The VP Comes to Town

So Vice-President "Recovery Summer" Joe Biden is coming to town to raise money for Democrats in our great state.  More interesting, though, is the fact that our bumbling Vice-President is coming to raise money for Denny Heck, Democrat candidate for Congress in the 3rd District (http://bit.ly/9okb2j).  Because I am an American who actually believes in the greatness of this country (and chooses not to drop the F-bomb in public), I am no fan of Biden.  Here's a man who has been wrong on every major foreign policy question of the past 50 years standing within in a heartbeat of the presidency.  His presence in the White House keeps me up at night.  God help us!

I digress.  It's always intriguing to see which surrogates come in to districts to stump for candidates.  Biden's presence here, although distasteful to some, indicates, strongly, that Democrats believe they have a shot at winning in the 3rd District.  While working for the Bush Administration and on the 2004 campaign, I had the chance to sit in meetings wherein we discussed where to send high level surrogates (Bush, Cheney, Giuliani, etc.) I know for a fact that having the VP come into your district and raise money for you is a big deal.  And the decisions on where to send him are made after hours of scouring polls, looking at fundraising numbers, and getting the general political lay of the land.

I'll be interested to see how Republicans respond to Biden's presence.  It will be particularly interesting to see if high level surrogates come in to the 2nd and/or 3rd CDs to help boost GOP candidates in both of those races.  I saw Brian Walsh, Political Director of the NRCC mention the 2nd CD today as a race they feel has become winnable over the past few weeks.  It will be interesting to see if they send in a heavy hitter to get John Koster over the finish line.  The same goes for the 3rd CD. 

You can learn a great deal about how seriously the national parties are taking a race based upon which surrogates gallop in to help.  It's clear - just a handful of days before ballots drop - that the DCCC is going all in for Denny Heck.