congressional recruitment

CO-06 forms a large "U" around the southern, eastern and northern suburbs of Denver. Serial DCCC incompetence has kept it in a weird status as a blue district with a Republican congressman. Obama won the district against McCain 54-45% and against Romney 52-47%. Last year, Hillary won the district 50.2% to 41.3%. Meanwhile the DCCC has managed to screw up every congressional race since Coffman was first elected in 2008.

If this is the vision of the Democratic Party going forward, we might as well start a new party todayHillary's worst performing states-- the half dozen where she didn't manage to get even 30% of the vote-- were all states that Bernie won in the primaries.

Shockingly, the DCCC doesn't recruit union activists to run for Congress any longer; quite the contrary. They have demonstrated for over a decade that they would rather recruit an "ex"-Republican or a wealthy self-funding careerist than someone who understands the concept of worker solidarity.

Lottery winner Gilbert CisnerosYesterday’s Democratic operative quote of the day was "We no longer have a party caucus capable of riding this wave. We have 80-year-old leaders and 90-year-old ranking members. This isn't a party. It's a giant assisted living center. Complete with field trips, gym, dining room and attendants." I would just add that the younger leaders-in-waiting are even worse-- much worse than the ones on their way out.

Today’s the day in GA-06. The most recent poll shows Ossoff up but within the margin of error, as most polls have shown. This one has Ossoff winning with 49.7% to Handel’s 48.0%, despite Ryan and Trump pouting tens of millions of dollars into the race. Many see the race as a referendum on Trump. 91% of Ossoff voters have an unfavorable opinion him and 78% of Handel voters have a favorable opinion.

I thought that Denny Heck and Cheri Bustos, respectively, the chair and vic-chair of the DCCC recruitment committee, had the worst idea ever when they tried to recruit corrupt conservative party boy Patrick Murphy to run for the open Miami seat that is being abandoned by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

The other day, Axios asserted that Republicans are getting nervous about Democratic House recruitment, implying-- incorrectly, of course, that the DCCC is recruiting top quality candidates. I bet I'm more nervous about their recruiting than House Republicans are, and for the opposite reason.

People need to remember something important. While we LOVE that Democrats in Congress are standing up to Trump and standing up to Trumpism, the participation in a kind of resistance is NOT the same thing as progressive politics. Believe it or not, quite a few people are missing the distinction.

The DCCC recruited some real dogs for the 2016 cycle. Most lost and the few who won are now in Congress voting with Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy for the Republican agenda. That would be "ex"-Republicans Charlie Crist (FL) and Tom O'Halleran (AZ) and wretched Blue Dogs Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Stephanie Miller (FL), and Lou Correa (CA). House Democrats would be better off without them.

How many suburban congressman besides Issa will live to regret backing Trump?I have a part-time job-- congressional recruiting. It's voluntary and it's GRUELING. In between the time I wrote "congressional" and "recruiting" in the last sentence, I had a 30 minute conversation with a top recruit for a swing district. He's run before. He hates the DCCC. Everyone I talk to hates the DCCC. The DCCC screwed him over.