Paul Hackett may be the first of many

August 8, 2005

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee admits that it’s thinking slightly outside the box when it comes to recruiting Dem congressional candidates for 2006. It’s been working well — FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley is running in Minnesota’s 2nd CD, Sheriff Brad Ellsworth is poised to run well in Indiana’s 8th CD, and in North Carolina, the DCCC successfully recruiting former NFL quarterback Heath Shuler.

But after Paul Hackett’s surprisingly strong showing in Ohio last week, Dems seem to have their eyes on one characteristic in particular: military service.

Roll Call reported today that, in addition to Hackett, three other veterans of either the Iraq or Afghanistan campaigns are running for Congress next year — and they’re all Dems.

Patrick Murphy, an attorney who returned from Baghdad last year, is challenging freshman Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) in the Keystone State’s competitive 8th district.

David Ashe is seeking a rematch with freshman Rep. Thelma Drake (R-Va.), who spent almost twice as much as Ashe and beat him by 10 percent last fall.

Tim Walz, for his part, served in Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Now back in Minnesota, the Mankato High School teacher is taking on Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) next year.

As it happens, Murphy, Ashe and Hackett — a Marine reservist who is now being talked up as a Senate candidate next year — are all lawyers in civilian life. Ashe served six months in Iraq as a legal counsel to coalition forces before leaving active duty in November 2003.

This not only further helps disprove the myth that those in the military are necessarily Republican, it gives Dems a real chance to compete in otherwise conservative districts, where voters are inclined to give a candidate who wore the uniform a serious look, regardless of party.

Murphy said he thinks Hackett’s performance will make national Democrats take a closer look at seriously challenging other tough districts that might have been overlooked.

Murphy himself is running in a more competitive district but he believes that his status as a veteran gives him an advantage that other Democratic challengers may lack.

“Hi, I’m Patrick Murphy. I’m an Iraq war veteran — I served in Baghdad and I’m back home and I’m running for Congress,” is how Murphy introduces himself to potential voters.

After he gives his speech, which omits the fact that he is a Democrat, “they immediately start clapping,” Murphy said.

Granted, there are plenty of voters in Murphy’s district that won’t care for that “D” after his name, but before they even consider partisanship, many of these same voters are drawn to Murphy because of his service.

I should add that it’s not just veterans from recent wars who are running for Congress as Dems. Eric Massa, a 24-year Navy veteran, cancer-survivor, and former top aide to Wesley Clark, is taking on freshman Rep. Randy Kuhl in New York’s 29th CD. Massa was a Republican who worked on the staff of the House Armed Services Committee, but he resigned and left the party to become a Dem. Now he’s generating support in a competitive New York district against a vulnerable Republican.

And we’re not just talking about a Dem In Name Only.

I am a Democrat because as a Democrat I can fight to defend the values which have guided me all my life: service, integrity, and accountability.

I am a Democrat because I believe that access to health care for all Americans is a national security priority.

I am a Democrat because I know that it is wrong to sell out our working families by sending their jobs overseas with bad trade agreements like CAFTA — it’s wrong, and it’s hurting our nation.

I am a Democrat because I believe that Social Security is one of the greatest accomplishments of modern America, and we must defend it against risky and destructive privatization schemes.

I am running for Congress as a Democrat because the working people of the 29th District of New York deserve a Representative who is more than a rubber stamp for the Bush-Rove-DeLay agenda.

Sounds good to me.

Yeah, but look at what they did to John Kerry.
They tore him to shreds. By the time they
got done, half the country thought he was
the draft dodger, and Bush was the military
hero. On top of that, they linked him with
known traitor Jane Fonda, and challenged
his patriotism because he opposed the
war when he returned from duty.

  • the myth that those in the military are necessarily Republican

    I got this just a few days ago (the reference is to my online graph of US fatalities in Bush’s Iraq Quagmire):

    I hope you are the ‘correct’ Stephan of OIF chart fame. I check your chart daily-and while on vacation last week I still managed to check it out a couple of times. Don’t let my e-mail addy fool you. I’m a died in the wool ‘blue stater’, sadly living in a red state. And my son is one of those 19% in the military who votes Democrat. He has learned to keep his mouth shut about politics in the USAF….

    Keep up the good work-it is through the efforts of people like you that public opinion is turning against this horrible mistake of a war. My son has served two tours in OIF already. He calls it a stupid war on behalf of an ungrateful people. He told me that when he was 19. I think he might be on to something!

