[Mahoney] Decision May Haunt Dems

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune exposes Rahm's tactics....

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David Lutrin can hardly hold back the "I told you so."

Three years ago the schoolteacher and passionate anti-war activist from Palm Beach County was all set to run for Congress against then-U.S. Rep. Mark Foley. The 54-year-old husband and father opened up a campaign account, started stumping in the 16th Congressional District and thought he had won the blessing of national Democrats.

But then, almost overnight, Lutrin said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee began pressuring him to get out of the race and told him it was no longer backing him. Instead it was putting resources, including a check from then-DCCC chairman Rahm Emanuel, behind a political newcomer: Tim Mahoney, a multimillionaire venture capitalist and former Republican, who was mostly unknown within state Democratic circles.

*snip*

Lutrin said the scandal reflects as much on the party's process of anointing candidates as it does on Mahoney himself. Lutrin said in the DCCC's haste to embrace a wealthy outsider candidate, it is becoming painfully obvious the party did not fully examine Mahoney.

"It gives me vindication that people in the party weren't doing their jobs and were just following the money," Lutrin said.

Lutrin quit the race six months after Mahoney filed to run, saying the pressure from party leaders was too great. Mahoney won the primary without opposition and went on to defeat Republican Joe Negron to win the seat.

Lutrin is not alone in his criticism.

Sarasota attorney Jan Schneider said the Democratic committee did the same thing to her, breaking its pledge to remain neutral in a primary in 2006, and instead backing retired banker Christine Jennings. Like Mahoney, Jennings is a former Republican who had never been involved in local Democratic politics until she ran for office.

"They're totally about the money," Schneider said in an earlier interview about the DCCC.

*snip*

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MORE:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20081016/ARTICLE/810160371/2055/NEWS?Title=Decision_may_haunt_Democrats

Wall Street Bankers Pac's?

Ohhhh. Now it makes more sense.

And if Lutrin is a decent candidate, I'm guessing that Howard Dean and the party apparatus will find a way to run him to replace Mahoney should the Republican-turned-Democrat turn out to be a bust, and that's what he's looking like. No great loss to the party if Mahoney has to go. And, unlike the Republicans, I think the party leadership for the Democrats is capable of learning from their mistakes.

The opposite of my opinion of Rahm Emanuel.

Of course Mahoney made a bad decision but he was Rahm's boy.

Rahm's plan was, on its face, a noble one. The more Dems the merrier, right? It probably would've worked for one of our canvassees. It obviously didn't work for Mahoney.

...he's a millionaire.

read more about him here:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/search/label/Tim%20Mahoney