Although they lost by a wide marginlast November, you have to give officials with the National RepublicanCongressional Committee credit for having the gumption to pickthemselves up off the canvass and get back in the fight.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC)announced recently that they will target 43 "vulnerable" HouseDemocrats by using infamous automated or robocalls to voters in thosedistricts, including two members of Congress representing Californiadistricts.
According to The Hill newspaper,voters in Congressman Jerry McNerney's CA-11 (Pleasanton) district andCongresswoman's Loretta Sanchez CA-47 in Garden Grove district willbegin receiving the calls this week.
The only problem is thatunless the calls are individually introduced by a live person -- andthe vast majority of the time they are not -- robocalls in Californiaare illegal.
The NRCC campaign will include TV ads, radio spots and robocalls in the members' districts. The campaign will focus on the Democratsfor spending taxpayer dollars "at the rate of a billion dollars anhour," according to an NRCC press release. It will also portray themembers of Congress as "rubber stamps" for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi(D-San Francisco.)
Tobe sure, it's easy to understand how McNerney and Sanchez were pickedout by the Republicans -- voter registration in their respectivedistrict is about dead even. That said, both Democrats were both easilyreelected to office last fall.
Here's the NRCC's complete list of House Democratic targeted for robocalls:
JohnAdler (NJ-03)
Jason Altmire (PA-04)
Michael Arcuri (NY-24)
TimBishop (NY-01)
John Boccieri (OH-16)
Leonard Boswell (IA-03)
AllenBoyd (FL-02)
Chris Carney (PA-10)
Gerry Connolly (VA-11)
KathyDahlkemper (PA-03)
Peter DeFazio (OR-04)
Steve Driehaus (OH-01)
ChetEdwards (TX-17)
Brad Ellsworth (IN-08)
Gabby Giffords (AZ-08)
AlanGrayson (FL-08)
John Hall (NY-19)
Debbie Halvorson (IL-11)
StephanieHerseth Sandlin (SD-AL)
Baron Hill (IN-09)
Jim Himes (CT-04)
SteveKagen (WI-08)
Paul Kanjorski (PA-11)
Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15)
LarryKissell (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