E Pluribus Unum

If the Democratic Party wants to take this country back, it's going to have to fight for it, district by district, seat by seat.

Chris Bowers has the story:

In the 2004 election, Democrats contested 398 House seats, even though there are 435 House seats. One of the seats Democrats did not contest, VT-AL, is held by Bernie Sanders and can be forgiven.

The other thirty-six absolutely cannot be forgiven.

Most, but not all, of these districts have horrible demographics for Democrats. I freely admit that had Democrats run in these districts, they all would probably have lost, and many, if not most, would probably have failed to come within 20%.

However, even knowing this, I have had enough of the argument that even spending time to find a sacrificial lamb to run in these districts is a waste of Democratic Party resources.

The fact is that for around $360,000, one-quarter the cost of a competitive congressional district, we could have found a candidate for each of these districts and raised $10,000 for that candidate's campaign.

That $360,000 would have been the best $360,000 the Democratic Party would have spent at any level this entire election cycle. Combined throughout these districts, it probably would have resulted in another 1-2 million votes for Democrats for Congress. And that is just this election cycle and just in those congressional elections.

Let's summarize:

Lots of bad stuff happens when the GOP goes unopposed:

• Abandoning a district has repercussions in other elections.

• GOP money and campaign goes to Republicans in more competitive elections.

• Future elections are impacted.

Lots of good things can happen when Dems challenge every GOP candidate:

• Sometimes you win.

• You identify Democratic activists in each of these districts.

• You open up new lines of attack and speak the truth against power.

We need a candidate on every congressional ballot, period. When it comes to the House, 2004 is now a lost cause. However, starting in 2006, we must never let this happen again.