Republicans and "Never Trumpers" alike called foul, but the fact is, Dems buying ads in Republican primaries (with caution and care) WORKED in 2022.
December 24, 2022

[Above, never-Trumper Tim Miller from The Bulwark cries foul as Dems invest ads in Republican primaries. -- eds].

Congratulations to those Democratic Strategists who put the panties of everyone to the right of Tim Miller into a twist.

For this Good Guy Crookie award, let's you and I turn our attention to a very specific subset of that species of media pundit who specializes in “Scolding Democrats for Not Being Republican-Lite."

As some of you probably remember, earlier this year, many Savvy Pundits got all the way up on their high horses to savage a small number of Democrats for running ads in Republican primaries.

Ads that were perfectly truthful and said, more or less, “So and so believes crazy things. Forced birth. Everyone should own a bazooka. Etc. And so and so is too conservative for our state.”

This was a strategy Claire McCaskill successfully used in Missouri to bring the late Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin to the attention of Missouri Republican primary voters, who loved the madness coming out of his mouth and nominated him, after which McCaskill beat him in the general election.

Well, this time around, the idea that a tiny number of Democrats would deploy exactly this strategy for exactly the same reason drove the Savvy Pundits crazy. Which was objectively hilarious, because literally all these ads did was accurately describe Darren Bailey, for example, as the nut job he is.

You see, what the Savvy Pundits didn’t want you to think about was that the only way such ads could be effective was if the GOP base really was as batshit as we Liberals have always said they were, and all the Savvy Pundits have always denied.

Anyway, out of all the hundreds and hundreds of federal and state races happening across the country, Democrats ran such ads in only 13 races. I did the math a few months ago, and it came to something like “0.77%” of all races, so not exactly a trend sweeping the nation, but it was yet another opportunity for the Savvy Pundits to berate Democrats for the sin of doing politics, and they grabbed it with both hands and ran with it.

So, jumping ahead from the Savvy Pundit's Hot Reproachful Summer to the bracing, Fall post-election weather, how did all of this reckless, unpatriotic Democratic tomfoolery work out?

Well, of the 13 primaries in which Dems spent money, the most extreme crackpot lost his/her primary in seven of them, which leaves only six.

And of those six…Democrats won ALL of those seats on Election Day.

Won all of them by ten points or better.

In the race for Illinois governor, JB Pritzker (D) beat forced birth crackpot Darren Bailey (R) by 13 points.

In the race for Maryland governor, Wes Moore (D) beat far-right crank Dan Cox by 23 points.

In the race for Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro (D) beat Confederate cos-play elections denier Doug Mastriano (R) by 13 points.

In the Michigan 3rd District, U.S. House race, Hillary Scholten (D) beat far-right John Gibbs (R) by 10 points.

In the race for Senate in New Hampshire, Maggie Hassan (D) beat crazy Don Bolduc (R) by 10 points.

And that Kuster (D) vs. Burns (R) race that Politico was all worked up about? Democrat Annie Kuster kicked Bob Burns' ass by 13 points.

So did this finally knock enough sense into our Savvy Pundits so they've finally learned to shut their holes about that which they know not?

Of course not.

But we give a good guy Crookie to the Democratic strategists who went ahead, did THEIR JOB, and won anyway.

good_guy_crookies_2022.jpg

Excerpted from Driftglass's post of November 12, 2022.

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