2018 congressional races

Randy Bryce by Nancy OhanianL.A. and New York are towns with lots of celebrities. It's an unspoken rule-- you leave them alone. You don't bother celebrities at a club or shop or restaurant or on the street in either city.

So who is Patrick Karlsson? No really... who is he (or who are they)? If he were a person, he would be a superman who doesn't need any sleep and who would "automatically" tweet as soon as someone would say anything positive about Laura Moser (like "Patrick Karlsson"-- not a Swede-- does). About 3 or 4 days before the primary, he popped up and went on the warpath against Moser. A pseudonym for Ben Ray Lujan or Nancy Pelosi? Nah.

The Republicans suddenly decided that the investigation into Putin-Gate is over and that Trump and Putin didn't do anything wrong. Pretty horrifying that these people are attempting a white-wash and putting Trump ahead of America.

Remember a couple weeks ago there was an amazing legislative seat flip in Kentucky? Democrat Linda Belcher beat Rebecca Johnson for the open state House seat (49th district). On February 20th, Belcher won 68.4% to 31.6% in a district Trump had won 72% to 23% (and which Romney had won 66-33%). That's a really red district and Belcher's 45-point improvement on Hillary’s performance was engineered by a legendary Kentucky political figure, Mike Ward. Ward was Belcher's campaign manager.

CA-45 is the heart of Orange County. It includes Irvine, Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, Rancho Santa Margarita... Villa Park and the Anaheim Hills in the north and Coto De Caza in the south. But it doesn't include the home of Mimi Walters, the congresswoman who was elected in 2014.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Steny Hoyer has been an enthusiastic, full-throated supporter of anti-Choice, ant-immigrant, anti-healthcare, anti-LGBTQ fake-Dem Dan Lipinski all along. Hoyer's slimy money laundering operation AmeriPAC, gave Lipinski $5,000 immediately (at around the same time the GOP PAC, Susan B. Anthony List gave Lipinski $6,200.) Pelosi's backing for the bigoted right-winger was slightly more surprising.

The video above is how most New Jersey voters got to know Jim Keady. Now he's running for Congress, in the district Republican Chris occupies.Chris Smith (R-NJ) is an anti-Choice fanatic; other than that, though-- and I emphasize FANATIC-- he seems as much a moderate Democrat as a Republican. His voting record is a lot like New Jersey Blue Dog's Josh Gottheimer. He's been representing the 4th district since 1980. The district is mostly made up of Monmouth County but includes some of Ocean and some of Mercer as well.

Sam Jammal is in a very tough race in northeast Orange County (CA-39). The district is ripe for a red to blue switch-- Hillary beat Trump 51.5% to 42.9% (and people hate him more now than they did then); the PVI went from R+5 to dead even; and the long time GOP incumbent, Ed Royce, saw the writing on the wall and announced his retirement. But...

Reminder: today is March 9, The Illinois primaries are Match 20. And unlike the Texas primaries Tuesday, there are no runoffs. These are for keeps. The other day, we ran a guest post by Tony Sterbenc about a young progressive, Ryan Huffman, running in the crowded IL-06 primary for the Democratic nomination to take on vulnerable Republican Pete Roskam.

Before TX-21 Republican Lamar Smith announced his retirement, there were at least 9 candidates running for the Democratic nomination in the district. One, Tom Wakely, decided to run for governor. Another, Chris Perri, decided to run in an adjacent district-- TX-25, which also has a chunk of Austin, and he came in first of 5 candidates and now faces a primary runoff with Julle Oliver May 22.