Senate Democrats say there's no grand strategy to their return to retro; it just so happened their best recruits in these key states have served in office before. But it's a risky move.

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Pulling from the past has its pros — see Bayh's $10 million war chest — but also its cons: It sounds counterintuitive in the year of the outsider. Let's break both sides down.

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First, the pros:

Senate Democratic operatives say they've got candidates who are known in the state, who are proven fundraisers and who have their own distinctive brands that can withstand the barrage of attacks Republicans and their outside groups are already throwing at them.

Having served more than a decade as governor and a dozen years already as a senator, Bayh is probably the best-known Democrat in Indiana. His $10 million war chest left over from a surprise 2010 retirement reflects that — and not-so-coincidentally is roughly 10 times more than what GOP candidate Todd Young has in the bank.

In Wisconsin, Russ Feingold is synonymous with campaign finance reform after he and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) teamed up for the 1999 legislation known as the McCain-Feingold Act. And he has outraised his opponent, Sen. Ron Johnson (R), for the past six months.

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Meanwhile, in Ohio, Democrats say Ted Strickland's life story of having grown up one of nine children in rural Southern Ohio and being the first in his family to go to college is already lore in the state. They argue Strickland has a better rapport with voters and better name recognition than the senator he's trying to unseat, Rob Portman (R).

Those pros aren't insignificant. Money and name recognition are two of the three legs that make up the Stool of Success in Politics, the other being that intangible "likeability" quality. (Also, I'd bet money that my metaphorical stool I just made up really exists on some poster in a dingy campaign office somewhere.)

Now, the cons

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The cons of going old school in 2016 are much more simple to break down, because really it comes down to this: These candidates have been in office before.

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That means a few things:

(1) They have records that can and will be used against them. In fact, some of these Democrats' congressional records are longer than the senators they're trying to unseat. Republicans are going to try to pin Strickland as anti-coal, for example, and Feingold as a hypocrite for his ties to outside groups. It's notable that only eight former senators over the past 60 years have made it back to their old jobs, according to Eric Ostermeier with the University of Minnesota's Smart Politics blog.

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(2) In this year of the outsider, these candidates risk looking like career politicians. Senate Republican operatives already call Strickland "Retread Ted" and plan to attack Bayh for becoming partner at a law and lobbying firm in between his Senate bids.

(3) It raises the question of whether Democrats have a deep bench of recruits to pull from. Democrats bristle at that accusation, countering it by pointing to Secretary of State Jason Kander in Missouri or former attorney general Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, two star recruits for them. To Democrats' point, you could argue this is the kind of inside-the-Beltway debate that doesn't resonate in the real world. Do voters really care about Senate Democrats' bench if they like the candidate?

And that's really the ultimate test for Senate Democrats: Can these political veterans help them win the Senate in November? From what we've seen, Democrats certainly have the opportunity to do so — and one old timer's decision to run (Bayh) just gave them yet another path to victory. So maybe there's something to be said for going old school this election cycle.

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