Tuesday, Blue America endorsed Tom Guild, the very grassroots progressive Democrat in Oklahoma City running an uphill battle against radical right extremist James Lankford.
Reactionary Arizona New Dem, Kyrsten Sinema is one of the half dozen most conservative Democrats in Congress. Her voting record on crucial roll calls is worse than even Blue Dogs Mike McIntyre's and Jim Matheson's, who both represent deep red districts (unlike her own). She votes more frequently with the GOP than even fellow Arizona ConservaDems Ann Kirkpatrick and Ron Barber. Unquestionably, she deserves to lose her seat next year.
Howard Coble first won his North Carolina congressional seat in 1984, narrowly beating a freshman Democrat by riding Ronald Reagan's formidable coattails. The rematch in '86 was even tighter but Coble won, 72,329 to 72,250... 79 votes! Coble, a pretty mainstream conservative has never had a close call again. The longest-serving congressmember in North Carolina history, no opponent has ever reached 40% against him.
Reactionary Blue Dogs Jim Matheson, Mike McIntyre and John Barrow are often excused for voting consistently when the Republicans even on the most basic and crucial Democratic principles, because of the right-wing nature of their districts. Nick Rahall isn't as anti-worker as the other three, nor as much of a corporate whore as they are, but he gets the same pass for voting with the GOP and for the same reasons. Matheson has the reddest district in the country held by a Democrat-- a PVI of R+16-- and Obama only managed to win 30% of the vote in his brainwashed Utah district.
The DCCC has recruited a candidate to run in Michigan's first congressional district. Who knows where ex-Kalkaska County Sheriff (1987) and retired Army Major General, commander of the Joint Detention Operations Group at Guantánamo Bay gulag, Jerry Cannon, stands on any issues? He has a protypical DCCC-style website with absolutely no information about any policies or political stands. He doesn't even indicate he's a Democrat.
Electing rich Republicans and New Dems won't help-- quite the contraryRecently I asked a very plausible candidate running for Congress why the DCCC wasn't helping him raise money. He told me that they wanted him to raise $500,000 by himself first and that then they'd revisit the discussion. Do you know enough people in raise $500,000 to run for Congress?
Not the path to victory in 2014... or everThe National Memo lists 5 reasons Republicans are beginning to worry they could lose the House in 2014. The reasons are sound. But...
I've noticed a disturbing pattern since "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel took over the DCCC. He consistently leaves bluer districts on the table and goes after impossibly red ones if he has a Blue Dog or New Dem running in the redder district. He would rather expend treasure on re-stocking the House Democratic caucus with reactionaries and corporate whores like himself than see a progressive win a seat.
Carl Sciortino with Ed Markey on election dayLast night, Alan Grayson (D-FL) endorsed Carl Sciortino for Congress, the progressive in a tight 5-way primary to replace Ed Markey. He joins People for the American Way, Blue America and all the Massachusetts LGBT and progressive organizations who have already endorsed.
Not even factoring in Pelosi saddling the DCCC with the most incompetent loser in the organization's inglorious history, the midterms are all set up for a Republican triumph. Conventional wisdom will point out that the president's party "always" loses the midterm following a second term victory and that Obama's popularity is sinking fast-- among Democrats as well as others.
