The post-Hackett argument for funding challengers in every race is a well-intentioned, but not really convincing, bit of political strategy. Democrats have X dollars, to fund a challenger everywhere in the country will, unless we have some sort of federal finance reform, bankrupt the party and suck much-needed cash from close districts in order to fund longshot challenges in preordained races. Hackett was a hell of a test, but a candidate like him contesting an open seat during a special election simply creates a different dynamic than a local DA attacking a popular incumbent in an on-year. Most seats are not open. Most candidates are not Hackett. And most races don't get a news vacuum to fill.
Nevertheless, we should be fighting on more fronts. And that's where Kos and Bob and Jerome and Chris and all the other netroots generals can come into play. The dispersed intelligence of the blogs, which can gather information on hundreds of races, get reports from those districts, interview potential candidates, and prejudge matchups, allows for a lot of early reconnoitering. And, when they find a candidate in an unfriendly district whom they judge to have an unexpected chance, the netroots can be the canary in the coalmine, raising seed money and seeing what happens to it. If a cash infusion increases excitement, scares the other side, moves numbers, changes the media, or otherwise points to a winnable race that nobody saw on the radar, the netroots can join with the more traditional institutions to fund these candidates.
But we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. Ginny Schrader and Paul Hackett, though they came close, both lost unexpectedly well-funded races to fill open seats (though we shouldn't forget that Stephanie Herseth won one). So while our races have been exciting, they've not resulted in a particularly impressive seat gain, a truth I think this cartoon expressed well. And, not to be a Cassandra, but battles against incumbents are much harder than open-seat elections. We don't need to throw money away on principle, but we do need to spend more in places we wouldn't otherwise think of. That's where the netroots come in, and it shouldn't engender a tension with the DCCC. It can be our job and they can do theirs, and hopefully the twain shall often meet.
