Sign O’ the Times: Boucher’s unspent war chest

The following is a post by guest blogger Alan Moore

"Every pundit, politico, journalist, strategist, consultant, and anyone who could spell v-o-t-e saw the Republican tsunami of 2010 coming many months before November. Even the highly partisan (to put it lightly) MSNBC struck a conciliatory tone in their coverage leading up to the midterm elections. Despite this, there were a number of Democrats who still held out hope for a miracle while others were downright delusional. Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden were some of the more vocal cheerleaders for Democrats keeping the House. Any consultant from any political persuasion would admit most of this was spin, after all what politician (besides Jimmy Carter) admits defeat before the voting is done?

While I would normally tend to agree, 2010 was a very special year. As evidence of how disconnected the Democrats were from their political realities you need not look any further than the unspent war chest of the recently defeated and longtime incumbent Rick Boucher (VA-9th).

And how much moolah does Mr. Boucher still have on hand?

$699,232!: That’s almost a third of the contributions he brought in this year!

Most presidential campaigns don’t keep that much lying around for close-up costs. A lot of small countries don’t have a GDP that high. Most people (myself included, which is probably another reason why this bothers me so much) won’t ever see that kind of money in their lifetime.

From what I hear from the 9th district apparently Boucher didn’t have a clue that he was in trouble until about a week before Election Day. Even though he was facing his most formidable challenge in years in Representative-Elect Morgan Griffith. Even though polls consistently showed Griffith ahead or within striking distance. Even though there was great animosity in the 9th regarding the cap-and-trade bill championed by Boucher. Even though the television market in the 9^th was being bombarded by Joe Manchin, running for Senate in West Virginia, who railed against cap-and-trade. Even though you didn’t need a seer to predict the aforementioned Republican tsunami – Boucher thought this would be a cake walk.

So a week out Boucher finally sees the writing on the wall and begins to campaign for the first time in years. He tries to buy up every sliver of air time he possibly can but can’t because Griffith and the George Soros-backed Perriello campaigns have already bought everything up. Griffith defeated him 51% to 46%.

Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you. Does anyone think someone that out of touch with reality deserves to be an elected official? If you don’t even have the wherewithal to know the mood of the country or even the district you live in, you don’t deserve to represent them. This laissez-faire strategy of campaigning was indicative of many now former elected representatives approached 2010.

So what should Boucher do with his horde of campaign cash? Maybe he can buy another car as a retirement present."