Don't forget Kara... and Amy McGrathAfter her defeat Tuesday--even before the official runoff tally was announced-- Houston progressive candidate Laura Moser was urging her supporters to get behind her opponent, Lizzie Fletcher. And, in fact, Blue America had originally endorsed Jason Westin in that district but when Laura knocked him off the ballot, we immediately, even happily, endorsed her.How about in Chicago, where Blue Dog Dan Lipinski-- an anti-Choice, anti-gay Republican masquerading as a "Democrat?" Are we supposed to unify behind him now? Tuesday one of my favorite candidates, Lillian Salerno, lost the Dallas race she was fighting with Colin Allred. I would have loved to have seen her in Congress. It would have helped the whole country. I don't see Allred doing much of anything for anyone. But I don't see him as evil either. I'm not going to contribute any money to him but if I lived in the district I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to vote for him against far right and very corrupt Republican Pete Sessions.Tim Canova was defeated-- if you call being cheated "defeated-- by Debbie Wasserman Schultz. I doubt anyone who reads DWT to ever imagine anything would get me to vote for her. In fact, I immediately called Canova and begged him to run again. When he did, I contributed to his campaign... several times.I don't notice the DCCC getting behind the progressives who are beating their conservative primaries-- practicing what they preach-- and I sense it's a one way street. They want progressives to back their shitty corrupt conservative candidates but don't think they should back the primary winners who they didn't get behind. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Last week the grassroots progressive Kara Eastman beat a putrid DCCC Blue Dog, Brad Ashford in Omaha. Ashford, an ultra-conservative "ex"-Republican had already been in Congress and was rejected by NE-02 voters and defeated after one miserable term of him voting with the Republicans and against working families. But he's who the pig-headed party bosses wanted. Then this happened:
• Kara Eastman- 20,239 (51.43%)• Brad Ashford- 19,113 (48.57%)
The DCCC immediately removed Ashford from their Red-to-Blue list. But they didn't replace him with Kara. Why's that? They've been crowing all cycle that NE-02 was one of the most flippable seats in the country. But not for a progressive? Not for a woman? No for someone with an independent mind? What's their problem? They're always winning about the money. But, as of the April 25 FEC reporting deadline-- and with their help-- Ashford had spent $397,194 and Kara has spent $284,880. But she won anyway. Does that mean she knew how to spend her money more wisely? Does it mean that her volunteer army is worth more than corporate money? Or should we look at what Pelosi had to say back in February when she barged in on the editors of the Austin American-Statesman and started babbling away about how the DCCC decides which candidates to back and which to abandon? Jonathan Tilove called it her "cold-blooded to Democratic primary voters." Pelosi:
[C]andidates know, this is almost like a competition. They have to do their share. This isn’t an entitlement program. We need people to run, oh you’re good, you look good for the district, here’s the money, No, they have to work. How do you connect with your constituents? That’s the most important thing. First of all, it’s would you win, but even before that, chronologically, show how you are going to represent them. How are you going know them, how are they going to know you....Forgive me for using this word, you have to be very cold-blooded about how you make these decisions about the races because everybody’s so great, but one in five children lives in poverty in America and we have to have our best fighters go out there to win....We have to be cold-blooded in what we do. In other words, if the wrong person wins-- well nobody’s wrong-- but if the person who can’t win, wins, it’s not a priority race for us anymore, because we’ve got 100 races.
Maybe if Pelosi and the DCCC and the establishment Democrats really did know which duly nominated primary winner can and can't win, they would not have lost hundreds of seats at every level of government over the last decade. Maybe if the DCCC stuck to using their resources to fighting Republicans and not to fighting progressives and grassroots candidates the Democrats would be in better shape today. I wonder if that thought ever crosses Pelosi's mind. I sincerely doubt it. I what kind of Democratic leaders are coming up behind her. She has certainly failed in nurturing a next generation of leaders. No one could be worse than Joe Crowley, reportedly her pick to run the Democratic caucus. He's even worse than Stenchy Hoyer-- and as bad as Wasserman Schultz. Where does it say in the rule book that the Democrats can't get behind someone younger and better suited to the newer century-- men and women like Ted Lieu, Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, Jamie Raskin, Mark Pocan?