I’m heading up to the Bothell area tonight to give a little pep talk at the home of my brother-in-law Dan Willner, a 1st Legislative District PCO, who is holding a meet-and-greet with Democratic candidates Derek Stanford and Luis Moscoso.
Dan’s concern is that though the polls suggest the tide is turning, and Democrats are closing the gap on Republicans, or taking the lead in elections nationwide, too many Dems have bought into the meme that we’re in for such a severe ass-whooping that there’s no reason to even bother to get out the vote. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In the end, this election is gonna be all about GOTV, and if Dems cast ballots in even normal, non-Obama numbers, we’ll more than hold our own. Yeah, in an off-year election in the midst of the worst economy in decades, Dems are gonna give back a bunch of seats they won over the past couple cycles, but Republican control of the U.S. House is far from a given, and a GOP takeover of the Legislature is extremely unlikely.
Meanwhile, a handful of local legislative races pundits and politicos had written off a mere month ago, have suddenly become competitive. I’m sworn to secrecy on the polling data I’ve seen, but let me just say that those districts where Dems are investing the time and the effort and the money to put boots on the ground and ads on the air are seeing very positive results.
In other words, we can win a lot of these closes races… if we put the work into it.
So my suggestion is that other Democratic PCO’s and activists follow Dan’s lead and organize your GOTV gatherings over the coming weeks, and if you’re anywhere near Seattle, and I can fit it into my schedule, I’d be happy to stop by for a little rhetorical GOP ass kicking.
Remember, Republicans are expecting to win BIG this November. What could be more gratifying than disappointing them?