Will DCCC Recruitment Of Conservative Candidates Turn Off Enough Democrats To Win The 2012 Elections For The GOP? Probably

Locking in a Republican majority in the House

Last year it drove me crazy that the reactionary Blue Dog Caucus was able to jump start an election campaign for a turgid conservative Democrat, Lori Edwards, for Adam Putnam's open Florida seat east of Tampa (Polk and Hillsborough counties). Two years previous, with Obama fighting McCain to a virtual tie, progressive Democrat Doug Tudor gave entrenched incumbent Putnam his strongest challenge ever-- garnering 137,465 (to Putnam's 185,698). With Putnam moving on to state office, Tudor felt he had a real shot to defeat the zombie replacement the GOP was putting in to replace Putnam, Dennis Ross. But the Blue Dogs stepped for anti-healthcare conservative Edwards, pumped up for fundraising with corrupt Beltway lobbyists for the primary and got the DCCC to back her against the legitimate grassroots Democrat, Tudor. Of the 137,465 FL-12 voters who had come out for Tudor in 2008, only 87,769 bothered voting for Edwards in 2010. And now the district is represented by a {{Dennis Ross}} who has a 2.65 ProgressivePunch score (that's 2.65 out of 100). He's been a lockstep voter for a domestic fascist agenda pushed by Boehner, Cantor and Ryan. Thanks, DCCC.

Of course, Lori Edwards wasn't the only Blue Dog Democrat voters decided to reject last year. They rejected the entire Blue Dog worldview, defeating over half the members, including all the leaders, and frightening many of the others into retiring this year-- like arch-conservative corporate shills Dan Boren (OK) and Mike Ross (AR). Heath Shuler (NC) is negotiating a job as a gym teacher in Tennessee, and if he can squeeze enough money out of them, we'll be rid of him too. Democratic voters didn't come out to vote, not for Lori Edwards, not for the Blue Dogs and, because of the spillover effect, not for real Democrats around the country as well. But the DCCC hasn't learned their lesson. Led by "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel, they'll follow the Blue Dogs into another disaster for next year. Yesterday Gallup reported that once again base-catering Republicans have inspired their base while base-hating Democrats have turned their base off. Democratic and left-leaning independent voters will be doing in 2012 just what they did in 2010-- staying home and sending a message to the Steve Israels and Debbie Wasserman Schultzes that they won't vote rather than vote for conservatives wearing blue T-shirts.

The difference between Democrats' enthusiasm and Republicans' enthusiasm can be summarized by plotting the difference in the two groups' net enthusiasm scores-- that is, the percentage of each group saying they are more enthusiastic minus the percentage less enthusiastic.

Democrats' net enthusiasm (+1) now trails Republicans' net enthusiasm (+28) by 27 percentage points. By contrast, Democrats held the advantage on net enthusiasm throughout 2008-- on several occasions, by better than 40-point margins. Democrats occasionally trailed Republicans in net enthusiasm in 2004, but never by as much as is seen today. The current balance of enthusiasm among Republicans and Democrats is similar to what Gallup found in the first few months of 2000.

...Gallup's initial-- and early-- reading on Republicans' and Democrats' enthusiasm for 2012 indicates the emotional climate surrounding that election could be quite different from the climate in 2008, when Democrat Barack Obama won, partly owing to supermajority support from several groups. Democrats' current enthusiasm about voting is not only lower than it was in 2008, but lower than in 2004, when Republican George W. Bush won re-election.

And yet the DCCC continues recruiting conservative shills who turn off the base and make people wonder what the difference is between the two parties. As we've been warning all year, instead of embracing Albuquerque's most progressive and popular state senator, Eric Griego, for the open Democratic seat in NM-1, the DCCC seem hellbent on losing it by recruiting hated corporate shill Marty Chavez to run against him in a primary. Of course the DCCC claims to be staying out of the primary. But they're lying. They keep helping Chavez and secretly undermining Griego, who has been endorsed by dozens of unions, civic groups and progressive organizations, Blue America included.

Tomorrow Blue America is formally endorsing Ohio progressive Mary Jo Kilroy, and she'll be joining us for a live chat at Crooks and Liars (2pm ET). But even before we jumped into the race, Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Raúl Grijalva and Keith Ellison endorsed her. That was great news and very encouraging. In the past it was almost only the Blue Dogs jumping into early primary fights and pushing their conservative shithead candidates (like Lori Edwards). Just as exciting, yesterday Grijalva sent out an e-mail to his own supporters urging them to back Griego in Albuquerque.

As John Boehner and Tea Party Republicans wage class war against working families, Progressives in Congress are fighting back. But we need help. We need more bold progressives fighting by our side.

That's why I endorse State Senator Eric Griego for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District open seat.

Eric Griego believes that "the last thing we need to send to Washington is a Democrat who's a kinder, gentler version of the Republicans." I agree. Democrats must fight for a government that works for all people, not just those with deep pockets and fancy titles.

Eric fought to get corporate money out of politics as an Albuquerque City Councilor, where he passed one of the strongest local campaign finance reforms in the nation. As State Senator, he took on the Big Oil companies and put middle-class workers first by passing a green jobs bill into law.

Eric is supported by leading progressive groups and major labor unions-- and he is the only candidate in the race to have a lifetime 100% rating from Conservation Voters New Mexico.

I need Eric Griego fighting by my side in Congress. To make that happen, he needs your help.

You can rally to Griego's cause here at the Blue America ActBlue page. Hopefully the Progressive Caucus will start regularly endorsing progressives in tough primary battles with conservatives and support progressives fighting Republicans as well. I noticed that in the new Democratic-leaning district in Riverside County, a district Obama would have won with something like a 20% margin, the progressive Democratic candidate, Mark Takano, is up against a conservative Republican, John Tavaglione, beloved by developers, business interests, fat-cat Republicans and... both corrupt Republican zombie Ken Calvert, who used to represent the area, and the conservative Democratic mayor of Riverside, Ron Loveridge. That's another race where Grijalva could do some good.