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Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) casually answered his mobile phone around 7 p.m. last Wednesday — it was “Harry.”
“Slatts is in,” an ebullient Schumer told the Senate majority leader, referring to former Rep. Jim Slattery (D-Kan.). “Isn’t that great?”
In a cycle full of good news for Schumer, the announcement of a challenger to a veteran GOP senator from red Kansas hardly ranks. But getting a former congressman to change his mind and take on Sen. Pat Roberts (R) was another notch on the campaign guru’s sizeable 2008 belt, and it topped off a week in which things might have reached a new peak for Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.
Expectations are beginning to get out of hand for Schumer’s second term as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), almost to the point where anything but a gain of several seats would be seen as a failure.
But pressure is nothing new for the man who oh-so-narrowly delivered the Senate to his party in 2006, and it’s clear Schumer is enjoying the ride and wearing each of his hats with pride.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Hill, the New York senator, DSCC chairman and Democratic Conference vice chairman tamped down talk about a 60-seat filibuster-proof majority, suggested he might stay at the DSCC through 2010 and said he didn’t regret supporting the nomination of Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
While his GOP counterparts face a severe dearth of challengers, Schumer has filled more than half his 23 targets with well-known Democrats who could plausibly ride a wave to something previously thought unattainable this year — 60 seats.
Schumer’s conference has 51 seats and is thirsty for more clout to overcome what it has termed an “obstructionist” minority. But the chairman, whose list of 12 targets didn’t yet include Kansas, said it can do plenty if he’s only able to deliver on a half-dozen.
“Here’s what I think: We get 55, 56, 57, 58, you will pick up enough Republicans on any single issue,” Schumer said, adding: “Yeah, you’d have to make certain compromises, but not give away the store.”
Nothing has served Schumer quite as well in his campaign role as his pragmatism and heavy hand. Though irritating to certain parts of the party, Schumer has consistently picked his horses early, largely based on their electability, and rode them through to the finish line.
In 2006, it was now-Sens. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.). This cycle, it’s candidates like businessman Bruce Lunsford in Kentucky, state Rep. Jeff Merkley in Oregon and state Sen. Kay Hagan in North Carolina, who all face primaries.
Those are just the uphill battles. Schumer has been particularly persuasive in luring celebrity-like candidates in several of his top races and even a prominent challenger to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), a lion of the Senate and formidable political foe. Several of these candidates are neck-and-neck or leading with less than eight months to go until the 2008 election.
Even one candidate Schumer didn’t initially like, comedian Al Franken, has won him over.
The Democratic race to face Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) is now all but clear with the exit of attorney Mike Ciresi — a development Schumer said he was pleased with — and Republicans were quick to go on the offensive this week, distributing a video of Franken faking an Asian accent.
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