CLEAR SAILING FOR ERIC MASSA (NY-29)-- NEXT STOP, BYE-BYE KUHL

Two Fightin' Dems: Eric Massa and Wes Clark

Everyone has been telling me what a great job Eric Massa did at YKos last week and how improved he was over last year. I think that came out in our Blue America chat with him in May. Well, great news today-- the establishment rich guy who thought he could just buy his way into the race and beat Eric in the primary, David Nachbar, dropped out. Why is this great? First of all, even though there was almost no chance Nachbar could have gotten anywhere, he would have spent a lot of money and Eric would have had to waste his own on a primary instead of just going after the odious Shotgun Randy Kuhl. There are too many craven opportunists who think the hard work of grassroots Democrats can be automatically transferred to them if they beat progressive Democrats who came close in '06. There are similar situations facing superstar progressives like Victoria Wulsin, John Laesch, Angie Paccione, and Darcy Burner. Let's hope they all end as happily as Nachbar's threatened primary. If you want to offer Eric a little mazel tov... be our guest.


UPDATE: ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST-- GOOD NEWS FOR JOHN LAESCH

When John Laesch and his grassroots army showed how vulnerable IL-14 is to a concerted Democratic campaign, opportunistic Democratic Machine candidates started eyeing the race. The first, encouraged by Emanuel and Durbin, was State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia of Aurora. According to today's Chicago Tribune she's finally declared she's staying out of the race to replace Planet Denny Hastert. She was probably John Laesch's most serious obstacle to taking over the seat. Now he has to face a reactionary Blue Dog, Bill Foster, who promises to vote pretty much the same way on important issues as Hastert has. He's also promised to put a million dollars of his own money into buying the seat for himself. John needs our help. Foster is as bad as they come, someone who will call himself a Democrat and support the right-wing agenda.