Who really won the 2006 US Congressional Elections / Who the DCCC fought for and against
Steve Freeman
People ask, "Doesn't the Democratic Party victory in 2006 prove that the
machines were not fixed?" (And that all those bizarre results from 2000 on
must have been just, well, bizarre.) If the Republicans controlled the
machines, surely they wouldn't have permitted themselves to lose...
Well there are plenty of indications that they didn't "permit" this (see
especially the work of Simon and O'Dell), but is the assumption even
correct? Who in fact won and lost in 2006? In its ideological and voting
make-up the 110th United States Congress hardly differs from its
predecessor. Despite an overwhelming desire among the electorate for change,
from most every vantage point, the Democratic Party victory in 2006 didn't
change anything at all.
This report shows why: a large proportion of the victorious 2006
Democrats were wealthy conservatives - often actually (former) Republicans!
- recruited and financed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
(DCCC), Truthout's Matt Renner writes, "Rahm Emanuel, then head of the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, took sides during the
Democratic primary elections, favoring conservative candidates, including
former Republicans, and sidelining candidates who were running in favor of
withdrawal from Iraq."
Despite an official policy of neutrality in primary races, the DCCC
seems to have fought harder to defeat "fringe" (i.e., anti-war,
anti-warrantless wiretapping, or pro election-reform) Democrats in the
primary than to beat Republicans in the general election.
Democratic House Officials Recruited Wealthy Conservatives
By Matt Renner
t r u t h o u t | Report
Thursday 06 September 2007
This letter sent from then DCCC Head Rahm Emanuel to Democratic House
hopeful Jan Schneider underscores a DCCC policy of remaining "neutral" in
primary races. Schneider soon came to doubt the letter's sincerity.
It was the day after Christmas 2005 and Christine Cegelis sat alone at
her dining room table, trying to figure out how to tell her campaign
volunteers that she was going to drop out of the 2006 Democratic primary.
The next evening she was to meet with friends and colleagues who had
organized around her candidacy for the House of Representatives in the 6th
District of Illinois. Her volunteers had walked block after block of the
suburban district and spent hours making phone calls to solicit donations
and promote the campaign. Many of these people had been at Cegelis's side
during her 2004 campaign and witnessed the fruits of their labor when
long-time Republican Representative Henry Hyde decided to retire instead of
facing Cegelis again in 2006. This was their shot to have a national impact.
But pressure coming from the national Democratic Party was too great.
The Democrats had found a challenger for Cegelis, an Iraq veteran named
Tammy Duckworth. Contributions were pouring into the opposing campaign and
Duckworth was shuttled into the national media spotlight. Cegelis began
receiving calls from Democratic members of Congress informing her that they
were planning to support Duckworth.
Some of Cegelis's own paid campaign staff implored her to drop out; and
she had every reason to listen. She had only $40,000 in the bank, her
campaign manager had given up on the campaign and given her office staff two
weeks' paid vacation without Cegelis' permission, and her media coordinator
had recently quit. Rumor had it that Illinois Senator Barack Obama was going
to star in television commercials for Duckworth - star power the Cegelis
campaign could never match.
The next day when she sat down in her campaign office with her twelve
closest volunteers, Cegelis prepared herself to admit defeat. She laid out
the worst-case scenario: The Democratic Party was willing to spend millions
of dollars to defeat her in the primary. If she did manage to beat
Duckworth, the party would not help her in the general election, leaving the
campaign on its own to face a Republican candidate who was hand picked by
the national Republican Party.
Instead of agreeing to quit, every one of her volunteers looked her in
the eye and said, "We are here to fight."
In May 2004, a former candidate for the New York State Legislature named
Cynthia Pooler founded November Victories and Democrat Unity, online forums
for new candidates who were running for Congress as Democrats.
"Before you knew it, candidates started talking about the difficulties
they were having with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and
the Democratic leadership," Pooler said.
