Tomorrow is election day in New York. Reform-minded Democrats are threatening to do the impossible: upend the career of a very powerful conservative Governor, Andrew Cuomo but defeating him and his handpicked right-wing candidate for Lieutenant Gov., banking lobbyist Kathy Hochul. Cuomo-Hochul represent all the worst of an Establishment that has treated the public with disdain and contempt.
Last night when we were looking at vile DC lobbyist John Breaux, formerly a very conservative Louisiana senator, I recalled that he was a New Dem, a Wall Street-funded organization of business-oriented Democrats. It should come as no surprise that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, delights in finding anti-family Democrats and endorsing them the same way they endorse anti-family Republicans. In 2012 the Chamber of Commerce attack machine spent $27,912,717 smearing Democrats with TV and radio ads.
When Obama was using populism as a tool to beat corporate Democrat Hilary Clinton, he found NAFTA a useful weapon to use against her and to rally the Democratic base to his side. He claimed he would renegotiate NAFTA if he were elected. "Our trade agreements," he thundered, "should not just be good for Wall Street it should also be good for Main Street.
If you live Inside the Beltway instead of in America, there's a decent chance your involvement with politics centers on Team Red vs Team Blue horse races. And I'm sure that Abby Livingston from Roll Call really and truly meant it today when she tweeted this:Excluding friends and family and horse race aficionados, there is virtually no reason to be interested in the FL-02 race.
The theory is that fewer young voters, fewer minority voters, fewer single women, fewer poor people turn out for midterms. These groups tend to vote Democratic-- and the groups that do turn out-- elderly whites, more well-off people, ideologically driven extremists-- tend to vote for Republicans. There are two things Democratic candidates can do: try to win over the likely voters or try to turn out their own base in greater numbers.
The William M. Colmer Middle School is in Pascagoula, Mississippi. 46% of the students are African-Americans and 15% are Hispanic. 79% of the students are eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch program, somewhat higher than the average for Mississippi (71%). The school is named for Representative William M. Colmer who died on September 9, 1980 (age 90) and is buried at Machpelah Cemetery right their in Pascagoula.
There are so few of them left (22), that it's pretty easy to keep track of the handful of mangy Blue Dogs left in Congress. Basically the same species-- just with less overt bigotry-- the New Dems are not as well known-- unless you're on Wall Street or K Street. Here's the whole disgusting list-- in short the Republican wing of the Democratic Party inside the House of Representatives:
Today is primary day in Hawaii. Iselle hit Friday but had lost some ferocity and came in as a tropic storm. With the exception of the polling sites at Hawaii Paradise Community Center and Keone-opoko Elementray School on the Big Island, all polling sites will be open from 7AM 'til 6 PM. Hurricane Julio is also weakening slightly but may hit the Big Island tomorrow. The rare twin storms shouldn't hold down turnout in the election. And today's contests couldn't be clearer.
Yesterday we looked at what happened when a real Democrat, Michael Wager, was confronted with idiotic Republican assertions about health care reform. Conservative Republicans in Ohio and across the country opposed Social Security, opposed Medicare, opposed Medicaid and now oppose the Affordable Care Act, all as a matter of course. It's the nature of who and what they are.
Today is Jeff Merkley's money bomb. We gave you a heads up yesterday. Merkley isn't just one of the biggest success stories Blue America has had in backing a progressive because he was able to beat a Republican incumbent; that was just the beginning.
