Kennedy's House Strategy, and View of Senate (posted Sept. 29, 2000)
According to Roll Call newspaper, Congressman Patrick Kennedy is targeting $50 million on 29 key House districts. Speaking this week to Democratic House members, Kennedy announced that the bulk of the $50 million would be devoted to television advertising, but that spending also would include direct mail, radio spots, phone banks, and get-out-the-vote efforts. In a typical district targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Kennedy broke down the planned DCCC expenditure on behalf of the local candidate as $600,000 on television, $150,000 on GOTV, $150,000 on direct mail, $100,000 on radio spots, and $50,000 on phone banks.
This far this year, the DCCC has run advertisements in 30 congressional districts. Of these, about half (14 districts) have a Republican incumbent. Kennedy himself has contributed $200,000 to the DCCC fundraising and is predicting that Democrats are "poised" to take back the House in November.
Kennedy also made news in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this week with provocative comments about the United States Senate. Asked by a reporter why he had chosen to stay in the House rather than run for the Senate in 2000, he said "It's an old white men's club, and that's not where I am most comfortable. I like the diversity of the House. I like the hurly-burly. I like the give-and-take."
