Speaker Boehner beats French teacher WintereggLast night there were primaries in Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina. Unless you're related to one of the candidates, there was nothing to write home about in Indiana but there was a lot of action in Ohio and North Carolina. Well, a lot in North Carolina and a bit in Ohio.
Tuesday is election day in Ohio. Yes, this Tuesday. And one of the most important races for progressives is in the extreme northeast corner of the state between Cleveland and the Pennsylvania border, CD-14. The Blue America candidate there is Michael Wager and he's up against two Republicans. Republican David Joyce is the incumbent. He's a mainstream conservative fighting for survival against a bizarre far right extremist, state Rep. Matt Lynch.
Who has a worse makeup job? Ohio's 6th congressional district is redder than the state of Ohio. It's whiter, poorer and less educated. The state is 82.9% white and OH-06 is 95.3% white, the whitest in the state. Ohio's medium household income is $45,749 and the district's is $41,355. Only 11.7% of Ohioans didn't graduate from high school. In OH-o6 that number is 14%.
More dysfunction at the DCCCUsually when Steve Israel recruit Jennifer Garrison makes the news it's about her anti-LGBT mania, her anti-Choice advocacy or her w
We've written a few posts here and there about Steve Israel's worst recruit of the 2014 cycle, Jennifer Garrison, an anti-Choice, anti-environment, homophobic fanatic who has been embraced by the DC Blue Dogs and by others from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.
If you go over Ohio state Rep. Matt Lynch's record, you might be moved to ask, "how the hell did an extremist and fanatic like that get elected to office anywhere. Well, that would be a good question, since Lynch was appointed to his seat, a seat that Richard Hollington, Matt Dolan, Tim Grendell all resigned from in the last couple of years, Hollington twice. And now Lynch wants to abandon the Geauga County legislative seat as well, to run against Republican Congressman David Joyce in the May 6 primary. Geauga is, by far, the reddest county in OH-14.
This morning, Quinnipiac released a poll that shows Americans continue to view Democrats in Congress as the lesser of two evils, with a negative 30 - 60% approval rating, compared to a negative 18 - 73% score for Republicans. 46% want Democrats to take over the House, while 45% want GOP control.
This morning, President Obama gave the above weekly address about strengthening overtime pay protections. It isn't complicated and shouldn't be controversial. "What every American wants," he summed up, "is a paycheck that lets them support their families, know a little economic security, and pass down some hope and optimism to their kids." It's less than 3 minutes long-- and even a Republican congressman should be able to understand it. John Boehner tasked one of his dullest backbenchers, Ohio Republican Bill Johnson, to respond to the president.
Over the weekend, Marilou Johanek took apart the Ohio Republicans' elaborate excuses for strangling voters' access to the polls and concluded that it's just plain old voter suppression.
