Literally one year ago this week, Dems on the Hill were telling reporters that part of their election strategy for 2004 was to taint the entire Republican caucus by demonizing Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Aside from giving Chris Shays (R-Conn.) a tough race, the strategy didn’t really go anywhere.
On the surface, it seems like a wise approach. Newt Gingrich was widely hated among the electorate and Dems capitalized on this to win seats in the 1998 mid-term elections — a surprising and historical success that ultimately drove Gingrich from Congress. DeLay is far more offensive than Gingrich ever was, so painting GOP candidates as “DeLay Republicans” makes sense.
Except it hasn’t worked. As voters went to the polls in November, most Americans didn’t even know who DeLay was. Dems would try and label some GOP candidate a “Tom DeLay Republican” and voters would ask, “Who’s Tom DeLay?”
But circumstances have changed over the last year, and DeLay’s problems have grown exponentially. Dems are revising the strategy and seem to be on the right track.
Using the swirl of controversy surrounding House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) as a springboard, Democrats have ratcheted up their push to convince voters that the GOP has ushered in an era of corruption in Congress.
Democrats are painting the latest news reports concerning DeLay’s fundraising practices and relationship with embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff as simply the tip of an iceberg of ethical problems surrounding House Republicans, and indicative of what they say is widespread corruption gripping the party controlling the institution.
At Tuesday’s lunch gathering of party leaders, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) pledged “to go after every ethically challenged Republican out there,” according to one well-placed Democratic staffer.
“Politically speaking this is much bigger than Tom DeLay,” added a senior Congressional Democratic aide.
That sounds right. DeLay is corrupt and mendacious, but Dems are standing up to an out-of-control Congress, not just one man whom most Americans aren’t familiar with. DeLay is a symbol of a Congress gone mad, so Dems will offer an alternative — a party of ethically-sound reform.
At this point, DeLay is making it easy.
In recent weeks Democrats have engaged in a coordinated campaign with key constituency and public interest groups to ensure the public is aware of the allegations and that the drum beat continues. Party fundraisers have also used the controversy surrounding DeLay to try to coax more money from top donors.
One well-placed House Democrat said the minority’s strategy is to keep pressing for an improved ethical environment in the House and questioning the GOP’s leadership until DeLay falls or takes his party down with him.
In the meantime, Dems will need candidates committed to this agenda.
Democratic House leaders are casting about for squeaky-clean congressional candidates — even if they’re long shots — to challenge prominent GOP incumbents who have been tainted by news reports of their allegedly unseemly connection to lobbyists.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) strategy, still in development, aims to make ethical charges the touchstone of those campaigns and would use several high-profile local races to create a national image of corruption in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives.
All indications are this will fall on fertile ground. As I mentioned earlier this week, Congress hasn’t been this unpopular in years. Voters may not know who DeLay is, and they may not even know that the Republicans are in the majority, but they aren’t satisfied with what they’re getting, which makes an anti-incumbency mood far more likely.