It's not fair to just blame DCCC Chairman Steve Israel for Jennifer Garrison. The "Sarah Palin of Ohio" is also being heavily backed by Israel's patron, Steny Hoyer. Hoyer was in Columbus yesterday, headlining a fundraiser for the anti-Choice, anti-gay, anti-labor conserva-Dem.
Becerra, Grayson, Ellison-- actual leaders, not money-grubbersI'm never really comfortable with a corrupt out-of-touch Beltway committee parachuting into an American congressional district and telling the Democrats there who their candidate for Congress should be. In the old days, even the worst DCCC chairmen-- think Rahm Emanuel-- used to tip-toe, at least publicy, around interfering in primaries.
Steve Israel and his latest anti-Choice recruit-- looking for a knock outIndiana's 2nd district-- the north-central part of the state from South Bend, Elkhart, Goshen, and LaPorte down to Wabash and Peru-- used to be a swing district with a PVI of R+4. In recent times it was represented by far right extremist Chris Chocola, current head of Club for Growth, and Blue Dog Joe Donnelly who used it for a springboard to an unlikely Senate win last year.
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.
Last week DCCC staffers were eager to push out a story by Shira Center and Emily Cahn in Roll Call, House Democrats Pull Pages From The Rahm Playbook.
There are only 9 congressional districts with PVIs of zero. They are neither R+1 nor D+1. They are true 50/50 swing districts. Every single one of them is fiercely contested every election cycle… except one. Obama won all these districts in 2008 and, with one exception (IL-13), he won all of them last year. The 9 districts have 3 GOP incumbents and 6 Democratic incumbents. The DCCC has targeted the 3 Republicans and the NRCC has targeted 5 of the 6 Democrats.
No one's afraidFor the Democrats to take back the House and put an end to fanatic Tea Party excesses, the DCCC has to wrest at least 25 seats away from GOP incumbents (or win in open red districts). That's because it's likely that several Blue Dogs and New Dems who have disappointed their constituents-- particularly Mike McIntyre (NC), Jim Matheson (UT), Scott Peters (CA), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) and John Barrow (GA)-- will lose reelection efforts.
The DCCC's Steve Israel doesn't give base voters a reason to turn out; he gives them reason to stay home on election dayWednesday, Markos wrote an exceptionally well-thought-out post on Kos, Democrats' Biggest Challenge Is Getting Their Base Voters To Vote.
The other day a Democrat who I respect and admire had a staffer call me and ask if Blue America would be up for doing a fundraiser for him. He had certainly earned it by his unrelenting work on behalf of working families. My first instinct was to go, "Of course, how much does he need?" But then I thought about it for a second and said, "I know no Republican is running against him; does he have a primary?" He didn't.
For Democrats, this is the problem, not the solution-- Israel and GarrisonIn his Sunday column, The Wonk Gap, Paul Krugman highlighted "the G.O.P.’s near-complete lack of expertise on anything substantive.
