GOP Getting Smarter

Let’s spend a day not talking about Donald Trump or Joe Biden. You’re welcome.

Instead, let’s talk about generic political strategy, regardless of the candidates.

Republicans have performed worse than expected in recent cycles and the reason generally offered is that since Roe was overturned voters are taking them to the woodshed over abortion.

I think that’s largely true, but it’s also a fact that Republicans have not helped their own cause on the nuts and bolts of turning out voters. For one thing, adhering to an old and outdated view that higher turnout benefits Democrats, they’ve tried everything they can think of to suppress the vote. The result has been that Democratic voters use all the early voting tools that survive Republican attacks while Republicans, heeding the rhetoric of their leaders, mostly wait for election day. And if election day comes and they’re busy or otherwise unmotivated they don’t show up.

Here in Wisconsin, the other strategic mistake the GOP has made is to largely cede the blue strongholds of Dane and Milwaukee counties to the Democrats. Their media buys there are relatively small and their organizing has been meager.

Now, both things are changing. The party’s new, young and energetic party chair, Brandon Maly, is pulling his party into the present. Republicans now embrace early voting and Maly is moving resources into Madison and Milwaukee.

According to a story in the Wisconsin State Journal, Maly believes a statewide candidate, like Senate hopeful Eric Hovde, can win if he gets only one out of four votes in Dane County. So, Madison area residents can expect to see more ads and maybe, at least in rural parts of Dane County, even a canvasser at their door.

It’s a tactic Hovde’s opponent, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, has been using with obvious success. She’s been going to rural parts of the state, both as a candidate and as their Senator, working to narrow the margin of victory there for her Republican opponents.

Baldwin’s effort works for her reelection, but it’s also a good thing for democracy. It’s good for people in deeply red parts of the state to at least see and hear a liberal Democrat. Baldwin is pleasant and relatable. She’s hard to hate once you hear her speak and see her in the flesh. Even if she doesn’t win every vote, she increases understanding and erodes the walls between us.

The same could go for Maly’s efforts in Dane County. He realizes that a hard-edged Trumpian pitch is not likely to convince anyone here, even most Republicans. And he wants to see his party tamp down the anti-Madison rhetoric. In fact, here’s how he wants to pitch voters:

“Dane County is a great place to live with abundant natural beauty, and resources. It is an incredible blend of urban, suburban, and rural in such a compact area,” he said. “Unfortunately, for all too long we have been bogged down by far-left policies that unnecessarily make Dane County a more difficult place to live for our working-class families.”

Because I don’t want Trump to return to the presidency, I wish him only limited success in the actual vote count. But simply making a case for a more conservative point of view in Dane County — like Baldwin’s carrying the liberal flag to red parts of the state — will be a healthy thing for democracy. Echo chambers are good for nobody.

And on a related matter… Yesterday we argued that Kamala Harris is not the best choice among possible Democratic candidates. It’s academic now as the party has rallied behind her, but eight New York Times political columnists picked her as the least electable of 10 alternatives. To quote one of our favorite writers, Pamela Paul: “Even Biden fans see Harris as one of the weakest elements of his administration. A country desperate for change would bristle at the feeling that once again, real democratic choice is being sidelined in favor of the most deserving insider. And Harris is a fundamentally weak candidate. She fizzled out early in her first presidential run and floundered in the vice presidency.” Here’s a compilation of how the eight writers rated the candidates: