Same DCCC Policy - Same Guaranteed Failures

I've seen a lot of posts on Democrat polictical blogs. Many of the writers comment on how much they disagree with their Republican Congressional representatives & want them out of office. Yet ALL the 2004 IL Dem challengers (except Rep. Melissa Bean (IL-08)) were completely ignored. The ENTIRE Dem IL Congressional Delegation withheld all support. The DCCC has a policy of "out to lunch" until challengers raise $300,000. If the challengers are lucky enough to raise that much but too fast, the DCCC withholds all their financial support because the challenger's doing "well enough" without them.

The DCCC argument of too little money & too many challengers no longer applies because we now know that the policy doesn't work. Congressional Dems & the country would be better off if it did work -- even if just a little. Additionally, Rep. Shimkus should've never won last year -- period. Not only did he NOT campaign (he did it all for Justice Karmaier) for himself because he knew he didn't have to, he sent his district director (very guilty of violating the Hatch Act) to Europe in October 2004. This is a pattern. Challengers & reports from 2000, 2002, & now 2004 have commented on this. I hope to see more information in the future from the Democratic Commitment Conference PAC, Winning for the People, or any other organization actively working hard to change the DCCC status quo.

Surprisingly (or maybe not so much), I've also found out from a very reliable source that publicly the DCCC encourages & welcomes female challengers for political office. Quietly, the organization is working hard to find male challengers ONLY regardless of how well the 2004 female challengers did. Something that the Women's Campaign Fund and Emily's List have known for quite some time. Ironically, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) is the former head of the DCCC Women LEAD, a task force created to recruit successful professional women as donors and supporters; & Rep. Rahm Emanuel (IL-05) is the DCCC Chairperson.

No wonder registered Democrat voters don’t vote for Democrats any more. They're tired of the same perpetual failures every election cycle.