Among Banner Races For Congress, There's A Major One In Albuquerque

I never got very excited over the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania pitting über-reactionary Blue Dog Jason Altmire against corrupt anti-Choice, anti-gay ConservaDem Mark Critz. Critz won and he'll now face right-wing Republican freak Keith Rothfus. So another conservative vs conservative battle for the poor voters in the new 12th CD outside Pittsburgh. A case could be made that we need to support Critz because his 36.56% progressive voting score this year will be better than Rothfus' 0.00% score. An equally persuasive case can be made that that's a price to high and we're better off with Critz' corruption and his constant push towards the right inside the Democratic caucus and in the committees and subcommittees where laws get written. Critz is one of the "Democrats" Boehner and Cantor have come to depend on when they want to label one of their psychotic extremist bills "bipartisan." Mark Critz is almost always there for them. There are dozens of races like that-- pitting hideously reactionary Republicans against worthless Democrats. Blue America ignores those races.

The races Blue America gets excited about are the ones that pit progressives against conservatives-- both in the primaries and in November. I don't care about furthering the career aspirations of corrupt Democrats like Steny Hoyer, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Steve Israel and Joseph Crowley and capturing the House for them isn't what we work on. We work on electing progressives. Tomorrow, for example, we'll be endorsing Wayne Powell, the progressive running against Eric Cantor. The DCCC has no interest in that race-- a race with similar dynamics to Rob Zerban's race against Paul Ryan, another one the DCCC likes to make believe is being fought in every district in America except Wisconsin's first CD.

And there are certain races this year that are shaping up to be the banner contests pitting progressives against conservatives. In the Senate, of course, we have Elizabeth Warren facing off against Wall Street shill Scott Brown. There will be a similar dynamic once Wisconsin Republicans decide which extremist monstrosity to run against Tammy Baldwin. And in November Alan Grayson's race in Orlando will probably be one of the most important anywhere, as will David Gill's in Illinois, Carol Shea-Porter's and Ann Kuster's in the two New Hampshire congressional districts, and Lee Rogers' efforts to dislodge Buck McKeon in the Santa Clarita/Antelope Valley area of L.A. County. If Patsy Keever wins her primary against some conservative party hack tomorrow, her November contest against Patrick McHenry will be huge.

But in terms of the big primaries after tomorrow's where progressives face off against conservatives, Blue America is counting on Norman Solomon (who faces off against a bevy of garden variety Democratic hacks), Franke Wilmer in Montana, Darcy Burner in Washington state, Trevor Thomas in Michigan (who's up against a virulently anti-Choice conservative, Steve Pestka, who could never beat anti-Choice Republican Justin Amash), Chris Donovan in Connecticut and, last but far from least, one of Blue America's first endorsements this cycle, state Senator Eric Griego in Albuquerque.

Eric's up against a thoroughly corrupt insider, Marty Chavez, who is tends to go in whichever direction the cash in being waved, although his record indicates he's more comfortable with conservative positions than with progressive positions. But this isn't just a race between Eric and Chavez. If it was, Eric would be packing for his new career in Congress now. EMIILY's List, which has been playing an insidious role in helping elect conservative Democrats in the last few years, has a candidate they're backing who has no chance to win but who can throw the election to Chavez, Michelle Lujan Grisham. EMILY's List is spending a boatload of money on her, money that can only result in helping nominate the conservative Chavez, who brags that he's "open" to cutting Social Security and Medicare. Is that what EMILY's List donors want their money going to? Eric Griego has a 100% record on women's issues and he's been an effective leader on this issues. Grisham is not trustworthy. When she was head of the health system in New Mexico, a federal investigation found that people died from neglect on her watch. She is both irresponsible and has this huge scandal hovering above her for Republicans to use... and EMILY's List is embracing this? What is wrong with them? It's like ever since they got behind anti-Semite Nikki Tinker they have been unable to regain their political balance or act strategically. Why don't they go spend their money helping progressive women like Darcy Burner, Franke Wilmer, Patsy Keever or Aryanna Strader?

Meanwhile in the last few weeks, Chavez, now desperate, has resorted to full-time negative campaigning, exactly the same kind of sleazy campaigning that corrupt Blue Dog Tim Holden tried against Matt Cartwright in Pennsylvania last month-- and both have DCCC paw prints all over it. They've spent the past few days spamming news outlets with six different negative press releases, made robo-calls, and set up a fake blog-- all targeting only Eric. Because neither Chavez nor Grisham can compete with Eric's clear momentum, they're resorting to desperate attacks on his progressive supporters, like the Sierra Club, the American Federation of Teachers, MoveOn... the Democratic base.

The New Mexico primary is June 5th... still plenty of time to help elect a movement progressive in a banner race.