The First Republican Moneybomb?
In a post making the convincing case that the national interest in the race has hurt GOP candidate Scott Brown’s chance at an upset victory in the Massachusetts, Markos Moulitsas makes a point I hadn’t heard elsewhere.
“„[H]is moneybomb on Monday was the first real moneybomb conservative activists have ever pulled off (the Paulites are libertarians). This has definite parallels to OH-02 in 2006, when we raised big money for Paul Hackett. While we narrowly lost that race (like Brown hopefully does), it was a big step ahead for us as a movement, teaching us how to effectively rally around a movement candidate. Well, Brown is the conservative movement’s Hackett.
This is important, even if it truncates some history. Republican congressional candidates Jim Ogonowki (2007) and Jim Tedisco (2009) were adopted by the conservative “rightroots” and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in moneybombs, although they lost their elections. But this race quickly confirmed that the conservative base, for all the talk of civil war between activists and leaders, desperately wants to influence the GOP and bring it some election wins.
Kos also captures some of the liberal anger at Coakley, whose decision to hoard cash during the one-month campaign–a decision that let Brown go on the air, and define himself and the race, before she did–is being blamed for making Democrats burn through money they’ll need in November.
