Ryan learned everything he knows about economics from an adolescent Ayn Rand bookIt looks likely that Paul Ryan will announce his retirement from Congress close to Wisconsin’s June 1 filing deadline. There are rumors circulating that he’s selected Tom Hillman, his former aide and now an investment banker in Madison, as the sacrificial lamb.
On Wednesday evening we talked about Randy Bryce’s powerful platform on immigration issues. One was a very controversial call to abolish ICE… something the DCCC advises its candidates to stay away from.
If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you’re probably aware that one of the (many) bones of contention we have with the DCCC, is over platforms. They urge their candidates to hide their positions, either not including issues pages on their websites at all or, if they must, to avoid all controversial topics. Their strive for bland reiterations of mom-and-apple pie, bio-oriented statements.
WI-01, Paul Ryan’s district was never a solid red district. Obama even won it the first time he ran. It was always a swing district that Pelosi and the DCCC allowed-- aggressively allowed-- Ryan to retain… and retain unchallenged. It’s been driving me nut for a decade and Blue America had been looking for candidates to runnfor many years.
After publicly humiliating VA Secretary David Shulkin and letting him twist in the wind for a week or two, as rumors swirled that he's on the way out-- just like Trump is doing to John Kelly and Ben Carson right now-- Señor T finally tweeted Wednesday that Shulkin, the only Trump cabinet appointee who had been confirmed by the Senate 100-0, was out.
Progressive candidates are starting to rollout impressive environmental platforms. Two of the greatest hopes for a stronger progressive future in Congress are Kaniela Ing in Hawaii and Rand Bryce in Wisconsin. Both have impressive plans that will make up for Trumpanzee's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accords-- and then some. Let's start with Kaniela's 7-point plan, which he calls the most aggressive/progressive plan for climate action in the nation:
Remember a couple weeks ago there was an amazing legislative seat flip in Kentucky? Democrat Linda Belcher beat Rebecca Johnson for the open state House seat (49th district). On February 20th, Belcher won 68.4% to 31.6% in a district Trump had won 72% to 23% (and which Romney had won 66-33%). That's a really red district and Belcher's 45-point improvement on Hillary’s performance was engineered by a legendary Kentucky political figure, Mike Ward. Ward was Belcher's campaign manager.
Many Republicans seem more aggressively opposed to Trump's protectionist plans-- the steel and aluminum tariffs-- than quite a few Democrats. Thursday night, Chris Hayes had iron worker and progressive candidate Randy Bryce and DEMOS Action president Heather McGee on his MSNBC show to discuss the tariffs. Bryce's Republican opponent, Paul Ryan, has come out against the tariffs. Bryce agreed that protecting American industry and jobs have the potential to be good policy-- but not the way Trump is going about it.
Right after his wildly successful rally in Racine over the weekend with Bernie Sanders, Randy Bryce released his economic platform for southeast Wisconsin. Bryce is a long-time union organizer and serves as the head of the Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce. He-- as union activists across the country-- were especially roiled by yesterday's decision by the Supreme Court to hear arguments in Janus v.
