if you could travel back in time to this point two years ago

[freepcrusher]

what do you tell the senate democrats? I would tell Landrieu and Pryor to retire and either tell Harkin to stay put or to convince Tom Miller to run.

[Mr. Smith]

Tell Baucus, Rockefeller and Harkin to stay on until 2020 or 2016, and encourage Ashley Judd to stay on rather than back down. The rest really couldn't have been guessed.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Tell them to run the candidates that actually won in 2014 and not run the candidates that lost.  Simple as that.

[Talleyrand]

Tell them to run the candidates that actually won in 2014 and not run the candidates that lost.  Simple as that.

...Because telling Udall, Hagan, and Begich not to run again would have been good advice?

[justfollowingtheelections]

Tell them to run the candidates that actually won in 2014 and not run the candidates that lost.  Simple as that.

...Because telling Udall, Hagan, and Begich not to run again would have been good advice?

Obviously.  Another candidate might have also lost, but they might have won too.  Also without an incumbent in those 3 races they could have spent the money on another campaign.  What is the point of running a candidate that you know will lose?

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Schweizer, Udall, and Begich and Landrieu would have won had they been on record on the Keystone pipeline vote.  And perhaps get a compromise boarder security bill first and amnesty later, immigration reform package out of House. If certain conditions were achieved then amnesty provisions can go into effect. Get the torture report out as soon as possible.

Barring that, the same events would have occurred.

[Maxwell]

Tell them to run the candidates that actually won in 2014 and not run the candidates that lost.  Simple as that.

...Because telling Udall, Hagan, and Begich not to run again would have been good advice?

Obviously.  Another candidate might have also lost, but they might have won too.  Also without an incumbent in those 3 races they could have spent the money on another campaign.  What is the point of running a candidate that you know will lose?

Begich ran a phenomenal campaign. If either Joe Miller or Mead Treadwell had won the primary, we'd likely be seeing a second term of him. There is literally no other Alaska Democrat that could've won it.

Udall could've been a surprise retirement that could've saved the Democrats. Even that hopeless buffoon Hickenlooper beat his challenger by a larger than expected margin.

I can't see a Democrat winning in North Carolina if Hagan didn't.

[Ljube]

Use that same time machine to travel back to 2009 and tell the whole bunch (not just Landrieu and Pryor) not to vote for Obamacare.

[Indy Texas]

Send Mark Begich to a crash course at the Claire McCaskill School of Meddling in the Other Party's Primary to Ensure You Run Against the Whackiest Republican Possible.

[Maxwell]

Do a god damn background check on your appointments (See: John Walsh).

[moderatevoter]

Send Mark Begich to a crash course at the Claire McCaskill School of Meddling in the Other Party's Primary to Ensure You Run Against the Whackiest Republican Possible.

I believe they did run some ads to influence the Republican primary. By now, enough Alaskan Republicans hate Joe Miller too.

[morgieb]

I'd try to go back six years in time, and force Reid to abolish the filibuster. Then we'd have real reform and may well have been better placed in Congress anyway.

[Nichlemn]

I would tell them major news stories from the past two years so they could make predictions that make them seem like geniuses (without being too spookily coincidental). (Well, stuff like that would be good to tell them even if you didn't particularly want them to win, just so they could act fast to solve problems).

[Mr. Smith]

Oh and Tim Johnson, tell him to stay on as well in South Dakota. Most of these states went as they did because the incumbents retired.

[Xing]

1) Tell ALL Democrats to actually defend their votes rather than running away from them. (Running away from Obama made it too easy for Republicans to attack Democrats.)

2) Tell Udall to run as more than just a pro-choice candidate.

3) Tell Braley NOT to mention Chuck Grassley. EVER.

4) Also, background checks are a must.

Pryor and Landrieu were probably done for no matter what, but Dems could've saved AK, CO, IA, and NC.

[Nichlemn]

Oh and Tim Johnson, tell him to stay on as well in South Dakota. Most of these states went as they did because the incumbents retired.

It was well-known 2 years ago that those retirements would hurt the Dems. But the bolded isn't really true at all. A majority of the Republican gains were defeated incumbents, and there's a strong chance that a number of the open seats would have gone Republican anyway if their incumbents had not retired. Rockefeller would almost certainly have been toast, while Baucus and Johnson would probably have been competitive but lost in the wave. Only Harkin would be more likely than not to hold on, but it wouldn't be that surprising if he had lost too.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I would tell Obama to actually use his executive power, and Democrats to stop running away from his record.

[IceSpear]

Oh and Tim Johnson, tell him to stay on as well in South Dakota. Most of these states went as they did because the incumbents retired.

Johnson, Rockefeller, and Baucus would've met the same fate as Pryor/Landrieu. The only Dem incumbent who could've held their seat was Harkin, and he probably would've been like Warner, an expected huge favorite but only narrowly winning in the end.

[freepcrusher]

Oh and Tim Johnson, tell him to stay on as well in South Dakota. Most of these states went as they did because the incumbents retired.

Johnson, Rockefeller, and Baucus would've met the same fate as Pryor/Landrieu. The only Dem incumbent who could've held their seat was Harkin, and he probably would've been like Warner, an expected huge favorite but only narrowly winning in the end.

its hard to know about Harkin. He never won by the margins Grassley did, but he unseated an incumbent by a margin larger than Grassley did and had top flight opponents in his first three reelection bids. Ernst is a worse candidate than either Ganske, Tauke or Lightfoot but its possible Harkin would be caught napping.

[tmthforu94]

- Recruit a better candidate in Iowa
- Different strategy for Udall's campaign - focus heavier on defining Gardner earlier as too conservative. Don't focus so heavily on Personhood
- Encourage Pryor to retire and cede that seat. Also, don't spend as much in Kentucky, Georgia, and Louisiana. Focus more heavily on North Carolina

In whole, resign yourselves to the fact you are going to lose the Senate majority, but keep your number at 48-49 instead of 46.

[Negusa Nagast 🚀]

Run SHS in South Dakota.

[IceSpear]

In whole, resign yourselves to the fact you are going to lose the Senate majority, but keep your number at 48-49 instead of 46.

In retrospect of course, this strategy is definitely the best.

- Concede KY/GA/KS/SD/WV/MT/AR/LA
- Get Harkin to run again
- Tell Udall to campaign on more than just abortion, define Gardner as extremist from ALL angles
- Get Begich to meddle in the GOP primary in favor of Miller/Treadwell, against Sullivan
- I'm not sure what more could've been done for Hagan. I guess just pump her with even more funds that you're saving from cutting loose all those other states.
- Spend all your money on trying to hold IA/CO/AK/NC/NH. In a perfect storm, Dems hold the Senate 50-50. More likely is that they lose one or two while holding the others, making Dems the clear favorites to regain their majority in 2016.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Why bother? I've been telling Democrats to not suck for a while, but it's not like they picked up on it.

[Mr. Reactionary]

I'd laugh.

[Maxwell]

The problem with defining Gardner as an extremist is he is a former Democrat - he knows how to talk the talk. The better angle would be to portray Gardner as a phony, someone who would say anything to get into office.