Washington Post congressional reporter Rachael Bade says that she’s hearing that moderates in the Democratic Party, or red state Democrats, are starting to get cold feet with respect to voting to impeach Trump:
Blade says that when the star chamber depositions were beginning, the question was how many Republican could Pelosi peel off for a potential impeachment vote.
But now the tide is turning and it’s become a question of how many Democrats will Pelosi LOSE.
That’s because Blade says she’s hearing that moderates are getting cold feet on impeachment, and it’s because GOP ads being running around the country have them worried they could be punished for an impeachment vote.
Politico said something similar the other day:
Vulnerable Democrats are watching in horror as GOP impeachment attacks deluge their districts back home. And they want a much stronger counteroffensive from their own party and its allies.
Some of those Democrats raised their concerns with party leaders this week as they prepared to leave for Thanksgiving recess, fearing that voters will be bombarded by anti-impeachment ads as families gather around the TV for parades and football, according to multiple lawmakers and aides.
GOP-aligned outside groups have spent roughly $8 million on TV spots this cycle in battleground districts, such as Rep. Anthony Brindisi’s central New York seat. The vast majority of those ads specifically hammer Democrats over impeachment.
Meanwhile, swing-district Democrats are receiving little reinforcement from their own party or even other liberal coalitions. Democratic and pro-impeachment groups have spent about $2.7 million in TV ads, according to an analysis of spending by the ad tracking firm Advertising Analytics. And more than $600,000 of that total went to ads targeting Republican incumbents, not helping vulnerable Democratic members.
“Many of us have been expressing our concerns to leadership,” said a Democratic lawmaker said, who declined to be named in order to speak candidly about strategy. “You don’t want to have to play catch up.”
“Everyone knows you don’t just take a shot and sit there,” the lawmaker said. “It’s like someone taped our arms to our side and punched us in the face.”
I think Democrats, especially in these red districts and states, will find that many of them will be punched in the face in 2020 by voters because of all this impeachment madness. All but two of them have already voted for Schiff’s unfair impeachment charade thus far and in my opinion they’re already on the hook. I’m not sure that there’s any repairing their candidacies at this point.