Although they lost by a wide margin last November, you have to give officials with the National Republican Congressional Committee credit for having the gumption to pick themselves up off the canvass and get back in the fight.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) announced recently that they will target 43 "vulnerable" House Democrats by using infamous automated or robocalls to voters in those districts, including two members of Congress representing California districts.
According to The Hill newspaper, voters in Congressman Jerry McNerney's CA-11 (Pleasanton) district and Congresswoman's Loretta Sanchez CA-47 in Garden Grove district will begin receiving the calls this week.
The only problem is that unless the calls are individually introduced by a live person -- and the vast majority of the time they are not -- robocalls in California are illegal.
The NRCC campaign will include TV ads, radio spots and robocalls in the members' districts. The campaign will focus on the Democrats for spending taxpayer dollars "at the rate of a billion dollars an hour," according to an NRCC press release. It will also portray the members of Congress as "rubber stamps" for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco.)
To be sure, it's easy to understand how McNerney and Sanchez were picked out by the Republicans -- voter registration in their respective district is about dead even. That said, both Democrats were both easily reelected to office last fall.
Here's the NRCC's complete list of House Democratic targeted for robocalls:
John Adler (NJ-03)
Jason Altmire (PA-04)
Michael Arcuri (NY-24)
Tim Bishop (NY-01)
John Boccieri (OH-16)
Leonard Boswell (IA-03)
Allen Boyd (FL-02)
Chris Carney (PA-10)
Gerry Connolly (VA-11)
Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03)
Peter DeFazio (OR-04)
Steve Driehaus (OH-01)
Chet Edwards (TX-17)
Brad Ellsworth (IN-08)
Gabby Giffords (AZ-08)
Alan Grayson (FL-08)
John Hall (NY-19)
Debbie Halvorson (IL-11)
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD-AL)
Baron Hill (IN-09)
Jim Himes (CT-04)
Steve Kagen (WI-08)
Paul Kanjorski (PA-11)
Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15)
Larry Kissell (NC-08)
Ron Klein (FL-22)
Dan Maffei (NY-25)
Eric Massa (NY-29)
Jerry McNerney (CA-11)
Charlie Melancon (LA-03)
Dennis Moore (KS-03)
Gary Peters (MI-09)
Loretta Sanchez (CA-47)
Mark Schauer (MI-07)
Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Joe Sestak (PA-07)
Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01)
Heath Shuler (NC-11)
Vic Snyder (AR-02)
Zack Space (OH-18)
John Spratt (SC-05)
Bart Stupak (MI-01)
Dina Titus (NV-03)
Jeff Mitchell is a longtime California journalist and political observer. His blog can be viewed at www.bapolitix.org