A common talking point among Democratic operatives is that the party will turn each race into an individual battle, and take advantage of weaker Republican candidates. Rasmussen reports that they are having some success with that strategy in South Dakota:
Recommended Stories
A month ago, Noem held a 51% to 42% advantage over Herseth-Sandlin, who has been a member of Congress since 2004.
Herseth-Sandlin has been running ads noting that she was one of the few Democrats who voted against President Obama’s health care bill, which is highly unpopular in South Dakota. Noem, meanwhile, has been battling the recent disclosure of a questionable driving record. Herseth-Sandlin was elected to Congress following the resignation of GOP Congressman Bill Janklow who was convicted of manslaughter after he killed a motorcyclist while running a stop sign at high speed.
The problem with this strategy is that it can cut both ways, and thus keep the Democrats from gaining any systematic advantage:
“From here on out, we will re-evaluate our scholarship programs in terms of practices and guidelines to be sure … this won’t happen again,” said Muriel Cooper, a spokeswoman for the foundation. “We want to make sure there is no self-dealing or nepotism in awarding these scholarships.”
Bishop is one of just a handful of African American congressmen in competitive districts. His district is GA-2, the cotton country in the southwestern corner of the state. It’s split about evenly between blacks and whites, and gave Obama 54 percent of the vote. Charlie Cook already had it listed as “Lean Democrat,” and these revelations will not help.
One step forward for the Democrats in SD-AL, one step back in GA-2?
Read more of Morning Jay at The Weekly Standard.