According to Democratic candidates who ran for House of Representative
seats in 2006, Rahm Emanuel, then head of the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee, took sides during the Democratic primary elections,
favoring conservative candidates, including former Republicans, and
sidelining candidates who were running in favor of withdrawal from Iraq.
Appointed as head of the DCCC by then-House Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi, Emanuel spearheaded the Democratic Party effort to regain control of
the House of Representatives during the 2006 election cycle. Emanuel claimed
credit for the Democratic takeover and was promoted to chairman of the
Democratic Caucus, the fourth-highest ranking position in the House. But his
election tactics have been criticized by progressive activists and former
Congressional candidates.
According to his critics, Emanuel played kingmaker by financially
supporting his favored candidates during primary contests with other
Democrats. His critics say that this interference was in direct
contradiction of a DCCC policy to "remain neutral" in party primaries.
According to Doug Thornell, spokesperson for the DCCC, "The policy of
the DCCC is not to get involved in primaries, unless there is an unusual
circumstance that demands it. I cannot speculate on what those circumstances
might be. The majority of these cases [2008 primaries] will be left up to
the voters on the ground. Meddling hasn't taken place this cycle, and for
the most part last cycle. That isn't an accurate way to describe what
happened. We are cognizant of having local support for our candidates."
Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, would not
comment on the DCCC's alleged interference.
However, a source close to the DNC indicated that there was disagreement
between Dean and Emanuel over election tactics. In his recent book, "The
Thumpin'," Naftali Bendavid, a journalist who spent months inside the DCCC
operation and at Emanuel's side, reported a heated conversation between
Dean, Emanuel and Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) regarding election
strategies of the DCCC and the DNC. At the time, Dean was focusing on
helping local organizations across the country to mobilize their communities
to support Democrats. Emanuel wanted to focus the resources of the national
party on specific races that were the most likely to be competitive for
Democrats. According to Bendavid, Emanuel said to Dean, "You're nowhere,
Howard. Your field plan is not a field plan. That's fucking bullshit ... I
know your field plan - it doesn't exist. I've gone around the country with
these races. I've seen your people. There is no plan, Howard."
How Emanuel came to his decisions about which candidates to support
against Democratic opponents is known only to Emanuel and his staff. Emanuel
declined direct comment on this story. But an examination of individual
races reveals a pattern of financial and political support for wealthy
conservative candidates and an assault on their grassroots-supported
opponents who were running on platforms that included a full withdrawal of
US forces from Iraq.
Illinois's 6th District: Christine Cegelis vs. Tammy Duckworth
A well-documented instance of interference by the DCCC during a
Democratic primary occurred during the contest between Christine Cegelis and
Tammy Duckworth. Cegelis, a strong proponent of withdrawal from Iraq,
encountered unexpected and effective opposition from the DCCC.
Cegelis challenged former 16-term Republican Congressman Henry Hyde in
2004. An information technology specialist, Cegelis had no previous
experience in politics, but decided to face off against an entrenched
incumbent Republican. Her 2004 campaign, run on a meager budget with mostly
volunteer staff, was able to create a tightly knit grassroots infrastructure
in the Illinois 6th Congressional District. In 2004, Cegelis received just
over 44 percent of the vote. The 82- year-old Hyde decided to retire rather
than face another reelection campaign in 2006. This seat became a top target
for the Democratic leaders and a microcosm of a much larger battle for the
future of the Democratic Party.
Emanuel, himself a congressman from the neighboring 5th District of
Illinois, apparently tried to recruit six different candidates to run
against Cegelis. According to Kevin Spidel, campaign manager for the Cegelis
campaign, all of Emanuel's attempts failed because the potential candidates
"all said 'hell no!' They knew the resentment they would face. If you were
in the district, you knew how much Cegelis was loved. She built her own
machine."
Eventually, Emanuel found a candidate who lived just outside the
district, Tammy Duckworth. Duckworth, a helicopter pilot who was severely
injured in combat in Iraq, was convinced to run against Cegelis by Emanuel
and two Democratic heavyweights, Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Barack
Obama.
Duckworth was not a proponent of a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq.
