Which Districts That Obama Won in 2008 Has Steve Israel Ceded To The GOP So He Can Try To Elect His Hopeless Pack Of Blue Dogs?

The DCCC can't contest every single district in the country; they can't afford it. So they're supposed to pick their best shots and concentrate their resources. But when Pelosi selected über-corrupt "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel, based, she claims on how "reptilian" he is, she consigned the Democrats to another two years in the minority. Rather than directing resources towards winnable districts, Israel has been working to undermine progressives and to bolster reactionary Blue Dogs and New Dems, despite the fact that dozens of them were defeated in 2010 by Democratic voters who want actual Democrats in Congress, not a bunch of anti-Choice, antigay, pro-corporate Wall Street whores favored by Steve Israel. Take for example, Israel recruit and fellow corrupt Blue Dog Hayden Rogers in western North Carolina. Rogers has no chance to win whatsoever. NC-11 has always been a pretty GOP-leaning district but the Republican legislature redistricted it to make it 100% impossible for a Democrat to ever win there again. It's now the reddest district in the state. Under the old lines, McCain beat Obama there 52-47%. Not terrible... but under the new lines McCain got 58% to Obama's 40%, literally the worst performing congressional district for the Democrats in the entire state.

So where did those Democrats-- primarily from Buncombe County (Asheville)-- go? Good question, but not one that the reptilian Israel is eager to dwell on. Those Buncombe County Democrats are now in NC-10, Patrick McHenry's district. It's still not a blue district by any means, but it's bluer than the 11th. Israel saw that too, of course-- and he recruited another anti-Choice antigay corporate shill. But she was defeated in the primary by progressive state Rep. Patsy Keever-- defeated in a massive landslide in every single county in the district-- and in a pique of anger Pelosi's little reptile decided the district isn't worth contesting after all. So Hayden Rogers is on Red to Blue and will probably have million dollars wasted on a losing campaign while not one cent will be spent on Patsy Keever by the DCCC, despite the fact she has a far better shot at winning.

And, of course, Hayden isn't the only Rogers running as a Democrat, even if he's the only one backed by the DCCC. The other Rogers, Dr. Lee Rogers, is running against House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon, who's drowning in serial scandals and is the ripest senior Republican in the House to take out. Israel adamantly refuses to go against him and has actively worked to sabotage Lee Rogers' campaign. A House Democratic caucus with more independent-minded progressives is the last thing that serpent wants! I should probably mention that Obama won that district-- both under the old boundaries and under the new boundaries. With almost a third of the district now Hispanic-- not a group that McKeon has endeared himself to-- this is the perfect time to end this guy's disgraceful career. Obama beat McCain there 49-48% in 2008. Same thing under the new boundaries. You can help both Lee Rogers and Patsy Keever win their races here at our main Blue America page.

Here's a list of congressional districts Obama won where Israel won't spend any money to help Democrats-- saving it instead to waste on Blue Dogs and New Dems who, on the off-chance they even win, will vote a more conservative line. (The percentages reflect the Obama/McCain 2008 numbers under the new boundaries)

CA-25 (Buck McKeon)- 49-48% (progressive candidate Lee Rogers)
CA-49 (Darrell Issa)- 49-48%
FL-13 (Bill Young)- 51-47%
IL-14 (Randy Hultgren)- 51-48%
IL-16 (Adam Kinzinger)- 50-48%
MI-04 (Dave Camp)- 50-49%
MI-06 (Fred Upton)- 53-45%
MI-08 (Mike Rogers)- 52-46% (progressive candidate Lance Enderle)
MI-11 (open)- 50-48% (progressive candidate Dr, Syed Taj)
MN-03 (Erik Paulson)- 51-47%
NE-02 (Lee Terry)- 50-49%
NJ-02 (Frank LoBiondo)- 53-46%
NY-02 (Peter King)- 51-48%
NY-23 (Tom Reed)- 50-49% (progressive candidate Nate Shinagawa)
PA-15 (Charlie Dent)- 52-47%
PA-16 (Joe Pitts)- 50-49% (progressive candidate Aryanna Strader)
TX-16 (open)- 64-35% (progressive candidate Beto O'Rourke)
VA-10 (Frank Wolf)- 51-48%
WA-03 (Jaime Herrera Beutler)- 51-47%
WA-08 (Dave Reichert)- 51-47%
WI-01 (Paul Ryan)- 51-48% (progressive candidate Rob Zerban)

Now, I'm not saying the DCCC can win all these races just by throwing money at that. But they can't win any of them if they don't even contest them. (Fortunately, some of the candidates are happily winning without their help, which means they won't be beholden to the corrupt Beltway Machine, so that's a good thing.) But Israel is taking vast sums of money and throwing it away on ConservaDems in blood red districts where they have no shot at winning. We looked at NC-11 earlier. Here's a list of the Blue Dog challengers that Israel is trying to get into Congress and the Obama/McCain numbers. These are actual Blue Dogs, not run-of-the-mill conservatives or New Dems. Each of these districts has been targeted by the Blue Dog Caucus (Israel's cronies):

CO-03 (Scott Tipton vs Sal Pace)- 48-50%
IN-02 (open/Brendan Mullen)- 50-49%
IN-08 (Larry Bucshon vs Dave Crooks)- 48-51%
MI-01 (Dan Benishek vs Gary McDowell)- 50-48%
NC-11 (open/Hayden Rogers)- 40-58%
ND-AL (open/Pam Gulleson)- 45-53%
OH-06 (Bill Johnson vs Charlie Wilson)- 45-53%
OK-02 (open/Rob Wallace)- 34-66%
TX-14 (open/Nick Lampson)- 42-57%

Bad bets... but it's not his money and there's no accountability, so... who cares?