A Fisher Failure Would Be Our Own Fault
Submitted by Anthony Fossaceca on Mon, 10/04/2010 - 1:17pm.
Many months ago, yours truly received a number of "off-the-record" shots from folks close to the Fisher camp. Their man Lee was in a tough primary battle with Jennifer Brunner and most of them were more than a little pissed at the blog coverage of the race. Some felt we were too hard on Lee, others felt that we were too soft on Jennifer. They all claimed Lee was the only one who could beat Portman and cited numerous reasons why.
More times than not, I disagreed with their criticism but respected the points of view and continued writing accordingly. With both Brunner and Fisher within a point or two either side of Portman in most published polls at the time, it was reasonably safe to assume that no matter who won the primary, we'd all be on board and pushing to get the winner into the U.S. Senate.
Today, as Lee Fisher heads into his debate with Rob Portman, he faces a double digit deficit in just about every recent poll. The numbers look grim. And frankly, I've talked to more than a few Democrats who feel this race is lost. Period. Time to move on.
To that I say to those people, respectfully, get off your ass and do something about it.
For years, I've watched members of our party carry this "I can only help one candidate at a time" mentality. (What that usually means is "I only want to work the races we might win.") This year, at least to me, has that same feeling. In 2006, you couldn't go anywhere in the state and not see a Sherrod Brown logo next to a Ted Strickland one. Democrats in county party HQs truly were buying in to the coordinated campaign idea. The same happened in 2008. There seemed to be great emphasis on promoting Democrats up and down the ticket. But then, all of our candidates looked to be headed to victory or at least within striking distance.
Flash forward to today. Ted is surging. Boyce, Pepper, O'Shaughnessy, and Cordray seem to be doing well as a result of coordinated efforts between themselves and ODP. But Fisher...sigh. Lee's campaign seems to be on their own. This is not a criticism of ODP. Far from it. I think ODP is doing everything legally possible to help Lee pull this off, but they've got limited resources too - and a significant need to win not only the Governor's race, but the SoS and Auditor's office, as reapportionment is right around the corner.
What I'm seeing now is a disinterested party (in terms of the Senate race) at the activist level. Was Lee the candidate we all wanted? No, maybe not. Around 45% of the Democratic voters picked Jennifer Brunner. But while there may still be open wounds from the primary, we're running out of time to close this gap. Yes, there were a ton of big mistakes early. Far too many to rehash here. Some of them happened before the primary and some after. Heck, some happened 10 or 15 years ago. The end result is a campaign that, despite an improved effort in recent months, can't seem to move the needle.
Back in the winter and spring, we all talked about making Ohio's Senator that 60th or 61st vote. Now, the thought of a Democratically controlled Senate is shaky. We talked about adding a second Democratic senator from Ohio for the first time since Glenn and Metzenbaum almost 20 years ago. We talked about electing a senator who would be the key vote on issues like health care, the budget, immigration reform and more.
We talked about a lot of things. Unfortunately, we've reached the point where we need to stop talking and start bailing this sinking ship out together.
The Fisher campaign has been markedly better since the latest wave of personnel moves. They seem more focused and articulate. The messaging seems stronger and the targeting is more obvious. But they've been taking on water for too long. They can't fix this all on their own. With money drying up (or gone) and days drifting away faster and faster, it's up to all of us to swim out to sea and help get this boat to port.
Grab an oar. Grab a flotation device. Grab a bucket.
Grab whatever you can.
This isn't about making a good showing. It's about winning. And the only way Lee wins now is with a whole lot of help from the rest of us. Calls, knocks, signs, word of mouth, Facebook status updates, reminders to friends, talk radio calls, etc. Because if you think having Rob Portman in the Senate isn't a big deal, wait until 2012 when we're playing for the White House. If this guy has the next two years to help dismantle health care, Wall Street reform, and everything else we've worked on, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves when we lose everything from the top down.
En Oh
Anthony, you and I disagree vehemently on this. Lee is losing because LEE didn't do the things he needed to do – and STILL isn't doing them — to win back those who were turned off by his primary campaign. He isn't mending his bridges. He is still blaming others. Heck, your post almost sounds like it was written by Lee, blaming others, blaming angry activists who have reasons to be angry. I don't see that the Democratic Party isn't doing as much for Lee as everyone else. I am in fact tired of deflecting requests to do anything for Lee. They are doing their job.
Ultimately, though, no Democrat or Democratic activists OWES Lee (or anyone else) their vote or their money or their time or their energy. It is the job of a candidate to WIN our vote and support. Lee needs to persuade us that he is working as hard as possible to bring everyone on board to help HIM win the race, not win it for him. I do not need to get off my ass or anything else to work for a candidate who I don't think will be responsive to me. Unless he can convince me and many others like me that he IS listening and IS responsive, he's going to keep having a problem.
