In CT-5, A Battle Between The Democratic Wing Of The Democratic Party & The Corporatist Republican Wing Of The Party

Connecticut's August 14 primary is in the final stretch. There's one important Democratic congressional race-- to replace Chris Murphy in the 5th district, the well-to-do western part of the state from Danbury, Waterbury and New Britain up through all of giant Litchfield County. And the traditional media is still getting the story wrong, missing the boat as usual.

Emily's List and MoveOn.org, two national powerhouses of fundraising and political support for progressive Democratic candidates, are fighting not against Republicans, or the religious right, but each other.

Half right; MoveOn.org is a national powerhouse of fundraising and political support for progressive Democratic candidates. Emily's List? What decade is the writer stuck in? There's nothing remotely progressive about Emily's List. In fact, the organziation has become part of the toxic DC conservative consensus. A "liberal titan?" Don't think so. Not in this century. Emily's List exists to elect pro-choice women, and it doesn't care about their ideology, or whether they are running against equally pro-choice male candidates (or even more dedicated pro-choice women with a more progressive, less pro-Big Business bent) who are more progressive on every other issue. In other words, they have become a wing of the DCCC and other conservative-leaning parts of the corrupt Inside-the-Beltway Establishment, existing to elect corporate candidates of the 1% running against progressive champions. When you see Emily's List has endorsed a candidate, you have to check and recheck to see what's wrong with that candidate.

You may remember when Emily's List became the electoral face of virulent anti-semitism in Memphis, Tennessee, but there's a more recent case in point: CT-05 where they are running the wealthy Ivy League educated ConservaDem Elizabeth Esty against the progressive Speaker of the House Chris Donovan, despite the fact that Chris, as Majority Leader to a conservative Speaker of the House, successfully fought for Plan B medication to be available for rape victims at all of Connecticut's hospitals (even the private Catholic hospitals who bitterly opposed the law), despite Chris leading the fight to strengthen protections against domestic violence, and despite Chris, as Speaker of the House, not allowing a single vote that would restrict women's right to choose to come to the floor on his watch.

And despite Elizabeth Esty being a conservative Democrat fighting for he interests of the 1%, always ready to capitulate to the Republicans at the first hint of turbulence.

For example, in the budget fights of 2009-2010, encompassing Esty's lone term in the CT House of Representatives, while progressive leaders like Chris Donovan set about the important work of replacing Connecticut's flat tax with the first progressive income tax to ask millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share, Esty was joining with the so-called "moderate caucus" to suggest an "alternative budget."

The alternative being that it protected the income of the 1% and cut the programs that serve Connecticut's working families. Please, let me encourage you to click on the link and read Esty's whole hideous plan. But here are some of the low-lights:

* Cut youth employment programs

* Eliminate OTC drug coverage under Medicaid

* Increase fees for Medicaid patients

* Increase premiums for children's health care through Husky (S-Chip) program

* Cut affordable housing programs

* Eliminate funding for two magnet schools (including one that served her district)

* Eliminate After School Programs

* Reduce funding to Connecticut's Public Colleges and Universities

Sounds a little like a junior league version of Paul Ryan's budget, doesn't it? And then she joined with those other "moderate" legislators to send a letter to the leaders who were fighting for working families, asking them to capitulate to the Republican governor's budget demands so that programs would be cut, and their millionaire constituents wouldn't have to pay a little bit more for the common good.

Sending her to Congress would be guaranteeing another vote for the Simpson-Bowles plan to gut Social Security and Medicare, another vote to capitulate to the Republican Ryan plan to voucherize and destroy Medicare, and another vote for the 1% at the expense of the 99% of families who have to work for a living. Not issues on Emily's List radar.

And sending her to Congress would allow us to watch her walk back her campaign promises. For example, while she now claims to be in favor of paid sick leave, when she had her chance to vote for the first statewide paid sick leave law in the country she voted no (Chris Donovan didn't give up, and that law was passed in 2011).

That's why Esty has the support of "moderate" DC groups like Emily's List and Chris Donovan has the support of progressive groups like Blue America, PCCC, MoveOn.org, CCAG and the Working Families Party. The media has one thing right-- its a battle, but the battle is between us and them; between the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party and the spineless, corporatist, Republican wing of the Democratic Party. (There's also some rich lobbyist's son running in the primary.)

Let's make sure we win this one, and send Chris Donovan to Congress.