Howard Dean would respect Martha Ott: she is tackling a Republican candidate in his lair. HD 86 in West St. Louis County is Republican turf, as Marty well knows, having run against Jane Cunningham there in ’06 and lost by 43.7 percent to Cunningham’s 56.3 percent. This cycle, Cunningham is running for state senate, so the incumbency advantage is gone, but the Republican taking her place is still a tough nut to crack. Cole McNary is the son of Gene McNary, long time St. Louis County Executive Director.
So Marty’s up against it out there, but Dean would say that she’s building the base in red territory, same as he’s been doing with his fifty state plan for the last three years as DNC chairman. As she goes door to door–four hours the day before I talked to her–she finds she has name recognition from her last time around and supporters who tell her how happy they are that she’s running again.
Naturally, McNary has more money than Marty, but she husbands her resources wisely. Instead of sending elaborate mailers, she sends postcards. The brief messages on them keep her name in front of voters without requiring them to read more than they’re likely to anyway.
Most of all, she treks from one door to the next, pioneering, not in red Injun territory, just in red territory. And she’s seeing changes. She says that in 2000, she helped with Ted House’s campaign against Todd Akin, but she wouldn’t put a sign in her yard because she figured that all her neighbors were probably Republican. Not only did she not see a Democratic sign in her subdivision, she doesn’t remember seeing any in the 86th district that year.
Then, in 2002 when Jean Carnahan was running, Marty saw somebody in her subdivision with a sign for Carnahan and figured if they can do it, so can I. Soon after she put her sign up, a neighbor asked her if she had any more of them. She gave that woman her sign and got another. And that’s how Democrats began showing their face in West County.
In 2004, they were still weak. A few signs appeared, but she couldn’t get anyone to help her go door to door for Kerry. And there was no one to run against Jane Cunningham. So Marty pioneered that territory in 2006. (Some might say she got trounced for her trouble, but that would only be if they didn’t know the history of the district. Cunningham has run four times and won by these percentages: 2000–100 percent; 2002–70.5 percent; 2004–100 percent. So getting her down to 56.3 percent was an accomplishment.)
This year, Marty is agog at the activity: she has attended six Obama houseparties, all in the 86th, a phenomenon she’s never seen there before. And she’s back challenging the Republicans in hopes of closing the gap, or if not that, at least narrowing it.
Whichever outcome she gets, she’s done Democrats a service. By challenging McNary, she forces Republicans to put money and energy into that district that would otherwise be diverted to a tighter race elsewhere. And she’s building the base.
Thank you, Marty, for taking on a tough task. You don’t drive a Conestoga, but I can picture you in a sunbonnet.