Former Florida Congressional Candidate Spills The Beans On The DCCC

I didn't know Carol McLean when she was a congressional candidate in Mark Foley's old district, FL-16, but I just did a search of her name here at DWT and came up with one mention of a race that the DCCC ruthlessly cleared the field for their candidate, a Rahm Emanuel-recruited Republican sex predator, Tim Mahoney, who spent his entire one term in office voting with the GOP and then got caught in a sex scandal and was defeated in what turned out to be an otherwise major Democratic year. Carol, from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, wrote eloquently about her experience as a Democratic candidate the DCCC deep-sixed in favor of the Republican predator.

She talked about how the DCCC had recruited Mahoney, still a wealthy-- and lame-brained, corrupt and stinking from shady business practices-- Republican to run for Foley's seat (at a time when Emanuel, who never reported it to the police, knew Foley was sexually preying on underage congressional pages).

I too had gotten a call from DC, as did David Lutrin, about the election. However, it wasn't to ask me to run-- it was to ask me to drop out. When I inquired why, they told me that they already had a good candidate (Mahoney) who had $2 million to put into his campaign. They asked me how much I had. Well, if I counted the $5 McDonalds coupon in my wallet, it came to exact $13. I was going to raise my funds by grassroots. They scoffed that off, and told me they would not back me. Fine! However, as a person who has been a member of the Democratic Party longer than Mahoney's seven weeks, I was still going to run-- with or without them. I added that I was unaware that the elections were limited to only rich candidates. Congress is already filled with rich, good old boys ... And they've gotten us to where we are today. Perhaps its time to vote in the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker... and the teacher.

I turned to David Lutrin who was beaming at this point, and said, you people know that Mr. Lutrin and I are both teachers. You know how we earn our money, and you know how much we make. I don't know what Internet finance is, but I know that mainstream America doesn't have millions, and that these rich good old boys are so far detached from mainstream America that they have no idea how we live... The rich good old boys passed CAFTA to outsource our jobs to Central and South America. They have us import our food from Mexico, why won't they let us import our medicines from Canada? …Because the rich good old boys run the pharmaceutical companies.

But this post was meant to be about 2006. It's about 2010. Yesterday I ran into Carol and we wound up exchanging horror stories about the DCCC. Right now they are attempting to do to Doug Tudor just what they did to her and Dave Lutrin. In 2006 the reactionary they pushed was Tim Mahoney. This year it's Lori Edwards, an even worse candidate who bragged in a fundraising letter yesterday that "we have been designated a "Top Target" by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee! She claims it was because of all the money she brought in, but that money was given to her by the Blue Dogs and at a fundraiser given by sleazy Florida Democrats Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Allen Boyd at a DC lobbyist firm. Here's an invitation (in case you weren't invited):


Today Carol shared with me an exchange of letters with DCCC Executive Director Jon Vogel. Since I don't have his permission, I won't publish his defensive letter to Carol. But I do want to share her final letter to him (with her permission, of course):

At least the DSCC has the decency not to keep hitting me up for money. But I'll forward my earlier email to them too.

The DCCC feigns support for the Democratic congressional candidates but that's not what really happens, is it? Here's my personal experience:

In 2006 I ran for US Congress in Florida #16 as a Democrat. David Lutrin, a good and decent family man and a true Democrat also ran for the same seat as a Democrat against me. Mark Foley held the position-- but after I decided to run the Foley scandal came to light. That's when the DCCC got involved, when Foley vacated the seat. When we went to meet with the DCCC in Washington DC, Rahm Emmanuel agreed to meet with us only if we didn't get "pushy."

The DCCC Chairman asked me how I was going to raise funds for my election. I told them it would be a grassroots campaign since I was just a school teacher. He told me directly that the DCCC didn't believe in grassroots, wouldn't support a grassroots, and that I had to have $250,000 in my war chest before they would even consider me a candidate.

Although DFA was very supportive, apparently neither Lutrin nor I were viable candidates in the eye of the DCCC. So Rahm, along with Nancy Pelosi told David and me to clear the field for their chosen candidate. They said he was a millionaire and had $2 million to put in to the campaign. I asked "if I have $3 million does that make me a better candidate?" They missed my sarcasm. "Do you have $3 million?"

My response was, "No, I just wanted to see how much you charge me to run for office."

This guy, Tim Mahoney, was perfect in that he was rich. In fact he was not a liberal or progressive; he was not pro-union, he was anti-choice... HE WASN'T EVEN A DEMOCRAT!! But Rahm and Nancy wined and dined this guy, convinced him to run and took him down to file his papers for candidacy. But first, they asked him to make one small change... they said he really should quit the GOP and join the Democratic party. He joined that morning and filed that afternoon. He was a "Blue Dog" ... nice name for Republican in Democrat's clothing. I assume you know the rest of the story. How many ladies did he have sex with and get pregnant? That's his family values? He voted with the Republicans. He got thrown out of office. His wife divorced him and cleaned out his millions (good for her!) and the Republicans got the seat in Congress back in 2008.

Good job, DCCC!!

I am now with a support group that mentors neophyte Congressional candidates and tries to raise money for them when the DCCC won't. We want the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker in Congress. You can keep the Mahoneys and the other bums.

Carol McLean

And here they are doing it in Florida again, this time trying to strong arm Doug Tudor's allies and past supporters into endorsing their vile and reactionary Blue Dog. We can't let them keep getting away with this kind of behavior. I doubt anyone who reads this blog gives money to the DCCC or its equally reprehensible anti-grassroots sister organizations, the DSCC and the DNC. But spread the word; tell your friends and please consider donating to real deal progressives instead of Insider hacks. Give to Dog Tudor and other non-DCCC candidates and Send the Democratic Party a Message It Can Understand.