One of the absolutes about elections, and particularly the
people who lost, is that this isn’t the last time that you’ll be seeing these
people on the ballot. The
candidates that you voted for, but lost (or voted against and lost, in the case
of a lot of Democrats this year) will surely be back. Just look at this year’s cycle: we saw people like Bob Dold, Doug Ose, and Tom Emmer all win seats in Congress after voters
told them no before. The people
that ran this year will return, many of them, and in some cases will do so
successfully (others, like Scott Brown, will wander the wilderness
indefinitely).
Therefore, as part of our continued wrap-up of the 2014 midterms
continues, I figured that I would go through some of the candidates I’d like to
see again, and some I wouldn’t.
Since the Republicans just clobbered, I am not listing any of them
because if you didn’t win this year, you probably shouldn’t show up again later
(Ed Gillespie, you are the clear exception to this rule). I also want to point out that the below
comments aren’t necessarily an indictment that I think that all of these people
would be bad if they were to serve
in office, just that they have proven to be truly terrible candidates for the
Democrats, and public office is no longer a strong option for them. Part 1 below are the dozen candidates I
never want to see on a ballot again, part 2 (tomorrow) will be entirely about
candidates I would like to see again.
In no particular order…
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| Attorney General Martha Coakley (D-MA) |
Martha Coakley
Martha Coakley is about as popular in Democratic circles
right now as ebola. First off, she
managed to do the seemingly impossible a few years back, losing a Democratic
Senate seat in Massachusetts, and to add insult to injury, it was the seat of
the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. She was
still, however, the state’s attorney general at the time, and as a result had
the opening to try and win Deval Patrick’s open gubernatorial seat. She skated through the primary, but she
won again. Losing twice statewide
in any state is pretty much curtains for your political career. When you’re in Massachusetts and a
Democrat and do it twice, it’s unforgivable.
Terry Goddard
The former Attorney General in Arizona is the sort of
candidate who feels like he might be nominated again (ain’t nobody ever nominating
Coakley for an elected position again), so I figured I should put in a request
to stop that. Goddard is a twice
statewide-elected official, and Arizona Democrats have struggled to find such
candidates (they’re still reeling a bit from Gabby Giffords’ assassination
attempt, as Giffords surely would have been the nominee for the Senate in 2012,
and likely would have won, breathing new life into a party desperate for a
leader), but it’s time to move on. Goddard has lost three times statewide, including this past
cycle for Secretary of State, and it’s just not happening again. He had a good run, but he picked the
wrong cycles to try for a promotion, and his candidacies have become something of a
joke.
 |
| Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (D-MD) |
Anthony Brown
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, like Anthony Brown, was once a
rising star in the Democratic Party.
She, like Anthony Brown, was also Lieutenant Governor to an outgoing
Democratic governor. And she, like
Anthony Brown, saw her promising career torn asunder when she lost an
imminently winnable gubernatorial election in a strong GOP midterm. Kennedy Townsend has become a leader within
the Democratic Party in the years since, helping to raise money for the party
and working with non-profits, but losing statewide in Maryland as a Democrat is
a sin no Democrat can forgive, and unlike most states, the bench here is
ridiculously rich-no need for second chances.
Jill Docking
“Who?” you may be correctly asking, and you’d probably be
right. Jill Docking is arguably
the least well-known person on this list, partially because she’s never held
elected office. A longtime fixture
in Democratic politics in Kansas, Docking is the daughter-in-law of former
Kansas Gov. Robert Docking, and the wife of former Lt. Gov. Thomas
Docking. She unsuccessfully
challenged Sam Brownback in the 1996 Senate election, coming relatively close
for a Democrat in Kansas, and seemed like a logical choice for Paul Davis when
selecting his running mate this year (the bench in Kansas is thin, and she
brought institutional support from the state’s Democratic Party). That said, losing yet again has made
her a two-time loser statewide, and that’s enough, even in Kansas. We need some fresh blood in the state,
and her time has passed-elected office is not meant to be for Docking.
 |
| Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) |
Bruce Braley
Iowa doesn’t have a strong bench, and we actually have a fairly competitive-sounding race next year if Chuck Grassley retires. However, Bruce Braley’s performance this past cycle was atrocious. The farmer/lawyer comment cost us a Senate seat, and when we’re doing some very hard math two years from now, or when Joni Ernst becomes a superstar in the GOP (oh, it’s gonna happen), it will be Braley whom the Party blames, and Braley doesn’t have the personal moxie to overcome allowing the GOP to have a superstar in the midst like Ann Richards did. And even Richards had the good sense to step off the electoral stage when she let that other GOP superstar hit the spotlight.