The Los Angeles Times, quoting Duckworth, reported that she believed the
military should not "'simply pull up stakes' in Iraq because it would
'create a security vacuum' and 'risk allowing [Iraq] ... to become a base
for terrorists.'" According to the same article, Duckworth supported "a
pullout of US forces on a schedule based on the training of Iraq's armed
forces."
Expedited withdrawal from Iraq was a main plank of the Cegelis campaign
platform.
According to Bendavid's book, "Duckworth quickly became the center of a
nasty fight over Emanuel's tactics." According to Bendavid, "Emanuel,
Durbin, and other Democratic leaders did not believe Cegelis was working
hard enough or raising sufficient money ... [Emanuel, Durbin, and other
Democratic leaders] used their clout to persuade Duckworth to run and to
direct money, attention, and endorsements her way."
Tim Bagwell, a grassroots activist and Cegelis campaigner, said that
Duckworth was "hot-wired" into the national media and fund-raising circuit
by the DCCC. George Stephanopoulos, who served in the Clinton administration
with Emanuel, interviewed Duckworth on his Sunday morning ABC News program,
elevating her to national prominence.
According to Spidel, the Cegelis campaign was prevented from accessing
Democratic fund-raising and Political Action Committee lists held by the
DCCC. Cegelis said that many of the potential donors she contacted had been
instructed by the DCCC not to give her campaign money. She felt that she was
locked out.
"To tell you I didn't take it personally is wrong," Cegelis said,
adding, "this was the wrong way to choose a representative. It is wrong of
parties to exclude people from the primary elections. The primary is the
time for the people to choose who is on the ballot; those decisions should
not be made in back rooms."
Bendavid goes on to quote Emanuel saying of Cegelis, "If she would only
work as hard as she would goddamn whine.... She's the only one who says,
'What can you do for me?" adding, "[Cegelis] could absolutely win. She's
just not doing it."
Emanuel's assertion about Cegelis's work ethic was hotly contested by
members of her campaign.
Cegelis said that she woke up at 4 a.m. every day to go to train
stations in the district to shake hands with commuters during the morning
rush hour. Then around 9 a.m. she would get on the phone in her campaign
headquarters to try and bring in contributions. She would walk to a
volunteer's house near her headquarters, where she would nap on the couch
from 4:30-6 p.m. After dinner she would get into her car and drive to
different neighborhoods for "Coffee with Christine," small gatherings in the
homes of constituents of the 6th District where neighbors would gather to
share their ideas with Cegelis.
According to Spidel, Emanuel worked against Cegelis because of her
support for withdrawal from Iraq and her outspoken opposition to "free
trade" legislation like the Central American Free Trade Agreement. "In 2006
the DCCC was Emanuel's personal weapon. He executed based on his needs. He
needed votes on 'free trade' legislation that he supports, and he knew that
[Cegelis] was one of the Democrats who would vote her own way," Spidel said.
Spidel said that Emanuel worked to defeat Cegelis because she
represented a threat to the established Illinois Democrats and because she
did not seek their approval before running. "Chicago politics is a family.
If you didn't go into the city and kiss certain rings, you were not given
certain resources like Political Action Committee lists and donor lists.
Cegelis' success hurt some egos and the party didn't like their lack of
control," Spidel said.
While Cegelis maintained strong volunteer support, the DCCC-backed
Duckworth campaign spent close to $1 million in the primary. The race was
extremely close, with Duckworth receiving 44 percent to Cegelis's 40
percent.
"Cegelis was the reason the district was in play in the first place,"
Spidel said. "If a candidate was able to grow a serious grassroots campaign,
especially in a district that historically favored Republicans, it seems
illogical to try and challenge it from outside the district. If a
Congressional district was completely off the radar before 2004 and the only
reason the DCCC was looking at it as a pickup opportunity in 2006 was
because of the work a grassroots candidate did, to have come in and
discredited the grassroots candidate undermined the entire effort. The DCCC
just threw their money away."
