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From 'Band of Brothers' to Band of 'Others'

October 28, 2008 — As the Iraq War slipped into its darkest days of 2005, a little know attorney with combat experience in that conflict ran for an open Congressional seat in a district that overwhelmingly favored President George W. Bush in 2004.  But Paul Hackett stunned the political establishment by nearly capturing that seat, narrowly losing to Jean Schmidt.

Suddenly, the Democratic Party seized upon the idea of a new congressional candidate: one with military experience.  Perhaps the party hoped it could duplicate its successes of the 1970s, when several Vietnam veterans won congressional seats, as well as 1984, when several of those candidates won US Senate seats even during the Reagan landslide.

Now the "Band of Brothers," as these Democratic Party Iraq War veteran candidates were labeled, seem forgotten, almost consigned to becoming a "Band of Others."  What happened?

First, though the success of the Democratic Party in the 2006 legislative elections is well known, the performance of the Band of Brothers was not as strong.  Hackett was persuaded to step aside for a more experienced Democratic Party insider, Congressman Sherrod Brown, who defeated Ohio GOP Senator Michael DeWine.  Band of Brothers' candidate Andrew Horne was defeated in a Kentucky Democratic Party primary (in the third district) by John Yarmuth, who went on to oust Republican Congresswoman Anne Northrup.  And even those with prior political experience, like state legislator Michael Weaver, lost his race to GOP Congressman Ron Lewis in Kentucky's second district.

In fact, 31 of these "Band of Brothers" (with some form of military experience) lost their primary races, withdrew from the race, or failed to qualify for the ballot.  Another 60 (and one "sister," Tammy Duckworth) did win their primaries to run in the general election for the House or Senate.  But of these, only six prevailed in their races (Webb in the Senate, Carney, Hare, Murphy, Walz and Sestak in the House of Representatives).

There are a couple of theories about why these candidates only won roughly 10% of their general election races, and about 5% of their overall races.  One is that several that failed in primaries lost to another member of the "Band of Brothers."  This only covers seven of the 91 cases.  One could also hypothesize that many ran in Republican districts, or in the South.  That may be the case, but at least two had prior congressional service.  Several who lost ran in "competitive districts."  And many Democrats with non-military service were able to upset Republican incumbents (like Boyda in Kansas, Shea-Porter and Hodes in New Hampshire, Mitchell in Arizona, Mahoney and Klein in Florida, etc.)