Dems: We're Rich Enough To Beat Back The GOP
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The House Democrat in charge of reelection campaigning said Thursday that the party's fundraising edge will help it hold off a Republican resurgence, despite sagging poll numbers and the recent diagnosis by Democratic Rep. Mike Capuano that the party is "screwed" in 2010.
"We believe that the American people are going to judge the candidates and members of Congress in this election by what they are doing to turn the economy around and get people back to work. The fact of the matter is, when it comes to getting the economy turned around, the Republicans have been totally AWOL on that subject," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said at a press briefing Thursday.
Van Hollen acknowledged the concerns of Capuano, who lost a bruising primary in Massachusetts, though he suggested that the state's Democratic primary voters might not be representative of the nation's general electorate.
"Mike was in the middle of a Democratic primary struggle where you had a lot of voters who were upset about things like the public option, they were upset about the situation in Afghanistan, that's the primary situation. If the economy continues to improve, people will see that the changes that we've made have actually had an impact on their community, and I think when we finally get a health care bill passed, that will also be an important boon," Van Hollen said. "We've got a long way to go. I think I acknowledged the fact that especially given the state of the economy, people are still dissatisfied with the status quo. So are we. But we're changing things, and I think that'll be seen more in the coming months as we see positive job growth."
A new Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll indicates that the public has lost faith that Democrats are doing a better job running the country than Republicans would.
Van Hollen was optimistic, predicting the return of job growth in the next six months. And he emphasized that, in contrast to 1994 when Republicans retook both legislative chambers, Democrats -- who have $3 for every $1 the GOP has on hand in campaign funds -- are ready for a fight.
Though media reports have increasingly focused on the flurry of House Democrats who have announced their retirement in the past few weeks, Van Hollen noted that a greater number of Republicans (12) are retiring after this term, and the current Democratic number falls under the average of 14 who have retired in every cycle since '94. "While there may be additional Democratic retirements this year very possibly, we absolutely do not expect a large surge on the order of 1994," he said. The Republican retirements, however, are largely not in districts that Democrats expect to pick up. Meanwhile, the Democratic retirements are taking place in highly competitive districts.
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First Posted: 03/18/10 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 04:00 PM ET