If Katie Merrill had the goal of preventing a primary campaign against Ellen Tauscher, it might not have been the best strategy to provoke the publisher of the most widely read political blog in the world into declaring, “So in CA-10, we will have a candidate, and there will be a primary.”

But as Jane Hamsher noted, Tauscher has greater problems than netroots. Sure, California bloggers are going to cover this race closely (Calitics is averaging more than a post a day on Ellen Tauscher in December of all months and Markos lives in the east bay). And sure, if things get interesting the national blogs will have the ability to get the race nationwide attention. But all of that will be focused towards understanding and supporting what is actually going on in California’s 10th congressional district.

Rototilling the Grassroots

From a grassroots perspective, the DLC fad of the 1990s destroyed the Democratic Party. The reliance on corporate big money all but cut rank and file supporters out of the process.

The new people-powered grassroots wave was a direct reaction to people like Gray Davis who triangulated against the base to be funded by big corporations.

Ellen Tauscher was part of this fad, but her continued contempt for the grassroots is so out of style that it makes it clear she is out of touch.

Since Tauscher bought her seat by spending $1.7 million, she has grown increasingly dependent upon PAC contributions while failing to develop support infrastructure in district. In her first re-election, almost 60% of her funding came from individuals, but her most recent report shows the ration flipping to where she now relies upon (mostly business) PACs for more than 60% of her warchest.

Now here is where the blogs come in and why Katie Merrill’s move was such a political disaster for Congresswoman Tauscher. What the blog infrastructure allows is not just volunteers and tons of money, but the ability for local resentment of Tauscher’s arrogance to have a nationwide voice.

After reading the front page post on Daily Kos, an 18 year old spoke up in the comments. He then learned how easy it was for him to refine his point, set up an account here, and post his thoughts as a diary. This morning, that diary was picked up by Fire Dog Lake and broadcast nationwide.

There is a structure to promote and reward ideas about the race, which is compounded in Tauscher’s case by the unique geography where bay area writers have six different BART stops they can choose from in the 10th district.

In the successful primary campaign against Joe Lieberman in Connecticut, the blogosphere amplified the reporting of Paul Bass and Colin McEnroe turning them into nationwide stars. Do you think this dynamic has escaped Tim Redmond? If a bay area race becomes ground zero in the battle for the future of the Democratic Party, CA-10 could be more thoroughly covered than most people can imagine.

The tools are readily available for grassroots activists to share stories of personal experiences involving Ellen Tauscher. I’ve heard lots of stories that I’m sure others would appreciate hearing and I know there are far more out there. So start an account and tell your stories — people are waiting to listen.

——–

Some of the comments thanks to Counterproductive Katie’s whine:

Kos, “It’s not surprising that this writer, Ellen Tauscher campaign manager Katie Merrill, would try to head off what will be a vicious fight for this seat in a primary. Unlike her apparent hero Joe Lieberman, Tauscher won’t get a “do-over” if she loses.”

Blue in Colorado, “How stupid can this woman be? A campaign manager-political operative needlessly and untruthfully insulting a several million strong group in her own party.”

zot23, ” I don’t even know who Tauscher was 5 mins ago, but now I support a primary challenge against her.  This whiney-ass boo-hoo letter makes me think she’s afraid of a populist net-roots primary challenge for a reason.”

Emetbloom, “I can tell you that there is significant antipathy towards Tauscher in both the El Cerrito and the Lamorinda Democratic Clubs.  I can also tell you that a lot of folks in CoCo County are upset because Tauscher belittles people who have challenged her vote on the war, has actively supported a Republican over active Dems for Community College Board, and in general is scornful towards people who don’t agree with her.  Also, her support of Filson didn’t exactly win her any supporters among Dems in her district.”

deaniac83, “Ellen Tauscher did her darnest to push Jerry McNerney – now the victorious Congressman from California’s 11th CD (defeating Richard Pombo) out in the Democratic primary.  You know why?  Because her longtime donor Steve Filson was running.  Tauscher put her nose in where it didn’t belong (I know this because but I can’t reveal the exact happenings or the source) to try to force Jerry out, and she was not nice about it.  We had to trounce DLC and Tauscher favorite Filson in the primaries 52-25% and then go on to beat Pombo.”

