Over the weekend, Blue America launched a last-minute fundraising drive for the one progressive challenger running for Congress in Arizona, Eva Putzova. 24 hours later, 61 contributors had raised $1,567 for her last minute push-- an average of around $26 a person.
For Blue America, primary season is rapidly coming to a close-- there are just a few left. We helped with some spectacular wins this cycle-- Kara Eastman in Omaha, Marie Newman in Chicago, Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones in New York, Liam O'Mara and Audrey Denney in California... Mike Siegel (TX-10) and Lisa Ring (GA-01) came in first in their primaries and Mike's runoff is next week (July 14) and Lisa's is August 11th.
The DeSmog blog endeavors “to clear the p.r. pollution that clouds climate science” and last week they worked on clearing it about the grotesquely misnamed Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), an operation currently supporting the fossil fools’ pushback against environmental lawsuits. Phil Goldberg is a former lobbyist for coal giant Peabody Energy. Today he’s running that PPI pushback.
You may recall that a few weeks ago, a Koch brothers’ spokeswoman announced that their network is now willing to finance political campaigns for Democrats who are "in step with Koch policies." Koch policies? Koch policies are first and foremost their business bottom line. Any study of their pattern of political giving shows what being in step with the Koch policies means: slashing government regulations that protect workers and the environment.
Arizona is starting to slip out of the grasp of the GOP. The state party elected a neo-fascist chair and fundraising evaporated. 2020 could be a good year for Arizona Democrats. One Republican state Senator saw what was coming and abandoned ship, first to become an independent and finally joining the almost-as-conservative Blue Dogs, Tom O'Halleran.
Trump water-carrier Ken Buck (R-CO)Less-than-progressive members of Congress who are afraid of being primaried the way Crowley was, are happy to fork over $5,000 annually to the Congressional Progressive PAC so they can "join" the CPC, an important protection racket/insurance policy issuer for New Dems. And the latest New Dem who's joining the CPC is Eliot Engel. Does that mean AIPAC is a de facto CPC member now too?
This morning, on FDR's 137th birthday, Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John Larson (D-CT) introduced the Social Security 2100 Act. The bill, which would be the most significant update to Social Security since 1983, is meant to increase benefits and strengthen the Trust Fund. There are 203 co-sponsors.
Blue Dogs say they can work with this in a bipartisan wayIt's silly to called Blue Dogs, the right-wing fringe of the Democratic Party (AKA, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party) "moderate." They're not moderate; they're conservative-- and more than anything else, they're corrupt, When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
