The screenshot above is from ProgressivePunch. It shows where the 9 worst Democrats meet a bunch of Republicans who sometimes stand up to Trump. The worst of the Democrats-- Blue Dogs Jeff Van Drew (NJ), Joe Cunningham (SC), Anthony Brindisi (NY) and Kendra Horn (OK) vote far more frequently with the GOP than with the Democrats on crucial roll calls.
In her introductory video (above), Lauren Ashcroft noted that "in 2018 there was a wave of nominations that changed what we thought was possible. People who were funded entirely by small dollars. They got loud and stood up for their principles against all odds. These are not the people who play it safe. These are the people who are making it safer for us. They were the first wave. I'm part of the next."Lauren is running in a deep blue district (NY-12) that spans parts of 3 NYC boroughs-- Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.
Barton left because of sex molestation charges, Walden just wants to get away from TrumpGreg Walden isn't really a nut; he's a mainstream conservative who has risen high in the ranks of the House GOP. And he announced yesterday that he's retiring from Congress next year.-- the 19th House Republican who is looking forward to not having Trump in their lives. He's Oregon's only Republican federal official.
PVIs are backward looking and are rarely up to date. Take CA-25, the district represented by Katie Hill, Officially the PVI is "even" but the Santa Clarita Valley-Antelope Valley-Simi Valley district is way bluer than that would indicate. Obama won it narrowly against McCain and then lost it narrowly against Romney. Hillary beat Trump convincingly-- 50.3% to 43.6%. Blue America has been working to flip this district for well over a decade.
Pretty much everyone I know agrees that history will judge the Trump enablers in Congress harshly, very harshly. But I don't know Ken Starr. Yesterday on Fox News' American Newsroom, Starr asserted that history-- which already judges him harshly for his failed attempt to railroad Bill Clinton out of office-- will judge congressional Democrats harshly.
Robert Emmons is running for the South Side Chicago seat (IL-01) occupied by entrenched, corrupt careerist Bobby Rush. A grassroots activist without a rolodex that rains money, Emmons is doing his best to raise campaign cash the old-fashioned way, explaining why he has something to offer to the voters in his district. He sent this one out yesterday, under the subject line The price of your zip code?
Daniel Marans put a bunch of statements by AOC together and wrote a post asserting she wants a bigger Squad. Are there dues and a secret handshake like The Blue Dogs and New Dems have? Will it be a side project of the Congressional Progressive Caucus that eventually swallows up that everyone-welcome caucus?
Winter (left) and Carlucci (right-wing... very)How about we start with the good news first for a change? A few weeks ago Montana state Rep Tom Winter penned a guest post and shot an iPhone video for this blog.
Not normal: Federal Judge Sallie Kim held Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in contempt of court for violating an order to stop collecting loan payments from former students of scam colleges. Kim fined Education Department $100,000 for violating the preliminary injunction.
