Kara Eastman

Thursday, I listed 50 House seats that the Democrats should be working towards flipping in 2020. I listed them in order, based on how badly the Republican winner had done.

We all want Trump and his servile, enabling Republicans to lose control of Congress. But many of us feel the Democrats are nothing more than the lesser evil, with a leadership that pursues opportunism and careerism rather than the party's values and principles. How do we change that? One way is to elect as many members of Congress we can who are not beholden to the corrupt party leadership.

Blue America members voted last week to send $5,000 checks to Kara Eastman (NE), James Thompson (KS) and Kendra Fershee (WV), none of whom are front-runners and each of whom is running a tough uphill battle. I love that kind of direction from our members. Thanks everyone who voted! That came out of the PAC itself. Then there's the Independent Expenditure Committee. We can't give that money away. We have to spend it. So we are.

One of the funniest moments in the election debate this cycle-- at least for me-- came when Arizona congresswoman, Martha McSally, a garden variety Trump rubber-stamp who had voted to repeal protections for pre-existing conditions several times, was cornered by a reporter asking her to square her consistent record against healthcare with her promise now-- as she runs for U.S. Senate-- to protect people with pre-existing conditions from the greed of insurance companies.

We planned to spend this $15,000 on an independent project to help one of the Blue America candidates. But then we thought that the candidates could probably spend it more effectively than we could at this point in the game. They all need the money for their Get-Out-The-Vote field operations. So we're going to give $5,000 each to 3 candidates. Which 3? That's up to you.

In the last few days Randy Bryce debated Paul Ryan's cutout candidate to replace himself, corporate lawyer and job outsourcer Bryan Steil. Randy kicked his ass so badly that Steil, teary-eyed, ran from the building without even consoling his small contingent of deflated supporters. A day or two earlier, Kara Eastman shamed incumbent Donald Bacon in a debate.

In 2016 a shady right-wing SuperPAC, Future 45, spent $24,970,330 smearing Hillary and Bernie. Where did all that sewer money come from? The Adelson's laundered $20,000,000 from their worldwide gambling and prostitution businesses into it, the Ricketts family put in a million and World Wrestling Federation executive Linda McMahon threw in another $1,250,000 (and was rewarded by Trump who made her Administrator of the Small Business Administration).

Democratic strategists couldn't be happier. Trump-- imagining that the national electorate is a reflecting of one of his hate rallies in red states-- is doing everything he can to turn next month's midterms into a referendum on him. Every poll shows most Americans-- a majority, not a plurality-- feels his unfit for the job.

Campaign videos don't have to be expensive to be effective. I asked Mike Siegel what this one cost him. I caught up with him just as he was headed out the door to meet Beto for a rally in Elgin. He told me the video was part of a package that includes 12 clips and some mailers, but that if you break down the package, you could say the video cost around $1,500. "This is what a resistance campaign in 2018 looks like," he told me. "Focused messages targeted at specific segments of voters.

Yesterday was the end of the third quarter. You were probably barraged with hysterical fundraising requests. I sure was. The ones that say "personal" in the subject line cause me to automatically unsubscribe.