mystery meat candidates

Many of the Democrats who lost their seats-- or nearly lost their seats-- Tuesday had nothing to offer voters, which helps explain why voters stayed away. DCCC Chair Steve Israel had a purposeful "mystery meat" strategy for his collection of lousy candidates-- almost all of whom lost. That excuse for a strategy calls for candidates to say nothing controversial that might make someone (like a Republican) not want to vote for them.

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

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.

Amanda RenteriaA few months ago, an old friend was raving to me about a woman he had worked with at the Treasury Department, Amanda Renteria. She's running for the Central Valley seat currently occupied by mainstream conservative Republican David Valadao. CA-21 stretches from just south and west of Fresno, down through Hanford and Delano to Bakersfield, which it shares with Kevin McCarthy's 23rd CD. McCarthy's deep red district has a PVI of R+16 and Romney beat Obama there 62-36%.

2 GrahamsExactly a month over a year ago, a friend of mine suggested I get to know Bob Graham's daughter, Gwen, just as she was announcing that she would run for the Tallahassee-based House seat (FL-02) occupied by undertaker and teabagger Steve Southerland.

Poor Sean Eldridge is getting blamed for Steve Israel's "Mystery Meat Strategy." He and his husband, Chris Hughes, have contributed so much money to Steve Israel's corrupt enterprise that, surely, he deserves better.

The Steve Israel "Mystery Meat strategy" precludes DCCC recruitment for many state legislators. Israel doesn't want candidates with voting records, and especially not candidates with records of leadership on cutting edge issues.

Tuesday is primary day in Illinois and progressive George Gollin's insurgent campaign in IL-13 won two big endorsements yesterday. Early in the morning the biggest local paper, the Champaign News-Gazette came in for him, following the lead of the other two most read newspapers in the district, the Chicago Tribune and Springfield's State Journal-Register.

This afternoon, New Mexico Democrat Leslie Endean-Singh ended her race to be the Democratic nominee against right-wing extremist Stevan Pearce. She graciously left the field to DCCC recruit Rocky Lara, another one of Steve Israel's "mystery meat" candidates who stands for nothing much and will inspire as many voters as Alex Sink did last night. Endean-Singh, running a totally positive campaign, never adequately made the case about why the centrist Lara isn't a winning choice for New Mexico Democrats.