Nevada Democrats Throwing Away A Shot At A Pickup On A Worthless Blue Dog-- Will Washington State Dems Do The Same Thing?

Darcy-- Henry is a good reason you should run for Congress!

By Tuesday evening, everyone will know that Democrats have blown an opportunity to win a special election for Nevada's massive 2nd District, basically the whole state outside the Las Vegas area. If you read the PPP data released early this morning, you already know it. Garden variety GOP corporate shill Mark Amodei leads Blue Dog Kate Marshall 50-37%, with Marshall's Democratic support dropping from 86% to 74% in the last three weeks.

The seat is empty because the Republican governor appointed the last elected congressman, Dean Heller, to the Senate seat vacated when longtime Republican Party leader John Ensign got caught up as the main protagonist in an appalling sex and bribery scandal. In 2008 the 2nd CD was the only Nevada district McCain won-- although just barely; it was a 49%-49% tie, with McCain edging Obama by a handful of votes. At the time, Heller won reelection with a very weak 52% showing.

Heller did a lot better last year: 63% of the vote, primarily because disappointed Democrats and left-leaning independents just did not turn out to vote. In 2006, 103,572 Democrats voted and 116,160 Republicans voted. In 2008 it was 136,548 Democrats and 170,771 Republicans. Last year, after Obama proved beyond any doubt he was only kidding about Hope and Change, it was only 87,421 Democrats and 169,458 Republicans. They were motivated; we were not-- not in Nevada's 2nd District, not anywhere. And least motivated, nationally, were Democratic voters asked to pick between conservative Blue Dogs and Republicans. That's why more than half the Blue Dogs in Congress went extinct, in every region of the country.

So what did the Nevada Democratic Party brain trust do this year? Why, pick a Blue Dog, of course!

The Blue Dogs have only endorsed one candidate so far this cycle: Blue Dog Kate Marshall. The Democratic and Republican hierarchies conspired against their own rank-and-files and handpicked their own conservative candidates. So Democrats are stuck with a Blue Dog, and they're not planning on bothering to come to the polls Tuesday to vote. It's that simple. And a rational decision. Obama and other corporate Democratic sell-outs like the Blue Dogs (and Marshall) favor policies like this. Republicans do too. Rank-and-file Democrats DO NOT. There was a time when voters didn't know what a Blue Dog is and conservative creeps like Marshall could sneak into office in a crisp blue tee-shirt. No more.

With early voting already well underway and showing encouraging signs for Republican Mark Amodei and GOP-aligned groups spending heavily against Democrat Kate Marshall, the Blue Dog Coalition political action committee's Wednesday endorsement of the Democrat just six days before Nevada's 2nd District special election looks like too little, too late.

"The reality is this is the first candidate we've endorsed this cycle," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., who co-chairs the Blue Dog coalition of moderate Democrats. "And so, we're gearing up our own internal process because this is a special election. It would be the Blue Dogs' fault for not doing this quicker, not Kate's. And it doesn't reflect on her candidacy."

"We moved, quite frankly as quickly as we could, and I have to think the majority of votes that are going to be cast Sept. 13 have yet to be cast," said Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who also co-chairs the group.

...With just days left before the election, it's unlikely the endorsement from the Blue Dogs, whose ranks were razed during the 2010 midterm election, is going to do all that much to move the needle. Marshall needs very strong turnout on Election Day to counteract the GOP advantage in early voting and pull off the upset.

You may know that Blue America has a BAD DOG! page dedicated to replacing Blue Dogs with actual Democrats. The party bosses in Nevada made it impossible for us, or Nevada rank-and-file Democrats-- to play a role in their state, and they're losing out to the other conservative candidate, a Republican. Imagine if, instead of the uninspiring Marshall, Democrats could have run someone standing up for working families, not corporate interests, someone offering voters a New Deal approach that differs significantly from what Obama has been selling! The right Democrat can muster 150,000 votes in NV-2. Marshall looks like she won't get close to half that on Tuesday. Thanks again, Blue Dogs.

Now up in Washington state, the rank-and-file still do pick the candidates. And it looks like the newly reconfigured First CD, open because incumbent Jay Inslee is running for governor, will be a strongly Democratic-leaning district. Unfortunately, the Blue Dogs are up to their sleazy tricks, sending in a conservative corporate shill disguised as a real Democrat. Perennial candidate for one office or another and ex-state Rep. Laura Ruderman is running hard for the Democratic nomination. She's a darling of the Big Money corporate wing of the Democratic Party, a Wall Street-oriented, anti-family/anti-union/anti-environment poster child of Lieberman's DLC.

Looking at the likely new map of the district, however, we've noticed that it encompasses most of the areas of the old 8th CD, where progressive champion Darcy Burner beat Dave Reichert in 2006 and 2008. In fact, these parts of King County that will now make up a good chunk of the 1st were so heavily in favor of Darcy that had Pierce County not been so strongly Republican, Darcy would already be in Congress and Reichert would be working as a lobbyist on K Street. So Blue America is hoping to persuade Darcy to run for this seat, which happens to include her home. It would certainly make for a great primary battle, a true blue progressive vs. a conservative DINO with a putrid anti-environmental record in one of the most pro-environmental districts in the whole country!

The Democratic Party can't afford more Kate Marshalls. If the party is going to mean anything, we need progressives in Congress, progressives like Darcy Burner and Cecil Bothwell, the North Carolina populist challenging Blue Dog Heath Shuler, so far the only candidate on our Bad Dogs page. Let's hope Darcy's the next one we add to it.