Van Hollen mentioned two examples in New York where the GOP has missed out on top candidates thanks to his efforts — retiring Rep. James Walsh’s (R) and freshman Rep. John Hall’s (D) seats.
In Walsh’s district, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick declined to run shortly after an expansive story questioning his campaign committee spending appeared in the Syracuse Post-Standard.
Van Hollen all but claimed credit for a New York Times story about businessman and Hall opponent Andrew Saul accepting campaign donations from real estate developers with business before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, on which he served as vice chairman. Saul dropped out almost instantly.
“Well, we certainly did some research into that, and others I think looked into it as well,” Van Hollen said of the Saul contributions. “And then you’ve got the situation [in Walsh’s district] where they’ve run through a string of candidates, including the district attorney. We made it clear we were going to make his record — which is certainly fair game — we were going to make his record a big part of the debate and the campaign.”
The GOP is still without top candidates in those two New York districts and retiring Rep. Rick Renzi’s (R-Ariz.) Republican-leaning district eight months after he retired. They are all attractive seats that were held by Republicans just 18 months ago. Now, along with several others in similar situations, they risk being lost causes.
Van Hollen said the committee’s research operation, which used to be contracted out, is now run in-house, improving turnaround time on his information campaign.
“That has made a huge difference for us,” he said. “We’re able to respond very quickly and also able to provide people with information very quickly when you’ve got someone challenging an incumbent or in one of our challenger races.”
He has also brought his field operation in-house, separating it from the Democratic National Committee because many of his targets lie in seats that aren’t in presidential battleground states.
One such seat is in Mississippi, where Democrat Travis Childers came within a percentage point of winning outright in Tuesday’s special election. Instead, he will go to a runoff with Republican Greg Davis in a district that voted 62 percent for President Bush just four years ago.
Van Hollen remains cautious in his optimism, despite the fact that it would already be his second takeover of the cycle. He talks in terms of the number of strong challengers he has recruited — which has fluctuated around 50 in recent weeks — rather than a net gain of seats.
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