A Confused DCCC Doesn't Know If It Wants To Turn Out Voters Or Turn Off Voters

Yesterday Digby covered how Florida Democrats-- except Debbie Wasserman Schultz-- hope to use a medical marijuana initiative to turn out voters. In Colorado young people (the 18-29 cohort) made up 14% of Colorado voters, already high because of Obama-enthusiasm. But it increased to 20% in 2012 when there was a marijuana initiative on the ballot. Same results in Oregon-- where it went from 12% to 17% and in Washington, where the jump was from 10% to a startling 22%. And that was not what happened in states that did not have marijuana initiatives on the ballot. In fact, there was a fall off among young voters in Virginia, Wisconsin and Iowa and in Florida, the increase was an anemic 1%. Florida Democrats decided to change that this year.

A highly influential Democratic donor named John Morgan has spearheaded the campaign creating a group called United for Care.  They genuinely believe in the cause but there’s little doubt that it is also hoped that this ballot initiative will boost the rest of the Democratic ticket. Morgan sent out an email just today  telling the story of his late father’s illness and how much marijuana had helped make him feel better in his final days. He says:

Medical marijuana is legal in nearly half of the states in the country. And where it’s legal-- none of the scary, apocalyptic consequences promised by the opposition have come true. Violent crime has gone down, youth consumption has remained flat, and society has not collapsed.

Here’s what did happen: patients got access to another form of medicine, safer and less addicting than what doctors were legally allowed to recommend before.

So what can one make of the fact that the Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee is voting against medical marijuana in the House and has come out against the ballot initiative in Florida? That’s right, the purportedly liberal Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is stridently anti-marijuana, even for medical purposes. This is, of course, her right as a representative of her district, but considering the political stakes for her state and the country at large, a leading Democratic Party official should probably have to answer for a position that’s completely at odds with members of her party, especially the voters of Florida. This is a Quinnipiac Poll from last May that suggests that Wasserman-Schultz is very much out of the mainstream (emphasis added):

Florida voters support 88 – 10 percent allowing adults to legally use marijuana for medical purposes, if a doctor prescribes it. Support is over 80 percent among all listed groups, including 84 – 13 percent among voters over 65 years old.

She has claimed the initiative is too broad and her office has said she has concerns “as a mom.” John Morgan of United for Care rebutted her claims: Ms. Wasserman Schultz says she feels Amendment 2 is too broad, but in fact it’s quite specific. It establishes the right of a physician to recommend medical marijuana to a patient with a debilitating condition if its use would offer that patient relief. It then asks the Florida Department of Health to build a regulatory framework that makes it possible for that person to have access to the medicine he or she needs. It’s difficult to say whether Ms. Wasserman Schultz believes sick people should be kept from their medicine, or whether she thinks the public servants at the Department of Health are incompetent and would implement the amendment irresponsibly, but both positions are puzzling, unfortunate and wrong.

Wasserman-Schultz will likely retain her seat in November with no problems. But that hasn’t stopped her friends from sending out emails begging for donations for help her beat back the bad guys. James Carville sent this on out just this week-end:

An outside group with money is like an alligator with a chainsaw — you’re pretty sure he doesn’t know how to use it, but you don’t want to be nearby when he tries. My friend Debbie Wasserman Schultz knows what I mean. She’s seen outside groups attack her earlier this cycle than ever before. And while they didn’t do much damage, that doesn’t mean they won’t the next time they try.

He goes on to imply that the “outside groups” who are running ads against her are the Koch brothers. But in reality, the group that’s been running ads against her is a medical marijuana group called Americans for Safe Access  concerning her record in the House.  The “attack” against her is this one:



You can see why she would not be happy with this damning indictment. It takes some real chutzpah to ask your donors to contribute to help fight the Kochs when this is the “outside group” that’s criticizing you.

Perhaps this is just a personal decision on the part of the Congresswoman which, again, is her right. Maybe she just doesn’t like pot. But as the highest official in the DNC, it’s political malpractice to fight against this.

