I just want to make an Human Resources point — we’ve already seen the best hires that we’re going to see made by the Trump Administration. The Wisconsin Senate special election flip illustrates part of the reasoning:
Did you miss the special elections results yesterday?
Democrats over performed the 2016 election results by an average of 20%.
SC HD-99: D+13.08%
IA HD-06: D+20.44%
WI AD-58: D+24.90%
WI SD-10: D+27.52%Keep working hard & we’re going to flip a lot of seats in November. ?
— Millennial Politics (@MillenPolitics) January 17, 2018
Last night there was anywhere from a thirteen to twenty seven point swing. All of these seats were base Republican seats. The Wisconsin Senate seat was open for a special election because the previous incumbent resigned to join the Walker Administration. The Walker Administration chose her because her seat should have been safe. The logic is that they got an ally in the executive branch and an ideological concordant replacement was likely. This was the same logic behind all of the Trump Cabinet picks from the House and Senate. They were all from safe to very safe Republican leaning districts. GA-06 was the closest thing to a swing district and Alabama Senate was the furthest thing from a swing district.
And that strategy, with a notably rare exception, worked (Hello Senator Jones!)
And now that strategy is reduced to either selecting individuals who represent districts that make Utah look competitive or from people who are not holding elective office. This severely restricts the pool of people who are plausibly choosable for Trump administration positions. It completely disregards the other factors that discourages conservative but competent individuals from putting their names forward.
So this is the best staffing that we’re going to see and it will only get worse.