Last week, news came out that Carte Goodwin may run for Congress:
Goodwin said he was originally contacted in mid-June about the possibility of running.
"They are anxious to get started," he said.
Goodwin said he recently met with Van Hollen and other members of the DCCC.
It's no big surprise the DCCC is actively recruiting candidates. It is interesting that Carte Goodwin has decided to float a WV-02 trial balloon in the papers.
Goodwin is a former general counsel for Gov. Joe Manchin. How does he stack up against previous challengers of Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito?
Capito, now in her fifth term in the House, has had several fierce Democratic challengers in the past. Last year, she defeated Anne Barth, Sen. Robert Byrd's longtime Aide, by 14 percentage points. Two years earlier, she held off a challenge by Erik Wells, former TV anchor and now a state senator, by a margin of 17 percent. And in 2002 Capito took 60 percent of the vote, trouncing lawyer Jim Humphreys in what became the most expensive House race in the nation.
Oops, I think Kris Wise Maramba at the Daily Mail forgot about Mike Callaghan in 2006 and got the rest of the dates mixed up, too.
Regardless, like Callaghan and Barth before him, Goodwin would both suffer and benefit from a lack of having run for elected office before (no record to run on, no prior positions to defend). Like Anne Barth, he would also benefit from good relationships with the Gov. and the Democratic Congressional delegation.
Other than that, I don't know anything about Goodwin's political views or what kind of candidate he would be. My biggest concern is that running yet another conventional DCCC-fueled campaign is going to end with the same disappointing results.
A young first-time candidate running against Rep. Capito will be inclined to "play it safe" while building up their name recognition and developing a reputation as a Democratic team player. While it is critical that Democrats field a credible challenge in case Rep. Capito stumbles, I just don't see a conventional campaign beating her.
The one path I can imagine for Democratic electoral success in WV-02 is a candidate who is willing to invest heavily in field, spends very little on TV advertising (and most of that on cable), and spends at least 9-12 months in full-time campaign mode knocking on doors and visiting every nook and cranny in the district. Retail politics educating voters on how Rep. Capito is complicit in their plight, that's how you can beat her. |
