I didn't know McInnis was running in 2010 for anything? I had hoped he would run for the Senate.
Ditto.
It's a shame really, because now we have no strong well known Republicans to challenge Bennet, who should be very weak.
We thought we had the state won in 04 as Bush was outpolling Kerry consistently and then we lost it on Election Day.
You can't point back to the 80s or 90s. The party is different now and the circumstances have changed. We don't appeal anymore to moderate voters (me) and you need some of those to win the purple/bluish states.
Actually we weren't consistently leading, basically at the end both WI and IA were tied one went to Bush the other to Kerry. There was also a significant grassroots organization among the urban poor that helped Kerry in the state. We are not shut out of WI, MI or PA. Its harder now yes, but moderates/independents will still vote Republican in local races. Remember 2006 was a wave election year so the Governors races that year especially in the last month swung hard to Dems as the GOP collapsed with the Foley scandle destroying there August/September recovery. Plus this is a midterm for a Dem administration meaning that you might not see a populist wave against the GOP due there incumbency that now no longer exists.
Yes. The GOP must refine and tweak it's message to appeal to suburbanites. If they can do that, these states are very winnable.
