How Linda Stender Lost

by: Blue Jersey

Mon Nov 10, 2008 at 11:23:23 AM EST

This has been a four year effort for many of us, starting before Linda even decided to run in 2006.  It is hard for some of us because we know Linda personally and like her very much, and worked so hard and invested so much in getting her to the finish line.

In 2006 we came within 1.5 percent of the vote against a three term Republican named Mike Ferguson.  It was a stunningly unexpected effort that shocked the national party which gave secondary support to the campaign while dumping millions in others where the margin was seven points or more.

In 2008 Linda lost by a little less than nine percent, a stunning defeat in a race where we saw polls putting Stender even or just behind State Senator Leonard Lance in the days before the election.  It was made all the more stunning in that 2008 was a better year for Democrats than 2006, yet the Stender campaign fell far behinds its previous result.

How could that happen?  Lance didn't run a great campaign.  Stender had lots more money.  The DCCC dropped over a million dollars into the district, while the NRCC walked away and focused on NJ3.  Registration for Democrats jumped dramatically.  And then there was that guy running for President who brought Democratic turnout to amazing levels.  The environment couldn't have been better.

But she lost anyway.

Because, as near as we can tell, they forgot all the lessons of 2006 that got them close.  Instead of building on the energy and volunteers from the previous election they brought in an entirely new team from outside the district, ignored the organizations like Democracy for America that supported Stender in 2006, and blew off local expertise in favor of a cookie-cutter campaign.

Stender is a Spender...?

by: RedtoBlue7th

Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 08:51:11 PM EST

It certainly doesn't seem like she did it in the 2008 campaign. And what advantages she had!

Money. Fame. More Ds than Rs in the 7th. An idiot R president with an approval rating just a bit higher than his IQ. The Obama NJ blue wave. But she had three distinct disadvantages: 1-The DCCC ran her campaign. 2- Abby Curran as a campaign manager and 3- She ran against Leonard Lance.

A campaign that was run on New Jersey turf, needs to be run by New Jersey rules. And this campaign was most definitely not. It seemed to be run by the politico-techno hack crew of the DCCC. And they did a poor job.

The 2006 campaign seemed to be run like the Rush Holt campaigns of 1998 and 2000---fun, creative, energetic,---with a seemingly endless crew of Democratic volunteers willing to cut  a vein for Linda Stender. Stender reached out everywhere to every county in the district. She even kicked ass in the very Republican western section of New Jersey in Hunterdon County. Rosie Efthim and the DFA crew gave Linda a substantial higher bump in 2006, from mediocre Brozak campaign of 2004. Nathan Rudy and his DumpMike.com crew did wonders for her, too in Union and Somerset. Back then, Stender reached out to progressives, regular Dems, Republicans and all over the 7th. People looked forward having her come to town.

But the 2008 campaign, seemed lackluster, boring, unresponsive and too out of touch. For example, some DCCC politico-techno hack cut the ad accusing Lance of being part of the Whitman pension bond scheme. Bad judgment to treat Lance like any other Republican. He is not. If you're in New Jersey, you know not to do that. But, if you're a hack D staffer from out of state, you just run it by the DCCC Playbook. And like Paul Mulshine pointed out, that lie did not play well. And when you have a campaign manager that neither returns calls nor seeks out the counsel of central NJ's finest Democratic activists and elected folks, your campaign is gonna miss a big piece of the volunteer pie.

Stender could have beaten Lance. Tough, but winnable. Had she kept to the same campaign strategy from '06, she would have had a better chance. For all the independence Lance shows in the Seabnte in NJ in his largely Republican district, he won't have the same freedom and opportunity in DC as part of the extreme R minority party in Congress. And his first vote will be for a man as Speaker of The House who voted with Bush more than 95% of the time. That's what she should have spent her time telling people. But she didn't. Instead, she spent all her time trying to tag Lance as a spender, a right-wing ideologue, and out of touch with the district.

She will not get a chance to run for Conrgess again. Now, she can spend her time in Trenton. Maybe Stender is a spendthrift.  

Get to know the Stender campaign

by: Juan Melli

Thu May 29, 2008 at 01:32:32 PM EDT

Briefly, what prior campaign or other political experience do you bring to this race?
It was grassroots organizing that first attracted me to campaigns, and I started out knocking on doors and making phone calls for local Democrats in high school. I found the experiences fun and rewarding, and as I grew older I realized I could actually build a career out of doing what I loved!  Before I knew it, I was a field organizer running canvasses and phonebanks of my own. What can I say - I've got the campaign bug, and have spent the past several years working to elect progressive Democratic candidates. Most recently, I was in Iowa working for John Edwards' presidential campaign. In 2006, I managed now-Rep. Baron Hill's campaign, in which he successfully knocked off Republican Rep. Mike Sodrel in one of the most closely watched races in the nation. I also worked on Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine's victorious 2005 election, and I even spent a year in Alaska working on a campaign for US Senate!

What's the least healthy meal you've ever had on the campaign trail?
Wait? We're supposed to eat? I thought coffee would get me through to November?