Critical Errors

By Kleinheider Posted on August 11, 2008 at 1:18 pm

A man immersed in First District Congressional politics explains what went wrong for Rep. David Davis:

David Davis made two critical errors in this campaign. First, he overestimated his own incumbents’ advantage. Someone who was not supported in his first election by 78% of the voters in his district does not have any advantage in modern times-period. Secondly, Davis assumed that because some of us endorsed him this time, that we were now his unwavering faithful supporters. The truth is that most of us voted for him because our guy wasn’t running and we thought Davis was the best choice in his place for now. Many more people had a favorite who wasn’t running, except in their minds Dr. Roe represented their man because he wasn’t David Davis.

Dr. Roe’s people campaigned. They marched in parades, they showed up at the Farm Relief concert in White Pine, they handed out fliers and stickers and buttons. David Davis supporters were not to be found at any major events in nearly as large numbers as Roe people, and at many events, they simply had no presence at all. David Davis’ campaign consisted of “look at me, I’m Mr. Incumbent Congressman,” while the Roe campaign ran on a platform of “I’m not David Davis, I’m actually here.”

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Tags: David Davis, Phil Roe  

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