This entry was posted on 11/10/2006 8:15 PM and is filed under Election 2006, All Posts.
The conventional wisdom is that it was Rahm's overarching recruitment and funding strategy that won the Dems the House, and with a 30-some lead in that chamber after Tuesday, I'm inclined to agree.
However, The New Republic's Rick Perlstein has a fascinating contrary take:
In two competitive House races in the Bluegrass State, Emanuel's first choices lost by eleven and nine points. In the 2nd District it was Colonel Mike Weaver, the cofounder of Commonwealth Democrats, a group of conservative Democratic state legislators. In the 4th, it was Ken Lucas, a former congressman whom Robert Novak recently called "moderate conservative" in a column on Emanuel's "recruiting coup" in coaxing Lucas out of retirement. Both were the kind of candidates Emanuel has favored in his famous nationwide recruiting drive. Yarmuth, meanwhile, was founder of the state's first alternative newspaper, said things on the campaign trail things like "the No Child Left Behind Act ... is a plan deliberately constructed to create 'failing' schools," and called for "a universal health care system in which every citizen has health insurance independent of his or her employment."
John Yarmuth of course, unlike Weaver and Lucas, won his race Tuesday night, without any financial support from Emanuel's DCCC.