Duckworth was beaten in the general election by a right-wing Republican,
former State Senator Peter Roskam. One of Roskam's main criticisms of
Duckworth was the fact that her home was not located in the district. Roskam
won with 51 percent of the vote to Duckworth's 49 percent.
Florida's 13th District: Jan Schneider vs. Christine Jennings
Dr. Jan Schneider, a graduate of Yale Law School and a Ph.D in political
science, ran as the Democratic challenger in Florida's 13th Congressional
District against Republican Katherine Harris in 2004. In 2004, Schneider was
the most competitive Democratic challenger in Florida, garnering 45 percent
of the vote against Harris, but Harris won.
Harris vacated the seat in 2006 in order to run for the Senate. Harris'
departure was an opportunity for Schneider and her locally mobilized
campaign to win a seat for the Democratic Party.
Schneider was an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq and made the war a
central issue in her campaigns. Schneider said recently that she "supports
the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq to begin within the next
120 days," a plan approved by the United States House of Representatives in
July of this year.
Schneider faced a primary challenge in 2006 from Christine Jennings, a
former Republican banker and businesswoman. According to a candidate
information page hosted by The Sarasota Herald Tribune, "Jennings doesn't
have a specific direction for conducting the war and says she needs more
information." Regarding the withdrawal legislation passed by the House in
July 2007, Jennings said that she was "not sure whether she would have voted
for it." According to Congressional Quarterly, "many Democratic officials
thought Jennings's business background would make her a more viable general
election contender."
Schneider defeated Jennings by nine percentage points in the 2004
primary.
Schneider became concerned about possible interference from the DCCC
during the 2006 primary because, according to Schneider, Jennings had a very
wealthy Democratic contributor on her side. Frank Brunckhorst III, a
well-known donor to both the Democratic Party and to powerful Democratic
members of Congress from Florida, accompanied Jennings to the Democratic
National Convention in 2004.
Schneider sat down with Emanuel in 2005 to address her concern that
Jennings might get preferential treatment from the DCCC during the primary.
According to Schneider, Emanuel told her that the DCCC's policy was not to
choose sides during primaries. On May 26, 2005, Emanuel wrote a letter to
Schneider reiterating the policy of the DCCC: "You expressed concerns about
the DCCC getting involved in party primaries. While our preference is to
avoid having them, our policy is to remain neutral," stated the letter,
signed by Emanuel.
Schneider claims that Emanuel broke this policy during the 2006 primary
race. "Emanuel caused the Schneider campaign to be removed from the DCCC
website and circulated solicitations for contributions to Democratic
candidates indicating that there was no [Democratic] primary in the Florida
13th," according to a memorandum Schneider prepared.
Schneider blames the DCCC for misleading Senator John Kerry (D-
Massachusetts) into thinking that Jennings was running in the primary
without any competition from within the party. Kerry gave a $1,000 donation
to the Jennings campaign, which was publicized by Jennings as an
endorsement. When Schneider confronted Kerry about this donation, Kerry
apologized and said that he donated based on assertions by Emanuel that the
race was "a targeted race with no primary," and that he never meant to
interfere with an intra-party contest, according to Schneider. Congresswoman
Shelly Berkley (D- Nevada) says that the DCCC sent her a letter asking her
to contribute to races where there was no primary. The letter listed the
Florida 13th as a race with only one Democrat pursuing the party's
nomination.
Appearing on the satirical comedy central program, "The Colbert Report,"
in May 2006, Schneider expressed her frustration with the Democratic Party.
"I'm pretty disgusted with both parties these days - the Republicans for
what they stand for and the Democrats for what they don't."
In 2006, Jennings received 62 percent of the primary vote and defeated
Schneider. Jennings went on to lose to Republican Vern Buchanan by 373 votes
in a district with electronic voting machines that did not produce a
verifiable paper record. More than 18,000 ballots recorded no votes for
either Buchanan or Jennings. An election challenge filed by Jennings is
making its way through the House Administration Committee.
Cegelis and Schneider, outspoken anti-war candidates who ran competitive
campaigns in 2004 against incumbent Republicans, were challenged and
defeated from within their own party in 2006. Both races ultimately ended in
extremely close losses for the Democratic Party.
