DownWithTyranny!: Democrats Know Exactly How To Turn Off Their Base Voters

Over the weekend I was looking for an old post with the ads Blue America did when Rahm Emanuel teamed up with Tom Tancredo and Heath Shuler to target immigrants. (Above's the one in Spanish and here's the Polish version of an ad we also ran in Korean and Bengali.) Since Emanuel-- the son of an Israeli immigrant-- is falsely painting himself as a friend to immigrant communities in his race against Carol Moseley Braun for mayor of Chicago, I was thinking it would be a good time to run the ads again. I'm thinking it would probably take a rewrite and at this late stage in the campaign, anyone who wants to see Emanuel out of office would be better off just donating directly to Carol's ActBlue page.

So while I was rooting around looking for the Korean language ad, I came across an old post about how Emanuel had contributed nearly half a million dollars to (mostly conservative) Democrats running for Congress in 2008. Most of them have since been defeated, and most of those were defeated this past November after failing to inspire Democratic voters with their reactionary Republican records in Congress.

Among Emanuel's biggest stakes were anti-choice, anti-healthcare, anti-gay, or just plain anti-Obama candidates who helped wreck the Democratic Party brand and then went on to the defeat they earned, like

John Adler (NJ- $10,000)
Melissa Bean (IL- $7,500)
John Boccieri (OH- $6,000)
Chris Carney (PA- $10,000)
Brad Ellsworth (IN- $6,000)
Baron Hill (IN- $10,000)
Jim Marshall (GA- $7,500)
Harry Mitchell (AZ- $7,500)
Zach Space (OH- $10,000)

Emanuel's whole theory about expanding the Big Tent into Dixiecrat and anti-New Deal territory was a bust. One after another the right wing candidates he recruited and helped elect as head of the DCCC showed their true colors and went down to defeat, from bona fide Republican Tim Mahoney in Florida to vile Blue Dogs like Nick Lampson (TX), Bobby Bright (AL), Travis Childers (MS), Walt Minnick (ID) and Frank Kratovil (MD).

Although more than half the Blue Dog caucus was defeated in November, voters still missed some of Emanuel's worst mistakes, namely Heath Shuler (NC), John Barrow (GA), Jim Matheson (UT), and Joe Donnelly (IN). But with a new DCCC Chairman, Steve Israel, as committed to a conservative, corporate vision of the Democratic Party as Emanuel always was-- a former member of the Blue Dog caucus himself-- Democratic recruiting is likely to focus on more candidates that Democratic base will not be able to support.

In the cycle that just ended Steve Israel's campaign committee and leadership PAC spent a total of $3,957,677, the biggest chunk, $1.3 million, going towards "administrative" costs. A bit over $453,000 was donated to candidates, almost all conservatives and almost all losers, like Travis Childers, Brad Ellsworth, Baron Hill, Ike Skelton, John Boccieri, Kathy Dahlkemper, Ann Kirkpatrick, Frank Kratovil, Betsy Markey, Michael McMahon, Melissa Bean, and Zack Space, again, all conservatives with powerful tendencies to vote with the GOP as a default position... and all of whom were defeated in November, unable to get Democrats out to the polls.

Florida has suffered mightily at the hands of conservative Democrats ramming fellow corporate shills down the throats of the progressive and moderate electorate in that state. And the Democratic Party was just about wiped out there in November. A criminal was elected governor and a teabag crook senator. The ridiculous Democratic Senate candidate of the Establishment came in a DISTANT third with a scant 20% of the vote. And Florida didn't only lose pitifully conservative congressmembers who deserved to lose-- like Alan Boyd and Suzanne Kosmas, but also steadfast public servants Alan Grayson and Ron Klein, caught up in the anti-Democrat tsunami. All were beaten by implausible teabaggers. But don't expect the DCCC to have learned a lesson. They are already buckling under to Blue Dog demands that more anti-Choice, anti-gay, anti-worker, anti-consumer, anti-environment reactionaries be recruited to stuff of the ranks of their depleted caucus. Tomorrow we're introduce you to Blue America's first congressional candidate of the 2012 cycle. But right now, let's take a brief look at what's happened in Florida's ill-starred 24th congressional district in recent years.

2008

Less blatantly gerrymandered than most Florida House districts, the 24th mostly runs along the Atlantic Coast of central Florida including northern Brevard Co. and southern Volusia Co. The rest of the district mostly eastern suburbs of Orlando in Orange and Seminole counties. The district elected state House Speaker Tom Feeney-- a major player in the Bush team that stole the 2000 presidential election-- congressman in 2002. In 2008 Feeney's sleaze finally caught up with him and washed out his political career. Unfortunately worthless Democrat Suzanne Kosmas grabbed the seat, winning all 4 counties. She proceeded to vote with the Republicans on key issues-- like healthcare-- and distinguished herself in the Financial Services Committee with her lack of participation, spending committee meetings out on the town with lobbyists. And she did outraise her opponent 3-1. But it didn't help. This time she lost all 4 counties, Democrats, as you can see, simply staying away from the polls in droves, unable to distinguish between two anti-family conservatives, Republican Sandy Adams and Democrat Suzanne Kosmas. Just look, county by county, how Democrats melted away while Republicans turned out in force. Steve Israel would like to see Kosmas run again. I'm sure Sandy Adams would as well.