Can The Democrats Actually Screw Up Winning Back The Senate? It Would Be Difficult, But Schumer's The One Who Could Do It

The GOP could never inflict the kind of damage on the Democrats that Schumer does

Thursday night, the NY Times suddenly woke up to something we've been harping on all year-- only the Times referred to what we call DSCC incompetence and corruption as the Democrats weak bench. The reporter, Jennifer Steinhauer, asserted that the DSCC could accomplish the impossible: not win back the Senate.

Because the Democrats have only one-- or at the most two-- weak seats to defend, Nevada and Colorado, and the Republicans have 15 at-risk seats up in November, it would be really difficult for the DSCC to mess up. But accomplishing that kind of really difficult is what Chuck Schumer-- and Montana sock puppet Jon Tester-- are perfect for. There are 8 Democratic seats considered absolutely safe-- open seats in California and Maryland, as well as blue seats in Connecticut, Hawaii, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. The Republicans have 8 senators seeking reelection who could walk back into office blindfolded: Richard Shellby (AL), Mike Crapo (ID), Jerry Moran (KS), John Hoeven (ND), Jim Lankford (OK), Tim Scott (SC), John Thune (SD), and Utah (Mike Lee). The Republicans have 18 seats with some level of vulnerability, from pretty safe Alaska, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Kentucky to time-for-the-challenger-to-shop-for-blue-curtains territory: Wisconsin and Illinois. In between are the states that will decide which party runs the Senate for 2017 and '18 (when the tables are reversed and the Republicans will have massive wins and send the Democrats back into the minority (if they do manage to win in November). These are the states that should be most hotly contested (aside from Wisconsin and Illinois):

• Arizona
• Florida
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Missouri
• New Hampshire
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania

An anti-Trumpanzee wave is building in most of these states and it would be a safe bet to assume Hillary wins Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and probably North Carolina and Iowa, with an outside chance of winning in Arizona and Missouri as well. As much as I detest Evan Bayh's politics-- he's the ultimate Blue Dog type and corrupt to his core-- he's what they like in Indiana and he'll probably win the Senate seat (and by a lot) despite Hillary's struggle there. As much as I hate to say so, it was "smart" as part of a short-sighted, short-term policy for the DSCC to recruit him. But it's the other contests that are worth discussing. In Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Schumer and sock-puppet have worked to make sure the nominees would be corporate whores resistant to any kind of populism or progressive agenda.

Steinhauer says the Democrats "find themselves hobbled by less-than-stellar candidates." Find themselves? How did that happen? Sounds very passive but it was anything but passive. At Schumer's direction the DSCC spent millions of dollars driving good candidates out of the races and replacing them with truly miserable ones or, as Steinhauer puts it "by less-than-stellar candidates." It's costing the DSCC and their allies millions of dollars that could have been used against Republicans, to burden the Democrats with, for example, worthless former fracking lobbyist Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania, possibly the worst candidate running for any Senate seat anywhere this cycle. And for that Schumer and his allies spent big to destroy the Democrat, Admiral Joe Sestak, who likely would have beaten Toomey. They installed hopeless and pathetic old Ted Strickland in Ohio and are spending millions to make sure talentless "ex"-Republican Patrick Murphy-- who, if he gets the nomination August 30-- will relieve McGinty of the "worst candidate running for any Senate seat anywhere" title. Of course, there's also Patty Judge, who Schumer bulldozed into the Iowa nomination and who has virtually no chance to win anything and the odious New Dem in Arizona, Ann Kirkpatrick, who is likely to be thrashed by John McCain, even if McCain dies before election day.

Steinhauer is only partially correct when she claims that "the Democrats’ problem stems from a depletion of their ranks in state legislatures and governors’ mansions over recent years" but hits it out of the park when she politely notes "a lack of institutional support for grass-roots-level politicians who represent a changing base."

“Democrats cannibalize each other when they lose those seats and don’t have new talent to fill them,” said Daniel A. Smith, a professor of political science at the University of Florida. “Here and in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and North Carolina are states that should have Democratic state-controlled legislatures, and the fact that they don’t not only marginalizes Democrats, but also makes it increasingly hard to build a farm team.”

Republicans, of course, find themselves in a fundamental conflict between Mr. Trump’s populist insurgents and traditional conservatives. But Democrats are mired in their own struggle, as they try to identify future stars who can appeal to a base increasingly insistent on a progressive agenda.

