Last Two Races In For House Seats-- Lord Charles Boustany (LA-R) and Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC) Are Leading

With Allen West's anti-climactic concession yesterday, only two House races remain up in the air. One, in Louisiana's 3rd CD, pits two Republican incumbents against each other, Lord Boustany-- who is heavily favored to win the December 8th runoff-- and teabaggy freshman Jeff Landry. It isn't that Democrats have no interest in a race in which the 2 Republicans are fighting with each other over which one is more conservative. At least one Democrat, Ron Richard, who was the candidate who forced the runoff, seems to care which one wins. He endorsed Boustany, who is also the preferred candidate of the GOP House leadership as well. Landry, on the other hand, has been endorsed by the most extreme right teabaggers in Congress, kooks like Tom Graves, (R-GA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Jeff Duncan (R-SC) and Mick Mulvaney (R-SC).

The other race still up in the air also pits two very right-wing candidates against each other, Republican state Senator David Rouzer and 8-term Blue Dog/New Dem Mike McIntyre in North Carolina's recently gerrymandered 7th district, specifically rejiggered by the Republican-controlled legislature (of which Rouzer is a member) to deprive McIntyre of his seat. McIntyre, though, is ahead by 655 votes-- 168,697-168,042. There's a 1% threshold (3,360 in this case) that will trigger a recount if Rouzer asks for one. He did.

Rouzer helped draw the new lines that put McIntyre's Lumberton home outside of the new district, cut out much of Democratic-leaning Robeson County and added Rouzer's own home Johnson County. Seems pretty blatant... sort of the way they do it in Florida, where grubby political hacks in the state legislature like Connie Mack, Mark Foley and Debbie Wasserman Schultz drew themselves districts that fit themselves to a tee. But don't get all welled up over the martyred McIntyre. He's one of the most reactionary Democrats in Congress. McIntyre isn't just a corporate shill opposing the legitimate aspirations of working families, he is also an old time bigoted homophobe and a fanatic anti-Choice zealot. His ProgressivePunch score is one of the worst for any Democrat in Congress, a dismal 32.1% in the current session and he's one of the congressmembers Boehner and Cantor count on to make it possible to call their extremist nonsense "bipartisan." McIntyre is always looking for opportunities to vote with the GOP. Only 10 Democrats have worse voting records and of the 10, 5 were either defeated or are retiring this year. Fellow North Carolinian Walter Jones, a conservative Republican, has voted more frequently with the Democrats on crucial roll calls than McIntyre has. So has Ron Paul.

McIntyre spent $1,831,126 on this race and Rouzer spent $1,152,834. Outside groups spent far more. The NRCC and right-wing SuperPACs threw $4,515,634 in negative ads against McIntyre. The DCCC spent $2,251,996 to bolster McIntyre and their affiliated House Majority PAC threw in another $131,915. Cantor put $1,556,490 in Young Gun cash, out of the $5 million Mafia-connected Sheldon Adelson gave him, into this one race. The recount will take place next week, after Thanksgiving. There is no good outcome.

All four of these conservative candidates oppose a sane national health care policy. But, as this Boustany ad shows, he has a unique approach which is, in the end, pretty sick: