Jerry McNerney Named DCCC "Emerging Candidate"

On Monday, the DCCC announced its third and last wave of candidates for its “Red to Blue” program. Here’s how Jesse Lee over at the Stakeholder explains Red to Blue:

The Red to Blue program is designed to provide financial and structural aid to the strongest Democratic candidates across the country. The program will introduce Democratic supporters to new, competitive campaigns in order to help expand the fundraising base for these campaigns.

The DCCC had named 34 candidates to the program in the first two waves, and this final wave added eight candidates, bringing the total to 42. Concomitantly, the DCCC announced a new program, the “Emerging Candidates Race List.” Again, I’ll let Jesse Lee describe it:

The DCCC Emerging Races list is made up of candidates who have taken traditionally non-competitive districts and, through the strength of their campaigns, put themselves in a position to win in November. Red to Blue and Emerging candidates all represent the new direction that American voters are searching for and all have pledged to put the priorities of middle class families first when they get to Washington.

Jerry McNerney is one of the 15 members of the Emerging Candidates program. So the big news here is that the DCCC has finally recognized the strength of Jerry McNerney’s incredible grassroots campaign and just how weak Richard Pombo is within his own district.

Funny, though. If the DCCC had been paying attention for all these months, they would have known this a lot sooner. Like, for example, the NRCC.

The NRCC came into CA-11 back on August 3rd and dropped $16,275 on the table to finance polling for Richard Pombo. Then, a mere month later, they plunked down another $9,765 for a second round of Pombo polling. Now, I suspect that we’ll never know what that polling told them because they haven’t been in any hurry to release their findings publicly. But that omission probably tells us most of what we need to know about their results. And if there were any lingering suspicions, the NRCC’s subsequent actions have more than answered the question.

Following the first poll, the NRCC paid out $1,477 to Marsh Copsey & Associates for issue ad production and $38,475 to Targeted Creative for mailers. After the second poll on 9/6, they made the following independent expenditures, all within a ten-day period:

• 9/8 — $28,500 to Targeted Creative for mailers;
• 9/8 — $28,500 to Targeted Creative for mailers;
• 9/13 — $38,385 to Targeted Creative for mailers;
• 9/18 — $38,475 to Targeted Creative for mailers;
• 9/18 — $38,475 to Targeted Creative for mailers;
• 9/18 — $38,475 to Targeted Creative for mailers.

It’s worth noting that all of these expenditures have been identified for FEC purposes as being made in opposition to Jerry McNerney. That means the voters of CA-11 are going to be barraged with several more rounds of anti-McNerney advertising. It’s telling that even the NRCC can’t seem to find much good to say about Richard Pombo and his record in Congress. Instead, they have to content themselves with lying about Jerry McNerney.

Taken in total, that’s $250,762 in negative mailers paid for by the NRCC on behalf of Richard Pombo in just the last two weeks. Together with the polling, that means they’ve spent $276,802 in CA-11 in the last six weeks. You simply can’t convince me that Richard Pombo and the Republican Party aren’t deeply worried about the outcome of this race.

[UPDATE 9/21:] On Tuesday, the NRCC reported another $5,413 for opposition phone banks, on Wednesday, they reported another $11,105 for Pombo polling, and today, they reported another $5,450 on phone banks, bringing their total expenditures for August/September to $298,770.]

So what has the DCCC spent on behalf of their “Emerging Candidate,” the one who “through the strength of [his] campaign, put [himself] in a position to win in November”?

Oh, but you already know the answer deep down in your heart, don’t you? You got it. Zero.

Chris Bowers made this observation at MyDD:

[N]ot a bad list, but I am very disappointed that McNerney in particular is not in the higher category of support. CA-11 is one of the 21 Republican-held seats where the NRCC has made independent expenditures so far. In fact, they have spent more than 100K in non-polling expenditures in CA-11, placing it 14th in the NRCC's overall expenditure list since July 1st. [Note: Chris wrote this before the latest expenditures of $115K had been posted.] Given this, one thinks that the NRCC sees similar results to the poll in May that showed McNerney ahead. I bet the DCCC would be targeting that seat more vigorously had their chosen candidate, Steve Filson, not been handily defeated by McNerney in the primary. The way they are treating McNerney is petty, disrespectful, and counter-productive.

That’s why it’s so very important for us, you and me, to contribute both our money and our time to support the candidacy of Jerry McNerney.

This race is winnable. And if the DCCC isn’t going to step into the breach, that means it’s up to us. If we don’t get involved, nobody else is going to do it for us. All of us who live in Richard Pombo’s district, all of us who are tired of being screwed by our politicians, all of us who are sickened by the endless and soul-numbing war in Iraq need to step forward and turn our words into action.

Because if we don’t fight like hell to take our country back, I guarantee you — they’re not going to give it to us.

Tags: CA-11, Richard Pombo, Jerry McNerney, NRCC, DCCC, Red To Blue, Emerging Candidates Race List