California's 11th District: Jerry McNerney vs. Steve Filson
One grassroots campaign that made withdrawal from Iraq a central issue
was able to defeat a DCCC-backed candidate despite direct interference
during the intra-party primary.
Democrat Jerry McNerney, an engineer and wind energy expert, had
previously challenged incumbent Republican Richard Pombo in 2004. With a
late start and little organization, McNerney's 2004 campaign only received
39 percent of the vote in a district that voted 45 percent for Democratic
presidential nominee John Kerry. McNerney's effort put the 11th District
back into play, and his campaign was revamped in order to mount a serious
challenge to Pombo in 2006.
McNerney was a strong critic of the occupation of Iraq and publicly
supported Congressman John Murtha's "redeployment" plan for US combat troops
serving in Iraq. According to A. J. Carrillo, campaign manager for McNerney,
this position on the war made McNerney seem like a fringe candidate to
Democratic leaders in Washington. "In the fall of 2005, candidates who were
in favor of enforcing a timetable for withdrawal were considered 'liberals'
who couldn't win in districts that trended Republican," Carrillo said.
In a move that seems to run contrary to Emanuel's stated policy that the
DCCC was to "remain neutral" in primary contests, McNerney's primary
opponent, Navy veteran and former Republican Steve Filson was, according to
Carrillo, endorsed in the primary by the DCCC. In contrast to McNerney,
Filson did not campaign in support of a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
According to Carrillo, Filson was on Emanuel's short list of top-tier
candidates, a designation that helped steer early campaign donations to the
Filson campaign. "Party insiders were calling and asking that McNerney drop
out and let Filson take on Pombo," Carrillo said. According to Carrillo,
when McNerney refused to step aside, the DCCC went to work on behalf of his
primary opponent.
Carrillo saw DCCC press secretary Sarah Feinberg assisting the Filson
campaign at a debate between the two candidates during the primary. Carrillo
claims that he received word from a Congressional source that the DCCC was
advising Filson's campaign on messaging and strategy. Carrillo's source
leaked the information from the DCCC to the McNerney campaign.
Apparently the DCCC ordered a company that prints and distributes
campaign mailings to targeted voters not to work with the McNerney campaign.
According to Carrillo, he had spoken to the company and faxed them a
contract, when a representative from the company called him and said that
there was "a minor issue with the DCCC but it shouldn't be a problem." The
next morning a company representative called back and said the company could
not do business with the McNerney campaign. "The company said that they got
an ultimatum from the DCCC. They did a lot of business with the DCCC, so it
wasn't worth risking it all just for our campaign. We had to scramble to
find another company," Carrillo said.
Despite the primary interference, McNerney did not get discouraged.
"Jerry was not bitter or angry about the experience," Carrillo said, adding,
"he just went out and decided to prove them all wrong. He really is Mr.
Smith goes to Washington."
The campaign received a boost from an old-school Republican, former
Congressman and veteran Pete McCloskey, who came out of retirement to
challenge incumbent Congressman Pombo in the Republican primary. Pombo beat
McCloskey, but the fight left Pombo damaged. McCloskey, one of the authors
of the Endangered Species Act, attacked Pombo for his assault on
environmental protection regulations and his association with disgraced
lobbyist Jack Abramoff. After losing the primary, McCloskey supported the
McNerney campaign. McNerney ended up winning the seat with slightly more
than 53 percent of the vote.
Florida's 16th District: David Lutrin vs. Tim Mahoney
Wealthy businessman Tim Mahoney, a self-described "fundamental
Christian," was recruited by the DCCC to run against then-Congressman Mark
Foley in Florida's 16th District. According to The Palm Beach Post, Mahoney
switched his registration from Republican to Democrat in July of 2005.
Mahoney did not support a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
David Lutrin, a school teacher, union activist and staunch supporter of
immediate withdrawal from Iraq, decided to run against Foley before Mahoney
entered the race. After Mahoney declared his candidacy, Lutrin was contacted
by field organizers for the DCCC who asked him to drop out and let Mahoney
run unopposed.
