Dave Weigel and Michael Scherer hyave a pretty good overview of candidate recruitment and big races at the Post. By the numbers, and in the details of the candidates, it is good news for Democrats:
[…]The surge is most apparent in contests for the House of Representatives, where, through the end of September, 455 Democratic challengers had already registered with the Federal Election Commission — more than twice as many than at any other point in the last 15 years, according to an analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute. By comparison, only 111 Republican challengers had filed to raise money.
[…] In New York’s 19th District, a competitive slice of the Hudson Valley held by Rep. John Faso (R-N.Y.), six Democrats are running, including two graduates of Harvard Law School, an Iraq War veteran who graduated from Georgetown and the U.S. Military Academy, a former CIA officer who became a schoolteacher, and a wealthy businessman who has loaned his campaign $500,000.Three of them boast of supporting Medicare for All on their campaign websites; two have raised more money than the incumbent.
Because this piece is in the “Power Post” savvy section, they do try to make it look like the Democratic establishment is concerned, mentioning at least one race (Illinois Governor) where a big money Democrat (Pritzker) was unable to clear the field. But, try as they might, there’s no disguising the fact that Democrats have a bunch of good candidates in the primaries who are fairly well aligned on a set of popular policies.
The real story here is the Republican primary shitshow, where Republican MAGAts are threatening to Roy Moore all over themselves. Here are a couple of examples:
A prime Senate pickup opportunity in Indiana, meanwhile, has turned into a Republican brawl, with the campaigns of Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita exchanging epithets such as “unhinged,” attacks on the lucrative municipal legal consulting contract of one candidate’s wife, and mocking jabs over an eight-page memo with instructions about how to chauffeur the other candidate around the district, with tips about black coffee and avoiding “sudden acceleration.”
[…] In Florida, Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) won Trump’s backing in a gubernatorial primary against Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. A race that Republicans hoped could serve as a coronation for Putnam has been scrambled as Las Vegas Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, hedge fund heiress Rebekah Mercer and Wyoming investor Foster Friess piled in behind DeSantis.
I can’t imagine that a candidate backed by that trio of rich idiots could be anything but hopeless.
One thing that isn’t mentioned in the piece is that some of the less viable primary challengers in these Democratic races could drop out and run for state or local offices, where we need good candidates to clean up the messes made by Republicans over the last couple of decades.