Dan Maffei
How? How did
Maffei lose by nearly twenty points in a district that President Obama won by
16-points? He was the incumbent,
for god’s sake. He was a sitting
elected official taking on some random prosecutor in a district that was on no one’s
radar until a week before the election.
This is one of the most liberal districts in the country now represented
by the Republicans, and will be at the tip-top of the list of DCCC targets come
2016. However, Dan Maffei has
proven point blank that he doesn’t deserve to be the nominee here ever again.
 |
| Rep. Parker Griffith (D/R-AL) |
Parker Griffith
Admittedly, the Democratic Party in Alabama didn’t have a
lot of options. But still-couldn’t
they have found some nice, retiring state legislator to take on Robert Bentley
rather than a man who jumped ship from the House Democrats in 2009? Party switchers are always considered
with massive amounts of trepidation, but those who switch back? They’re just opportunists. Griffith should never hold a major
party’s nomination under any banner in the years ahead.
Vincent Sheheen
Sheheen was one of the easiest recruits for the cycle-he
nearly beat Nikki Haley four years ago in a Republican wave, and she’s hardly
popular in the Palmetto State.
That said, his second run, like most Hollywood sequels, was a massive
disappointment, and his accidental use of a gender-related slur against Haley
was the nail in his political coffin.
The South Carolina Democrats are frequently up a crick without a paddle,
but Sheheen isn’t worth steering the boat.
Domenic Recchia
When you lose by double digits to a man facing federal
indictments (twenty of them) and who threatened to throw a journalist off a
balcony, you really have no business ever running for public office again. Throw in that his handle on foreign
policy rivals Kim Kardashian’s, and you have someone who should just go back to
the private sector. Quite frankly,
Joe Crowley and the NY Democrats should be ashamed that this is all they could
find to take on Mike Grimm.
 |
| Gov. Charlie Crist (D-FL) |
Charlie Crist
Unlike Parker Griffith, Crist actually had a shot in his
election. The Florida Democratic
Party, probably the worst political party in the country that should be able to
win elections but never do, didn’t have a lot of options-without Alex Sink to
rely upon, the congressional delegation is pretty unimpressive (thank god for
Gwen Graham-if she can hang on in 2016 we finally have someone who can take
over for Bill Nelson in 2018), and the state legislature is a joke. Going with Crist left a bad taste in
the mouths of every Democrat, but at least he was going to win. Except that he didn’t. And while Mary Burke and Mark Schauer
also left the Democrats and particularly organized labor in tears, Crist cost
the Democrats their best shot in eons at the governor’s mansion in
Florida. His name is now mud in
both parties, and he can go back to making those embarrassing commercials.
Rick Weiland
Weiland got tossed a bum hand, I’ll give him that. Most of his election was spent as the
butt of Harry Reid’s anger at Tom Daschle for messing with the recruitment
process. But the final month of
the election proved that Weiland doesn’t have the stomach for national
politics-slamming the DSCC when they’re the reason you’re actually competitive,
when you should be attacking your opponents? The election was clearly slipping away from Larry Pressler,
and everyone knew that you were who Reid and the DSCC were trying to help-sour
grapes never look good, but you especially shouldn’t show them before people
have voted.
Alex Sink
Sink lost earlier on in the cycle, but I feel she needs to
stay on in this race. The reality
with Sink is that she was the right candidate
for 2010: she had been elected statewide in 2006 and was the clear choice to
take on Rick Scott. She was the
right choice for the House special election to replace Bill Young: she’d done
well in the district before and had universal name recognition. The fact that she lost both races
against lackluster Republicans is once again, unforgivable. She was the right choices for those two
seats, but she’ll never be the right choice again.
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