Democratic PAC gets to work on 2012

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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee isn’t waiting around. It’s getting on the radio, the internet and the phone to target 19 Republican representatives that it believes are vulnerable as part of its strategy to regain control of the House in 2012. Many of those targeted haven’t even officially served their first month yet.


It’s all part of the Democratic Party’s “Drive to 25” campaign – an effort to claim the minimum 25 seats it needs to net from the Republicans to regain control of the chamber.

The current effort targets 19 of them, with the radio ads slated to commence during PM drive on Monday 1/31/11.

The ads link most of their targets to legislation that the Democrats claim would make severe cuts to both education and research, and which would also cut into employment figures, making the current lackluster hiring scene even worse. Two of the candidates get special treatment – Mike Fitzpartick (R-PA) for being under an ethics investigation and David Rivera (R-FL) for being under criminal investigation.

Another notable target is Allen Shaw (R-FL), who made trade headlines when he originally named controversial southern Florida talker Joyce Kaufman of WFTL-AM his chief of staff. However, some of her more controversial remarks started getting into the national political media, and she eventually declined to accept the post.

Lou Barletta (R-PA)

Charlie Bass (R-NH)

Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY)

Steve Chabot (R-OH)

Chip Cravaack (R-MN)

Robert Dold (R-IL)

Sean Duffy (R-WI)

Blake Farenhold (R-TX)

Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA)

Nan Hayworth (R-NY)

Joe Heck (R-NV)

Robert Hurt (R-VA)

Thad McCotter (R-MI)

Patrick Meehan (R-PA)

Dave Reichert (R-WA)

David Rivera (R-FL)

Jon Runyan (R-NJ)

Joe Walsh (R-IL)

Allen West (R-FL)

RBR-TVBR observation: This news comes not a moment too soon – there are only about 22 months left before the 2012 elections. In truth, we expect this will be a lonely example of a national campaign organization spending this far ahead of the election. Most of the off-year will be spent fund-raising, with most political spending coming from issue-oriented groups.

During the 22 months a lot can change, but if Democrats continue to see these as competitive districts, it will likely mean in influx of national cash from both parties as the election season heats up in earnest.