DON'T STOP, DREAMIN' ABOUT TOMORROW

Maybe Not Today, Maybe Not Tomorrow... (Chuck Todd, July 16, 2003 NationalJournal.com)

What do John Ensign, Bill Nelson, Dianne Feinstein, Jim Talent, Norm Coleman, Gordon Smith, Ben Nelson, Richard Lugar, Susan Collins, Jim Bunning, Byron Dorgan and George Voinovich all have in common besides being sitting senators? All lost major statewide races (i.e. Senate, gubernatorial or at-large House) before eventually winning their current Senate seats. For this cycle, Democrats are putting a lot of stock in finding recruits who may want to have their "warm-up" race before gunning for another post in 2006.

That's right, more than 10 percent of the Senate is made up of senators who, at first, did not succeed, but they tried (and in some cases tried and tried) again.

Ask any consultant. There's nothing they like more than a client who has "done this before." That was something then-National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Bill Frist preached in the 2002 cycle when talking up five of his key recruits (John Thune, Elizabeth Dole, Lamar Alexander, Talent and Coleman). All had either run statewide before or, in the case of Dole and Alexander, run nationally. Not surprisingly, four out of those five recruits won.

For this cycle, Democrats are putting a lot of stock in finding recruits who may want to have their "warm-up" race before gunning for another post in 2006.

The problem with the scenario for the Democratic candidates being coaxed into running losing races is that you need to be close to maintain your viability for next time. Many of these races won't be. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 17, 2003 9:59 AM