2018 congressional races

Perhaps you noticed that Blue America is raising campaign contributions for Denver progressive Saira Rao this week.

Alan Blinder and Alexander Burns noticed-- the DCCC has been recruiting right-of-center Democrats to run for Congress. They call them "moderates" (which they're not) and celebrate the re-emergence of the Blue Dogs, who brought the party low in 2010, when grassroots Democrats refused to vote for them, handing the House majority to the GOP.

Maybe you don't believe that Ryan fled from the field of battle when he noticed that Randy Bryce's @IronStache momentum was leaving him with no pathway to reelection. And maybe you believe that the Speaker of the House decided he really needed to be home in Janesville 7 days a week so he could spend the next few years teaching little Sammy and Charlie how to kill animals with bows and arrows.

Even though Bob Borosage is a Beltway person, he's a very smart guy. I know him from our work at the Progressive Majority Political Action Committee and I noticed that he always knew what he was talking about. He's a contributing editor at The Nation and he does an excellent job there.

I don't know how this is going to turn out Tuesday-- but I feel strongly enough that Stenchy and Ben Ray are compulsive liars that I'm willing to risk a grand on it. Here's how this all started-- an e-mail from Levi Tillemann, the progressive candidate running in the suburban Denver district (CO-06) currently held by conservative Republican Mike Coffman.

Denver is not a swing district. Obama won it by double digit margins both times he ran and in 2016 Hillary beat Trump there 69-23%. The PVI is a healthy D+21. And in the 2016 caucus Bernie won 14,624 (54.4%) to 12,,097 (45.0%).

Dan Canon would have been a game-changer in Congress. But on Tuesday Democratic primary voters in southern Indiana decided to nominate a garden variety Democrat-- not a bad person as far as I can tell-- from DC who's friends with all the DC people. Well, they lost an opportunity... and so did we all. Up top and below were the meager efforts Blue America did to try to help at the very end of a wonderfully inspired campaign.

When people wanted to think Trump could turn into a normal president after the election-- fools-- there was speculation that he would put together an awesome, historic, bipartisan infrastructure plan that would unite the country. Instead, Trump, Ryan and McConnell decided to go for the tax scam for GOP donors, something that certainly killed any chance for a significant infrastructure effort.

Many outsiders tend to think of Nebraska as another hopeless red ink state. But it's not. The Omaha-based 2nd district is a nice normal all-American swing district. In 2012 Obama won narrowly; in 2012 Romney won narrowly and in 2016 Trump beat Hillary 48.2 to 46.0%. The PVI is R+4. The current congressman is Republican Don Bacon, who beat Blue Dog Democrat (an "ex"-Republican himself) Brad Ashford, in 2016.

One of California's most conservative Dems, Scott Peters, endorses his rich funder, Paul KerrAccording to OpenSecrets.org, this cycle's half dozen worst self-funders-- at least so far-- include 5 Democrats-- and 4 of this 5 are running ing in Orange County.