Biggest Recruitment Failure of the Cycle

[BuckeyeNut]

IMO: Democrats failure to recruit frmr Gov. Mike Beebe in a run against Sen. Boozman in Arkansas.

[MT Treasurer]

For Democrats: Heath Shuler in NC.
For Republicans: Brian Sandoval in NV.

[smoltchanov]

IMO: Democrats failure to recruit frmr Gov. Mike Beebe in a run against Sen. Boozman in Arkansas.

Beebe clearly said in 2014 that he is finished with his (very successful) political career. After all - he is 70 this year and has a right for normal life..

[Heisenberg]

For Republicans:
CO:  Mike Coffman would make the CO Senate race Pure Tossup

For Democrats:
IA: Chet Culver or Tom Vislack would give Grassley a much stronger fight.

[This account no longer in use.]

Republicans: Colorado
Democrats: Georgia

Both could become toss-up with the right candidate, or at least not Safe D/R, but they didn't find anyone.

[PAK Man]

For Democrats:
IA: Chet Culver or Tom Vislack would give Grassley a much stronger fight.

I'm not so sure about Culver. For reasons I'm not entirely sure of, many Iowa Dems still have a really bitter taste from him in their mouths. I have one Democratic friend who absolutely abhors the guy, and I'm not entirely sure why.

Plus, keep in mind, that race really wasn't on Democrats' radar until about a month before the filing deadline.

For Democrats, I think the biggest recruitment failure was getting anybody notable to run for senate in Georgia. It's pretty clear national Dems want to target Georgia, and most agree that of all the states in the South, it will probably be one of the first states that swings back to the Democrats. All they got was a wealthy businessman who filed at the very last minute. North Carolina is a pretty close second, but I'm betting a lot of potential candidates were scared off by how much money was spent on that race by both parties in 2014, so I'm not entirely shocked nobody notable came out of North Carolina.

For Republicans, easily Colorado. They proved last cycle that they can make a race competitive that wasn't supposed to be (before Gardner jumped in, Udall looked like a shoo-in for reelection). This year, Bennet started off as extremely vulnerable, but now he looks like a good bet for reelection. The best the GOP could do was a ton of people who have zero name recognition. I still remember last cycle once Gardner jumped in pretty much every other challenger deferred to him, but this year the field kept growing and growing and nobody withdrew.

[Zioneer]

Well, not the biggest, but the Utah Democrats failing to get Jim Matheson to run for Governor or Senate was a pretty big fail. He would've been the only one to really make either of those two races competitive.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Colorado for the Republicans was really bad.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The biggest GOP recruitment failure was FL when Marco retired to run for prez. It was assumed that GOP was gonna lock down FL. But FL is Tilting Dem and is a state that will count towards 50 seats.


Shapiro would have been a better candidate in Pa, but with Trump McGinty will win

[Kingpoleon]

IN: Susan Brooks
NC: Heath Shuler

[Heisenberg]

For Democrats:
IA: Chet Culver or Tom Vislack would give Grassley a much stronger fight.

I'm not so sure about Culver. For reasons I'm not entirely sure of, many Iowa Dems still have a really bitter taste from him in their mouths. I have one Democratic friend who absolutely abhors the guy, and I'm not entirely sure why.

Plus, keep in mind, that race really wasn't on Democrats' radar until about a month before the filing deadline.

For Democrats, I think the biggest recruitment failure was getting anybody notable to run for senate in Georgia. It's pretty clear national Dems want to target Georgia, and most agree that of all the states in the South, it will probably be one of the first states that swings back to the Democrats. All they got was a wealthy businessman who filed at the very last minute. North Carolina is a pretty close second, but I'm betting a lot of potential candidates were scared off by how much money was spent on that race by both parties in 2014, so I'm not entirely shocked nobody notable came out of North Carolina.

For Republicans, easily Colorado. They proved last cycle that they can make a race competitive that wasn't supposed to be (before Gardner jumped in, Udall looked like a shoo-in for reelection). This year, Bennet started off as extremely vulnerable, but now he looks like a good bet for reelection. The best the GOP could do was a ton of people who have zero name recognition. I still remember last cycle once Gardner jumped in pretty much every other challenger deferred to him, but this year the field kept growing and growing and nobody withdrew.

