I can’t imagine how dreary a place Fisher for Senate HQ must be these days.
We’ve been talking about it for months, but the MSM has finally caught on to Fisher’s rapidly decreasing odds of beating Rob Portman.
Here’s the latest from NBC’s First Read:
And we can tell you that there is already a real debate in Democratic circles whether Fisher’s campaign is a lost cause, despite the fact that polls showed him actually leading Rob Portman (R) just a couple of months ago. Check out this tough piece from the Dayton Daily News: “[A]s Fisher campaigns across the state he is battling not just Portman but the perception that the campaign is getting away from him with the Sept. 28 start of early voting little more than a month away.” We recently wrote that Missouri could be slipping away from Democrats. But the DSCC tried to squash that talk with the announcement of a serious ad buy for the fall. But we haven’t seen that yet for Fisher in Ohio. Our guess is that Democrats wish Carnahan’s campaign were running with Ohio’s electorate, but that’s not the case.
3BP made the same point about lack of DSCC funding a few days ago.
Once again, what must be discussed is just how much of a liability Lee Fisher has become to Ohio Democratic hopes.
Remember, it’s hard to get much more high profile a race than a Senate campaign. They are supposed to be drivers that effect the entire state. For every commercial Fisher can’t afford to fund, that is one fewer commercial that is communicating the Democratic message and inspiring their base. For every volunteer who feels uninspired to go to a phone bank, there are fewer Democratic voters not being reminded to vote on November 2nd.
Or, as I said when I first wrote about this situation in early July…
…the question is less whether Lee can beat Rob Portman, but more about how much of a drag Lee Fisher will be on the entire Democratic Party ticket in Ohio.
After all, high profile statewide races are primary drivers for get out the vote efforts that have a trickle down effect throughout other races.
If Fisher’s campaign still continues to fail to inspire volunteers to make GOTV phone calls and doesn’t have the money to help shape the message on Ohio’s airwaves, then there is little doubt the Lieutenant Governor has become a severe liability.
The most frustrating part of Fisher becoming a liability for the ODP is that there is no way to fix it. You can’t cut him loose. There is no magic formula to compensate for what he has lost.
Pretty depressing.