Run off by some goofballs in tri-corner hats?New Jersey's third congressional district, a swath of the south-central part of the state starting between Toms River and Asbury Park and crossing clear to the Philadelphia suburbs through the Pine Barrens, really is a Democratic congressional district-- despite having a Republican congressman, Jon Runyan.
Sunday we looked at North Carolina Republican congressional candidate Jason Thigpen's switch from the GOP to the Democratic Party. Monday evening Jason went on air with Lawrence O'Donnell to talk about his oddessey (above).When I spoke with him over the weekend, Jason seemed to me to be a very independent-minded, thoughtful, progressive-oriented citizen with a keen understanding of a Constitution he takes very seriously.
There are no moderates left in the Republican House Caucus. The "best" you'll get is a mainstream conservative willing to stand up to Tea Party extremism from time to time-- or a libertarian who may be good on an important issue or two but is still, essentially, a raving lunatic on everything else. Walter Jones (R-NC) is kind of a mix of the two.
A young member of Congress, Don Young (R-AK), mostly senile these daysWhen Valerie Foushee replaced Ellie Kinnnaird in the North Carolina state Senate, she gave up her District 50 state House seat (Orange and Durham counties), Thursday, a 4 person selection committee, two Democrats from each county) voted to replace her with Graig Meyer.
Thursday Rachel Maddow focussed on the Daily Show to make the same point Alan Grayson made when he pointed out that teabaggers are basically a modern-day version of the KKK. I wonder if Claire McCaskill, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Joe Crowley will condemn Rachel the way they condemned Grayson. In any case, you need to watch this segment.
Last cycle we saw the DCCC rush into westernmost reaches of North Carolina, the Catawba Valley and everything from Lenoir and Morgantown to the Tennessee border and back to Arden and Hendersonville, bust carefully skirting Asheville-- NC-11. "Ex-Blue Dog Steve Israel was petrified the progressive champion of the region, City Councilman Cecil Bothwell-- who had driven reactionary Blue Dog Heath Shuler out of the race-- would become the Democratic nominee. So the DCCC backed an even worse Blue Dog than Shuler, Hayden Rogers, and got him through the primary with cash and lies.
Durham County Soil & Water District Supervisor Danielle Adams, a young and promising YEO from North Carolina has decided to withdraw her candidacy for Congress. This is bad news for progressives because it leaves the Democratic nomination open to some hack garden variety Democrat with no chance of winning the seat.
Remember this video Alan Grayson made to explain a handful of congressional Democrats who "are anti-Choice, who are pro-war, who are against workers' rights, who do nothing to promote jobs or promote health or safety?" In it he makes the case the voters deserve a real choice on election day. "If you have two Republicans running against each other, one with an "R-E-P" next to his name and the other one with a "D-E-M" next to his name, its a tremendous disservice to the public... If you run as a Democrat, there are certain things that you should stand for.
