These numbers aren't random-- there are reasonsIf I lived in Virginia I'd be facing a real dilemma-- to vote for someone with as conservative a record as Ralph Northam as a way of preventing a potentially catastrophic Republican victory in the gubernatorial election in 2 weeks. There's no doubt who the lesser of the two evils facing Virginia voters. Lobbyist Ed Gillespie is a garden variety corrupt Republican and in a period when checking Trump and GOP power is tantamount, stopping Gillespie is crucial. But yesterday there was a little dust-up on Twitter because Our Revolution endorsed 6 progressive candidates-- Elizabeth Guzman, Kimberly Tucker, Joshua Cole, Lee Carter, Jennifer Carroll Foy and Will King-- for the House of Delegates without saying anything about Northam one way or the other. [Blue America has also endorsed Lee Carter, Elizabeth Guzman and Kimberly Tucker and 5 other House of Delegates candidates-- but hasn't endorsed in the gubernatorial race.]I can't speak for Our Revolution but I can tell you why we've endorsed in the legislative races and why Northam is not on our gubernatorial page. Blue America's endorsement is tantamount to asking our members to contribute to a candidate. And endorsement is not about asking for someone for a vote-- most of our members don't live in Virginia-- it's about asking for a contribution. I'm not even sure if I would vote for Northam and I know for certain I wouldn't contribute a dime to his campaign. I would much rather give that money to our House of Delegates candidates or to gubernatorial candidates like Tom Wakely (TX), Ben Jealous (MD) or Daniel Miss (IL), proven progressives.Northam is a proven something else-- a proven conservative. He admits he voted for George W. Bush-- both times. Is that your kind of Democrat? In his 2013 campaign Northam said "I don’t consider myself as a liberal... I think the less government, the better" and said he is "very conservative fiscally." He has a record to back it up. He's also been generally anti-immigrant over the course of his career until very recently.Soon after Northam was first elected to the state Senate in 2007 he announced he was leaving the Democratic caucus and joining the Republicans, throwing control of the state Senate to the GOP. He said the reason he was switching was because of his fiscal conservatism. I don't know what the Democrats promised him-- plenty, no doubt-- but they persuaded him to change his mind. Whatever political calculus you decide on in regard to voting, if you live in Virginia, do you really want to back Northam without holding your nose?The two most recent polls--Oct 17-- show him winning. Quinnipiac predicts a very substantial Northam win-- 53-39%-- and Fox News has Northam up a more modest but still definitive 49-42%. The reason Northam is up is because he's killing Gillespie among independent voters and among women. He has a favorable rating of 51% to Gillespie's 39%. And when respondents were asked "If a candidate for governor supports President Trump, does that make you more likely to vote for them, less likely to vote for them, or doesn't it have an impact either way," only 18% of likely voters said more likely, while 51% said less likely. Among independents 15% said supporting Trump would make them more likely to vote (for Gillespie). All the national pundits rate the race as "lean Democrat." And as of August 31 Northam had spent $10 million to Gillespie's $7.8 million. Northam had $5.6 million on hand, more than double Gillespie's $2.6 million. All that makes it easier to recommend to Blue America members to concentrate scarce resources on races that could flip the state legislature blue and do whatever they want about Northam.OK, let's leave Virginia on the side for a moment. Look at these two, the picks of the Democratic establishment bosses in the Arizona and Nevada Senate races, two of the absolute worst Democrats in the House. (In the case of Kyrsten Simema, the worst of all.) Same dynamic as the Northam race-- supporting the lesser of two evils. I don't want to go into what pieces of crap these two are and how unfit they are for elected office-- you can read about that here and here-- and here. Or listen to Alan Grayson discussing it in a more theoretical way in this video:Why is ObamaCare so unpopular? Among sane people, it's because there is no public option. Why is there no public option? Lesser of two evils Democrats defeated it. That simple. During the battle over the public option polling predicted a 2010 landslide for the GOP is the Democrats failed to pass the public option-- a prediction that came true as dozens and dozens of Democrats were defeated, primarily the Blue Dogs and New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party who opposed the public option. The polling found that