Florida’s Senate Democratic primary this Tuesday pits a bombastic, populist liberal, Representative Alan Grayson, against the establishment’s pick, Representative Patrick Murphy, in the kind of showdown that analysts expect to see in the party’s future.

“Democrats are going to have their own Tea Party moment in 2018,” said Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor and Senate analyst for The Cook Political Report. “I don’t think they are going to put up with the party dictating who their candidates are.”

“The bench is not apparent right now,” said David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Mr. Obama’s presidential campaigns. “There are some impressive young leaders, but who among them is the next presidential nominee I can’t answer. A lot of them are not there yet.”

“Democrats have done a poor job, and I take my share of responsibility here, in not being as focused as Republicans have on building at the grass roots,” Mr. Axelrod said. “Look what the G.O.P. and their related agents have done with legislative and City Council and school board races. They are building capacity, and Democrats have paid the cost.”

Many promising young Democrats in the House have been frustrated by the reluctance of Representative Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader, and her aging deputies to step aside and let new members ascend to leadership-- one of the few rewards for a minority party in the House. “I was on the recruitment committee, and a lot of candidates decided to take a pass,” said Representative Karen Bass, Democrat of California. She added, “There are people who are new to Congress and have a difficult situation because they are not going to be there for 20 years.”

...Democratic ranks have also been decimated in state governments across the nation, where new leaders tend to plant roots for future higher office.

After the 2008 elections, Democrats controlled 62 of the 99 state legislatures; today, Republicans control 68 chambers, according to Governing magazine. Over the same time period, the number of Democrats in governor’s mansions fell from 28 to 18. In both cases, Republican control is now at or near historic highs.

...Democrats have also complained that the party has not worked hard enough to promote an agenda that is appealing to the party’s growing base of progressive whites, nonwhites and millennials, fearing that such policies could turn off older, more traditional Democratic voters.

Stacey Abrams, the minority leader of the Georgia General Assembly, called that the “fear that is inherent in transitions.” She is considered one of the party’s brightest young stars, in no small part because she has unseated five Republicans in the Georgia legislature.

“This is a party that is comprised of what is being referred to as the new American majority,” she said. “Those are progressive whites, people of color and millennials. We have to focus our politics on turning out those voters.”

Instead, the Senate Democrats were manipulated into picking the absolute worst possible leader, Schumer, who is working to replicate a Democratic senate caucus beholden to Wall Street and resistant to anything the upcoming Democratic Party base is interested in. Schemer's career has been greased by $25,957,041 in legalistic bribes from the Finance Sector, more than any other politicians in the history of American politics who was not a presidential candidate. Schemer's corruption is far worse than even any Republican. By way of comparison, even the most contemptible Wall Street whores across the aisle haven't gotten the kinds of bribes that makes Schumer's clock tick. Not one of Wall Street's favorite Republicans got even half of what Schumer took in! Here are the 10 most bankster-corrupted Republicans and their hauls:

• John Boehner (R-OH)- $12,215,498
• Mitch McConnell (R-KY)- $11,806,876
• Scott Brown (R-MA)- $9,178,994
• Rob Portman (R-OH)- $8,722,092
• Eric Cantor (R-VA)- $8,659,744
• Richard Shelby (R-AL)- $8,380,358
• John Cornyn (R-TX)- $8,235,516
• Paul Ryan (R-WI)- $8,233,811
• Mark Kirk (R-IL)- $8,159,335
• Pat Toomey (R-PA)- $7,818,439

Schumer's mentorship of right-wing fake Democrat Patrick Murphy makes all the more sense when you understand that only Speaker Ryan and House Majority Leader McCarthy have taken bigger bankster bribes than Murphy this year and that there is no non-incumbent running for the Senate this year who has gotten as much Finance Sector loot as Murphy. Murphy just spent 2 terms in the House doing absolutely nothing but showing how utterly corrupt he is, but a promise from his wealthy parents and wealthy Saudi backers to help fund Obama's Presidential Library was enough for Obama to show his contempt for Florida's African-American voters by lying to them about what a "progressive" Murphy is in a series of ads that have all but killed Grayson's chance's to win the primary.

Blue America hasn't endorsed many candidates for Senate races this cycle. We only found 3 worth supporting (who are still in the running). You can help them-- and I hope you will-- at the thermometer below: