dccc

I was on my way home from work this morning when I heard a pleasant surprise--the DCCC was airing an ad attacking Patrick McHenry for his cozy relationship with Shrub and Big Oil. What's more, the DCCC is highlighting its ad script teeing up McHenry as part of its campaign to tee up 13 House Repubs for voting with Big Oil. (note, the audio is from the ad for Robin Hayes)

Surprising, to say the least.

Somebody get Robin Hayes a change of knickers. I think he just wet himself. What has Robin Hayes flat out running scared?

It isn't what. It's who. It's Larry Kissell, that's who.

Larry Kissell, his campaign team and his enthusiastic supporters from 2006 have finally been joined by the DCCC and many Democrats throughout the district who held back their support last cycle because they didn't think Larry could win. People are scrambling to jump on the Kissell bandwagon and the only thing to say to that is, "Thank you!"

Jim Morrill at the Charlotte Observer lets us know that Larry Kissell's path through primary season has opened up like the Red Sea. I'm not sure who plays the part of Moses in all this, but it means that Larry's resources will be leveled against Robin Hayes and no one else.

"Charlotte lawyer Chris Kouri called Kissell and told him he won't run against him this year. Kouri ran against Hayes as the Democratic nominee in 2002. "I don't think it's any secret that I've looked at running in the 8th District," says Kouri, adding that he's now fully behind Kissell. He wouldn't elaborate on why he changed his mind.

Another Democrat who planned to run this year is John Autry, a liberal activist who lost to Kissell in 2006. After campaigning for much of the past year, he says he's sitting this race out for health reasons.

More from Morrill's post about national support for Larry - after the jump ---->

DCCC's 40 Seat Target List
by Todd Beeton, Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 09:12:10 PM EST
Last month, DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen outlined the essence of his 2008 strategy: go on offense against 40 or so Republican seats that they deemed vulnerable. Today Roll Call (behind subscription firewall) is reporting that Van Hollen has gotten more specific:
Among the 40 Republican-held seats the DCCC is targeting generally, Van Hollen acknowledged that not all of them are exceedingly vulnerable to a Democratic takeover. But he said they all exhibit potential.

ONLY one is in North Carolina. The South is missing here.

Kudos to the DCCC . . . from campaign emails and also posted at The Hill.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chairman Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) is asking supporters to come to the aid of Larry Kissell, the high school teacher and former mill worker who ran up $35,000 in credit card debt campaigning for North Carolina’s 8th district Congressional seat in the November midterm.

Van Hollen and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will host a reception at the DCCC headquarters Wednesday, Aug. 1, aimed at paying off the personal debt Kissell accrued. The DCCC will match donated funds 2-1.

::

Put a fork in Robin Hayes. He's done.

On a conference call with supporters and 8th District Dem party officials, Rep, Chris Van Hollen committed DCCC support to Larry Kissell and according to pollster Marc Silverman of Anzalone Liszt:

Hayes is facing an electorate that is as dangerous to his political career as it was in 2006, if not worse.

Got that fork ready?

I'll add tags later, there are too many. I've had a long day, from CrownTown to the Triangle to the District to (via phone) Biscoe. Oh, and there was Nancy Pelosi ...

I need to go to sleep ... but first, what happened during your day?

Sigh. I guess I need to clarify some things.

Last week I claimed that people shouldn't assume that the DCCC is going to financially support Larry Kissell in a substantive way. One person wondered if this was hyperbole. An emailer asked me what I had against the DCCC. (Really, you have to ask?) Finally, I get a phone call with basically the same question.

Where's my proof?

A few days ago, Larry Kissell wrote a diary on DailyKos titled No Confidence in Politics as Usual. Tucked away in that diary was this little morsel:

The Washington folks seemed shocked that we recently polled and it showed my opponent is in big trouble and the district agrees with me that we've had enough.

That's right. There's a poll. Unfortunately, I can't get my hands on it, but what I've heard so far is that Robin Hayes is in more trouble than he's ever been in and Larry Kissell hasn't lost momentum. From what I hear - and I promise to produce the poll if it is ever released - on the uninformed poll question, the two candidates (Kissell v. Hayes) are neck and neck.

Cross-posted at the Brock Log.

The other day I got a letter from Governor Howard Dean (M.D.) asking for money for the Democratic National Committee.

I declined.