Wednesday, August 25, 2010

DSCC Not Fighting for Fisher

In my morning rounds, I caught a Facebook post from our good friend Kyle Sisk (get his insights via Twitter) that I think rings true regarding the level of interest the DSCC has in Lee Fisher's tilting at windmills:
The DSCC takes sides. They just do. If a candidate & his/her campaign team have a schism the DSCC takes sides. They do not support both. That would send a terrible message & promote dissension in the ranks.

If the DSCC was "for" Lee then when he fires staff or they leave in the heat of the campaign said staffers would have a hard time finding work on a campaign for city council in Decatur...they would not land softly in a more high profile US Senate race in KY for Jack Conway. To me, ousted Fisher staffers landing in even better jobs after leaving Lee & Peggy Zone's version of "The Titanic" is "exhibit a" that the DSCC is not in this race.
This might be one of this situations where we read ourselves in to the actions of our "enemies" but I don't think that is the case here.

The sheer number of castoffs from the Fisher campaign is amazing enough on its own, but the fact that so many of these people wind up getting better gigs really is a story worth noting. while it may appear to be just a footnote in 527 Media stories, Kyle has a point that the real story very well could be that this signals a level of disinterest on the part of the DSCC.

Who can blame them really? The Fisher for Senate campaign has been a disaster from Day One and not just for Lee. Although, Governor Strickland has fared better thus far, Fisher's roles as Lieutenant Governor and Ohio's Job Czar has been a harbinger hanging around Strickland's neck as well. The Ohio Democratic Party may have backed Fisher in the primary against Jennifer Brunner, but one has got to think they may have buyer's remorse now since Lee Fisher's fund raising efforts have been lackluster (and that is being generous).

All in all, that the DSCC hasn't blacklisted these staffers is a sure sign of the campaign arm being not willing to fight for Fisher.