DavidW, “She was dragged kicking and screaming to drop her support for the Iraq War, and to start standng up against Bush. I’m in her district and I attended the district “town hall” meetings when she spoke about the war. Though she wasn’t an active proponent of the war, she didn’t represent her district when she voted for it, and it took her forever before she backed away from her support (via votes) for the war”

hartford for lamont, “by invoking Lieberman, a guy who lost the Connecticut Dem vote, all that Katie Merrill is doing here is showing how ignorant she is about what being a good Democrat is all about.”

machopicasso, “According to Tauscher’s campaign manager, it was a “misguided effort” to challenge an incumbent who was willing to leave the Democratic party in order to retain his Senate seat, campain with Republicans, and draw substantial support from the White House. That’s a totally different ballgame. Quite frankly, I’m surprised Merrill wants to place Tauscher and Lieberman in the same category. The latter already lost his primary; maybe Tauscher isn’t all that committed to the party, herself.”

electricgrendel, “She picked this fight.  It was her insufferable and useless “business friendly” Democratic model that helped greatly in getting the Democratic message diluted to the point of uselessness.  Not only that, but if I am not mistaken it was Ellen Tauscher who went out boasting about how much power she’d gotten because so many of the newly elected Dems were “conservative”. As for the press flak’s whine that we should be doing X, Y and Z so long as none of that involves rooting out conservative/business-friendly Democrats who make it impossible for us to deliver on a populist message, the only thing I have to say is that there are a whole lot of us.  There are a lot of fingers on a whole lot of keyboards and there are a whole lot of small wallets out there ready to open.  Don’t worry about us trying make sure that the freshman get elected and that we secure the White House in 08.”

tmo, “Lots of Dems in the district don’t like her and don’t consider her to be on their side. The general wisdom in the district is that she’s out of touch with her constituents and is not interested in being in touch; she knows what’s best and the voters should really just stay quiet.”

Giodude, “As I recall, she got really upset when the legislature unveiled the new maps. She was upset her moderate voting record would be a liability in her safe democratic seat.”

Neutron, “The chickens are coming home to roost for Lobbyistloving Tauscher.”

brittain33, “And here we have “business-friendly” Ellen Tauscher, representing a district substantially more liberal than her. No wonder she didn’t want this outcome. It reduces her ability to be a power player in the middle, who also happens to be exceptionally valuable to lobbyists. If she plays her moderation as a point of principle and not a way to get money from lobbyists and nicknames from George W. Bush, she’ll do well. If she sells out, by all means, primary her ass.”

RevJoe, “And Tauscher should be very, very afraid. She has been out of touch with her constituents for quite some time. She is definitely out of touch with her party.”

Faber, “This county is home to a large number of technical professionals;  I’m one of them.  Times aren’t as bad as they were in that business, but they’re not what they were in 2000. Ellen Tauscher has been in bed with ITAA since the get-go, and has sold out this constituency every chance she got. It isn’t a matter of ideological litmus tests or “values” issues.  Tauscher has simply done a rotten job of representing the issues of her constituents.  I will be working actively on a primary challenge for 2008.”

Big Tent Democrat, “The Netroots does not demand ideological purity. The Netroots demands the Democrats fight for Democrats, and that ideological disputes be resolved within our Big Tent. Tauscher’s meeting with Bush undercut our Dem leadership. That was Bush’s goal and Tauscher played along, just as Joe Lieberman always did. But it is more fun to believe there is an ideological test in the Netroots. Pure malarkey in the best tradition of Lieberman.”

AustinSF, “Congresswoman Tauscher serves as National Vice-Chair of the Democratic Leadership Council, an organization that is widely regarded as the intellectual center of the Democratic Party. DLC > them’s fightin words around these Dkos parts.”

mackellanpatrick, “I live in Ellen Tauscher’s district, and I agree that a primary challenge would be good for the district, good for the Democrats, good for democracy, and, frankly, good for Ellen Tauscher.  She seems to live in a gilded bubble and has gone unchallenged for too long, which isn’t good for anyone in leadership. The district has truly changed underneath her and become much more liberal.  And her campaign manager is just frankly an ass.  If you’re going to create enemies, at least be smart enough to be on the right side of history and don’t ramble on with “dying entrenched dinosaur overlord” kinds of things when new tools and communities arise with fresh voices.  A real choice for Democrats in the 10 would be a good thing, and maybe this time ALL democrats would rally around and support whoever the actual winner was, and not start their own party if they didn’t like the results.”

michael1104, “I seriously cannot wait to see her go! It is going to be soooo much fun challenging her and making her defend her right-wing corporatist stances against a progressive Democrat who would better represent the district.”

Pthy Cherub, “Nevertheless, she deserves a primary challenger that speaks to the values of the district and not her Liebermanesque view of how the world ought to be.  Maybe just maybe, she failed to notice her neighbor district brough done Pombo with a candidate that beat the establisment candidate in the district.  Some people have to learn lessons by actually getting in trouble rather than showing leadership and evolving when evidence says their political worldview is undergoing a dynamic shift.  She wants to “learn” the hardway – didn’t Joementum start out by poo pooing the netroots too.”

