Don't forget about Democrats for Huckabee: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic le?AID=/20080109/NEWS06/801090310

We'll see if that has much of an effect on Tuesday.

Not exactly true. Kucinich and Gravel are campaigning here, for what that's worth.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic le?AID=/20080103/NEWS06/801030383/1009

Steve is pretty awesome too.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the book, given the reviews online I'd read so far. Anyways, setting aside his catty comments on some people and semi-hero worship of others, the central point of the book is thought provoking. Sure we succeeded in electing a bunch of Democrats in '06 and taking back the house and senate. But to what point? What are we electing Democrats to DO? What happens after we get out of Iraq, what's next for our party?

Terri Lynn Land is not going to give up her Secretary of State position for a no-hope run against Senator Levin in Michigan. He'd have to have a George Allen-style meltdown before any top tier candidates would consider running.

In the meantime.. maybe the return of Rocky! Also rumored at one point was MI GOP co-chair (and wife of former Senator) Jane Abraham. And another rumor was of Michelle Engler (wife of former Governor). But there hasn't been any talk recently of anybody.

Check out the latest news on the 7th (including a potential new candidate) at http://walbergwatch.blogspot.com/. I wouldn't be surprised if the district made an appearance in future DCCC buys.

Both those Michigan seats (listed as likely Republican) will be in play.. A few of the MI-09 and one of the MI-07 candidates were at YearlyKos.  

I thought it was great. There are some areas for improvement, which I'm sure will be improved next time (the large space, the expense.. basically the same thing people have already said elsewhere). But for a mostly volunteer effort on a budget, it was superb.

I think one of the reasons they've had a lot of success fundraising, is that their emails are so entertaining. I read every one - even the fundraising ones. One of these days I might even give in and donate.

Check out Tondee's Tavern for more coverage and results.

Some people will never do field, yes. But the higher level tasks require more management from the campaign too - time and effort that isn't always available.

It is (relatively) easy to train somebody to canvass, hand them their clipboards, and off they go. But for the more creative stuff, first you have to figure out what you need, then explain it to the volunteer, maybe even some training?, and work through multiple drafts etc to finish.

Depending on the campaign and when in the cycle, better looking graphics may not be worth the staff time and investment required to get there. As opposed to those staffpeople using the hours to make fundraising calls, talk to reporters, recruit more volunteers to do the door-knocking nobody wants to do but needs to get done to hit your win number.

Fully utilizing every potential volunteer to their highest capacity is not always possible. Sometimes really the best thing anybody - everybody - can do is knock those doors and hit those phones.

Progressive States Network is also worth looking at.. they follow progressive legislation in all 50 states.

Needs to be lefty and primarily about politics, a community blog, and statewide. Which it looks like Left in Alabama is, so I went ahead and added it.

I hear what you're saying, but.. sometimes our candidate is not the best candidate, they just get close cause of the Republican candidate's failings, a wave, etc.

In the end, it's all about what the district wants. Nothing wrong with a good clean primary.

MI-03 is not going to be especially competitive as far as I know. MI-07, which is not on your list, will be.. it's already a dccc top-tier race. Walberg is a freshman and way too conservative for the district. He barely beat Renier last time, and she only raised 50k.