A waste of resources

Captain Ed blogs today asking for more donations for the Diana Irey campaign. This is through Rightroots which I blogged about some yesterday. Irey is trying to unseat long-time incumbent John Murtha.

What a waste.

I know why conservative bloggers don't like Murtha. TFM doesn't like him either. That said, I don't like my dislike for this politician cloud my political judgment. Murtha is a lock to win in November. The support of Irey by Rightroots is an act of Political fantasy and let me go down the reasons why.

1- Murtha's percentage of the vote in every election going back to 1980. UC means uncontested

04- UC 02- 73%00- 71 98- 68 96- 70 94- 69 92- UC 1990- 62 1988- UC 1986- 67 84- 69 82- 61 80-59

The only time Murtha(first elected in 1974) was held to less than 60% was the heavily Republican year of 1980.(The GOP took over the senate that year) On average Murtha gets 64% of the vote in contested elections.

Could Rightroots bring down Murtha's winning percentage? Of course it could happen. Still a Murtha 59% vote is as much a win for the Democrats as if Murtha got 71 percent like he did in 2000.

2- Another simple fact. Murtha has 10 times the money Irey has.

Entering the final four months of the campaign, Mr. Murtha's campaign committee
had a cash advantage of more than 10-to-1 over the Washington County commissioner. The Democrat entered July with $1,804,695, while Ms. Irey had $159,138, according to a digest of Federal Election Commission filings compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Murtha funds include money leftover from his last campaign.

Mr. Murtha had raised a total of $2,452,426 during that election cycle and spent $1,481,352 by June 30. Ms. Irey, who has tried to build a national fund-raising effort based on opposition to the Democrat's anti-war rhetoric, had raised a total of $305,541 and spent $146,403.

Note I got this info via Ed who I linked above.

The lack of fundraising can also attest to the fact that the politically astute know Murtha can't be beat.

3- Three political forecasters call the Pennsylvania 12th Safe Democratic or Solid Democratic. Go to this link.

Congressional Quarterly's Scorecard: Safe Democratic, Cook Political Report: Solid Democrat, Roll Call Analysis: Safe Democratic,

Which brings us back to #2. The politically wise know Murtha is not beatable in 2006 and therefore aren't giving money to Irey.

4- This is not even in an optimist's eyes a good year for Republicans. With few exceptions the party in power in off year elections loses seats, not gains them.

5- Murtha is against the war, and that is probably because much of his district is. Remember what Tip O'Neil said, all politcs is local.

What happened at Rightroots with their Irey drive is(and I dislike this word) hate for a Congressman's politics that is so strong they can't see political reality. Murtha wins in November barring death and as I said yesterday I'll wager $100 on it. This isn't personal, I like Ed and in most instances we agree. Nor is this about my concern for the Florida 22nd. There just has to be better candidates out there than Diana Irey. Failing to fund the right races for November can be a disaster.

Open Post- Right Wing Nation, Cao's Blog, Third World County,

Note- This post is incomplete. I have a 1 p.m. doctor's appointment. I'll complete it on my return.

Update- This post is now complete. My head was x-rayed and they found a half finished blog post. Otherwise I'm normal.