Nemesis22, “If Tauscher wants to avoid a primary from the emboldened left of the party, having her campaign manager whine about the indignity of being challenged by the great unwashed & comparing her favorably to Joe Lieberman isn’t a good start.”

And finally, a letter:

Dear Congresswoman Tauscher:

Today I read your campaign manager disrespecting the netroots Democrats, whining about attacks on pseudo-centrists Lieberman, Harman, and now apparently you.  "D-Alamo?"  Please.

You want to pick a fight with the netroots?  Fine.  It's on.

You've just turned another netroot constituent into a political enemy. 

See you in two years

Way to go Katie!

UPDATE: Counterproductive Katie responds:

On the contrary, my post far from backfired. In fact, the critical responses to my post on CMR and on different blogs prove my point.

No, you proved our point, catapulted a primary, and in the process an 18 year old high school kid proved he has more game than you when it comes to online communications.

upon blogswarm’s recomendation I have x-posted this from Ruck Pad.

Katie Merrill, Tauscher’s former campaign manager has penned an utterly predictable post on CMR about the recent rumblings in the blogosphere about her former employer.  It starts out with the typical smear on blogosphere fueled primaries and then goes on to talk about what a great Democrat Tauscher is, just look at all of these wonderful scorecards…yada yada.  While I am glad she has joined the conversation, here is my response.  This is from the beginning of her post:

Only a month has passed since the Dems took back the House and Senate, and the divisive efforts of the netroots to rid the party of elected officials they don’t agree with has geared up in full force. Instead of doing what most good Democrats should be doing right now, which is working on getting our Freshman members of Congress re-elected in 2008, increasing our majorities in the House and Senate, and electing a Democratic President, the netroots are targeting sitting Democrats for defeat. That’s right. Instead of focusing on beating Republicans, these vocal Democratic activists are focusing on beating Democrats.

Last year, their misguided efforts were primarily concentrated on now re-elected Sen. Joe Lieberman, although they also targeted various “moderate” (bad word for the netroots) members of Congress in their primaries, such as Congresswoman Jane Harman and Congressman Adam Schiff. Their newest target: Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo.

1. The Lieberman primary was about his constant undercutting of his fellow Democrats.  The war played a central role in the battle, but it was just one example of Lieberman’s failings.  The primarying of Joe Lieberman arguably changed the whole narrative on the Iraq war when it came to the 2006 general elections.  No longer were Democrats afraid to stand up and speak out against the “stay the course” strategy.  It was critical to the Democrat’s broad-based victories.
2. While the primary of Harman failed, it brought about a tremendous change in her behavior.  Just check out Todd’s post for more.  If Tauscher is interested in such a change, we would welcome her renewed engagement with her district.
3. The netroots does not decide to issue a primary challenge based on liberal scorecards.  We are a diverse crowd without an explicit litmus test.  Rather, the majority of these primaries were about party unity and the failure to adequately represent their constituents.  For another example when it comes to primaries, though not ones with incumbents, look at the people we supported in contested primary fights: Jim Webb, Jon Tester, Jerry McNerney.  Not exactly, a homogenous bunch.
4. It isn’t about moderate Democrats.  It is about people who put the moderate above Democrat.  It is less about policy (though her co-sponsoring the bankruptcy bill was odious), and more about behavior.  I welcome Tauscher’s talk of uniting behind Pelosi, but I don’t trust her undercutting that unity by meeting with Bush.
5. The district Tauscher was elected in 2000 is not the same one she represents today.  Tauscher does not have to act like a Democrat-lite. 

   January 2000

   Democratic: 41.20%
   Republican: 41.17%
   DTS: 11.96%

   October 2006

   Democratic: 45.01%
   Republican: 32.52%
   DTS: 18.32%

   (as Matt pointed out in the comments on Ruck Pad, the district started trending more blue even before the redistricting)

   Furthermore, this is not a Club for Growth style primary attack.  Tauscher is not vulnerable like Chaffee.  Replacing Tauscher with a different Democrat, even one that ideologically further to the left does not greatly risk losing the seat to the Republicans.

6. There is not a fixed number of political resources.  There is no set limit of political funds and volunteer hours.  Primaries energize the grassroots, bringing more people into the political process.  Have people still not learned the lessons of Dean?
7. The problem with Rubenomics was its attitude towards trade and the impact it had on jobs.  The wave of economic populists, the guys who have this crazy idea about balancing the budget and not encouraging all of our jobs to go to China are on the rise.  Go see Sirota for more and I highly recommend buying his book.  Go take a look at Sherrod Brown’s race for how liberal Congressmen can win with a populist message.
8. The netroots won overwhelmingly in 2006.  After all, it was this crazy guy named Chris Bowers, who had this nutty idea to contest every seat.  We won the Lieberman primary, got Tester and Webb elected.  We even had a comparable success rate to the DCCC, when it comes to the House.  We brought millions of dollars into the races and made hundreds of thousands of phone calls and door knocks.

