Speaking Monday at Google and POLITICO’s Election Preview, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said he wasn’t “Pollyannish” about Democrats’ chances this November, but pushed back against Republicans and their recently released “Pledge to America,” saying they weren’t “offering anything new.”
Questioned by POLITICO chief White House correspondent Mike Allen, Axelrod said that Democrats would surprise on election night. But the next featured speaker, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, predicted the GOP would gain “north of 45 seats” in the House, but stopped short of saying Republicans would take back the Senate.
Addressing the forum, held at the Newseum and streamed live online by Google and POLITICO, Axelrod said the souring economy the Obama administration inherited when it took office was partly to blame for the dire prognosis for Democrats.
“This is going to be an idiosyncratic election,” said Axelrod. “Certainly when you’re the majority party you’re going to bear the brunt of people’s frustration, and there’s a lot of frustration out there, and understandably so. We’re digging out from a tremendous economic catastrophe.”
“What’s different from the past elections — 1994, for example — the Republican Party brand is not strong at all. There’s no real sense of ‘If we just had the Republicans in there, things would be better,’ because I think people understand Republicans aren’t offering anything new,” he added.
Axelrod said that while House Republicans may have been trying to engage the public last week during the release of their pledge, it didn’t matter how much outreach they did because their blueprint was reminiscent of failed Bush-era policies.
“In order for these things to be effective, you have to not just establish a dialogue, but listen. They set up a device to listen — they just didn’t listen.”
Axelrod insisted that he was “eager” for Nov. 2, and predicted Democrats would hold on to both Senate and House seats that analysts and the media had once written off. He pointed specifically to the California and Washington Senate races — where once-safe Democrats are fighting off insurgent Republican challengers — as examples of races where recent polling has shown brightening fortunes for incumbents.
“It’s going to be an interesting night,” said Axelrod. “I understand that we are much more exposed in terms of seats. But I think we are going to win some races that you guys perhaps don’t think we’re going to win, and the numbers are going to be a bit different than you guys predict.”
Axelrod did, however, offer a good word of sorts for the tea party movement, which he acknowledged has harnessed some of the same technological advances that the Obama campaign used in 2008.
“I’m not sure Barack Obama could have been elected president of the United States if not for the fact that we were able to build relationships with people through technology,” said Axelrod. “The tea party has been propelled by some of these grass-roots techniques. People are organizing though the Internet as we organized through the Internet.”
Gillespie, who worked as a counselor to George W. Bush in the final years of his presidency, predictably was more positive about Republican hopes for Nov. 2, saying he is “very bullish” about the GOP’s chances.
“It’s hard to see, with a little over a month to go, how the dynamic can change. The energy is really strong on the Republican side,” said Gillespie, joking that “the most dangerous place on Election Day will be between a Republican and a voting booth.”
Gillespie, chairman of the Republican State Leadership Committee, which focuses on state legislative and down-ballot races, predicted that GOP gains in the House would be “north of 45” net seats — enough to put the chamber under Republican control. But he stopped short of predicting a Republican takeover in the Senate.
“I don’t envision Republicans taking the Senate right now, but I don’t rule it out,” he said.
Gillespie predicted that Republicans will hold all their open seat contests and pick up several Democratic open seats, and are currently poised to pick up a net six to eight seats. Pointing to Senate contests in California, Wisconsin, Connecticut and West Virginia as races possibly moving in their favor, Gillespie said those potential pick-ups might boost the GOP gains to eight to ten seats.
While Axelrod criticized the growing influence of third-party groups in midterm races — pointing specifically to the GOP group American Crossroads GPS, which Gillespie and former Bush adviser Karl Rove helped found — Gillespie said their rise was a direct result of Democrats being in power for the past 20 months.
“It reflects being on the outside,” said Gillespie. “It’s intensity on the party out of power.”
But he defended these groups from having to disclose their donors, saying it protects people and corporations from “fear of retribution.”
