At a state meeting of Democrats in Yakima, Washington last Saturday, State Democratic Chairman Dwight Pelz told his audience of delegates
"History will record that America's flirtation with the Republican right-wing agenda ended in 2006,"
One race Democrats touted as the bellweather of their success in the Fall was California's 50th Congressional District which held a special election over the weekend to fill the seat vacated by convicted felon Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham
The LA Times said of the election
Normally, this district is so Republican that Democratic strategist Donna Brazile says it's not just red, but "ruby red."
However, with Bush's approval ratings severely hobbled by Iraq and other issues and Cunningham in prison for the biggest corruption case in congressional history, the GOP is running concerned, if not downright scared.
A loss here, or even a close victory, could be seen as a sign that the GOP hold on Washington is slipping and that November could see wholesale change.
Democrats smelled blood, and why wouldn't they? The Congressman who had been representing the district was in jail after confessing to trading money for political favors: he was corrupt. And this fit into the theme of the Democrats as they go into November: The Republicans are enmeshed in a Culture of Corruption.
And that's precisely how Democrat Candidate Francine Busby ran her race. The problem was, Republican candidate Brian Bilbray didn't appear to be corrupt and the corrupt guy was in jail. Bilbray on the other hand, didn't run around saying "I'm not corrupt"; he ran his race on tough immigration policy while Busby supported the Senate bill.
Well Bilbray won, 49% to 45%. And if you add in the 3rd party candidate who ran to the right of Bilbray on immigration, the anti-Busby vote was 55%.
Now I have seen no evidence that special elections are a harbinger of anything special, but it is delusional for the Democrats to put a victory face on this.
No matter what the media says, no Democrat should be mistaken about this result. First, this is a huge, seismic shift in our favor that bodes extremely well for November. If we receive an 18% shift nationwide, we will win the House easily. If Republican candidates are pulling only 20% of the independent vote, the Indycrat realignment is still on.
If anything, it might call into question the strategy of Democrats trying to run on the "Culture of Corruption" platform which, if taken away, gives Democrats what? to run on.
Democrats continue to delude themselves as to the reasons behind their defeats at the poll. And they had better wake up before 08.
But don't count on it.
