Base Problems

There's an interesting article in the National Journal by Josh Kraushaar discussing how a problem that bedeviled the GOP is now affecting the Democrats.  The problem is primary challenges by strident candidates favored by the party base over more moderate and electable opponents.  The GOP has lost a number of seats over the last decade because the primary chose a far out candidate.  Remember the "witch" who lost the senate race in Delaware, or the weak candidate who lost the senate seat in Nevada?  They may have been Tea Party favorites, but they were just too much for the state's entire electorate.  Now, the same thing is happening to the Democrats.  Kraushaar uses the example of one competitive Texas congressional race in which a very progressive candidate is ahead in the Dem primary.  Her problem is that she is on video saying that she would rather have her teeth pulled without novacaine than move to rural Texas.  Since the district has a rural section, this is likely enough to sink her in the general election, but she may still win the primary in a split field.  The same sort of thing is happening in California where very liberal candidates are being challenged by extremely liberal candidates in large numbers.  Under California's jungle primary laws, there are not separate party elections; all candidates run in one primary and the top two go into a run off on election day.  Because of the surplus of Democrat challengers, there may be some districts where the top two finishers are both from the GOP, thereby guaranteeing the seat to the Republicans.

We're not that far away from primary season.  The Texas primary is in a week and a half, for example.  It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.