Or maybe it's because Wasserman Schultz has been building power for herself with the financial aid of the private prison industry that is frantic the flow of marijuana convicts will dry up and put them out of business.

Yesterday Gallup published results showing another model for voter turn-out: anger at dishonest and incompetent political hacks like Wasserman Schultz. Conventional wisdom holds that voters don't go to the polls when they get turned off by politicians. But Gallup's data indicates that when they get angry enough, they do go to the polls-- for revenge.

Americans' disenchantment with Congress may lead to higher voter turnout on Election Day this year. In the last five midterm elections, voter turnout has exceeded 40% when Congress' approval rating was low, but turnout was below 40% when Americans were more approving.

Congressional job approval, currently 13%, is on pace to be the lowest it has been in a midterm election year. Moreover, a near-record-low 19% of registered voters say most members of Congress deserve re-election. This latter measure shows a similarly strong relationship to voter turnout as does job approval.

…It is unclear how the current frustration with Congress will manifest itself in terms of party control of the two houses of Congress. Because the president's party usually loses seats in the House in midterm elections, few give the Democrats much chance of reclaiming the majority there. The Senate appears to be the more important battleground, as Democrats, expected to lose seats, are trying to avoid losing the six seats that would give the Republicans the majority.

The problem with all this is that many voters who are not primarily motivated by blind partisanship for one Beltway party or the other, are loathe to pick between the lesser of two evils. The DCCC under Steve Israel has been particularly pernicious in recruiting overwhelmingly atrocious candidates that do not office a viable choice against equally atrocious Republican incumbents. This week, for example, the DCCC launched one of their idiotic politics-for-morons initiatives: a scorecard about how the GOP fails women. The 10 hapless Republicans weren't chosen because they are the worst on women's issues. They were chosen because the DCCC thinks they are vulnerable to defeat in November. There are far worse Republicans who could be on that lost-- who meet the DCCC criteria (some as flimsy and specious as candidates Tom MacArthur in New Jersey and Jeff Gorell in California saying they want to repeal Obamacare)-- but who are in districts Steve Israel has decided against contesting.

Worse still is that the always hypocritical DCCC is spending millions of dollars on Democrats with far worse records that several of the Republican targets. Jennifer Garrison, an Israel recruit from Ohio, is an anti-Choice fanatic with a long and sordid record who would fit perfectly into the DCCC chart-- except Israel is preoccupied with lying to other Democrats about her record so that they contribute to her campaign. Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN), Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV), and Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL) have excruciatingly anti-women voting records, worse than plenty of Republicans. And if the DCCC wants to talk about repealing Obamacare as an anti-women vote… say hello the virtually the whole Blue Dog caucus that Israel and Hoyer treasure above all other Democrats.

Look who voted for the Stupak amendment, widely viewed as one of the most anti-Choice votes to pass Congress in decades. It could never have passed with only194 GOP votes but 64 anti-Choice Democrats crossed the aisle and helped the GOP pass it 240-194. Almost all of those fake Democrats have been defeated but not every single one of them-- all Israel is trying to keep the rest in Congress. These are all so-called "Democrats" running in November who voted for the Stupak Amendment and who could not win reelection without massive financial aid from the DCCC. The dollar amount represents the money the DCCC alone (not allied groups) has already committed in TV time reservations:

• John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA)- $1,160,000
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)- $1,500,000
• Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV)- 1,225,000

On top of that, Israel green lighted another $940,000 in TV ad reservations for northern Michigan long-shot conservative, Jerry Cannon, who calls himself "pro-life," a Republican Party-manufactured insult to women. These are the endorsements so far this cycle by the anti-Choice wing of the Democratic Party-- Democratic For Life America:

You wonder why voters are confused and wondering why they should bother turning out on election day? This guy, with progressive politics and in a  winnable district in Washington state is being 100% ignored by the DCCC: