2014 congressional races

You probably saw the whole McConnell kerfuffle this week when he admitted the Republicans plan to shut down the government if they keep control of the House and win control of the Senate in November. Republicans with pretensions to national office and some aura of being part of the mainstream, were having coronaries.

It's been nearly a year since Move On, in the wake of the Republican government shut down, polled dozens of competitive congressional districts in Republican-held districts across the country asking, among other inquiries, these two questions:

Chuck and Sean-- haimish?Monday the New York State AFL-CIO rolled out its congressional endorsements, It endorsed all the Democrats-- almost.

One week from today is primary run-off day for both parties for OK-05, the open seat centered on Oklahoma City (+ Edmond, Shawnee and Seminole). Right-wing extremist James Lankford gave up the seat so he could run for Tom Coburn's Senate seat. The last Democrat to hold that seat was John Jarman, a reactionary who switched to the Republican party in 1975, claiming the Democrats were "too liberal." Before he jumped the fence the district had been a Democratic Party bastion since the GOP caused the Great Depression.

During the primary for Henry Waxman's congressional seat (the legendary CA-33-- Malibu, Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Venice, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Bel Air, Brentwood, Rancho Palos Verdes, Marina del Rey, El Segundo), Blue America did a first-ever dual endorsement.

The 1st idiot to run the DCCC, James Rood Doolittle, and the current incompetent, Steve IsraelThe DCCC started in 1866 and the first chairman set the tone for the impossibly incompetent organization House Democrats depend on today. Chairman #1, James Rood Doolittle of Wisconsin, didn't quite know what he was politically.

Iowa, a swing state, has swung light blue in recent years. Bill Clinton won both times. Al Gore beat Bush in 2000. Obama won both times as well, 54-44% against McCain and 52-46% against Romney. The Democats control the state Senate and the GOP holds the state House. Party registration shows 689,794 Democrats (32.0%), 672,308 Republicans (31.2%) and 792,363 (36.8%) independents and others.The only really conservative congressional district in the state, is IA-04, home to one of Congress' most outspoken racists, Steve King.

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.

Tom Petri has been the most mainstream of Wisconsin's 5 conservative congressmen. First elected in 1979, he's generally considered a "moderate" in Congress and has been part of Steve Israel's Center Aisle caucus of Blue Dogs and mainstream Republicans. This has also guaranteed that he wouldn't face any serious challenges from Democrats while Israel ran the DCCC.

There isn't much good the Democrats can say about Domenic Recchia, their "business-oriented" candidate to replace Staten Island mafia figure Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm. The 20 criminal indictments against Grimm have caused the national Republican Establishment to abandon him and write off his seat. But Staten Island Republicans don't know what all the fuss is about.