Ed Cohen Ends Campaign
December 8, 2005
............................
Friends,
Those of you who are local and who are thorough readers of the South Bend Tribune may have noticed a mention of our campaign in a story in today’s issue. It was in an article about a poll conducted by our rival for the nomination, the guy who ran last time and lost but has the backing of the party for another run. I’m talking about Joe Donnelly. At the bottom of the story it mentioned a rumor that I was going to drop out of the race.
This rumor is not entirely true. I am not considering ending the campaign, I already have.
I made this painful decision a few weeks ago, informed the executive committee members and explained my reasons. I’m going to do the same in this note with a little less detail. The reason I haven’t written to you sooner about this is because the committee asked me to hold off announcing anything publically to give them time to recruit an electable replacement candidate who would be interested in running on our platform. That effort continues.
My principal reason for ending the campaign is we simply hadn’t made the progress we needed to organizationally to have a realistic chance of winning the nomination over our opponent. Mr. Donnelly had a huge head start because of his name recognition and the backing of the party from his unsuccessful run in 2004. Plus he began lining up his support, including fund-raising, nearly a year ago.
The most serious problem facing our campaign was time constraints. I realized early on that campaigning for this nomination would have to be a full-time job. My plan was to quit my job at the start of the school year and at that point start campaigning and raising money and doing all the other things a candidate needs to do. The key was my wife finding a full-time teaching job with benefits. When that didn’t happen, we were in trouble. With encouragement from the executive committee, I did what I could to keep the campaign moving forward, balancing work and the campaign. By mid-November, however, I knew I wasn’t doing a satisfactory job with either.
Any worries I had about how far we’d fallen behind our opponent in terms of campaign infrastructure were confirmed at an annual fund-raising dinner put on by the county Democratic Party several weeks ago. This event attracted more than 600 people paying $25 a head. There was a printed program with ads and notes of recognition of underwriters. Donnelly volunteers made sure everyone was handed a Donnelly sticker to wear as they entered the room. Joe was introduced as the next congressman from the district, and the audience of party regulars gave him a standing ovation after his brief speech.
In addition, I found out at the dinner that Joe has the endorsement of not only the county and district party central committees but those at the state level and even at the national level. The 2nd District race has been identified as one of only 30 or so that will be competitive, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has agreed to pour money into the Donnelly candidacy. A lousy investment, if you ask me, since Joe has never won an election in three tries. But it’s obvious he’s going to be the nominee.
I still believe that challenging the anointed party selection and winning the nomination was possible, especially going against a candidate with such a tepid message in these turbulent times. But to do that we needed to get an earlier start, and we didn’t. I take responsibility for that.
I’ve already thanked the campaign central committee for the faith they showed in me, and, more importantly, their dedication to our message. I want to thank all of you as well for your encouragement, your help, your suggestions. I’m sorry we weren’t able to come anywhere close to our goal. I was eager for the fight, but circumstances were such that I couldn’t afford to enter the ring full-time, as the competition required.
I don’t think I need to remind any of you of the importance of staying involved in the fight for change. Let us continue to insist on a government that lives up to America’s highest ideals: peace, justice, reason and respect. I’m confident that the tide is turning against President Bush and his ilk. I’m less optimistic about the Democrats, including Mr. Donnelly, having the nerve and ideas and imagination to press their advantage to victory.
I have no intention of scaling back on my dissent to this president’s policies, but I’ll be doing it from another location soon. That’s the other bit of news I have to report. After 10 great years at the University of Notre Dame, I’m going to be leaving in another month or so. Earlier this week I was honored to be offered the position of director of communication and publications at the University of Nevada. I felt this was too exciting an opportunity to pass up, and my wife concurs, so earlier today I formally accepted the offer.
I guess it’s true that timing is everything in life and that when one door closes another one often opens. All things considered, I’d rather be out on the campaign trail right now instead of preparing to move and start a new job across the country. But I know I made the right call earlier about the campaign’s prospects.
Thank you all again for your support and friendship, and please stay in touch. I’m also happy to answer any questions.
Peace.
Ed
St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN