Donna Edwards became a member of Congress-- one of the best members of Congress-- in 2008. But, truth be told, her constituents elected her in 2006... only to see the victory snatched out of her hands on election night with last minute stuffed ballot boxes from corrupt conservative Al Wynn and his Machine.
The New DemsIf you've been with Blue America for enough years, you'll remember the excruciating battles we backed for Donna Edwards, Beto O'Rourke and Matt Cartwright when they took on corrupt old conservative Democrats in, respectively, Maryland, Texas and Pennsylvania. All three, running as reformers and progressives, prevailed.
Once the most feared-- and loathed-- elected Democrat in Florida, Debbie Wasserman Schultz is still loathed but, well as one of the ultimate Florida political journalists put it yesterday at Politico, Florida Democrats are now saying "We wish she would go away and stop being so public by doubling down on negative stories... The chatter about a House leadership post is gone. So is talk of statewide office.
Wasserman Schultz is one of the slimiest politicians in the country-- and she's entrenched. But Tim Canova challenged her in a policy-focused campaign and nearly beat her. She spent over $4,000,000 in mostly special interest money and Tim was able to go toe-to-toe with her in grassroots small dollar contributions ($3,785,044).
By the final week of the FL-23 congressional primary, blockheads in the media didn't want to talk about anything substantive, nothing about issues or about Debbie Wasserman Schultz's hideous record in Congress or at the DNC. To the small pack of jackel-like reporters covering the race in the final week it was all about one non-issue: "where was Bernie?" Why wasn't he in the district campaigning for Tim?
Tuesday is primary day in Florida and-- thanks to ActBlue-- it isn't too late to help progressive champions like Alan Grayson and Tim Canova overcome steep odds and beat the corrupt establishment candidates they're battling. Both Grayson and Canova are in the midst of intense Get Out the Vote efforts right now-- as are Blue America's other candidates in the state-- and any contributions made this weekend will go right into those efforts.
A few months ago, a radio interviewer asked me why I wasn't calling out Rachel Maddows' biased anti-Bernie reporting. I said I didn't think Maddow was biased, just being a fair and balanced reporter. The interviewer laughed (at me) and sent me some video clips to watch. She was right and I was wrong. Rachel came off as a turd, slanting her reporting against Bernie and in favor of Hillary. It didn't take much longer before I stopped watching her show altogether, breaking a habit of many years.
This morning, I was speaking with one of the congressional candidates Blue America is most enthusiastic about this cycle, Paul Clements from southwest Michigan. He's running for the seat held by Energy Committee chairman Fred Upton (MI-06) and he told me that "the biggest holes in investment in America, if we were going to promote broad-based economic growth, are in infrastructure and education.
9 days from today, Tuesday, August 30, Florida will be holding it's primary. There are crucial races up and down the state, including the contest between progressive icon Alan Grayson and worthless puppet Patrick Murphy for the Senate nomination to face Rubio in November. On the congressional level, there is no race that has garnered as much national attention as the one in southern Broward County and Miami Beach-- FL-23, Tim Canova's challenge to the odious and deceitful Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
