Fear Factor
Things turned out very much as expected on Election Day this week. Phil Angelides will be the Democratic nominee for governor. Jerry Brown beat back Rocky Delgadillo in the race for their party’s nomination for state attorney general. And House members Jane Harman and Adam Schiff will be returning safely to Washington. Activists hoped for big changes in some races, possibly making a statement against Democrats who supported the war in Iraq, but things are just as they were a week ago. The status quo is secure.
There was a close call down in San Diego, as Democrat Francine Busby made a real challenge for an otherwise safe Republican seat vacated by convicted Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Democrats hoped a longshot win in the special election by Busby would send shockwaves across the political landscape, indicating just how much trouble the GOP faces in 2006 and 2008. But it’s not going to be so easy. Democrats shouldn’t count on coasting into office, and back into the majority in Washington or the governor’s office in Sacramento, just because Republican popularity is in freefall. They will have to work for it, even in California.
Rather than an indication of good times, Democrats should see Busby’s loss as a warning. The national party pumped lots of cash but few new ideas into the San Diego race. Party leaders were nowhere on the premises. And Busby won about the same number of votes that other Democratic candidates traditionally get in that district. Another opportunity lost, and another sign of timidity in the nation’s minority party. (Busby will get another chance this fall in the general election.)
In recent history, fear of the electorate contributed to the losses of both Al Gore and John Kerry, presidential candidates who avoided taking stands very different from their grinning opponent, George W. Bush. More of the same will lead to the same result. In Ohio this year, Iraq war veteran and Democrat Paul Hackett became a hero to progressives for speaking out against the Bush White House and nearly won a congressional seat in a safe Republican district. But after announcing that he was running for the U.S. Senate, he was forced from the race by leaders of his own party, who feared his blunt talk and occasional gaffes would alienate voters.
Democrats can’t afford to fear the electorate any longer. Republicans can only be beat with a message that offers an alternative to the GOP, not a lesser version of the same.
lacitybeat.com |
