NY-24

  Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer noted what they termed a remarkable fact in their Politico column yesterday: Señor Trumpanzee and Pelosi haven't spoken since she ripped up his State of the Union speech last October. Suddenly, though, "their incentives are aligned: they both want a massive Covid deal in an unthinkably quick timeframe. This may happen, it may not, but both sides seem to be rowing toward the same goal at the moment.

The pandemic has forced progressive candidates to change their means of reaching voters.

Remember when I told you that Change Research is this cycle's polling outfit to pay attention to? I was in heaven seeing their latest-- surveys in 3 battleground congressional districts, Michigan's 6th (Fred Upton), New York's 24th (John Katko) and Illinois' 13th (Rodney Davis). All the incumbents are Republicans and all the districts are swingy and flippable.

Dana Balter, the progressive woman running against Trump enabler John Katko in NY-24 (Syracuse), called yesterday.

Never afraid to tell the voters what he plans to doOver the weekend, Politico released a new poll of registered voters from Morning Consult. A couple of points:41% approve of Trump (22% strongly) and 54% disapprove (42% strongly).

Dana Balter beat the DCCC-- now she's on track to beating John KatkoI've been saying it for years-- Cook is a good resource, the day after the election. Their ratings are a joke... way behind reality on the ground. If they say a race is a toss up, it usually means it's in the bag for the challenger. If they claim a race is leaning Republican, it means, it's a toss up. Cook has rated NY-24 (Syracuse), "likely Republican." That's insane.

Republican John Katko isn't worried-- DCCC bungling keeps him in his blue seatWhy is Republican John Katko, the congressman in NY-24-- the Syracuse-based district that includes all of Onondaga County and Syracuse plus all of Cayuga County plus parts of Oswego and Wayne counties. The PVI was D+5 in 2015 and D+3 now. Obama won the district both times he ran, 56-42 against McCain and 57-41% against Romney.

The DCCC has been driving state and county Democratic Party officers crazy with their interference, often on behalf of corrupt conservative, candidates far to the right of local Democrats, self-funders and “ex”-Republicans. All over the country I hear party officials telling me the DCCC tactics are frustrating the Democratic grassroots and tamping down enthusiasm.

Wednesday, everyone I know was either celebrating Zephyr Teachout;s landslide victory in NY-19 or trying to figure what went wrong in NY-24, where Eric Kingson came in second of three Democratic primary candidates-- or both. Dave Weigel's analysis of what went wrong in Syracuse speaks to the problem with Bernie's revolution.

Eric and Bernie on Friday in SyracuseSunday, the Washington Post decided to speculate on what happens to Bernie's revolution from here.