Steve Israel Undercuts More Of His Own (Terrible) Recruits

As we've been mentioning lately, Steve Israel's abysmal candidate recruitment in targeted districts is resulting in chillingly bad campaigns and horrifying polling. And all that has led, inevitably, to the DCCC cutting their worst candidates loose to sink or swim-- mostly just sink-- on their own. Jerry Cannon (MI), Aaron Woolf (NY) and Ann Callis (IL) were three recent examples of candidates from whom Israel has withdrawn financial backing.

And those three are far from the only Red-to-Blue candidates Israel is stiffing this cycle. The DCCC's House Majority PAC, ostensibly controlled by Pelosi, has also been canceling ad buys candidates had been promised, planned around and were counting on. Callis, whose uninspired mystery meat campaign has gone over like a wet mop, was one, but Beltway Democrats have written her off as road kill. Pam Byrnes and Eric Schertzing were both counting in Israel's promises when they drew up their media campaigns. Both got word over the last week or so that the DCCC doesn't see a path to victory for either and that they're not going to throw good money after bad. The irony is that Byrnes particularly followed every losing guideline the DCCC fed her consultant-heavy campaign.

Kevin Strouse, one of the CIA agents Israel was helping infiltrate into Congress, has run such an awful campaign in suburban Philly that the House Majority PAC pulled the rug out from under him. As a Pennsylvania political expert told me last week, Strouse's only chance to win is if the CIA murders Republican incumbent Mike Fitzpatrick. But they'd never do that… right? One of the other CIA agents he's been trying to get into the House, Bobby McKenzie, was left high and dry weeks ago. And even the anti-Choice, anti-gay, pro-NRA piece of work he's rumored to have been... sweet on, Jennifer Garrison (OH) has been abandoned. That was inevitable since she was easily the worst DCCC recent in recent memory.

Israel won't be DCCC chairman for 2016 but he's demanding another leadership position. And why not? The worst DCCC results ever were in 2010 and the chairman that year, Chirs Van Hollen, was rewarded with the ranking position on the House Budget Committee and some fake leadership position.