• 68% of voters want a public health insurance option• By 5 to 1, voters want their Representative to fight to add the public option over simply passing the Senate bill• By 3 to 1, persuadable voters are less likely to vote for local Democrat if Congress doesn't pass a public option as part of reform• 55% say Democrats need to do more to fight big corporations• 56% say Democrats haven't done enough to fulfill Obama's 2008 campaign promises• 52% of Democrats less likely to vote in 2010 if Congress doesn't pass public option-- Republicans more likely
There were 39 Democrats who joined the Republicans to vote against the public option in November of 2009. Almost all were defeated or forced to retire. But the DCCC is currently recruiting the exact same kind of garbage candidates for Congress, as if they want to reenact the same disaster in 2022 that befell the Democrats in 2010. Here's the list of the anti-healthcare "lesser-of-two evils":
• John Adler (Blue Dog, NJ)- DEFEATED• Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA)- DEFEATED• Brian Baird (New Dem-WA)- RETIRED• John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA)- DEFEATED• John Boccieri (Blue Dog-OH)- DEFEATED• Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)- RETIRED• Rick Boucher (VA)- DEFEATED• Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL)- DEFEATED• Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL)- DEFEATED• Ben Chandler (Blue Dog-KY)- DEFEATED• Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS)- DEFEATED• Artur Davis (New Dem-AL)- DEFEATED/Switched to GOP• Lincoln Davis (Blue Dog-TN)- DEFEATED• Chet Edwards (TX)- DEFEATED• Bart Gordon (Blue Dog-TN)- RETIRED• Parker Griffith (Blue Dog-AL)- DEFEATED/Switch to GOP• Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (Blue Dog-SD)- DEFEATED• Tim Holden (Blue Dog-PA) DEFEATED IN PRIMARY• Larry Kissell (Blue Dog-NC)- DEFEATED• Suzanne Kosmas (Blue Dog-FL)- DEFEATED• Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD)- DEFEATED• Dennis Kucinich (contrary-OH)- DEFEATED IN PRIMARY• Betsy Markey (Blue Dog-CO)- DEFEATED• Jim Marshall (Blue Dog-GA)- DEFEATED• Eric Massa (NY)- RESIGNED• Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)- RETIRED• Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC)- RETIRED• Mike McMahon (Blue Dog-NY)- DEFEATED• Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA)- DEFEATED• Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID)- DEFEATED• Scott Murphy (Blue Dog-NY)- DEFEATED• Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA)- DEFEATED• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)• Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR)- DEFEATED• Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)- RETIRED• Ike Skelton (MO)- DEFEATED• John Tanner (Blue Dog-TN)- RETIRED• Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)- DEFEATED/Switched to GOP• Harry Teague (Blue Dog-NM)- DEFEATED
There was no reason for the Democratic base to turn out and support most of these shitheads-- so it didn't and they lost and the Democrats lost the House and... well, you know. There's a cost to allowing these conservatives pretending to be Democrats to get into Congress. So far this cycle the Blue Dogs and New Dems-- usually with the connivance of the DCCC-- are backing a large list of conservatives. Among them:
• Gretchen Driskell (MI-07)• Brad Ashford (NE-02)• Jay Hulings (TX-23)• Anthony Brindisi (NY-22)• Roger Huffstetler (VA-05)• Brendan Kelly (IL-12)• Dan McCready (NC-09)• Paul Davis (KS-02)• Dave Min (CA-45)• Hans Keirstead (CA-48)• Harley Rouda (CA-48)• Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11)• Elissa Slotkin (MI-08)• Angie Craig (MN-02)• Jana Lynne Sanchez (TX-06)
And even if you decide that a New Demo or Blue Dog is better than a Republican-- which on many things they are, even if not on many of the most important things-- this is still primary season we're talking about, when the best thing to do is to make sure progressives are nominated, not Blue Dogs and not New Dems. Here's a New York version of what I'm trying to get across: