Chris Gibson

Moderate Republican Chris Gibson-- and a glance at ProgressivePunch voting records show he is the only actual moderate left among House Republicans-- won't be running for reelection in 2016. In fact, yesterday he announced that he will be retiring from Congress at the end of this term.

I don't know why the NRCC is wasting money on TV ads against Lower Manhattan multimillionaire Sean Eldridge in the Hudson Valley. You can watch it above. Eldridge will be lucky if he breaks 40% in November, very lucky. Although the district is blue and Obama won it against McCain in 2008 and against Romney in 2012, Eldridge has run a sappy, messageless campaign that's accomplishing nothing but making a bunch of slimy political consultants richer. The only publicly available polls show mediocre Republican backbencher Chris Gibson absolutely creaming him.

Sean at home in his $5 million dollar Soho loft-by Concerned Monticello DemocratAs far as campaign budgets go, Sean Eldridge has more money than God. Or, to be more precise, $3,069,179 raised so far ($1,340,000 from his own bank account); $962,959 already spent, albeit mostly wasted on over-priced consultants taking him for a ride; and $2,106,220 cash-on-hand, all as of the June 30 filing deadline.

Chuck and Sean-- haimish?Monday the New York State AFL-CIO rolled out its congressional endorsements, It endorsed all the Democrats-- almost.

After college, a whole lot of friends of mine chose to move out of NYC and raise their families in the northern Hudson Valley. The ones who moved up to Dutchess, Ulster and Columbia wound up in a quintessential swing district, NY-19. The district is 89.7% white and the median household income is $53,769, a bit below the state's $55,246.

Yesterday there was all kinds of commotion on the right from a hum drum post about Sean Eldridge firing his campaign manager and the quality of assistance his campaign gets from Steve Israel.

Chris, Nancy, SeanPoor Sean Eldridge! Well, not really… he's very rich. He married Chris Hughes, the former Harvard roommate of Mark Zuckerberg and the ultimate example of being in the right place at the right time.

This week I had dinner with Eloise Reyes, the grassroots progressive running in the CA-31 jungle primary against two conservatives: corrupt GOP incumbent Gary Miller and the DCCC recruit who lost to Miller last year, Pete Aguilar. I stay away from DC with a vengeance so I don't go out to meals with many politicians. But I talk to them on the phone all day-- usually not Republicans though.