The lack of support for Eric Massa and Dan Maffei from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 2006 election has earned the DCCC the scorn of many of our readers. So it may surprise some of you that that D-Trip just won a bunch of awards:

This past weekend, the committee won two Pollie awards, distributed by the American Association of Political Consultants, for excellence in political and public affairs communications.

The committee won a silver award for the “Best Use of a Telephone” in a July conference call where DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen briefed Democratic online activists about the House political landscape.

And it took the bronze in “Best Use of Mobile Technology” for sending “fact-check” text messages responding to President Bush to Democratic activists during his most recent State of the Union address.

The DCCC’s online team also won a Golden Dot Award earlier this month for “excellence in an organization’s online activity.” The award, given by George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet, was voted on by about 4,000 online participants.

The committee has been focusing on its online efforts lately, recently re-launching its website, and adding tools designed to empower Democratic activists. The new site is signing up volunteers to a Rapid Response network, encouraging party faithful to capture Republicans on videotape in their “own macaca moment.”

I’m sure Rotten disagrees, but I think the D-Trip has done a pretty good job with its press releases as of late. They’re certainly doing better than their Republican counterparts who are still posting this article:

Massa is running for a second consecutive time against Rep. John R. ” Randy” Kuhl Jr. (R-N.Y.), who is no stranger to controversy himself. Kuhl’s sealed divorce records were leaked weeks before the 2004 election, when Kuhl was elected for the first time. Kuhl’s now-ex-wife alleged that Kuhl pulled not one but two shotguns on his wife at a dinner party and threatened to shoot her, according to media reports at the time.

Maybe they really did want Kuhl to get out of the race and this their way of getting back at him for running for re-election.