You have to figure that things aren’t going so well for Republicans nationally if the 4th Congressional District in California is in play at all. This District, East of Sacramento, was specifically drawn to elect and keep electing a Republican for an entire decade. FR readers will recall that after the last census, the legislature passed an awful ‘incumbent protection plan’ redistricting measure that locked the GOP into about 20 safe GOP seats as compared to 33 safe Democrat seats.
Anyways, despite all of the hoopla and national attention being given by the press to the battle in CD 4 between incumbent conservative Republican John Doolittle, and his opponent, a Democrat named Charlie Brown, the FlashReport still feels that Doolittle will retain the seat. The real loss for Republicans will be the ‘opportunity cost’ of having to spend a lot of funds in this ‘safe’ Republican seat — funds which could be better spent elsewhere.
I’m penning this post today because I am wondering exactly what is going on over at the National Republican Congressional Committee — and why it is that they don’t seem to be taking this challenger to Doolittle very seriously. Or rather, to be more specific, they are taking it seriously enough to commit substantial financial resources to the race, but it is HOW they are spending their money that boggles the mind.
As one FR friend who lives in the district said about the mail pieces being generated by the NRCC attacking Charlie Brown, this is some of the worst direct mail he has ever seen (and he sees a lot of mail, as he works in politics).
We all take a moment to chuckle when we hear about a candidate with the name of Charlie Brown, as it is the same name as the popular Peanuts cartoon character that we all grew up loving. But Charlie Brown is a serious candidate. Brown retired in 1998 as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force (Colonel Brown is pictured to the right — notice there is no similarity to the cartoon character above), after serving for 26 years. Now this doesn’t excuse the fact that he is a liberal, and doesn’t mean that the Fourth District is going to elect someone from the party of Hillary Clinton. But it does mean that he is not some also-ran, but a candidate who should be taken and treated seriously.
But apparently the folks at the NRCC don’t think so. They have decided that a direct mail campaign themed off of the Peanuts comic strip is the best way to take on Brown. My friend who lives up there and I disagree with this strategy. As a matter of fact, we would hazard to say that the NRCC mail may be doing more to help Brown than to hurt him.
I’ve attached one of the pieces of the Charlie Brown "Aaargh" NRCC mail campaign for your perusal (see the links at the bottom of this post).
You get the feeling that some consultant to the NRCC is more focused on winning a "Poly" award for funniest mail instead of doing the job right, waging a serious campaign against a serious candidate.
John Doolittle has a record on which he can run, and one of which he can be proud. The NRCC shouldn’t have to resort to ‘amateur hour’ mailings to bring Doolittle across the finish line. Either they should treat this campaign seriously, or not play in it at all.
Asked FR friend Jonathan Collegio, the press secretary at the NRCC for a comment. The quick-witted Collegio had this to say: "Charlie Brown is a second tier candidate running a half-baked campaign for Congress. He hasn’t reaised any money, is recruiting his volunteers from outside of his district, and all things being equal he has as much chance of winning this race as the other Charlie Brown."