Republicans are afraid that unless their nominee wins a couple of blue states, they're doomed to another painful Electoral College defeat. New Jersey voters have made it clear that there's no way their governor, Chris Christie, will get their votes. Most New Jersey voters say he's unfit to be president.
CA-44 is a newly-drawn congressional district in Los Angeles, 70% Hispanic and made up of neighborhoods and towns like Willowbrook, Compton, Rancho Dominguez, South Gate, Lynwood, Carson, Wilmington, and San Pedro. The Member of Congress is Janice Hahn, who is leaving the House to run for County Supervisor. The CA-44 PVI is D+32. The area gave McCain 16% of its vote in 2008 and then 14% to Romney in 2010.
With Tammy Duckworth running for Mark Kirk's Senate seat, in the IL-08 district just northwest of Chicago (Schaumburg, Elgin, Carpentersville, Carol Stream, Hoffman Estates, Elk Grove Village, Bloomingdale)-- PVI D+8-- there's a rare opportunity to replace a careerist-centrist with a populist activist.
The DCCC has one skill-- losing congressional racesLast February we explained that the "new" Luján-run DCCC threw in the towel on the Staten Island congressional race even faster than the DCCC usually gives up. NY-11 is Michael Grimm's old seat, which has a growing Democratic edge. In 2008 Obama lost to McCain, 51-48%, but four years later Obama beat Romney 52-47%, a pretty significant swing.
FL-18 voters should be able to improve upon thisThere's a good chance Alan Grayson is going to run for the Florida Senate seat currently occupied by Marco Rubio. In fact, Blue America is encouraging him to do just that. Having Grayson in the Senate could be transformative not just for Florida but for the whole country...
As usual-- and as expected-- the DCCC is re-recruiting all kinds of loser candidates to run in 2016 with promises that it will be a good year for Democrats. First and foremost Denny Heck's right-of-center Recruitment Committee is looking for New Dems and Blue Dogs, the worst garbage the Democratic Party has to offer.
Ready to fight-- I mean really fight? To fight the good fight against the oligarchs and predators? The fight to save American democracy? For real? Meet Alex Law, the progressive candidate running against the venal Norcross Machine in South Jersey (Camden, Cherry Hill, the Philly suburbs across the Delaware River, all the way down past Glassboro to Winslow Township on the Atlantic City Expressway). When Law announced he's taking on Donald Norcross, he pointed out: "In South Jersey, we are missing people in government that have a true passion for helping people.
Maybe Aaron Schock's congressional seat isn't as safe as we've been saying it is. The seat was redrawn in 2010 by the Democratic Illinois legislature to concentrate Republicans in one district in order to make IL-13 and IL-17 safe for Democrats.
Maryland State Senator Jamie RaskinEveryone is looking at the scramble among Maryland Democrats to replace Barbara Mikulski in the U.S. Senate. But do you recall what happened when a bunch of House incumbents in Georgia found out that Saxby Chambliss had decided to retire from the Senate? 7 Republican congressmen started rumbling over the seat. In the end Tom Price, Rob Woodall, Lynn Westmoreland and Austin Scott decided-- wisely-- to back away.
