Online chat with the head of the DCCC
There’s an on-line chat going on right now where the head of the DCCC — Chris Van Hollen — is taking questions. I thought some of you might be interested.
Update: One of our friends got a question in:
Rochester, N.Y.: Mr. Van Hollen — why is the DCCC refusing to support some candidates who are running for a second time after having put together terrific runs in tough districts? I’m thinking specifically of New York’s 29th District, where I live and where a self-funded primary challenger (whom some think is a Republican in Democrats’ clothing) is derailing some of Eric Massa’s momentum. Shouldn’t you be doing something to help a candidate like Massa, who lost by only two percentage points in the most Republican district in the Northeast?
Rep. Chris Van Hollen: Eric Massa is a good candidate who ran a good race last time. He is now facing another strong candidate in the Democratic primary. The general policy of the DCCC is to stay out of Democratic primaries. We make exceptions to that rule only under exceptional circumstances. There are no examples of those exceptions in this current election cycle. In fact, more often than not we have been criticized for getting into Democratic primaries.
[...] new management, we recall Chris Van Hollen’s comments when Massa was facing a potential primary [...]