Thanks Again DCCC

This year the Democrats are 3 for 3 in House special elections, all in heavily GOP districts. The latest is Mississippi’s 1st CD where Travis Childers defeated Greg Davis by 8% in a R+10 district. Last December there was a special election in Virginia’s 1st CD (R+9) that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chose to ignore despite the fact that a candidate they themselves recruited, Phil Forgit, was running against a guy who’d just finished his first term in the House of Delegates, Rob Wittman (a good candidate but not exactly a political heavyweight). In fairness, the enviornment for Republicans now is a little worse than it was 6 months ago; and it was only a month-long campaign. But we’ll never know will we?

UPDATE: Here’s Paul Begala, 2 years ago, on DNC Chairman Howard Dean’s 50 State Strategy:

BLITZER: Very quickly, is Howard Dean in trouble?

BEGALA: No. I think Candy’s report was spot on.

He — yes, he’s in trouble, in that campaign managers, candidates, are really angry with him. He has raised $74 million and spent $64 million. He says it’s a long-term strategy. But what he has spent it on, apparently, is just hiring a bunch of staff people to wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose. That’s not how you build a party. You win elections. That’s how you build a party.

h/t DailyKos