Looking out for number one
by digby
The Politico reports the following with a somewhat shocked and derisive Village tone, but it's actually good news:
A handful of Democrats have spent the past six years staking out positions as centrists who were willing — and sometimes eager — to buck their party on major issues like the environment, unemployment benefits and health care.
Now, as labor unions, environmentalists and progressive groups sketch out their multimillion-dollar ad campaigns and get-out-the-vote strategies for 2012, they say they won’t go all in for some of the most hotly contested races, even though they ponied up for some of the same candidates just six years ago.
“We’re really not going to waste time or money on some people that just really haven’t fought for anything other than their own special interest,” said Jim Dean, chairman of Democracy for America, mentioning Nelson in particular.
[...]
“I think that we certainly do not want the Republicans to take control of the Senate and see that as being a real threat to working people,” said Michael Podhorzer, political director of the AFL-CIO. “On the other hand, if the question to us is should 51 be Elizabeth Warren or Ben Nelson, then our resources are going to go into Elizabeth Warren.”
Nelson — the chamber’s quintessential swing vote — irked the labor community with his support of a GOP-led filibuster of an Obama nominee for the National Labor Relations Board last year. He and Tester also joined the GOP in blocking consideration of the labor-backed White House jobs bill in October, and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said he opposed the bill on its merits.
“That may or may not be the way the [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] thinks about it, but what’s different now is that we’re not thinking to follow what the Democratic leadership is saying, but we’re for defeating the Republicans in the Senate and we want to do it by making a list of the people who are most pro-worker and electing them first,” Podhorzer said.
What a shocking calculation. (And here the article talks about "the math" like it's some kind of complicated algorithm.)
This is as it should be. There is a certain amount of money to be spent. Why should liberal groups be forced to spend it on people who have gone out of their way to thwart their agenda. I think all of those people should go to the conservatives who benefit from their votes and ask them for the money.
If this holds and labor and other liberal interest groups hold their ground and pour their resources into real progressives like Warren and Baldwin, we are going to see something new and it will be very interesting to see how the dynamic plays itself out in Democratic Party circles.
It will be a miracle of the Democrats keep the Senate. But if they lose those conservatives and some progressives win the lesson will be unmistakable, regardless.
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