   We are not a bunch of angry neophites with too much time on our hands.  The issue of Tauscher and a potential primary cannot be just a netroots phenomenon.  If there is a successful challenge to Tauscher it will because her constituents used the Democratic process to elect someone else.  The netroots discussion of Tauscher would be completely academic, if there was not already grassroots discontent within the district.

So, Ms. Merrill, thank you for starting a dialogue.  May I suggest that you get back in touch with your former employer and encourage her to start rebuilding her relationships with her constituents.  Perhaps she would like to directly engage the netroots.  If we lay off the kabuki dancing and focus on beating the Republicans we will be a stronger party and nation.

Katie Merrill, August 26, 2006:

Shhh. Don’t tell anyone. I’m going to let you in on a little secret as part of our getting-to-know-you process in the blogosphere. Ok, here it is. I am a political Luddite… a technology rebel… a wireless outlier. That’s right. You heard me. I am declaring myself, at least for the purposes of this piece, anti-technology. I am not completely anti-technology of course. I am, after all, writing this entry on my computer. For the launch of a new blog, no less. It’s just that I think that the whole notion that the Internet and wireless technology are changing the way we win elections is… well, a bunch of hooey. Incendiary remarks, I know. And bygones up front to my friends and colleagues in the mobile media, net roots, viral marketing, online activism world. But here’s the thing, I just don’t think any of those things actually win campaigns. At least not yet. And not in California.

Katie Merrill, today:

So, to the netroots, I say this: It’s time to get constructive guys. Roll up your sleeves and help our party leadership govern. And lay off the moderate Dems. They actually share your values. We as Democrats have a tremendous amount of work to do in the next 23 months. It’s time for you to focus on beating Republicans, not Democrats.

In just three and a half months, she went from admitting she didn’t have a clue about how much we don’t matter to trying to tell the netroots that we need to get “constructive” and listen to her when it comes to focus?

A grim milestone approaches as California currently stands at 299 deaths in Iraq.

This picture is dated from the summer of 2002, during the run-up to the war, just a few months before Representative Ellen Tauscher voted with George Bush on Iraq. Just days before the vote, Gwen Ifill interviewed Ellen Tauscher during the debate over the resolution. Representative Tauscher defended the resolution and the deal she cut for her support:

And I am happy to say that have we moved this resolution very far away from where he where it was originally, which was almost a blank check and where we effectively gave the president a rubber stamp — where Congress has really inserted itself – and I think that’s in the best interest of the American people.

That’s right, the deal Tauscher cut was for congress to act as a rubber stamp for the Administration. By doing this Tauscher failed during the most important issue of our time:

Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the moderate New Democrat Network, faulted the administration on its representation of intelligence, but refused to blame the White House entirely.

“It’s clear now that they cherry-picked intelligence, amplified some things, played down dissent. [But] we all got it wrong,” she said.

That’s just not true, not all of us did get it wrong. The problem is that Tauscher marginalized and ignored the voices who have since been proven correct.

Today, Atrios recalled the absurdity during the run-up to the war:

What was so frustrating at the time was not simply that a bunch of otherwise intelligent people seemed to have come to the horribly wrong conclusion that invading Iraq was a good idea. What was more frustrating is that there was a collective blindness to the dishonest and destructive way the war was sold, that it seemed not to bother these people that the multiple and shifting dishonest rationalizations for war suggested that there was something deeply wrong with the whole endeavor. It was frustrating that people who supported the war were happy to climb on board not just with the war but with the truly awful people who were the architects of both the war and the propaganda war which, among other things, involved tarring war opponents as brutal-dictator lovers. It was frustrating that they signed up for the whole goddamn enchilada.

Frequently it’s been pointed out that they shouldn’t have trusted these people to “do it right.” But more than that it should have been obvious that they shouldn’t have trusted these people to “do the right thing.” They made clear during that time that they were, in fact, very bad people.

I think that is just one of many examples of people in the reality based community fearing what happens when Ellen Tauscher cuts deals with these people. That is why people were so concerned about her meeting with Bush. Reports of the meeting had Karl Rove taking notes on the overwhelming success of Bush kissing up to her.

In an article covering her war vote in February of 2003, Ellen Tauscher shrugged off the criticism by saying, “I sleep fine at night.”

After the 300th Californian makes the ultimate sacrifice, will she still sleep fine at night?