“Why would a donor give and not want to be disclosed? If you look at history of donors who have given to certain causes or organizations, they have been the subject of vicious attacks of organized left,” said Gillespie.
Pointing to what he called a benefit for elected officials, he said if they don’t know who contributes to these groups, then they aren’t indebted to them.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42793.html
Addressing the forum, held at the Newseum and streamed live online by Google and POLITICO, Axelrod said the souring economy the Obama administration inherited when it took office was partly to blame for the dire prognosis for Democrats.
“This is going to be an idiosyncratic election,” said Axelrod. “Certainly when you’re the majority party you’re going to bear the brunt of people’s frustration, and there’s a lot of frustration out there, and understandably so. We’re digging out from a tremendous economic catastrophe.”
“What’s different from the past elections — 1994, for example — the Republican Party brand is not strong at all. There’s no real sense of ‘If we just had the Republicans in there, things would be better,’ because I think people understand Republicans aren’t offering anything new,” he added.
Axelrod said that while House Republicans may have been trying to engage the public last week during the release of their pledge, it didn’t matter how much outreach they did because their blueprint was reminiscent of failed Bush-era policies.
“In order for these things to be effective, you have to not just establish a dialogue, but listen. They set up a device to listen — they just didn’t listen.”
Axelrod insisted that he was “eager” for Nov. 2, and predicted Democrats would hold on to both Senate and House seats that analysts and the media had once written off. He pointed specifically to the California and Washington Senate races — where once-safe Democrats are fighting off insurgent Republican challengers — as examples of races where recent polling has shown brightening fortunes for incumbents.
“It’s going to be an interesting night,” said Axelrod. “I understand that we are much more exposed in terms of seats. But I think we are going to win some races that you guys perhaps don’t think we’re going to win, and the numbers are going to be a bit different than you guys predict.”
Axelrod did, however, offer a good word of sorts for the tea party movement, which he acknowledged has harnessed some of the same technological advances that the Obama campaign used in 2008.
“I’m not sure Barack Obama could have been elected president of the United States if not for the fact that we were able to build relationships with people through technology,” said Axelrod. “The tea party has been propelled by some of these grass-roots techniques. People are organizing though the Internet as we organized through the Internet.”
Gillespie, who worked as a counselor to George W. Bush in the final years of his presidency, predictably was more positive about Republican hopes for Nov. 2, saying he is “very bullish” about the GOP’s chances.
“It’s hard to see, with a little over a month to go, how the dynamic can change. The energy is really strong on the Republican side,” said Gillespie, joking that “the most dangerous place on Election Day will be between a Republican and a voting booth.”
Gillespie, chairman of the Republican State Leadership Committee, which focuses on state legislative and down-ballot races, predicted that GOP gains in the House would be “north of 45” net seats — enough to put the chamber under Republican control. But he stopped short of predicting a Republican takeover in the Senate.
“I don’t envision Republicans taking the Senate right now, but I don’t rule it out,” he said.
Gillespie predicted that Republicans will hold all their open seat contests and pick up several Democratic open seats, and are currently poised to pick up a net six to eight seats. Pointing to Senate contests in California, Wisconsin, Connecticut and West Virginia as races possibly moving in their favor, Gillespie said those potential pick-ups might boost the GOP gains to eight to ten seats.
While Axelrod criticized the growing influence of third-party groups in midterm races — pointing specifically to the GOP group American Crossroads GPS, which Gillespie and former Bush adviser Karl Rove helped found — Gillespie said their rise was a direct result of Democrats being in power for the past 20 months.
“It reflects being on the outside,” said Gillespie. “It’s intensity on the party out of power.”
But he defended these groups from having to disclose their donors, saying it protects people and corporations from “fear of retribution.”
“Why would a donor give and not want to be disclosed? If you look at history of donors who have given to certain causes or organizations, they have been the subject of vicious attacks of organized left,” said Gillespie.
Pointing to what he called a benefit for elected officials, he said if they don’t know who contributes to these groups, then they aren’t indebted to them.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42793.html