The DCCC never seems to be very enthusiastic about targeting Republican leaders. This cycle, for example, they made sure there would be relatively strong opponents for the candidates in the districts that surround Kevin McCarthy's CA-23, while ignoring McCarthy entirely. They have no candidate opposing him, not even someone viable enough to build towards a 2020 challenge.
A couple of nights ago, Rachel Maddow did a long and interesting segment about what the Trumpist Regime does behind closed doors. The whole segment is posted above. And it's primarily about how the Trumpists are secretly moving more troops into Syria without asking for congressional approval. The decision making is behind closed doors. The second example that Maddow discusses though, is the one I want to take up today.
-by Wendy Reed, MPAAmericans appear energized for civic engagement-- in community organizations, political activity, and government offices-- but in our passion and urgency for change we must take time to do research, to evaluate facts, and to make informed choices.From the questions people ask me about my experience as a congressional candidate, I developed what I call the Three Inventories™.
CA-23 is an inland California congressional district represented by Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, this year's biggest vacuum of big money for Republican candidates around the country. He may not be doing much for the people who reside in Kern County but vulnerable Republicans everywhere are seeing a stream of money from corporate money flow their way via McCarthy. (Small pieces of northeast L.A.
Blue America endorsed Bill Ostrander in the 9 person race for the Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo CA-24 congressional seat. He ran a strong issues-oriented campaign, very much in line with Bernie's political revolution, to which he ascribed. He wasn't left standing on election night and voters in the 24th will have to pick between a garden variety careerist Democrat or a corruption-tainted GOP extremist.
The Democratic establishment insisted on pushing doddering and conservative relic Ted Strickland as the Ohio Senate nominee. Strickland was too scared to debate his young and intellectually vigorous opponent, PG Sittenfeld-- he never did-- and now he's facing a situation where he is unprepared to debate his Republican opponent, Rob Portman. In the end, Strickland beat Sittenfeld by a landslide, 720,336 to 248,776, and taking part in the series of debates-- or even one debate-- Sittenfeld challenged him to do, wouldn't have changed the outcome.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy graduated from the California Assembly to Congress in 2006 and with 71% of the vote. Two years later he had 100% and 2 years after that 99%. The DCCC has long been in the habit of giving McCarthy a free pass. In 2012 he had some token local opposition and was reelected with 73% and last time, it was the same story and a 75% win. And, no, he's not that popular. The DCCC just ignores him, the way they ignore all Republican leaders.
Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Majority Leader of the House-- still on track, if just barely, to replace John Boehner as speaker-- pissed off everyone by admitting that the purpose of the Benghazi committee was to give hyper-partisan Republicans an opportunity to smear Hillary Clinton and bring down her poll numbers. Only a complete moron didn't know that from the day the committee was proposed, but it still isn't something you're supposed to say out loud, even on Fox News.
Right-wing crackpot Daniel Webster (R-FL) was the first member of the extremist Freedom Caucus to say he wants Boehner's Speaker's gavel. He'll be the far right's sacrificial lamb against current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Oddly enough, both men are in electorally vulnerable districts. McCarthy's district, CA-23 has been solidly Republican and still officially boasts an R+16 PVI.
