While Hillary Clinton has been spending the past few months selling her book and shooting herself in the foot with Democratic voters, Martin O'Malley and Elizabeth Warren have been working hard at GOTV for the 2014 midterms, attacking Republicans and talking up the Democratic Party.
Martin O'Malley on why he's working so hard for the Democrats:
"I really believe in my bones in order to get things done we have to make our party stronger,'' O'Malley said in an interview. "That means helping the state party organizations and that also means helping individual candidates.''
O'Malley also goes places that don't have obvious immediate political advantage: Last year he campaigned for New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono, though she was in the process of being trampled by incumbent Republican Gov. Chris Christie. Later this month he'll be keynoting the annual Democratic Party dinner in Nebraska – a state where Democrats hold no statewide offices but an old friend, Omaha lawyer Jim Cavanaugh, is running for county commissioner.
"It's very important that we support our candidates in all 50 states,'' he says. "For some reason we've gotten away from that as a party.''
His efforts are appreciated by Democrats:
"He's one of the go-to guys,'' says Colm O'Comartun, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, which O'Malley headed from 2011-2013. "If there's any way at all, he'll come.''
“We are excited to see Governor O’Malley back in New Hampshire and thrilled he is helping us raise the resources needed to elect a Democratic Senate majority,” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Sylvia Larsen said. “Governor O’Malley is building a tremendous amount of goodwill in the state with his work to elect Democrats up and down the ticket.”
His PAC O Say Can You See has raised
$796,000 for candidates and he has attended fundraisers/campaign events in California, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Texas and Wisconsin.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has been hitting the campaign trail hard for Senate candidates Alison Grimes in Kentucky and Michelle Nunn in Georgia. Her PAC has raised $620,000 for candidates this fall as well.
Warren and O'Malley are being team players and are focused on helping Democrats in the midterms. I have to wonder why Hillary still hasn't started working for the midterms and what it will take for her to start being a team player.