competitive. 2) Are the opportunities in this election so great that Dem committees should be literally taking out loans to get money into those emerging races?
Harold Ickes, for instance, tells the Post, “It has been more difficult raising money than I expected. My sense is there is more optimism than is probably warranted,” he said about the Dems’ chances. (Ickes runs one of the independent expenditure groups that was supposed to provide extra money muscle in the stretch.)
I’m just an observer when it comes to question of political money and the brass tacks management of political campaigns. But I have pretty strong feelings about this one. The conservative, narrow playing field approach seems like the height of folly to me. In the grand scheme of things, the potential downside of pulling together a few millions or even more than a few millions of dollars seems vanishingly small. The potential lost opportunity is immense.
Stan Greenberg makes his case in this new post at TPMCafe. This one’s important. Give it a read.
