Friday, December 19, 2014

Why Are Voters So Unenthusiastic About Reelecting Run Of The Mill, Garden Variety Democrats?

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You mean Crowley rocking out with Huckabee doesn't get Queens & Bronx voters out to the polls?

Turnout for the midterms in California was a dismal 42% this year. Barbara Lee (CA-13- Oakland) didn't have a real race, but her constituents turned out for her in greater numbers than any other congressional candidate in the whole state, more than any other Democrat and more than any Republican. 166,182 went to the polls to voice their gratitude for a congresswoman who stands up for working families. (In 2012 she was reelected with 250,436 votes and Obama won the district with 268,093 in 2012 and 283,183 in 2008.)

The upper Midwest seems like an especially civic-minded area and Minnesota and Wisconsin always get good turnout. In Minnesota, for example, all the Democratic incumbents scored over 100,000 votes-- a very different story than in most of the country. Keith Ellison led the way with 167,076 votes,a nice healthy midterm vote-- although he had won reelection in 2012 with 262,102 votes. Similar story in Wisconsin, The Democratic incumbents all scored over 100,000, with Mark Pocan leading the way with 224,548, the biggest turnout anywhere in the whole country for any Democrat running for the House. His level of support was hardly down at all from 2012 when he won with 265,422 votes.

What do these three Democrats have in common aside from loyal constituents? Pocan has the single most progressive voting record in the entire Congress. Ellison and Lee are two courageous, stalwart progressives who never hesitate to stand up loud and clear on behalf of the ordinary people who don't hire lobbyists. These are their ProgressivePunch lifetime crucial vote scores:
Mark Pocan 98.71
Keith Ellison 95.49
Barbara Lee 94.87
At least as important is their willingness to lead on tough issues that send other Members of Congress fleeing under the bed. And Democratic and independent voters appreciate it. Compare their resulting to results in two other states' Democratic delegations, Texas and New York. Voters were competency uninspired and stayed away from the election in droves, catastrophic in New York swing districts and most just embarrassing in Texas' obscenely gerrymandered Democratic ghettos districts. Keep in mind, all districts have approximately the same number of people.
TX-09- Al Green- 77,979
TX-15- Rubén Hinojosa- 48,561
TX-16- Beto O'Rourke- 49,257
TX-18- Sheila Jackson Lee- 75,963
TX-20- Joaquin Castro- 66,538
TX-23- Pete Gallego- 55,436 (lost the seat to a CIA agent)
TX-28- Henry Cuellar- 62,471
TX-29- Gene Green- 41,229
TX-30- Eddie Bernice Johnson- 92,971
TX-33- Mark Veasey- 43,729
TX-34- Filemon Vela- 47,457
TX-35- Lloyd Doggett- 60,027
Don't get me wrong; some of these Democratic incumbents won with stupendous margins-- Mark Veasey with 86.5%, Gene Green with 89.5%, Al Green with 90.8%... but that's because of gerrymandering, not because these legislators are inspiring anyone to get out and work for them and vote for them the way Barbara Lee, Keith Ellison and Mark Pocan do. And New York is in even worse shape than Texas. Texas Democrats lost one mangey, worthless Blue Dog, Pete Gallego. New York Democrats crashed and burned:
NY-01- Tim Bishop- 73,860 (lost the seat to a teabagger)
NY-03- Steve Israel- 85,310 (likely GOP target in 2016)
NY-04- Kathleen Rice- 85,294
NY-05- Gregory Meeks- 72,454
NY-07- Nydia Velázquez- 53,283
NY-08- Hakeem Jeffries- 71,280
NY-09- Yvette Clarke- 78,157
NY-10- Jerry Nadler- 82,880
NY-12- Carolyn Maloney- 83,870
NY-13- Charlie Rangel- 64,142
NY-14- Joe Crowley- 47,370
NY-15- Jose Serrano- 51,665
NY-17- Nita Lowey- 93,001
NY-18- Sean Patrick Maloney- 93,001
NY-20- Paul Tonko- 118,993
NY-24- Dan Maffei- 75,690 (lost the seat... again)
NY-25- Louise Slaughter- 93,053
NY-26- Brian Higgins- 79,344
Again, there were some huge wins by percentage but no voter enthusiasm whatsoever. Take Joe Crowley for example, the Queens County Democratic Party boss and a member of the House Leadership with millions of Wall Street dollars in his campaign kitty. He won with a gigantic 88.2%... but with a disgraceful 47,370 votes. He didn't even try too engage the voters, neither on policy nor even in a competent get out the vote effort.

Is there not a problem when Democratic congressmen can't inspire the people back home to get out and vote for them. Why can Mark Pocan get 224,548 voters while Joe Crowley only gets 47,370? And why is Joe Crowley on a leadership track? Isn't that exactly what is wrong with the Beltweay Democratic Party?

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2 Comments:

At 12:22 PM, Blogger ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Because they stink.

It's like rooting for the Washington Generals.
~

 
At 8:48 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Is there not a problem when Democratic congressmen can't inspire the people back home to get out and vote for them[?]"

(Questions usuall end with questions marks. Just sayin')

Rational thinking folk would agree that there is a problem when inspiration isn't forthcoming from candidates, even winning ones. But the DNC and other leaders of the Democratic Party haven't cared about what the voter thinks since before NAFTA got inserted into our collective rectum. They will instead brag about their demographic momentum and how the GOP is toast. Only clueless people like these would ignore the devastation that attitude brought in TWO midterms, each resulting in large GOP gains in the legislative branch.

All the more reason for the voters to seek other representation outside the two-party scam.

 

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