Committees Slow to Name Leaders
2010 Election Cycle Stalled
Roll Call Staff
Updated: 10:10 a.m. Nov. 10, 2008
With the 2010 election cycle nearly a week old, Congressional Democrats and Republicans are still sorting out who will run their respective campaign committees for President-elect Obama’s first midterm year, although House Democrats over the weekend solidified the leadership of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee by re-enlisting the current chairman, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.).
Van Hollen had announced last week that he would not seek a second term running the DCCC. But Democratic sources confirmed Monday morning that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) prevailed on Van Hollen to reconsider and accept another two years at the helm.
In the Senate, there remains some minor drama surrounding who will lead the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the next cycle. The Senate map suggests Democrats could once again be on the offensive, just as they were the past two cycles.
On the Republican side, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) is running for a second term despite losing about 20 seats last week. But Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas), who is also running for the post, has received strong public backing from Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio).
Boehner’s bid to remain as House GOP leader has yet to attract a challenger. Republican sources say that other heavyweights within the House Republican Conference also are backing Sessions, with announcements from some of them due in advance of next week’s leadership elections.
“Having Boehner’s support helps Pete because the Conference wants people who can work together better, and the Cole-Boehner division was a major distraction,” said one Republican Congressional aide whose boss supports Sessions. “But Cole definitely has some support.”
Last cycle, Boehner and Cole clashed over political tactics and the relative weakness of the committee’s fundraising.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, were supposed to have a choice about who would lead the NRSC in 2010, despite the fact they will command a smaller minority than they did these past two years. Both Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) and Sen. Norm Coleman (Minn.) have expressed interest in the NRSC chairmanship in recent months.
Coleman’s situation, however, is complicated. He led his opponent, comedian Al Franken (D), by a few hundred votes on Friday as Minnesota prepares for a mandatory recount scheduled to end on Dec. 5 — more than two weeks after the Nov. 18 leadership election.
The Minnesota Republican has not confirmed he is running for NRSC chairman, and neither his campaign nor his Senate office responded to a request for comment Friday. Coleman lost a bid for the chairmanship in 2004 and has since expressed interest in running the committee.
When asked about a prospective race against Coleman, Cornyn’s Senate spokesman Brian Walsh would say only that his boss “is running.”
In the House, strategic changes are pending in how the DCCC and NRCC campaign based on the new reality of a large Democratic majority.
After two straight cycles in which House Democrats were on the offensive as they built — and then expanded — their majority, the DCCC is preparing to become more of an incumbent-protection operation.
Meanwhile, the NRCC, which spent 2006 attempting to defend its majority and 2008 defending against a second consecutive Democratic wave, is gearing up to go on offense against a Democratic president, after essentially falling about as low as possible given the partisanship of the current House district map.
“We turn into an incumbent-protection committee next cycle,” one Democratic strategist said. “There’s not that many opportunities left.”
Cole announced he was running for re-election as NRCC chairman on the morning after Election Day and is selling his candidacy on the grounds that in losing about 20 seats, including ousting four Democratic incumbents, he beat the expectations of prognosticators who predicted that net losses could go as high as 40.
Cole is also making the case that his efforts were hamstrung by problems not of his making, including an $18 million debt from the 2006 cycle, an embezzlement scandal revolving around former NRCC Treasurer Christopher Ward, and a toxic political atmosphere for Republicans that got even worse just one month before the election as the economy went into a free fall.
According to a Republican source with knowledge of Sessions’ plans for the NRCC, the Texan would run the committee under a different strategic framework than Cole. Any changes Sessions would make would not necessarily be meant as a reaction to the current leadership, but would instead be considered innovations, the insider said.
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The federal government is increasingly taking a leadership role in improving the nation’s cybersecurity. But, with a threat that is quickly growing and more sophisticated each day, it’s clear that the government — for all of its good intentions — cannot win this battle without a robust commitment from technology companies. Read Full Article
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