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Democrats spent Wednesday trying to explain away a disappointing loss in a Florida special congressional election that they had been expected to win.

The takeaway from the special in Florida is that Democrats will need to invest heavily in a national field program in order to win in November. Nearly 50,000 fewer people voted in the special than in the 2010 general election, a 21% drop off, officials at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) wrote in their daily morning memo.

Already facing a difficult task in reclaiming the House majority, some Democrats said the loss in a district that President Obama won twice should serve as a warning sign that the partys voter-turnout operation is rusty and is endangering the Democratic majority in the Senate.

In private meetings, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and top lieutenants told lawmakers that the race would not define the midterm elections in November, also pinning the defeat on a dismal turnout effort, according to aides and lawmakers in the meetings.

Its a disappointment, I wont pretend it isnt, said Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), exiting a House Democratic Caucus meeting that Pelosi tried to keep focused on staying the course toward the midterms. Its a loss, its a disappointment. Its not the end of the world. And I dont know that it tells you a lot about the complexion of the election in November of this year.

Republicans openly mocked the Democratic effort to explain the results.

Its very significant, by any objective standard, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview, citing the Republican candidate David Jollys first-time candidacy and record as a Washington lobbyist as reasons he should have been defeated. Democrats fielded a former statewide official and spent more money than the GOP, while Jolly focused relentlessly on Obamas handling of the Affordable Care Acts implementation.

Its an indication the American people in a swing district, or arguably a blue district, might want to go in a different direction, McConnell said.

The Jolly victory came just days after GOP strategists were privately mocking the quality of his campaign. It put Democrats deeply on the defensive because their candidate, 2010 gubernatorial nominee Alex Sink, ran what party officials considered a textbook campaign by pledging on camera in TV ads that ran heavily that she would work to fix parts of the health-care law but not entirely repeal it.

Her campaign message is expected to be repeated over and over by Democratic challengers in GOP districts throughout the nation, as well as by four key Senate incumbents who voted for the 2010 health-care measure. The fate of those four senators, all running in states Obama lost in 2012, is likely to determine the balance of power in the Senate, where GOP candidates are clear favorites in at least two states and would need four more to claim the majority.

Originally posted here:

Democrats pinning Fla. special election loss on dismal turnout effort