Schumer Gets Psyched For 60
When the results are known on November 5, Senator Chuck Schumer says he'll be "smiling, crying or somewhere in between." With eleven GOP-held seats in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman's sights, it was hard not to notice Schumer's almost uncontrollably optimistic visage when he briefed reporters today, even laughing as he ignored a cell phone call from Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Citing investments in a voter identification, persuasion and turnout operation Schumer says is better than Republicans' in "just about every one" of his eleven targets and a national landscape that is increasingly depriving GOP incumbents of opportunities to exploit issues, Schumer spent the day talking up races that, mere months ago, seemed woefully out of reach.
Still, Schumer maintained that the ultimate goal of a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority remained a long shot. "We feel good. We feel we're doing well. But it's hard to get to 60 and I don't want to oversell it," he said, adding that his candidates are competing in "lots of very red states."
That may be the case, but Democrats are competing in unlikely territory like North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and even Mississippi because of a renewed commitment to turnout operations. Schumer said the DSCC and its candidates have contacted twenty million voters and are anticipating getting six million Democrats to the polls on November 4 with the help of 230,000 volunteers. Schumer estimated the DSCC has spent a dollar on ground operations for every two and a half dollars spent on television advertising.
The national landscape is largely static in the eight states in which Democrats are leading by at least a few points since the last time Schumer briefed reporters, just two weeks ago. But now Democrats have waged serious media campaigns against Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell and Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss.
Schumer denied that the committee was targeting McConnell simply because he is his party's leader. But while going after a sitting leader may not have always been in good senatorial form, Schumer said he was simply following recent Republican precedent. "There were rules of etiquette and the rules of etiquette were broken with Tom Daschle," he said, referring to the Democratic leader ousted in the 2004 elections.
Schumer voiced hope that, after the 2008 elections and regardless of the outcome in Kentucky, the comity that ordinarily prevents parties from challenging each others' leaders might be restored. But with Reid possibly in for a difficult bid for re-election in Nevada in two years, that would seem unlikely.
While polls this summer showed McConnell cruising to re-election, more recent developments have made McConnell one of three potential targets on the Democratic path to blocking Republican filibusters. The party needs to beat either McConnell, Chambliss or Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker while picking up all eight states in which they currently lead to achieve sixty. In Georgia, Schumer said the chance of a runoff -- triggered if neither candidate gets 50% of the vote -- is "significant," while in Mississippi he pointed to Democratic hopes of a big turnout among African American voters.
With Democrats virtually guaranteed to pick up seats in Virginia, New Mexico and Alaska, leading by wide, if not overwhelming, margins in Colorado and New Hampshire, and slightly ahead in Oregon, North Carolina and Minnesota, Schumer may be reluctant to get too excited about picking up the party's sixty-seat goal. But the path to sixty is more clear now than it has been all year, making a big grin on Schumer's face on November 5 all the more likely.