Pierce writes: "All the noise out of Camp Runamuck largely drowned out the clamor of the Democratic Party fcking up again. Over the weekend, the state of Louisiana had a runoff election for the United States Senate. The Republican, an ironically monickered suit named John Kennedy, beat Democratic candidate Foster Campbell. This was the last election of the plague ship campaign of 2016, and the most astonishing part of it is that the national Democratic Party spent most of the time since the presidential election not caring about the race one way or the other."
Republican John Kennedy won a Senate run-off election. (photo: Jonathan Bachman/Getty)
Democrats Screwed the Pooch Again
14 December 16
This time in the Louisiana senate race.
ll the noise out of Camp Runamuck largely drowned out the clamor of the Democratic Party fcking up again. Over the weekend, the state of Louisiana had a runoff election for the United States Senate. The Republican, an ironically monickered suit named John Kennedy, beat Democratic candidate Foster Campbell. This was the last election of the plague ship campaign of 2016, and the most astonishing part of it is that the national Democratic Party spent most of the time since the presidential election not caring about the race one way or the other.
You would have thought that, given what happened on November 8, the Democrats would have thrown all hands on deck to at least try to win what was admittedly an uphill campaign in a tough state. You would have thought that they would have overwhelmed the state with money and surrogates. Win or lose, this at least would have demonstrated that the Democratic Party still had a pulse.
But, no, it was far more important to the members of the party's fundraising-consultant complex to suck their thumbs and wonder how many of the party's fundamental values they should chuck overboard to win the votes of the guys in the CAT hats in western Pennsylvania. And the results were entirely predictable, per the Times-Pic:
The statewide turnout of 29.2 percent made it one of the lowest-attended Senate elections in recent years, according to the Secretary of State's office.
I will grant you that a good part of that dismal number had to do with a hangover from the wretched presidential campaign. But another important part of it is the fact that nobody went out of their way to do the work of getting more than 29 percent of the voters to the polls. The Republicans sent both members of their winning national ticket to Louisiana prior to the runoff balloting. The Democrats sent nobody. Campbell wasn't a progressive darling, but he was as good a Democrat as one is likely to get out of Louisiana.
This wasn't necessarily about a fight you can win. This was about a fight you can have.
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