Gil Cisneros-- Does this look like an "ex"-Republican to you?A trusted political operative told me today about an encounter he had with a scumbag multimillionaire "ex"-Republican who the DCCC is trying to impose on a district filled with progressive Democrats. The "ex"-Republican is running as a Democrat and pretending to take progressive-- or progressivish-- policy positions.
Tuesday night Jimmy Gomez became the first Democrat to win a House seat since Trump was elected president. He won pretty overwhelmingly-- 60-40%-- in a deep blue Los Angeles district. Generally Republicans don't even try in districts like CA-34. The jungle primary, in fact, resulted in 2 candidates with "D" next to their names facing off this week in the general election.
Republican money has flooded into Ahn's campaign war chestAs part of our series on "ex"-Republicans, we have a guest post today by Paul Ahrens, one of my neighbors in Northeast Los Angeles. Paul has been a member of the entertainment labor union IATSE for 30 years and has served as Assistant Business Agent of IATSE Local 44 since 2004.
We've been talking about TX-21 for over two years now. Blue America backed Berniecrat Tom Wakely, who defeated a Democratic establishment candidate in the primary and then went on-- with no support from the DCCC or the establishment and very little money-- to hold long-time Congressman Lamar Smith to his lowest win number ever.
Every cycle I write this damn story. Maybe when Pelosi isn't Democratic Leader appointing her horrible losing DCCC chairs anymore, I'll be able to finally retire it-- maybe. For as far back as I can remember the self-loathing Democrats at the DCCC give potential congressional candidates extra points for serveral things-- being wealthy first and foremost, but being an "ex"-Republican a close second. In 2006.
At one point Trump was sending out feelings to see if Mark Cuban, an actual self-made billionaire, would run with him. Cuban laughed at the prospect and this weekend endorsed Hillary in Pittsburgh, his hometown, mentioning along the way that Trump has gone batshit crazy.
