Steve Israel sock puppet, Ben Ray Luján, announced the names of the first 14 incumbents who will be eligible for massive amounts reelection money through the DCCC's Frontline program. 13 of them are from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party and almost all are either Blue Dogs and/or New Dems. They all vote with Republicans against core Democratic principles and values and have a rough time getting voters to bother coming to the polls. This is the whole list, although at least another dozen are likely to be added in the coming months:
• Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)• Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog/New Dem-AZ)• Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)• Julia Brownley (New Dem-CA)• Pete Aguilar (New Dem-CA)• Raul Ruiz (CA)• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)• Gwen Graham (Blue Dog/New Dem-FL)• Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL)• Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL)• Rick Nolan (MN)• Brad Ashford (Blue Dog/New Dem-NE)• Ann Kuster (New Dem-NH)• Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY)
This list correlates very well with ProgressivePunch's crucial lifetime vote scores. Among all House Democrats, the two worst voters have been Gwen Graham and Brad Ashford, each with an abysmal 12.5-- tied with 5 Republicans and worse than 18 other Republicans. Ironic that the DCCC is likely to be spending money trying to save seats for reactionaries like Graham and Ashford while campaigning against Republicans who vote more inline with a progressive agenda!But the abysmal voting records don't stop with Graham and Ashford. The whole list is pocked with DINOs. The two next worst Dems in the House-- Kysten Sinema (36.36) and Sean Patrick Maloney (39.33)-- also find themselves in need of massive cash infusions from the DCCC. Also at the very bottom of the bucket: Cheri Bustos (44.02), Raul Ruiz (45.53), Patrick Murphy (45.76), Ann Kirkpatrick (49.86), Scott Peters (50.42) and Ami Bera (50.84.)Before you contribute any money to the quest by Israel and Luján to build a more conservative Democratic House caucus, think about what's behind those DCCC letters that flood your inbox. These Members vote against what working families want and need-- so working families, sensibly, don't want to vote for them. The Members hope they can make up for the deficit by appealing to conservative voters-- Bustos, Murphy, Nolan, Maloney, Graham, Ashford, for example, all voted for the GOP Keystone XL Pipeline proposal this week-- although conservative voters are usually happy enough voting for their own Republican candidates. That helps explain why in a low voter turnout year, Republicans got 39,890,210 votes and Democrats only got 35,439,652. (OMG-- it wasn't only evil GOP gerrymanderers after all, was it?) And that's why 8 conservative Democratic incumbents from last year's Frontline List-- Ron Barber (Blue Dog-AZ), Joe Garcia (New Dem-FL), John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Brad Schneider (New Dem-IL), Bill Enyart (IL), Dan Maffei (New Dem-NY), Pete Gallego (Blue Dog-TX), and Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV) were defeated despite millions and millions of wasted DCCC dollars.The NRCC also announced who they reckon their dozen weakest incumbents are, all, except David Valadao, freshmen who barely won their 2014 races:
• Martha McSally (AZ)- R+3• David Valadao (CA)- D+2• Carlos Curbelo (FL)- R+1• Robert Dold (IL)- D+8• Mike Bost (IL)- even PVI• David Young (IA)- even PVI• Bruce Poliquin (ME)- D+2• Frank Guinta (NH)- R+1• Cresent Hardy (NV)- D+4• Lee Zeldin (NY)- R+2• John Katko (NY)- D+5• Will Hurd (TX)- R+3
Steve Stivers, head of the NRCC's "Patriot Program," must have been drunk when he left Rod Blum (IA), John Mica (FL), and David Jolly (FL)-- all in blue districts-- off that list. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL) belongs on there too but the GOP knows Debbie Wasserman Schultz won't allow any Democrat to seriously contest that seat.Florida Blue Dog Gwen Graham already has the worst voting record of any Democrat in Congress
