Many Democratic Candidates Shunned Convention
Despite Democratic claims of solid unity among members, some top candidates for office either showed up and quickly fled the national convention in Boston, or shunned it entirely.
Most of the no-shows came from the South or other conservative areas, and are seeking to distance themselves from the liberal Kerry-Edwards ticket.
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According to the Los Angeles Times, some of the party's most promising U.S. Senate candidates in the South opted to stay home and campaign in an effort to avoid being connected to their party's far-left nominees.
Wrote the Times, "Many have staked out positions on such issues as gay marriage and gun ownership that are to the right of Kerry and Edwards" and are stressing their independence from the national Democratic Party, which they see as far too liberal for their conservative voters at home.
"Being at the convention in Boston, the symbol of Massachusetts liberalism, might put them on the defensive," Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University who has studied Southern politics, told the Times. "They have more to lose than to gain by appearing at the convention."
According to the Times, of those Democratic candidates in the nine most competitive Senate races, three declined to attend the convention and three others left early. Among the missing or near-missing, the Times reported, were:
Rep. Brad Carson, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Oklahoma. He attended the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Convention in Oklahoma City rather than the convention. Said his spokeswoman Kristofer Eisenla, "Brad Carson is interested in running his own race. He's fighting for Oklahoma first."
Inez Tenenbaum, the senatorial candidate in South Carolina, which is solidly for Bush, showed up in Boston for a single day before fleeing the convention before it officially began. "Time spent there is not as useful as the time we can spend here talking to swing voters. There aren't too many of them in Boston," Adam Kovacevich, Tenenbaum's spokesman, told the Times.
Noting that Tenenbaum left Beantown about the same time Bush basher Michael Moore showed up, South Carolina's GOP chairman Katon Dawson told the Times: "It's almost as if Mrs. Tenenbaum is ashamed to be around Michael Moore. But how can that be? They're both such strong Kerry supporters."
Tenenbaum, the Times noted, also has kept herself at arm's length from Kerry on some hot-button social issues, such as a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, broad application of the death penalty and a ban on "partial birth," abortion all of which Kerry opposes.
Her opponent, Rep. James DeMint, says that despite distancing herself from Kerry, Tenenbaum is still a liberal. "She can run but she can't hide," Glen Bolger, DeMint's pollster, told the Times, noting that she was the state's co-chairwoman for Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign.
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota got out of town Wednesday, citing the need to attend campaign events back home. But GOP leaders accused him of ducking out to avoid appearing onstage with Kerry.
The Times says that his GOP rival, Rep. John Thune, sent him a travel bag that included a Groucho Marx disguise to hide behind at the convention.
Rep. Christopher John, Democrat senate candidate in Louisiana, managed to spend a few days in Boston, only because as a delegate to the convention he had to. But he kept mum about his presence in Boston on his Web site, where there was nary a mention of the convention, just a few headlines about all the great things he was doing for his state's farmers.
Notably absent was Erskine Bowles, a Clinton White House chief of staff. He stayed at home campaigning. He drew fire from the GOP for failing to take the time to see fellow North Carolinian John Edwards nominated for vice president.
Former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles, who supports expanded oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - which Kerry first told leabor leaders he supported, but now opposes - stayed home to continue his bid for the Senate, a campaign that focuses on portraying him as an independent politician.
"These candidates are running to be an independent voice," Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told the Times. "They want to maintain that message of independence."
He admitted that it looks bad to have Democrat candidates distancing themselves from the party's national leaders, but argued that some candidates needed to inoculate themselves from what some say are the liabilities of the party establishment.
And Woodhouse saw a silver lining in the clouds. "They are also providing contrast with Republicans who were rubber stamps for George Bush," he told the Times.
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