MoveOn.org costs Dems PA 6th Congressional District
November 9, 2006, 2:33 pm |
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This race is significant because:
(1) Jim Gerlach (R) was projected to lose to Lois Murphy (MoveOn.org Democrat)
(2) The Gerlach campaign was, as far as we know, the only one to have followed our advice to use MoveOn.org’s record of welcoming hate speech at its Action Forum to damage his MoveOn-backed opponent.
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The Gerlach campaign used the following radio ad, which in turn relied on information that we provided.
The very same Lois Murphy who has accepted a quarter of a million dollars in support tied to the radical extremist group, MoveOn.org, who has been called anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic. Jewish leaders called an ad posted by MoveOn, featuring Hitler, as vile and shameful. Both Jewish leaders and the Catholic League have demanded candidates return money tied to MoveOn, and Lois Murphy hasn’t returned one cent. Zip. None. Pretty telling about Lois Murphy, isn’t it?
The Daily Kos was in fact bleating about Gerlach using our material: “Guilt by association seems a favorite tactic of Gerlach as he labels Murphy a radical based on her support from groups including MoveOn.org.”
And it worked, noting that Murphy’s problem was not that MoveOn.org supported her. Her problem was her refusal to reject its support.
When your enemies scream and whine about how what you are doing is horrible and unfair, it means you are doing your job. It seems that we did ours in at least one Congressional race, although the failure of other Republicans to exploit this opportunity (particularly Santorum) resulted in their defeats.
In addition, Thelma Drake and Chris Shays also defeated their MoveOn.org-backed opponents, although we do not know if they used the hate speech scandal to do so. Of the candidates supported by MoveOn.org:
Ned Lamont (D-CT) LOST to “Jew Lieberman” as they call him at MoveOn.org.
Patrick Murphy for U.S. Congress (PA-08) LOST
Diane Farrell for U.S. Congress (CT-04) LOST to Christopher Shays
Robert Byrd for U.S. Senate (WV) WON
Bob Casey for U.S. Senate (PA) WON. (Note: Santorum failed to use the hate speech scandal)
Nick Lampson for U.S. Congress (TX-22) WON
Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate (OH) WON
Francine Busby for U.S. Congress (CA-50) LOST
Bill Nelson for U.S. Senate (FL) WON
Lois Murphy (PA) LOST
Of the ten candidates whom MoveOn.org supported, five lost– and one may have lost explicitly because of the hate speech scandal. Of the victors, the Klansman from West Virginia has a strong lock on his seat anyway, and Santorum was so far behind Casey that it is doubtful that anything could have saved him.
Related: Elections, United States
November 9th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
Actually, Patrick Murphy won. He got huge support from Moveon and Daily Kos, money and volunteers, and Mike Fitzpatrick failed to make an issue of it. There is a sizable Jewish community in Bucks County and this could have been a great issue for Mike. But he was too worried about winning over moderates and talking about his great endorsement by the Sierra Club lost. Now I am stuck with this twit Murphy as my congressman. I’ll bet he never shows his face in Buckingham, where I live.
Congrats on Gerlach. He’s a great guy and ran a fabulous campaign. I predicted long ago that he would win just because I thought he was running a better campaign. Hopefully we have seen the last of dreary Lois Murphy.
November 9th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
You’re right, Fitzpatrick lost…
I don’t think he exploited the MoveOn.org connection, though.
November 9th, 2006 at 6:27 pm
The real story is the boots on the ground and the work of the party. What made Gerlach successful was not the clever adds alone. It was good old fashioned WORK. Personal grubby work. Door to door work. Regular party neighbor to neighbor work - not ringers from outside.