Lutrin said that he also met personally with Mahoney. During a three-
hour breakfast meeting, Mahoney offered Lutrin a higher-paying job if he
agreed to drop out of the primary. "Mahoney tried to get me to run in a
different district. He offered me a job at one of his non-profit
organizations where he said that I would make more than I was making as a
teacher. He said I could campaign full time while working at his non-profit
as long as I agreed to drop out of the race," Lutrin said. Lutrin declined
the job offer.
According to Lutrin, when he refused to step aside, the DCCC shored up
local political support for Mahoney. The local AFL-CIO chapter, of which
Lutrin was a member, came out with an early endorsement of Mahoney's
campaign. According to Lutrin, the union told him that "they would like to
back a fellow union brother, but Mahoney has more money and more political
support from the party." Lutrin eventually dropped out of the race when the
local teachers' union decided to support Mahoney.
Before it was revealed that then-incumbent Mark Foley had engaged in
sexually explicit conversations with a teenage Congressional page, Florida's
16th district had been considered a safe seat for Republicans.
It has been reported that the DCCC knew that Foley was engaging in
inappropriate communications with Congressional pages before the story made
headlines. According to CNN, a Democratic House staff member sent copies of
suggestive email correspondence between Foley and a teenage Congressional
page to the DCCC communication director, Bill Burton, in the fall of 2005.
Burton later said that he had informed Emanuel of the emails when he
received them.
On October 8, 2006, Emanuel joined Republican Congressman Adam Putnam
(R-Florida) on ABC's "This Week," hosted by George Stephanopoulos to discuss
Foley's conduct. Emanuel dodged multiple questions about when he became
aware of the misconduct by Foley. Democrats were decrying the lack of action
taken by then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert on the issue.
The exact date that the DCCC became aware of the Foley emails that
resulted in his losing the election and the exact date that the DCCC's
recruitment of Tim Mahoney to switch parties and run as a Democrat against
Foley are not yet known at the time of this writing.
Mahoney won the seat in 2006 and joined The Blue Dog Coalition.
The New Democratic Majority
While Emanuel is given credit for turning power over to the Democratic
Party in the House of Representatives, the majority is fractured.
Many of the candidates that Emanuel helped elect have joined with a
group of self-styled conservative Blue Dog Democrats and have cast key votes
with Republicans and stymied Democratic efforts to end the occupation of
Iraq and the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.
Thirteen of the Democratic members of the House elected in 2006 joined
The Blue Dog Coalition; a group that, according to its spokesperson, has no
official stance on withdrawal from Iraq or the president's warrantless
wiretapping program. However, 30 out of 47 of the Blue Dog members broke
with the majority of Democrats and cast votes in favor of the recent Protect
America Act, a bill that greatly expanded the power of the executive branch
to spy on Americans. The caucus also broke with the majority of Democrats
when 40 of the Blue Dog members voted to continue funding the occupation of
Iraq without a timetable for withdrawal.
In an interview shortly after his election, freshman Blue Dog member Tim
Mahoney told the Charlotte Sun, a local paper from his district, that he
attended a meeting with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and told her "The
president should be free to maintain troops in Iraq, if the purpose is to
thwart terrorism."
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This story is based on a month-long investigation by Truthout into the
practices of the DCCC and scores of interviews with Congressional
spokespeople, political activists and former candidates for office.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090607J.shtml.
Michael Green
"As we have said, this Eastern Establishment was really above parties and was much more concerned with policies than with party victories. They had been the dominant element in both parties since 1900, and practiced the political techniques of William C. Whitney and J.P. Morgan. They were, as we have said, Anglophilic, cosmopolitan, Ivy League, internationalist, astonishingly liberal, patrons of the arts, and relatively humanitarian. ...The chief problem of American Political Life [for the CFR] for a long time has been how to make the two Congressional parties more national and international. The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy." pp. 1244-1248.