Will Steve Israel Get Out Of The Way And Let A Democrat Finally Beat Peter King On Long Island?

The Republicans have worked hard-- from the moment President Obama was first elected-- to undermine him and denigrate his policies at home and abroad. Peter King may try to pass himself off as more "moderate" than, say Steve King of Iowa, put he has been as hostile, super-partisan and reckless as the rest of his party when it comes to a psychological affliction some in the media call "Obama-derangement syndrome."

Obama won the South Shore Long Island area that makes up NY-02 both times he ran. In 2008 he beat John McCain 156,145 (51%) to 145,881 (48%) and then did slightly better against Romney 4 years later, beating him 52-47%. Two years after the Obama victory in 2008, a competent DCCC would have run a strong candidate against Peter King, either to beat him or to set up a win for 2012. Instead, the DCCC, run by devious buffoons who back-scratch and socialize with King-- particularly North Shore conservaDem Steve Israel-- made sure King would have no serious challengers in 2010-- when he beat a random fellow named Howard Kudler 70.9 to 27.6%-- nor in 2012-- when he beat a random gal named Vivianne Falcone 52.2% to 36.8% (while Obama was racking up a 53% win in Nassau County and a 51% win in Suffolk County.

Steve Israel made sure the pattern was repeated in 2014, and King beat Patricia Maher 64.9-28.5%. It's worth noting campaign spending for these three elections. In 2010-- right after Obama had won the district-- King raised $1,713,817 and only bothered to spend $955,292 against Kudler, who raised $83,541 and only spent $2,619. The DCCC spent zero dollars. In 2012 King raised $1,812,860 and spent $1,201,207, while Falcone raised and spent just over $11,000. The DCCC spent zero dollars. And in 2014 King raised $1,308,269 and spent $811,982, while Maher raised and spent around $11,000. Again, King ally Steve Israel made sure the DCCC spent zero dollars.

Will 2016 break the pattern? Israel is working hard to make sure it doesn't. But local Democrats, sickened by DCCC sabotage of their efforts to take on King, have recruited their most credible candidate in a decade, DuWayne Gregory, the presiding officer of the Suffolk County legislature. He's already raised over $130,000, more money in just a few months than the previous three candidates did for their entire campaigns-- combined, and is on track to offer King his first serious contest since 2006 when Nassau County legislator Dave Mejias held King down to a 52.8% win and forced him to spend over $2 million to keep the seat.

Yesterday, after King's radio show I spoke with Gregory on the phone. He told me that "growing up in a middle class household on Long Island, I understand the challenges that middle class families face. Too many families are forced to make difficult choices-- sometimes even between food and medication-- that no one should have to make to achieve the American Dream. Peter King has fought against middle class values, voting to gut Medicare and increase interest rates on student loans, and even expressing support for privatizing Social Security. If elected to Congress, I will be the champion of the middle class."

In that 2006 race King used the ugly smear tactics he's so well known for, claiming in a letter to Long Island Jews that Mejias took campaign contributions from Long Islanders King explicitly called "radical Muslim leaders," although King himself had taken substantially more money from these same people than Mejias did. Long Island's biggest newspaper, Newsday, wrote that "In thousands of letters to constituents this month, King (R-Seaford) criticized 'American Muslim leaders' for failing to adequately denounce the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He took specific aim at the Islamic Center of Long Island in Westbury, saying the mosque's leaders 'have publicly stated that the CIA or the Zionists may have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks. 'Because I have put aside political correctness and spoken out against these radical leaders, I have been denounced as... a Muslim hater,' King wrote. 'Now they are actively supporting my opponent.'... Last year, King took a total of $3,000 from three Muslim donors who have given $950 to Mejias this year."

Sunday, King was on Hate Talk Radio 970AM with John Catsimatidis to bash Obama, whining that "the American people have lost faith, because they see when things are going poorly, the president isn’t acknowledging it," not unlike the Republican talking points Trump was spouting at the same time on Face The Nation, telling John Dickerson "We need spirit. We need a cheerleader. President Obama’s a bad cheerleader." And, like Trump, King's nastiness knows no bounds. Both gratuitously attack Republicans they disagree with. King, one of Congress' worst proponents of unconstitutional domestic spying on American citizens, never stops lashing into Rand Paul for defending the constitution, even calling him "a danger to the Republican Party." Last year when Paul was part of an effort to keep the NSA from illegally eavesdropping on American citizens without a warrant, King ran to Fox News to declare Paul "doesn't deserved to be in the United States Senate... either he's totally uninformed or he's part of that hate America crowd that I thought left us in the 1960s." King, a truculent loudmouth much like McCain and Lindsey Graham, would like nothing more than to draw America into wars in Syria and Iran.

King offers the worst of all worlds among Republicans-- a virulent warmonger who doesn't think the rich should pay their fair share of taxes but thinks-- incorrectly-- that the way to balance the budget is by privatizing Social Security and eliminating health insurance for poor people. He's an anti-Choice and anti-LGBT throwback who vehemently opposes efforts by the EPA to keep water and air clean and refuses to back initiatives to prioritize green energy development. He sounds more like a congressman from Alabama than from Long Island.

Once he got his hands on the DCCC, grotesquely corrupt Blue Dog Steve Israel managed to turn Long Island's 4 congressional districts into a conservative bastion. NY-01, most of Suffolk County, was won by Republican Steve Zeldin on Israel's watch and now Israel is directly behind a schism in the Democratic Party between two conservative candidates, the New Dem pick (venture capitalist Dave Calone, who Israel will tell anyone who listens is too tied to the hated Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) to ever win-- doing Zeldin's job for him-- while he backs a non-Democrat for the seat, Anna Throne-Holst, who he is rumored to have a amorous interest in. NY-03 is Israel's own seat, which the Republican Party leaves alone as part of a deal in which he makes sure their top incumbents get no plausible opponents. He's a vehemently anti-progressive "ex"-Blue Dog who typifies the careerist mentality that has sent the congressional Democrats into a tragic downward spiral. Israel's conservative protégée, Kathleen Rice is a member of the Wall Street-owned New Dems. So that leaves NY-02, the Long Island district where Peter King has long outlived his usefulness and his relevance and that has a well-known genuine progressive candidate in DuWayne Gregory. Israel will fight hard to sabotage him and protect Peter King behind the scenes but Gregory is worth investing in-- which you can do here-- and is picking up support from unions and civic organizations from Ronkonkoma, Central Islip and Bayport in the eastern end of the district, right into Massapequa and Levittown in the western end.