Dem Senate primary post-mortem on Lamb's loss

[Deminpenn]

https://triblive.com/local/what-went-wrong-with-conor-lambs-u-s-senate-campaign/

Experts this past week cited a number of reasons for Lamb’s landslide loss — from his own missteps, including strategy, spending and underestimating his opponent, to timing and an unlucky matchup.

“It certainly didn’t turn out the way they might have imagined — or a lot of people would have imagined,” said Christopher P. Borick, director of Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. “It was hard to find someone more regarded in electoral politics than Conor Lamb.

“What he didn’t have was the right match for this moment in American politics and, particularly, in Pennsylvania politics.”

Not a bad analysis, but some silly comments from centrists like former congressman Altmire, who referred to us Fetterman voters as a "cult" and only the "left" votes in primaries. And another interviewee who thinks Tom Wolfe, an unabashed progressive, is a "centrist".

No quibble with the basic points that Lamb had little name recognition outside his home district/SW Pa, didn't fundraise well and chased endorsements rather than voters.

[nebby70]

1. your comments are spot on....

... Lamb seems like a nice guy; and exactly what the PADemCommittee would chose ...
... I suppose they wanted a 'safe' candidate after the fiasco of the last time we had a chance to rid PA of Toomey...
... although they did seem to search for a positively unsuitable pick....
... perhaps we should also remember the committee also supported Manchin's assent and that turned rather sour...
... Fetterman will be a joy, and I can barely wait...

[Deminpenn]

4. We have long memories and I will never

forget Katie McGintey being foisted on us and then the awful, horrible, very bad campaign she ran. The saddest part of her campaign was that it hid her accomplishments. Maybe if she'd have highlighted that instead of relentlessly focusing on being "the youngest of 10 children", she'd have won.

[SallyHemmings]

2. I live in Chester County

Lamb came off as lazy and entitled. Fetterman is viewed as someone willing to fight for his constituents.

The dreaded Manchin and Sinema have to be neutralized. Both need to be in the spotlight will prevent them from switching parties.


Time to go to work for Fetterman and Shapiro (Candidate for Governor).

[Deminpenn]

3. Yeah, he sometimes comes off as too preppy

I think that can turn off voters as it obviously did for you and your neighbors.

[nevergiveup]

5. No reason really to criticize Lamb.

He was a good candidate but he wasn't nearly as good as Fetterman. It really is as simple as that. IMHO

[Freddie]

6. This 100%

I would have happily supported Lamb if he’d won, but Fetterman has a far greater chance of winning in November.

[Deminpenn]

7. It's a post-mortem on why his campaign never got off the ground

There were plenty of DU threads on this primary where the same points cited in the story were also made. Those were a realistic assessment of the race.

[romana]

8. Lamb's concession

I was very glad to see Lamb concede and endorse Fetterman as soon as the primary was over. I was a bit worried when he went negative during the campaign.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. My critique is this

and I have posted this elsewhere - what the party has needed is a "populist" candidate because we hand-wring about the media continually promoting the "populists" of the GOP as if only they can run under that mantle (where supposedly the #1 "GOP populist" was considered 45), and yet the apparatus seems to recoil from that potential for liberals.

The past couple weeks, I have been reading some analysis pieces that have finally started to refer to Fetterman as a "progressive-populist". There seems to be a knee-jerk pretzel twisting by some to try to shoe-horn him into more "controversial" buzzword labels like "The Squad" or "Our Revolution", but he isn't that. I.e., he is taking some of their ideas, which are also generally Democratic Party platform planks, and actually presenting them in a completely different way to a different demographic - the very ones we bemoan.

Here in Philly, I have watched with fascination, something that many on DU keep demanding - slowly bringing the party back to the left. And over the past couple years, that morphed into the city actually electing someone from the Working Families Party to an at-large City Council seat (where she in essence, caucuses with Democrats and was the first non-major party council member elected here in modern city history). In fact since the city charter designates that 2 at-large seats be set aside for "minority parties" (which for Philly since the '50s, were Republicans), she actually booted a Republican for an at-large slot with her win. And she joined with another at-large progressive to make sure concerns of average people were heard. They were the types of "community organizers" that President Obama had been and touted.

These elected individuals were not "show-boating" an agenda and policy points or doing photo-ops, but were actually out there day after day, in some cases with a literal megaphone, demanding action for some of the most negatively-impacted people in this city - whether due to a lack of affordable housing, gun violence, or poorly maintained neighborhoods where you have unscrupulous contractors dumping their debris in vacant lots. Add to this the re-election of a D.A. who also comes from that side of the party (having come from a background of being a public defender vs a prosecutor, and who is invested in criminal justice reform), and the shift is actually happening under the surface as it were.

This is the type of thing that Fetterman has promoted.

Several years ago, he embarked on what he dubbed a "listening tour" where he literally visited all 67 counties to get a sense of where people around the state stood on legalizing marijuana. And the past year, as part of his campaigning for the primary, he did the same - again visiting all 67 counties. So he's not just "phoning it in", although doing that was hard work and it obviously took a toll on him.

From what I have heard, there were a good number of Democrats living in some of the reddest of counties in the state who felt forgotten because Democratic politicians have pretty much given up on those locations and would never visit there. Yet when he showed up, these poor souls were excited and energized to finally be appreciated and listened to.

So it behooves that when it comes to top-of-the-ticket state-wide or federal races, that we do realize that every vote counts. Thus we are going to have to do some maximum extraction of votes in the red counties and not keep pointing fingers at and disparaging people in the cities expecting them to "save the day" for the party. It's ALL HANDS ON DECK.

And as a sidenote - I always considered Wolf as being from the tail end of a generation of "liberal lions", as an old-school jeep-owning Peace Corps liberal whose family had deep roots in the state, but who also touted his business acumen in order to achieve a broad appeal to Pennsylvanians across the political spectrum as a "non-politician". His own initial election in 2014 actually broke a 5 decade precedent of incumbent governors who opted to run for a 2nd term and who always got re-elected, when he beat his GOP predecessor Tom Corbett, making him a 1-term governor.

[FakeNoose]

10. I voted for Fetterman, but I like Lamb too - it was a tough decision

I think John Fetterman is the right choice for Senator. AND I believe he'll beat the GOP candidate hands down. Doesn't matter who it turns out to be. Big John Fetterman has a great personality and good instincts, he's very smart, and he has tons of administrative experience. What he lacks in legislative experience at the federal level won't matter... once he gets to Washington he'll be up to speed in a very short time.

As for Conor Lamb, he's still a young man and I hope this loss doesn't cause him to give up on a career in politics. I believe Joe Biden might invite Conor to work in Washington in the Biden administration, if he so chooses. If not there are many opportunities in Pennsylvania for him. He has a bright future ahead of him.

Thanks to both gentlemen for an honorable primary!

[Deminpenn]

11. How Fetterman won

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2022/05/21/john-fetterman-democrat-primary-pennsylvania-voting-rural-republican-gop-senate/stories/202205220045

There are 3 very interesting graphics embedded that show how Fetterman's vote share in the "red" counties increased from 2016 to 2018 to 2022.

[Butterflylady]

12. I don't need a post whatever to tell me why Fetterman won.

Fetterman won because people want a real fighter and they saw this in Fetterman. Politics have changed. It is not the same game anymore. Evidently some democrats have not learned anything from trumps election. Get with the program or get out of the game.

I'm sure Lamb is a great guy but he's not what people are looking for anymore. That's why Fetterman won and that's why he's going to win in November.