Thread by @RachelBitecofer

1. In my teeny-tiny corner of poli sci, Mayhew's The Electoral College is the functional equal to The Good Book bc it teaches you the 1 truth: candidates are single-minded seekers of election/reelection & everything they say/do/think serves that goal before & above all others.

2. This was The Truth before the Trump Era. Now we'll call it The Indisputable Truth bc all of the stop gaps we used to believe that cut this off, or served as buffers or limits to The Truth prior to the last 5 yrs (at least on the Right) have failed. Now you can be exhaustably

3. corrupt & demean everything about God & country and enjoy a 90% approval rate if you secure electoral safety. You can allow senators to flee their states during disasters & be reelectable. When Mayhew wrote the E.C. getting reelected was really, really, really imp to members-

4. It was EVERYTHING. Now though it is no longer EVERYTHING- it is THE ONLY THING (on the Right)

Why is politician A a liberal while B a moderate? Bc it serves their electoral purposes best. Take AOC and make her politically ambitious in a moderate district- you have a diff AOC.

5. This is not to say you have a corruptible AOC, only that you have a practical one. She is devoutly liberal bc her district is D+20something. A D in a D+5 is moderate for the same reason- electoral calculation. Anytime a politician does anything- takes a vote, a position, a pee

6. trust me, they're thinking "does this help or hurt me electorally IF they're in one of the few competitive House seats of the 435 we have only 15% could ever flip to the opposition party. Which is why, when 85% of House members are ideological blowhards, guess what? Mayhew

7. I mention all of this to you today (or for long time followers, remention) bc often politicians are told A best serves their Mayhew when actually its B. Today, I was informed by someone on here @clairecmc, who I like a great deal (esp now that she's not getting bad advice) in

8. her REALLY TOUGH, dealigning MO Senate reelection race didn't come out in support of the state's $15 min wage initiative. Her's (and Heitkemp & Donnelly's) races that cycle only had a chance in hell; anyway bc Trump was in office & driving massive turnout surges. BUT min wage

9. whether its 10, 12, or 15, polls unusually well because most people in America are broke. And even when I ran projects for Chambers of Commerce, even Rep voters want large minimum wage increases. This should have been well known in the data savvy world of Dem politics. I just

10. it was? I would never have envisioned that Dem candidates would not realize to make strong stand for $15 min wage AND use it as a wedge issue against their GOP opponents bc all across the country, for years, these initiatives have been passing w bi-partisan coalitions when

11. virtually nothing else does, & often, voters have no idea that the Rep Party not only doesn't support raising the min wage, but is directly responsible for holding it low & sabotaging any effort to raise it. Indeed, this one of economic issues I plan to deploy from Strike Pac

12. to help get Dems elected/reelected in 2021/2022. But it will only work if Dems realize that this is a HUGELY winning issue for them that they should be exploiting to win office. Then. Now. Mayhew fails when the advice is bad. Anyone that gave you advice, then or now NOT to

13. $15 min wage, and you are a Dem, you should excise this person from your campaign orbit as fast as is humanly possible. BC they don't know WTF they're talking about. Mayhew.