Will A 2010 Bright v Love Rematch Be A Replay Of The Dynamics That Doomed Don Cazayoux And Nick Lampson In 2008?

When it matters, Bobby Bright is just as bad as a Republican

Republican Jay Love is telling whoever asks that he's considering a rematch with reactionary Democrat, Bobby Bright in their deeply red Alabama district. Now that voters in the area have seen that Bright will never stand up for Democratic values-- he votes more frequently with the GOP against President Obama's programs than any Democrat other than fellow winger Walt Minnick of Idaho-- two questions will have to be answered. First, will enough Republicans and conservative independents vote for him over an actual Republican (and one who is even more conservative)? And second, will moderate and progressive Democrats in AL-02 bother turning up at the ballot box to vote for someone who has been as terrible in Congress as Bright? In other words, will Bright suffer the same fate suffered by similarly positioned-- and similarly craven-- Blue Dog Democrats Don Cazayoux (LA) and Nick Lampson (TX) last year?

First let's look at the stats on the 3 districts. In November Bright narrowly edged Love 143,997- 142,231 (50-50 if you want to work out the percentages) in a southern Alabama district with an R+13 where a longtime Republican incumbent, Terry Everett, has retired. At the same time the voters were narrowly giving Bright the nod, they voted overwhelmingly for McCain, 63-36%, the largest McCain vote in any district electing a new Democratic congressman.

Don Cazayoux had been elected to replace Republican crook Richard Baker in May, 2008, when Baker was sent to prison for corruption officially became a lobbyist. Cazayoux, a conservative, ran against a KKK-backed extreme right sociopath. The sociopath was winning until Cazayoux was able to nail down support from East Baton Rouge's African-American community, which he immediately stabbed in the back-- repeatedly-- upon getting into Congress. Last November voters in East Baton Rouge supported a third party candidate, their own state Senator, Michael Jackson, who decided to teach Louisiana Democrats a lesson about dissing working families. In a powerfully Democratic year, Cazayoux became one of only 4 Democratic incumbents-- all conservatives-- to be defeated. Bill Cassidy beat him 150,226 (48%) to 125,716 (40%) with 12% going to Jackson, more than enough to have prevented Cazayoux to continue another two years of crossing the aisle to vote with Republicans. The PVI is R+7 and McCain won with 57%.

A second reactionary Blue Dog incumbent to be defeated in 2008 was Texas' Nick Lampson who, in 2006, had beaten a stand-in for disgraced GOP corruptionist Tom Delay 52-42%. The right-leaning district (PVI- R+15 at the time) then turned around this past November and rejected Lampson for Republican Pete Olson 161,600 (53%) to 139,879 (45%), while handing McCain a 58% win over Obama.

Why should a progressive Democrat-- one of a small number in AL-02-- come out and vote for Bright? He's a bit better than Love? Yeah, he is-- but on almost all the key issues of the day, he really is just as bad as Love and tarnishes the Democratic brand and leads in the wrong direction. Even on something as easy for a Democrat to vote for as SCHIP, Bright was one of only two Democrats to vote "No," while forty Republicans voted for the program to provide health insurance to needy children. He was also one of only 8 right-wing Democrats to vote against the Paycheck Fairness Act and 5 Democrats to oppose equal employment protection for women. I don't see how anyone who cares about Democratic Party values would even seriously consider voting for Bright. He calls himself a Democrat but... so what? When it counts, he votes with the GOP. And at the same time, Democrats try working with these Blue Dogs and compromising with them, forever dragging the Party rightwards-- and away from solutions to the country's real problems. Time to dump Bobby Bright, no matter how execrable Jay Love is.