Congress Has Had Enough Conservative Patrick Murphys Already-- It's Time For A Progressive One… From Iowa

Yesterday, failed right-wing politician Rick Santorum announced that his silly little PAC was endorsing another lunatic fringe candidate, Iowa teabagger Walter Rogers from Cedar Falls. "I can say without hesitation," proclaimed Santorum, "that he would be a terrific congressman to represent northeast Iowa. I am all in, in support of Walt Rogers' candidacy, and I look forward to joining him on the campaign trail soon."

Iowa's first congressional district-- the northeast of the state, including Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Marshalltown and Decorah-- is an open seat because the current Representative, Bruce Braley, is running for the U.S. Senate. The district has a PVI of D+5 and is considered safe for whomever wins the Democratic primary. (Obama beat McCain with 58% and Romney with 56% there and in Braley's last race, he beat Republican Ben Lange 57-42%, winning 17 of the district's 20 counties, including landslide wins in the two big counties, Black Hawk and Dubuque.) In short, whoever wins the Democratic primary, will be the next congressmember for IA-01.

There's one clear choice for progressive voters, state Rep. Pat Murphy. Murphy was the former Minority leader and then the House Speaker and has proven himself to be a dynamic and capable progressive champion. He managed to raise the minimum wage, block the Republican jihad against LGBT equality and was able to raise the cigarette tax $1 and put it into children's healthcare. He also expanded stem cell research in Iowa, expanded family planning services in Iowa, created universal pre-school for 4-year olds in Iowa and passed open scope collective bargaining for the state, which was vetoed by ConservaDem governor Chet Culver.

Above, I indicated that no Republican could win in IA-01, but that doesn't take into consideration that one of Murphy's top competitor's is a life-long Republican who, for obvious opportunism, switched parties a few years ago. Monica Vernon and her husband, Bill, were GOP stalwarts and contributed thousands of dollars to local and national Republicans, including, last year to Braley's GOP opponent Ben Lange, as well as to clowns like Chuck Grassley, John McCain and $4,000 to the Iowa State Republican Party. So… a Republican can't win in IA-01, but can a Republican disguised as a Democrat? I wonder what's taking EMILY's List so long. Vernon is their kind of candidate.

There's another horrible Democrat is the race, Swati Dandekar, who you may recall, sold out Iowa Democrats when she was a state senator by accepting an appointment from Republican Gov. Branstad to the Iowa Utility Board. Since Republicans held the Iowa State House and Governorship, Swati selfishly put the Senate-- which had a narrow 26-24 Democratic majority-- up for grabs. The special election cost Democrats close to a million dollars to keep the seat, desperately needed to keep Iowa from extreme right, one-party rule. Voters in the district hate her and its hard to believe she has the gumption to run in a Democratic primary.

There's also an ambitious trial lawyer, Dave O'Brien, who wants to run. He has no actual political experience and, unlike Murphy, there's no way of telling where he would be on the key issues confronting Congress. And the 5th candidate is pretty good, but isn't ready for the jump from the state House yet. Anesa Kajtazovic is a 27-year old state Rep who has a good personal story and may develop into a worthwhile lawmaker one day. In the last session, though, she voted with the Republicans and conservative Democrats to give Walmart, Menard, and Home Depot a tax cut. The tax cut will be about $7.5 million for just those 3 companies. Bad instincts. Pat Murphy was one of only 12 Democrats who voted against it. Good instincts. Blue America is still vetting Pat Murphy but so far… everything looks like it's going to be all systems go-- and soon. We'll let you know.