A Good Look at 2008 Congressional Races

There is a very interesting look at potential Dem US House seat pickups in 2008 over at Political Truth. progressiveflademocrat gives a good rundown on some of the potential pickups. Vern Buchanan, Ric Keller and Tom Feeney (he of the newly minted legal defense fund) lead the list.

Also getting mention is Bill Young. There is the inevitable question about retirement. However, I firmly believe that Young will have to be carried out of the Capitol in a box. That does bring up a very interesting prospect however. Death in office requires a special election to be held. That could actually be very good news for the Dems. FL-10 is still a very tough proposition for any Democrat despite the Districts top of the ticket voting pattern. However, with a special election, FL-10 would likely get a ton of attention from the DCCC. This District would be hard pressed to ever get that kind of DCCC support in a regular election cycle.

Just some food for thought.

Time for a Progressive Congressional Campaign Committee?

While reading Bill in Portland Maine's diary The Insulting Email of the Day , an idea occured to me. I know ideas are dangerous things. This one, in fact, may be dangerous to a particular breed of Congresscritter. You know, like the Democrats in the House who voted for the Iraq funding bill without a time line for withdrawal of our troops.

If you want to find out more about this dangerous idea of mine, follow along after the jump.


It struck me when I read this comment by standingup , that maybe there is something else we can do other than support the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). Perhaps it is time for a Progressive Congressional Campaign Committee? There already exists a Progressive Congressional Caucus. Why not a Progressive Congressional Campaign Committee? So I sent the following email to Bill Goold, Policy Advisor, Congressional Progressive Caucus:

Yesterday's vote on the Iraq war funding bill has created an incredible amount of consternation among progressive Democrats. There is much gnashing of teeth and pounding on keyboards going on in the progressive blogosphere. Many folks are discussing leaving the Democratic Party. Others feel betrayed by the Democratic Leadership. An email sent last night from the DCCC was particularly galling to many progressives, leaving them very cold about the idea of ever supporting the DCCC again.

In light of that, I want to suggest to you that now might be a good time to consider a Progressive Congressional Campaign Committee if one does not exist already. I feel you may find tremendous support for such an idea amongst the progressive Democratic community.

So what do you think? Is this an idea worth pursuing. Is there something like this that exists already that we can get behind? Act Blue, perhaps? I'd be interested in your ideas.