DCCC needs to check its math

National political groups try to find deep meaning in local elections, so it's not surprising the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wants to spread Tuesday's victory in Arizona over as much of the country as possible.

But they may need a new calculator before they use it as a bellwether for Eastern Washington's 5th Congressional District.

Wednesday afternoon the group dedicated to electing Democrats to the U.S. House sent out a press release with this headline:

Democrats Win Special Election in More Republican District Than Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers’

That, not surprisingly, had us at Spin Control scratching our heads. Didn't the district in question, Arizona's  8th Congressional District, have a Democratic congresswoman, Gabby Giffords, for the last five years? Whereas Eastern Washington's 5th hasn't had a Democratic congressperson since 1994.

How do ya figure “more Republican”? Spin Control asked Steve Carter, the DCCC representative for western states.

There's no one way to rate how partisan a district is, Carter said. “That's one way to look at it,” he said when we brought up the 18-year gap for electing a Dem to the House. The DCCC, however, chose to look at it a different way…

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