2016 congressional races

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.

Gretchen and ShawnLate in November, WMUR reported that New Yorker Shawn O'Connor, founder and CEO of Stratus Prep, a test preparation and admissions counseling firm, had moved to New Hampshire to run for Kelly Ayotte's Senate seat. He's licensed to practice law in New York and Massachusetts, but not in New Hampshire.

Plus "Smelly Shelly" Silver update (see below)Chucky Koch, the brains of the Koch Bros. (little bro Davy, whom we see below, would be more like the sexy front guy), is seen here in 2012 in his office in Wichita."In 2014, Democrats made a concerted effort to make the Kochs into bogeymen. Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) routinely used Senate floor speeches to castigate them.

Monica Vernon-- not a progressive, barely even a Democrat but... richEx-Republican Monica Vernon officially announced that she's running for the IA-01 congressional seat-- the northeast corner of the state (Dubuque, Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, Marshalltown). It's a D+5 district that Obama won in 2008 with 58% and in 2012 with 56%.

Carol Shea-Porter, an educator and community activist, first ran for Congress in 2006. Rah Emanuel was the head of the DCCC and he wanted nothing to do with her, her grassroots supporters or her progressive ideas. He did everything he could to undercut her and ran a conventional establishment politician, state House Democratic leader Jim Craig. In a 4-way primary, Shea-Porter trounced him with a whopping 54% of the vote.

Florida's GrahamsI spoke to Gwen Graham on the day she announced she was running for Congress. I was stunned to find a candidate incapable of anything but the most superficial chit-chat, unaware or uninterested in issues and blatantly deceptive in personal approach.

The DCCC managed to lose 13 incumbents' seats and every single seat they went after held by a Republican-- with two exceptions, both right-wing Blue Dogs who are expected to vote fairly consistently with the GOP.

Robert Dold, GOP freshman in the bluest district Steve Israel managed to loseThis morning, Roll Call ran a short list of the likeliest congressional one-termers. It wasn't based on the likelihood of whacked out extremists saying something blatantly insane.

As far as we know, so far Sean Eldridge spent $4,659,027 in his failed NY-19 congressional run ($2,840,000 of which was from his personal wealth). His opponent, Chris Gibson, who spent $1,798,884, was an early DCCC target because the district has a PVI of D+1 and because Obama won the district twice, 175,800 (53%) to 150,359 (45%) against McCain and 157,279 (52%) to 138,384 (46%) against Romney.

This morning Alex Isenstadt did a provocatively titled article for Politico, The Worst Campaigns of 2014. How hard is it to point to Eric Canter's loss and laugh your ass off now? Or Pat Roberts'? Or Chris McDaniels'?