Are You Ready To Say Goodbye To Darrell Issa?

Doug Applegate, unlike his opponent, wasn't stealing cars when he was in the military

California, as you probably know by now, has an open-- or jungle-- primary. All candidates, regardless of party, are on the same ballot and the two top vote-getters-- also regardless of party-- go on to the general election in November. Most of the top candidates the DCCC was pushing against Republican incumbents did pretty poorly. Michael Eggman only scored 28% against Jeff Denham. Emilo Huerta barely got out of the primary at all-- just 1% ahead of another Democrat and with just 20% against Republican Dave Valadao's 58%. And the carpetbagger the DCCC recruited in the Santa Clarita/Antelope Valley area, Bryan Caforio, only scored a measly 28.7% against weak incumbent Steve Knight's 49%. The California Democrat who did best against an incumbent was in a race the DCCC was barely watching-- former Marine officer and first-time candidate Doug Applegate, a Bernie-oriented progressive in one of those districts the DCCC wrote off long ago and never contests.

When Californians in the 49th district voted June 7, 56,013 (51.1%) voted for entrenched 8-term incumbent Darrell Issa and a stunning 49,792 (45.4%) voted for Applegate, shocking Issa-- and the DCCC-- despite the fact that he was outspent 15-1. Most of the voters are in San Diego County, including the northern most precincts of San Diego itself, but there is a big Orange County population as well, stretching as far north as San Clemente, Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano. 69.1% of the voters live in the suburbs and 30.9% live in areas classified as "urban." Although the DCCC doesn't classify it as one, CA-49-- with a growing Latino population-- now 26%-- is a swing district. Obama won it narrowly in 2008 and lost it narrowly in 2012. Just before the 2012 election, there were 102,048 registered Democrats. By this past July that number had increased to 112,952-- an increase of over 10,000 newly registered Democrats, about equal to the 10,000 fewer Republicans.

When you read about how Republican and independent women in the suburbs are utterly turned off to Trump, it's not just the Philadelphia suburbs they;'re talking about. It's the suburbs around New York, Cleveland, Detroit, Denver, Seattle, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and, of course, San Diego as well. Yesterday Greg Sargent reported that these suburban voters are "entirely closed off to reconsidering Trump, describing him and his public statements in the harshest of terms: Liar. Narcissist. Egotist. Racist."

Suddenly the DCCC has taken a major interest in Doug Applegate. I've had several calls from members of Congress asking me what I know about him and telling me they're getting the feeling that the DCCC is interested in his race and are seeing it as an unexpected pick-up opportunity. Last week I sat down with him for a couple of hours and started getting to know him. All I really knew about him was that he was a Marine colonel running against Issa. His campaign website's issues page looked good, a lot better than the DCCC allows any of their puppet candidates' to look. His first issue was opposition to the TPP and he jumped into Climate Change, comprehensive immigration reform, health care, campaign finance reform, criminal justice reform, women's rights and LGBTQ equality. Every piece of his platform was unabashedly progressive, with no wiggle-room created for New Dem/Blue Dog Republican-lite crap.

And he was even better in person! He checks out as someone not just right on all the issues but with the character and convictions to make a difference in a Congress riven with corruption and a chasm of low expectation and a horrifying dearth of leadership. He's the newest candidate endorsed by Blue America and I asked him to tell us a little about himself and why he's running for Congress. Please consider contributing to his campaign by tapping the thermometer at the right after you read what he has to say.


Congress Is Broke And We Need To Fix It
-by Doug Applegate

We need to fix this Congress that has underfunded technological research projects that can drive our economy. We need to fix this Congress that has sent our sons and daughters into harm’s way with no strategy for success and little support for them when they come home. We need to fix this Congress that has waged a war on women, minorities, the LGBTQ community, children and seniors.

We need to fix this Congress that has has long ago forgotten what it means to lead and to serve. As a retired Marine Colonel, I have the perspective and integrity that today’s Congress sorely lacks. If elected, I can work with other Members of Congress who are dedicated to progress and move our country forward.

In order to grow the economy and create jobs, we must invest in tomorrow’s technology today. So much of the technology currently under development is immediately made obsolete due to a lack of additional investment and forward thinking. We need to lead the world in research and development of cutting edge technology in order to deal with the impending crises we face, such as climate change. That can start with a Manhattan Project-inspired program for developing sources of renewable energy-- renewable energy that is desperately needed and has been repeatedly requested by the Defense Department, and more specifically, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps for nearly a decade.

When I hear about the shortcomings at the Department of Veterans Affairs, I see just one thing to do-- we must stand up and support our veterans, my brothers and sisters in arms. The VA is underfunded, overcrowded, and ill-prepared to handle the ever-increasing demand placed upon it. All of which makes it wholly inadequate to provide the services so desperately needed. We need legislators who know how to fix the problem and who understand that we cannot wait any longer to do so. Our district is home to one of the largest veteran populations in the country and after 15 years of war, this Congress has failed to provide adequate resources for those who've sacrificed so much. If Congress is going to send our sons and daughters to war, they had better vote for funds to support them when they come home.

It’s time we valued the contributions of every American and treated one another with dignity and respect. From classrooms to boardrooms, everyone deserves to be treated with respect and is born with certain inalienable rights, as our founders set forth in those defining documents. Freedom to love, protected speech, equal pay, educational opportunities, and access to affordable health care are just some of the rights to which every American is entitled. These are the principles that I and my brothers and sisters in arms fought to defend, and for which so many have died, over the 240 year history of this great country.

There are 271 millionaires in Congress, with Darrell Issa leading the pack as the richest. Most of them are completely out of touch with average Americans, whose annual median household income is just over $50,000. I grew up in a union household and was taught the value of an honest day's pay for a hard day's work. I served my country in the Marine Corps for 32 years, both active and reserve. Honor, courage, commitment are more than abstract concepts or mere talking points to me. These are the values that have guided me throughout my life. I want to serve in Congress to defend those values because we’ve all fought too long and too hard for the progress we’ve achieved."