DCCC

CO-06 forms a large "U" around the southern, eastern and northern suburbs of Denver. Serial DCCC incompetence has kept it in a weird status as a blue district with a Republican congressman. Obama won the district against McCain 54-45% and against Romney 52-47%. Last year, Hillary won the district 50.2% to 41.3%. Meanwhile the DCCC has managed to screw up every congressional race since Coffman was first elected in 2008.

According to his latest FEC filing at the end of March, Paul Ryan has already spent $2,586,047 this cycle and has a campaign archest of $9,399,416. Last cycle he spent $13,393,345-- against a vanity candidate the Democratic Party ignored and who spent a grand total of $16,890-- far less than the crackpot Trumpist, Paul Nehlen, who primaried Ryan from the right and spent $1,402,877.

You can't imagine how absolutely horrible the DCCC is, from top to bottom. The corruption that defines the institution alone makes it next to impossible to wish them well. And their incompetence-- and inability to learn from mistakes-- are even worse than their corruption.

One of the biggest shocks of the 2016 election was Trump winning Wisconsin. He was the first Republican to win the state since 1984 when Reagan was reelected, defeating Walter Mondale 54.19% to 45.02%. Since then, Michael Dukakis beat George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton won both times he ran, Al Gore beat George W. Bush, John Kerry beat George W.

Ben Ray Luján is a pretty mediocre and unaccomplished congressman. For a guy in a perfectly safe seat, he sure has a nothing-burger of a voting record. Progressive Punch grades him a "D"-- better than an "F," but... come on. The district gave Obama a 57.5% to 38.7% win over Romney and even a weak candidate like Clinton managed a 51.8-36.7% win over Señor Trumpanzee. The PVI is D+8.

Shockingly, the DCCC doesn't recruit union activists to run for Congress any longer; quite the contrary. They have demonstrated for over a decade that they would rather recruit an "ex"-Republican or a wealthy self-funding careerist than someone who understands the concept of worker solidarity.

That’s an old Blue America radio spot we ran against Paul Ryan at some point in the distant past. As you may know, Randy Bryce isn’t the first Democrat to go up against Ryan. In 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 Ryan's Democratic challenger was Jeffrey Thomas, a retired orthopedic surgeon from Ryan's hometown of Janesville. The Ryan-friendly Thomas' only issue for his first three runs was healthcare and he never quite cracked a third of the vote, but in 2006 he ran against Ryan's shady relationship with Republican corruptionists Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay and went all the way to 37%.

Hard to imagine, but even today 42% of Americans still prefer to see Republicans control Congress. A new poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal shows that just 50% of Americans would prefer Democrats take over Congress in 2018.

Gone-- but the stench was left behindLast week Roll Call reported that the DCCC hit a record-breaking fundraising number-- over $9.3 million in May… and that most of it came from grassroots contributions.

The Dream Team-- for the GOP at leastI gradually stopped being a fan of Nancy Pelosi’s. I went from an admirer to a detractor primarily because of how she ran the DCCC-- an utter catastrophe for Democrats-- and because she imperiously declared an impeachment investigation of Bush was “off the table” after the Democrats won back the House.