How Vulnerable Is Steve Israel To Defeat In November?

You probably missed it, but a few days ago the Washington Post ran some hopeful polling numbers that show the corrupt dirt bag Steve Israel could be beaten. Although they neglected to update the new PVI-- even instead of D+2-- this is what they came up with:

Steve Israel, NY-03 (PVI, D+2)

Generic Ballot

GOP: 43%
Democrat: 42%

Steve Israel Job Approval

Approve: 37%
Disapprove: 27%

Israel Reelect

Deserves re-election: 33%
Someone else: 36%

Israel's counterpart at the NRCC, Greg Walden (R-OR), was making threatening noises about targeting Israel the way they target every other Democrat in a district with an even PVI-- or every other vulnerable Democrat. But Walden is as full of hot air as Israel is and they have a sweet deal not to target each other. Israel's part of the deal is that no senior Republicans get targeted no matter how vulnerable they are.

The NRCC has steadfastly refused to help military veteran and right-wing true believer, Steve Labate, the party's candidate in 2012, who is running again this year. They treat him as shabbily as Israel treats grassroots Democrats who try to run against Boehner, Cantor, Ryan, McKeon, Upton or any GOP bigwig. But, even before the vulnerability story appeared, a second Republican-- a neighbor of Sean Hannity's no less-- started making noises about jumping into the race, a notoriously corrupt Long Island character named Grant Lally. Lally is a crook and there are people in NY-02 telling me that Israel is trying to get him to run in order to force Labate to waste all his money in a primary. I found this on page 6 of an old FEC publication about Lally agreeing to a $280,000 fine for fraudulent activities in his 1994 congressional race.

The violations included making and receiving at least $200,000 in excessive contributions and inaccurately reporting them as coming from Grant Lally’s personal funds. Respondents included Grant Lally; his candidate campaign committee, Lally for Congress; his parents, Lawrence and Ute Lally [one of New York's most corrupt GOP judges]; and Lally and Lally, Esquires. Grant Lally admitted the violations, and Lawrence Lally and Lally for Congress admitted that their violations were knowing and willful.

The excessive contributions occurred during the 1994 campaign, when Grant Lally reported making loans of $319,991 to his committee. The investigation revealed that a large portion of the reported loans were actually contributions from the candidate’s father.

Between May and October 1994, Lawrence Lally gave the candidate $116,000. Lawrence and Grant Lally later stated that these funds were for the purchase of the candidate’s share of real estate investment property in New York. Within days of receipt, the candidate deposited the funds into the committee’s account as loans from the candidate. The Commission found that the $116,000 was not for a bona fide purchase of the property. Lawrence Lally also authorized an $18,000 payment to his son from an account in which Ute Lally had an interest. The respondents claimed that the $18,000 was for the pur- chase of the candidate’s 1966 Corvette, but the evidence demontrated that there was no bona fide sale of the automobile. The candidate also loaned the campaign $74,491 from payments he received from Lally and Lally. These funds also were actually contributions from the candidate’s father. Prior to the conciliation agreement, the Commission found probable cause to believe that Grant Lally, his candidate committee, his parents and Lally and Lally knowingly and willfully violated the Act. The funneling of payments through the candidate’ s account, the failure to create documents and/or notations related to the payments and the submission of false and inaccurate information to the Commission formed the basis for the knowing and willful findings.

…The Lally civil penalty is among the largest obtained by the FEC for violations of the Act and Commission regulations.

How can you target the Republicans for their assaults on democracy when you have the chairman of the DCCC using their playbook, not just in his own district, but all around the country?