For the record, Kos is full of Crap. This post of his has gotten traction from the National Journal’s Blogometer:

To be clear — Hackett didn’t stand a chance [in the primary]. He had a tenth of Brown’s money, and that was before party people allegedly tried to stop Hackett’s donors from giving. His field operation in the special election was literally put together and implemented by Dan Lucas. Who is Dan Lucas? Sherrod Brown’s campaign manager. Hackett’s netroots effort in the special election was put together by Tim Tagaris. And while Tim is now at the DNC, he helped put together Brown’s netroots operation. So it was Brown’s people who helped put together the nuts and bolts of Hackett’s special election campaign, and they were now working for their boss — Sherrod Brown.


Dan Lucas didn’t “put together” Hackett’s field operation and he wasn’t Sherrod Brown’s campaign manager at the time when he was helping out the Hackett campaign. I’ve never heard anyone refer to Lucas as a leader of the operation in any way. (I’m told that for two weeks he did organize GOTV.) The main goto guy in terms of field operations was Patrick Foster. The work he did coordinating things on the ground was truly awesome.

Also, Tim Tagaris didn’t “put together” Hackett’s netroots effort. Tim made a huge difference for the Hackett campaign, but there was a “netroots effort” back when he was still into Vic Wulsin. His actions for Hackett were not at the direction of the Brown campaign. The power of Hackett’s “netroots effort” was that there wasn’t any. If just happened by people like me excited about Hackett and what was happening in the 2nd. True netroots starts organically on the ground. This is why organizations like Kos and “Netroots” have such a horrible track record getting people elected.

As soon as Brown declared that he was running he started taking credit for Hackett’s success in the 2nd. It was a load of crap then, it’s a load of crap now.

BTW, Brown wasn’t just being a Saint sending down people to help out the campaign. He was planning a Senate bid even back then. SHOCK! That’s why his people were down in the 2nd “helping”; translation: recruiting. (Now how the heck would I know that??? Think about it.)

I don’t mind people promoting their guy, but don’t try to rewrite history and give people credit for other people’s work. Kos wasn’t there. He doesn’t know crap about the 2nd race. For a long time he was just another naysayer parroting the standard Beltway line that no one can win in the 2nd, just like how he’s saying that Hackett couldn’t win now. (Why is it that the only Gingrich and Dole saw it so clearly in the 90s and Democrats missed it so badly 10 years later?)

I support Sherrod Brown for Senate. I don’t support lies. Promote your candidate. Fight for change. Stand for something. That’s what win’s elections. There’s a reason why Ohio voters don’t trust Democrats. The first step in that image makeover is being honest with people.

UPDATE: An email from an anonymous reader of our blog who worked inside the Hackett campaign and who graciously allowed us to relay it to you:

Dan put together the typical GOTV Program - the same one that democrats have used to lose in this state for 15 years.

And KOS implying that Hackett for Senate was on its last legs is fully untrue. We were on course. We had 45 field staffers - 4 offices, and 3 more to be up in a month. We were running a decentralized field program where we worked WITH the mostly-newly-formed democratic spur groups: DFA, Democratic Forum, Progressive Alliance, Meet-up. As well as the non-for profit organizations: Ducks Unlimited, Sierra Club, etc. We also have plans for John’s Front Porch - where we have a make-shift ‘campaign HQ’ on a supporters front porch for a few hours every week, that has all the supplies a campaign office would, tailored for the area.

We have 500 NEW volunteers in the first 4 weeks. We knocked 10,000 doors in the first 2 weeks.

KOS attacking our organization is insulting and incorrect.

…I challenge KOS to come to OH-02 and talk to the people who worked here - see what THEY think about Dan Lucas, and how he ran the GOTV operations….

Paul did NOT drop out because of a weakness in the Hackett for Senate organization. He dropped out because of the weakness in the Democratic Organization to buckle to outside pressures.