  • The Dems run someone in every race all over the US — that is 435 House seats and 33 Senate seats. All of a sudden the Reps have to defend 468 seats no matter what. It could be done for not a lot of money. A few million total over what is going to be spent anyway. Suppose we pick up even 5 or 6 of those seats with the kind of people written about above. We are then getting fairly close to taking back one or both “houses” — then we all get to tell bush to get f******!

    In my home district, SC-1, the Dems have not even had anyone run against Brown the last two elections. In the last election a complete unknown with no money at all and no campaign got 25% of the vote. Not a lot but hardly any one knew he was on the ballot. So we run a Dem with a little name reg and a little money and all of a sudden we have a race.

    We also run against bush and his plans not the other person. bush is the one screwing us up and we need people in congress to stop that.

  • I agree with kjpr..I’m a blue stater trapped in a red state. The number of Republicans (local,state,national) that ran unopposed was amazing.

    I’m a big supporter of the ’50 state’ strategy. You can’t show up once every four years and expect to swing a state.

  • John Kerry took it. They tried to swift boat Hackett and he fought back. The “swift boat” tactic is predictable and not that hard to defeat.

  • I am a Democrat because I believe that Social Security is one of the greatest accomplishments of modern America, and we must defend it against risky and destructive privatization schemes.

    I am running for Congress as a Democrat because the working people of the 29th District of New York deserve a Representative who is more than a rubber stamp for the Bush-Rove-DeLay agenda.

    Every Democrat in the nation should be repeating these two lines (with the appropriate district substitution). the line about healthcare is good, but too ieasily spun. Stick with these two lines only. Okay, one more change: instead of “Bush-Rove-Delay” it should read “Rove-Delay-Dobson” or “Rove-Delay-Santorum”. We need to avoid cognitive dissonance with the several million Bush voters that need to vote Dem in 2006 and 2008.

  • Yeah, but look at what they did to John Kerry.
    They tore him to shreds.

    John Kerry took it. They tried to swift boat Hackett and he fought back.

    hark,

    Come on, man, don’t buy the rhetoric about war service being bad for business. If there is one lesson from ’04, it’s that you win the race in how you run it, not in the candidate. That’s not to say the candidate isn’t important, but that a poorly run race with a “great� candidate loses to a terrible candidate with a great campaign.

    Of course, best case scenario are candidates with credentials and personality—they can shape their own campaign relying on their ability to connect, and are harder to tear down. That’s what “Paul Hackett’s surprisingly strong showing in Ohio last weekâ€? was about, and it wasn’t surprising at all. The whole point is that people, the vast majority, the critical mass for almost all elections, are hungry for a guy or gal to get up and be real, be committed.

    The only thing that polls beneath losing candidates are politicians as a class. The best thing a citizen can say is that their preferred candidate “isn’t just a politician.�

    So there was no surprise in Hackett, except to people in both parties who still think this is about credentials and issues. This is about personality. Clinton knew it, Hackett knows it. This is not a chance for Democratic leadership to find a winner, it’s a chance for a winner to replace the Democratic leadership.

  • Perhaps it is my age showing, but I see some possibile similarities to 1974. Basically, troops may be coming home Democrats.

    Clearly, Bubble Boy’s advisors want to pull lots of troops out of Iraq next year and declare victory before mid terms. That isn’t polling well, since most Americans currently see making excuses and leaving chaos as failure. That is why we are now seeing the ‘political victory looming’ crap from Condi and military hacks. Rather this works with non-mentally defective Americans remains to be seen.

    However, there is a side to this that the GOP is overlooking. US troops have made tremendous sacrifices for this war. Aside from the thousands of deaths and serious injuries, families have been devestated by prolonged deployements, stop loss orders, and so on.

    Imagine years away from your family, a stop loss order keeping you in, rancid meals from war profiteers, and foraging in trash dumps to uparmor your own vehicle. Now, put death and violence into the mix. The GOP figures that you’ll just be grateful to come home, but wouldn’t you want your sacrifices to mean something?

    Sorry to ruin your marriage and financial well being, sorry about your blown up friends, and sorry that you had to watch our buddies get rich off your suffering, but politics has broken our will to accomplish anything…

    I’d come home pissed. If just 10-20% of the US troops now on deployment feel the same way, this could be very bad news for the GOP.

    -jjf

  • One of my problems with the Democratic party is that they just gave up in those areas where it looked like the couldn’t win. I mean they didn’t even try. Heck they pretty much wrote of the south – except a few House seats in the urban areas.

    Hacket will if nothing else, wake them up a bit (though not necessarily as much as they need).