Sorry, I don't live in Iowa, so I assumed as a former governor he'd be stronger than the Democratic candidate this year, plus I've seen here and there speculation of him making a comeback.  I didn't know much about him, so I didn think he'd be that unpopular.  And yes, in Colorado, all of the candidates are weak.  Keyser is the least weak, but he's still not that strong.

[Stranger in a strange land]

The biggest GOP recruitment failure was FL when Marco retired to run for prez. It was assumed that GOP was gonna lock down FL. But FL is Tilting Dem and is a state that will count towards 50 seats.

I'm not so sure about that. Rubio was badly damaged by his disastrous, embarrassing presidential run.

IMO: Democrats failure to recruit frmr Gov. Mike Beebe in a run against Sen. Boozman in Arkansas.

Beebe still would have lost, especially with Trump at the top of the ticket.

[Orser67]

Republicans might have a major failure in Colorado. Democrats probably could have gotten stronger candidates in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. I don't think Georgia will matter due to the run-off and a reasonably popular incumbent, but it would have been nice to get a stronger candidate. The Florida Republicans also seem pretty mediocre.

[publicunofficial]

R: Colorado by a huge margin.
D: North Carolina. Although I'd guess that Heath Shuler & Mike McIntyre are done with politics. Still, some one who's won statewide would be better.

[136or142]

I think the only major Democratic recruitment failure this cycle has been Kansas so far and Pennsylvania.

There is no indication that Johnny Isakson in Georgia is vulnerable, no matter who the Democrats had put up against him and Patty Judge is a top tier candidate in Iowa.  In North Carolina, Kay Hagan might have been ideal to run again but Deborah Ross seems to be running a very strong race so far.  

Successful recruits aren't just established names like a Kay Hagan or the other former members of the U.S House mentioned but also those who have shown the ability to be strong campaigners.

If the Democrats were so intent on not letting Joe Sestak be their nominee in Pennsylvania, it would have helped if they could have found a stronger candidate than Katie McGuinty. She beat Sestak reasonably handily in the primary but largely because the national and state Democratic Party spent an unprecedented amount of money in a primary to boost her candidacy.

In Kansas, Jerry Moran has negative net approval ratings is saddled with an extremely unpopular governor who has shown where the bankrupt Republican ideology leads and yet Democrats must have a 'fighting the last war' attitude to conclude that no Republican U.S Senator from Kansas can ever be beaten. 

The filing deadline in Kansas isn't until June 1, but it's already very late for a top tier candidate to be able to put together a top tier campaign.

[tmthforu94]

IN: Susan Brooks
NC: Heath Shuler

I can buy Shuler, but Brooks wouldn't be any stronger of a candidate than Young is. Safe Republican, regardless, only a missed opportunity to get another female Republican in the Senate.

[MT Treasurer]

I can't believe I'm the only who thinks Sandoval was the biggest recruitment failure.

[Heisenberg]

IN: Susan Brooks
NC: Heath Shuler

I can buy Shuler, but Brooks wouldn't be any stronger of a candidate than Young is. Safe Republican, regardless, only a missed opportunity to get another female Republican in the Senate.

I agree with what you said about Indiana.  I do agree that female Republicans are underrepresented in the Senate.  2014 gave us two new ones, this year there will likely be one less, but maybe 2018 will bring in some more.

[Skye]

I can't believe I'm the only who thinks Sandoval was the biggest recruitment failure.

Maybe because Heck isn't so bad as a candidate.

[publicunofficial]

I can't believe I'm the only who thinks Sandoval was the biggest recruitment failure.

There's a difference between recruitment failure and not getting the perfect dream candidate. Joe Heck is a strong candidate, and calling his recruitment a failure because he's not Sandoval is dumb.

[Ebsy]

Colorado for the Republicans and North Carolina for the Democrats are the most obvious, though Ross is not an awful candidate for wave insurance.

[windjammer]

For the democrats:
Why are everyone saying NC? They didnt get who they wanted but they didnt have really any good choices.
The most obvious for me is Indiana. It would be a toss up with Evan Bayh.

For republicans, definitely colorado lol lol

[Ebsy]

I think the issue with Bayh is he doesn't seem to want to run for anything ever again and is content to sit around with his warchest gathering dust. He bailed in 2010 because he didn't want to run a nasty campaign for reelection, and any Democrat is going to face a nasty campaign in Indiana these days.