Frances MotiwallaThe district right next door to mine, CA-34, includes Angelino Heights, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, El Sereno, Koreatown, Lincoln Hights, Boyle Heights, the Arts District, Chinatown, City Terrace... I'll tell you how great this district is. It's the only district in Los Angeles where Bernie beat Hillary in 2016.
In his State of the Union interview Sunday with Jake Tapper, Justin Amash (I-MI), Amash was steadfast in his position that it isn't Trump-- who he obviously detests-- that caused him to leaved the GOP but Congress itself. He told Tapper he had made the decision to leave the party before he called for Congress to begin the impeachment process and before Mueller issued his report. While Tapper kept trying to get him to say something negative about Trump, Amash wanted to make the point that he "had concerns with the Republican Party for several years.
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.
Late Monday night, Cenk Uygar from Justice Democrats announced that his group would be rockin' the world on Tuesday and warned the Democratic establishment to "brace for impact. Justice is coming..." I knew that meant there was going to be another candidate announcement.
In a primary cycle that ended this week, the Democratic establishment in Virginia got the results of their efforts to run an "ex"-Republican legislator and all around piece of dog crap, Mark Wolfe, against an incumbent of their own party-- free-thinking, Democratic Socialist Delegate Lee Carter. Carter never appeared all that concerned when I spoke with him and he easily turned back the challenge, winning the primary last Tuesday 57.72% to 42.28%.
On Monday, Vox published a strong piece by Tara Golshan about the establishment Democrats' uncomfortable dilemma over Lipinski: The Democratic Party is protecting one of its last anti-abortion members in a safe blue district.
Shaniyat Chowdhury-- everyone calls him ShawnBack in February, we spoke with a number of young progressives in the New York area who were inspired by AOC's successful challenge to political machine hack (now lobbyist) Joe Crowley and were considering running for Congress. One was Khaair Morrison, who looked like he was serious about engaging with Crowley successor as Queens Democratic Party boss, Gregory Meeks.
I have a hard job at Blue America-- figuring out how a candidate is going to behave once they get into Congress. It's less about looking into a crystal ball, though, and more about looking into their hearts. With some of the candidates we vet, it takes weeks or even months. With Kina Collins, it took a couple of days-- really just a couple of hours. Blue America will never have to push Congresswoman Collins on anything-- anymore than we ever have to push AOC or Rashid Tlaib on anything.
On Monday, Georgia progressive Michael Owens penned a post for Daily Kos on a topic that should be familiar to all DWT readers by now-- DCCC Incumbent Protection Policy Threatens a Progressive Congressional Race in Georgia. The DCCC policy of stifling primaries isn't new, but under Cheri Bustos they're pursuing it openly-- and with a vengeance.