  • I hope they don’t wake up, they need to be replaced. Current leadership was elected on corporate largesse. Democrats (heck, Americans) need leaders elected on popularity–which frees them to work for their true bosses–us.

  • Eadie –

    I don’t buy that Mark Shields theory at all. I’m
    only pointing out how tough the Republicans
    are. And rough. And dirty.

    And it didn’t help that the media stood by
    and watched it happen to Kerry. They’re not
    on our side.

    My point is, no matter how what the candidate
    brings to the table, the Rethugs will smear him,
    and we have to be prepared to fight, fight, fight.
    There is no winning resume – we have to slug
    it out in the trenches. They are masters at
    character assassination, and that’s a real
    obstacle when you stick to the facts and
    the issues, and don’t pay back in kind.

  • Hark,

    I think you and Eadie are in agreement.

    Hark: “…There is no winning resume – we have to slug
    it out in the trenches…”

    Eadie: “…If there is one lesson from ’04, it’s that you win the race in how you run it, not in the candidate….”

    FWIW.

  • While I certainly think Congress could benefit from the perspective of Iraq War veterans, and while I hope the Democrats continue to recruit attractive candidates with intriguing bios, I think the real lesson of Kerry is that the bio is just the start. Kerry over-relied on his bio, which made him vulnerable for two reasons: One, it suggested he was an empty suit, and two, when the GOP brought in the Dirty Tricks Squad to attack him on that issue, it left him without much else to stand on.

    I got my first inkling of the silliness of this strategy very early in the primary season when a friend, a hardcore liberal activist who pretty much loathes the military, told me she was backing Kerry because she believed his service would innoculate him against charges of being “soft”. For all the analogies between Howard Dean and the dot-com boom, Kerry was really the bubble candidate (not to be confused with Carpetbagger’s “Bubble Boy”). People seemed to support him not based on what they thought of him, but what they thought others would think of him.

    Now, as I understand it, Hackett is an attractive candidate who also happens to be a good campaigner and has something to say. So if we keep getting more of those, great. But don’t tell me that recruiting Iraq vets will automatically boost our chances next year. Not if they’re all like Kerry it won’t.

  • Military service will be icing on the cake if the person seeking office is already a desirable candidate. But it won’t be the magic wand that creates a winner.

    I listened to Hackett speak with Ed Schultz today on Air America and he is super coherent, pointed in his observations/criticisms and very personable in demeanor. His experience in Iraq gives him real credentials regarding toughness and sacrifice but he’s already a great guy to get behind.

    A few days ago the phenomena of Barak Obama’s popularity was discussed here. He and Paul Hackett are obviously unique individuals but they both possess similar desirable qualities that draw people to them. Barak is doing fine without any military experience and Paul Hackett’s military background will only enhance voter’s already positive feelings toward him.

    Wes Clark is first and foremost a smart, likeable and trustworthy man who has worn a military uniform with dignity and strength. He wears a business suit with the same intelligence, dignity and strong bearing. It’s the message and the messenger we will need to focus on.

    And the votes must be accurately counted.

  • Murphy, Ashe and Walz are not the only Iraq Veterans running for Congress. There are at least ten of us already.

    My name is Andrew Duck, and I am a veteran who served in Iraq, as well as three deployments for Bosnia, during my 20 year Army career. I am running for Congress in Maryland’s Sixth District against Roscoe Bartlett (R). I have been talking to voters across my district (which is 50% Republican, 33% Democratic, 17% Independent) and everyone responds positively to my record of service, regardless of party. The most important thing is that they can see that my first committment is to my country, and I have a 20 year record to point to. That speaks volumes to explain why I and other Iraq veterans are running for Congress. We need to fix the mess that the Bush Administration has made. We know how to fix it, and we will fix it. It is not only about Iraq. We also care about protecting Social Security, repairing our Health Care System, restoring fiscal responsibility, and a host of other problems that need to be fixed.

    You can check out my positions on my web site at http://www.DuckForCongress.com.

  • Some choice barbs that the Democratic Party and candidates can use in campaign ads and on the stump besides the two already listed:

    1) Vote Democratic: unlike Katrina; Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Floods don’t give 2 days warnings. Footage of the Superdome should be used in the TV production of this ad.

    2) You and those U love may enjoy “taping a keg” of beer to quench your thirst. When Republicans think of “taping”; your phone calls, mail, email, library books, job and social security trust find come to their minds. You dont’ want to be “taped out”. Vote (insert candidate info) Democratic for (specific office).

    Statements like these can be used in campaign ad voiceovers to connect Democratic candidates to the lives of average Americans.

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