Dems fear Obama-Clinton race may damage November chances

The increasingly bitter nomination battle between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) could split the party, giving Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) an easier path to the White House, Democratic officials and strategists fear.

The issue of race has emerged again in recent days as a trouble spot, and the candidates have also repeatedly questioned one another’s qualifications to be president, using attacks that would seem to come from a Republican playbook.

{mosads}With six weeks to go before the Pennsylvania primary, a number of Democrats are worried that the scorched-earth campaigning will damage both candidates.

Those attacks not only weaken the eventual nominee, but they could also leave Democratic voters disillusioned and embittered once the nomination process comes to an end, Democrats say.

“As a Democrat, I’m concerned about it. I don’t mind gladiators in the arena duking it out,” Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, told The Hill in an interview. “I don’t mind that. I think that it’s dangerous because of the way the delegates are playing out. It looks as though this thing is going to go to the convention and still not be settled. So to keep this rhetoric up and keep beating themselves up, who knows what the eventual nominee — what kind of shape they’d be in.”

Nagin said he is also worried because “the Republican Party’s sitting, watching all this. If they decide to move aggressively and get a great VP candidate, it could totally change the focus away from the great position I think the Democratic Party is in.”

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) is so concerned that he wrote a letter to Obama and Clinton this week urging them to “stop fighting each other and start fighting John McCain.”

“In the lead-up to the March 4 primaries, the tone of both campaigns shifted and the civility that I had appreciated disappeared,” DeFazio wrote. “The long-term goal of beating the Republican nominee took a back seat to the short-term goal of proving one’s viability by tearing down the other Democratic candidate.

“We lost sight of the general election, we lost sight of the true opponent and if we continue to be shortsighted, I fear we will lose in November.”

Obama’s supporters are pointing fingers at the Clinton campaign for the negativity, playing the victim card and accusing the New York senator’s camp of selfishly weakening the party’s chances in November.

“The danger for Democrats is that the ‘kitchen sink’ strategy that the Clinton campaign is using to attack Barack Obama will open a wound in the party that cannot heal before the fall campaign,” Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist and Obama supporter, said. “Vouching for John McCain’s national security credentials just to hurt Obama is the type of short-term attack that would hurt either Democrat in the general election. How could Clinton credibly attack McCain’s poor judgment on security issues after that?”

Clinton’s supporters argue that Obama will take more flak from the Republicans if he wins the nomination, and a spirited contest will only make the eventual nominee stronger.

“I reject this [idea] that we’re hurting the party,” Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said on a conference call Thursday. “John McCain himself has complained that our contested primary is keeping him out of the American public’s attention.”

Former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.), a presidential candidate in the 1980s and an Obama supporter now, said he fears the impact of undisciplined surrogates like ex-Rep. Geraldine Ferraro (D-N.Y.), a Clinton supporter who set off a firestorm with comments this week about Obama’s race, or Samantha Power, an Obama adviser who resigned after calling Clinton a “monster.”

“I am hopeful particularly that surrogates do not undertake destructive measures or tactics, because it makes —whoever gets the nomination — makes it much less worthwhile,” Hart told The Hill. “The ultimate goal is to win the presidency, not for one candidate to succeed.”

Democratic strategist Steve Murphy said all the apprehension is unnecessary — for now.

“At this point, Democrats aren’t worried that the nomination battle is hurting, but there is fear about what comes next,” Murphy said. “The silent majority of Democrats simply hopes Obama wins Pennsylvania and gets it over with.”

Scott Reed, a Republican strategist and campaign manager to ex-Sen. Bob Dole’s (R-Kan.) 1996 presidential bid, said Democrats are right to be worried.

“Democrats are well on their way to tearing apart the base of their party and sending a lot of folks home from Denver dispirited and turned off,” Reed said. “A balanced GOP ticket has a chance to reverse the recent slide and win this cycle on new ideas and leadership built on character.”

While many Democrats are concerned, few have any idea how to force an end to the contest after Clinton staved off political demise with wins last week in Texas and Ohio.

“I think everyone was caught up in the events, the competitive nature of it, and these two great candidates that have been ready to make history,” Nagin said. “Now people, I sense, are starting to say, ‘Wait a minute, if we don’t watch it, we could screw this up.’

“I’m concerned about it, and I’m sure some other people are concerned about it. How do you fix it? I don’t know.”

Aaron Blake and J. Taylor Rushing contributed to this article.