The DCCC's War Against Women... No, Really

The DCCC is on board with that

Earlier today the DCCC announced their latest batch of crappy Red-to-Blue candidates-- all mediocre to horrible except progressives David Gill (IL-13) and Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01). When I opened the press release the first place my eyes landed was on anti-Choice fanatic (also an antigay fanatic), Hayden Rogers, a hopelessly corrupt insider and North Carolina Blue Dog who's running for Heath Shuler's old seat. He was Shuler's chief of staff before Shuler looked at the new district lines and decided to go into the more lucrative lobbying business. Under the old NC-11 lines, McCain took the district 52-47%. The Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature specifically redrew the district-- even putting Patrick McHenry in jeopardy next door in the 10th-- to defeat Shuler and make the 11th a solid red seat. Under the new boundaries McCain would have won 58-40%. That's quite the turn in the wrong direction. But, when it comes to corrupt Blue Dogs, no one can ever talk any reason to Steve Israel. He represents an upscale suburban Long Island district and if he voted his anti-Choice heart and antigay soul, he'd be out on his ass in the next election but Israel specializes in recruiting horribly reactionary anti-Choice candidates and then spending a ton of cash on them. Hayden Rogers is as much his Frankenstein Monster as Heath Shuler was Rahm Emanuel's.

And I did mention the 10th next door, where the district is less red and where an incredibly popular state Rep with a well-earned reputation for honesty and integrity-- two characteristics that curl Steve Israel's hair with anger-- Patsy Keever is running. Her race is no walk in the park either but at least the voters know who she is-- and like her. She's pro-Choice and 100% supportive of equality for LGBT families and other progressive values. McCain won the 10th by a wide margin in 2008-- 63-36%. It would have been a lot closer under the new boundaries-- 57-42%... still tough, but not as tough as the 11th. Keever, of course, is being aggressively ignored by Israel and the DCCC while they lavish all their attention on fanatic woman-hating rightist Hayden Rogers, who is just dying to get into Congress and vote as frequently with the GOP as his old boss did-- more than 60% of the time on substantive issues. Ron Paul was more supportive of progressive legislation than Heath Shuler!

But I didn't even mean to use Hayden Rogers as my example of the DCCC War Against Women. Let's scoot over to the results in Michigan instead. A wealthy, elderly reactionary, Steve Pestka, another anti-Choice fanatic-- who doesn't even believe in exceptions for rape and incest!-- failed miserably at fundraising but is rich enough to have bought the primary. He just wrote himself check after check and drown his progressive opponent, Trevor Thomas, is negative advertising, as you can see from the chart below:


Republican incumbent Justin Amash will beat him decisively without even breaking a sweat. The DCCC added Pestka to one of their ridiculous lists today, a few hours after the primary. In 2008 the district went for McCain by a handful of votes in a 49-49% tie while the Republican incumbent won 61-35%. The new boundaries and a tiny bit more favorable to a Democrat... but if voters want an actual Democrat, Pestka isn't someone they'll be voting for. Across the state, the DCCC ignored the convincing win last night by Dr. Syed Taj in a bluer district-- and one with no Republican incumbent, Thaddeus McCotter having resigned under a cloud of electoral scandal. Instead, Dr. Taj, a progressive, faces off against a bizarre right-wing fanatic who even mainstream conservatives don't want to vote for. Obama won MI-11 in 2008, 54-45% and under the new boundaries would have won it 50-48%, a slightly better performance than Amash's/Pestka's district. As for the fundraising that the DCCC dishonestly tells candidates and the gullible media they make their decisions based on, here's Dr. Taj's report:


And while Amash is at around a million dollars already, the teabagger Bentivolio, hardly raised anything, just wrote himself a fat check:


Women looking to take back the House should be very careful about giving the DCCC a cent-- unless they also want to cement in place the anti-Choice majority that has been passing one awful anti-woman law after another, laws that both Hayden Rogers and Steve Pestka would have supported. How do I know? Well Rogers doesn't even hide from it; he's proud of it. And Pestka... when he was in the state legislature he not only amassed a perfect anti-Choice voting record, he even joined the Republicans to try to defund Planned Parenthood. This is the stinking heap of garbage the DCCC is betting on this year!