For instance, the latest thing I am hearing from people in his camp is blaming the fact that he had to spend money to defeat Jennifer for the fact that he's behind — he doesn't have as much money as Portman for TV. Do you know how many wrong things I can find in that statement? First of all, if he still had in the bank all the money he spent on the primary, he would still be lagging Portman in fundraising. Which leads to point two — people didn't cite "numerous" reasons Fisher was the better candidate, they cited one: that he could raise more money. So where is this mountain of cash? And immediately after the primary, Lee said he knew he would lag behind Portman in fundraising and would have to mount an aggressive grassroots campaign. Then he didn't. Finally, it's just bad politics. Instead of mending bridges, it's blowing them up all over again. It's back to that suggestion throughout the primary, which should be dead and buried by now, that Jennifer should have been a good little girl and just dropped out, because it's Lee's "turn" and besides, he can raise so much more money.
But she didn't drop out and Lee won and was virtually tied with Portman after the primary. And the only person who squandered that lead was Lee. Right now, Lee should hold a meeting with his staff and volunteers and tell them never to make this excuse, because it is only losing them votes they actually might be able to get.
You may recall that I said if Jennifer didn't win the primary, I was going to sit this cycle out. I didn't. That's because some of the other candidates genuinely excited me, starting with Mary Jane Trapp, who won over many of the hardcore Jennifer supporters. I've always loved Rich Cordray, who has been a real fighter for us. I saw what an excellent job Kevin Boyce and Eric Brown were doing and how well they articulated their goals. And Maryellen O'Shaughnessy and David Pepper are so enthusiastic and working so hard you just WANT to get on board. They're not whining and blaming and demanding our support. And then there's Yvette. God, I wish every voter in Ohio could meet Yvette. There's no way we'd lose. And when the governor came out swinging in the late summer and Kasich revealed himself to be an ignorant, blundering, bullying blowhard who was LEADING IN THE POLLS, I felt I had to jump in.
So where was Lee? Don't ask me. I wish I had a dollar for every time I was at an event where Peggy came in his place and someone said, "Peggy should be the candidate." I feel like he is taking Northeast Ohio for granted — and I am not the only one who feels that way. I noticed a recent poll showed him leading in Northeast Ohio by two points. He should be leading by 20.
I am sorry Rob Portman will be our next Senator but he can't do nearly as much damage in a Senate it's virtually impossible for the Republicans to assume control of as John Kasich can to our struggling state beginning to see glimmers of recovery he has said he will snuff out. Strickland is THE priority, and if he carries Lee, that's great. It's up to Lee to stand with the other candidates. It's not their job to seek him out. It's not OUR job to seek him out. I haven't laid eyes on Lee since Labor Day. I feel like his campaign expects us to carry Cuyahoga FOR him.
Sorry to spew like this. I've been hoping to see change in this campaign for so long — starting the day after the primary. I said nothing for four months because I was adhering to my promise not to talk about this race. Most often, I was glad I made that promise because it seemed like there was not much good to say about the campaign, and I certainly wasn't looking to hamper it. I imagine it probably is too late now. But if it's not, lecturing people on what they need to do FOR Lee isn't going to turns things around. Only Lee himself can do that.
I agree with almost
I agree with almost everything you've said here. My point is that we can't let Portman win. Just can't. No matter who our candidate is. No matter how flawed. We've got to win this seat.
Pollsters Have Been Wrong All Year. And They Still Are.
Three days before the Republican primary in Delaware the virtually unknown Tea Party candidate known as Christine O'Donnell was virtually written off by the establishment media supported by their scientific polling experts. Today they call her the Republican nominee. Four weeks is an eternity in a Senate race. Those of us old enough to remember 1974 recall that Howard Metzenbaum was all but crowned the victor over some unkown astronaut from New Concord...and the rest is history. Lee can win this race...and Portman can lose this race in the stroke of a pen or the arrogant slip of the tongue. Anthony is right. When the going gets tough,the tough get going. I cannot for a moment visualize another George-Bush-clone Senator entering the United States Senate....from Ohio no less. It is time for everyone to ask themselves. What can I do to help Lee Fisher. Today. Bill O'Neill, RN
www.oneill4congress.com
Bill, it's remotely possible
but it's up to Lee, not to us. And he has to make some radical changes in his campaign. Unfortunately, Portman is a smooth, likable character. He's avoided teabagging and even seems to have distanced himself from Kasich. He's not going to have an arrogant slip of the tongue. Lee needed/needs to be the hardest working candidate out there to overcome the ill will he stoked in the primary as well as his slacking off all summer. He should have reached out to Jennifer's supporters — last May. He could still do it. He probably no longer has the chance to get many of them involved in his campaign but he might get their votes which, believe it or not, is an issue. I know a lot of Democrats planning to leave this race blank - and several who already have. Time's a-wastin'.