Two of the most important Senate races this cycle pit women against each other. One of the Senate's most progressive Democrats, a courageous reformer with a fantastic voting record that spans a career as a state legislator, a congresswoman and more recently as a senator, Tammy Baldwin, is up against a conservative Republican, Leah Vukmir, in Wisconsin.
But he did-- in the Arizona Senate race. Polling consistently shows that quasi-Democrat Kyrsten Sinema would beat any of the Republican Senate candidates. As you see from the graphic below, the only Republican who even gets close to Sinema in a head-to-head match-up is the one mainstream candidate, Martha McSally. McSally is also the choice of the NRSC and the DC and Phoenix establishments.
Earlier today, I noted that the worst candidate the DCCC recruited this cycle and that Democrats nominated for the House is Jeff Van Drew in New Jersey. How do I know? He's a state senator and has a long and putrid voting record-- easy peasy.
Normally, I don't buy into "lesser-of-two-evils" politics. If Democrats nominate a corrupt reactionary Blue Dog, I'm at least as incensed as I am over a Republican. That's not going to change either. And, I'm still saying that "normally" no longer applies, not with Trump and his Congress-ful of enablers and rubber stamps.
Voters do NOT want Trump enablers and rubber stampsThe Democrats have some really weak-- even repulsive-- candidates. But it may not matter. Kyrsten Sinema, for example, is literally the worst Democrat in the House. Chair of the Blue Dogs, her ProgressivePunch crucial vote score is a dismal 35.44, the lowest "F" of any Democrat. But Schumer recognized a kindred spirit and gave her the nomination.
I was never “friends” with her, but before Kyrsten Sinema was elected to Congress we served on a board together. I didn’t know her well because I avoided her. I avoided her because she struck me as insane-- actually dangerously insane. It was a big board with a big table. I always tried to sit as far away from her as possible… in case she started acting out and killing people.
Almost a month ago, Alan Rapaport did a piece for the NY Times, Democrats Add Momentum to G.O.P. Push to Loosen Banking Rules about how conservative Wall Street-friendly Democrats in the Senate are helping Republicans "loosen rules imposed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis."
Thanks to Schumer, Arizona won't have a good choice in NovemberOn Thursday, after the FISA vote, we saw how the whole Republican wing of the Democratic Party abandoned the Democrats and voted with Trump and Paul Ryan to expand spying.
