Illinois has more than its share of conservative Democrats in Congress with a tendency to back Republican legislative priorities and to show more sympathy for the desires of Big Business campaign donors than for ordinary working families. According to ProgressivePunch, the 4 Illinois Democrats with the most right-wing voting records-- from bad to worse-- are
• Tammy Duckworth- 64.91• Dan Lipinski- 59.53• Bill Foster- 55.35• Cheri Bustos- 43.97
Worse yet, 3 of the 4-- scratch Lipinski-- are angling for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Senator Mark Kirk in 2016.All 4 represent Democratic-leaning districts that Obama won in 2008 and won again in 2012. Cheri Bustos' district, for example, has a PVI of D+7, gave Obama a 60-39% win over McCain and a 57-41% win over Romney. A major beneficiary of the Democratic legislature's gerrymandering, Bustos rode Obama's coattails into office in 2012, beating GOP incumbent Bobby Schilling 53-47%. She didn't advertise herself as a reactionary Democrat who would back Republicans more frequently than progressives, but she soon joined the Blue Dogs and began compiled one of the worst voting records of any Democrat in Congress. So far this session, her ProgressivePunch crucial vote score is an abysmal 33.33, voting with the GOP, for example, to deregulate Wall Street and to pass the Keystone XL Pipeline. In November she beat Schilling again, this time 55.2- 44.8%.Wednesday, DCCC chairman Ben Ray Luján appointed Bustos DCCC vice-chair of making sure Blue Dogs get backing-- second in command after Denny Heck, a conservative New Dem, at the DCCC's recruitment committee. Showing no understanding of her political career, Luján said, she "knows what it takes to win a swing district in any political climate. Cheri will bring the experience of winning tough races to the job as she helps us recruit candidates across the country who will fight to strengthen the middle class economy." Sounds nice but none of that is related to any kind of substantive reality. Heck and Bustos are looking to recruit reactionary political hacks-- just like themselves.
