Pelosi's DCCC-- Still Recruiting And Supporting ConservaDems, Not Progressives

Peter King has over $3 million cash on hand but racist Blue Dog Steve Israel has made sure the DCCC refuses to help DuWayne Gregory in a very winnable district

Late last week investigative journalists Lee Fang and Zaid Jilani went through a leaked DCCC memo compiled for chairman Ben Ray Luján that includes Wall Street lobbyists being reassured that Elizabeth Warren doesn't speak for the Democratic Party after they complained about her messaging about protecting consumers from financial predators. The DCCC and DSCC have aggressively courted, recruited and backed conservative Democrats and done all they could to discourage, block and sabotage progressives running for Congress. The Wall Street owned and operated New Dems has endorsed 23 House candidates so far this cycle, candidates their research shows to be conservative enough for what amounts to the Republican wings the Democratic Party:

• Tom O'Halleran (AZ)
• Matt Heinz (AZ)
• Salud Carbajal (CA)
• Isadore Hall (CA)
• Lou Correa (CA)
• Gail Schwartz (CO)
• Darren Soto (FL)
• Val Demings (FL)
• Charlie Crist (FL)
• Randy Perkins (FL)
• Joe Garcia (FL)
• Colleen Hanabusa (HI)
• Monica Vernon (IA)
• Brad Schneider (IL)
• Emily Cain (ME)
• Angie Craig (MN)
• Terri Bonoff (MN)
• Josh Gottheimer (NJ)
• Kim Myers (NY)
• John Plumb (NY)
• Pete Gallego (TX)
• Doug Owens (UT)
• LuAnn Bennett (VA)

There's some dispute over which is worse, the New Dems or the Blue Dogs, although the question is pretty academic since many conservaDems are in both groups. In theory, the Blue Dogs tend more towards bigotry as well as economic, anti-family conservatism, where the New Dems are just Wall Street puppets and don't care about the social issues that motivate many of the reactionary Blue Dogs. For example, the last few hardcore Democratic homophobes in the House are Blue Dogs, not New Dems. And the NRA shills among Democrats will gravitate more towards the Blue Dogs than the New Dems who are most preoccupied by scarfing up bribes from banksters. These are the 11 conservative Democrats the Blue Dogs have endorsed this cycle:

• Tom O'Halleran (AZ)
• Lon Johnson (MI)
• Lou Correa (CA)
• Gail Schwartz (CO)
• Brad Schneider (IL)
• Shelli Yoder (IN)
• Gretchen Driskell (MI)
• Josh Gottheimer (NJ)
• Kim Myers (NY)
• Doug Owens (UT)
• Pete Gallego (TX)

So now let's look at a list of which non-incumbent candidates the DCCC and Pelosi's House Majority PAC have spent the most on so far this cycle. These are the candidates who have gotten independent expenditures of at least $500,000 so far. Anything under a million denotes that the House Democratic leadership isn't serious about the campaign at this point, but all of these numbers could easily double:

• Jacky Rosen (NV)- $3,470,333
• Pete Gallego (TX)- $2,651,421
• Steve Santarsiero (PA)- $2,402,433
• Morgan Carroll (CO)- $2,286,632
• Joe Garcia  (FL)- $2,189,953
• Josh Gottheimer (NJ)- $2,146,504
• Michael Eggman (CA)- $2,068,556
• Charlie Crist (FL)- $2,053,027
• Ruben Kihuen (NV)- $2,032,589
• Emily Cain (ME)- $1,986,904
• Terri Bonoff (MN-) $1,808,005
• Tom O'Halleran (AZ)- $1,673,909
• Kim Myers (NY)- $1,587,847
• Jim Mowrer (IA)- $1,351,519
• Salud Carbajal (CA)- $1,264,533
• Angie Craig (MN)- $1,264,339
• LuAnn Bennett (VA)- $1,121,672
• Stephanie Murphy (FL)- $1,085,160
• Bryan Cafario (CA)- $943,831
• Lon Johnson (MI)- $927,077
• Gail Schwartz (CO)- $824,170
• Colleen Deacon (NY)- $711,447
• Monica Vernon (IA)- $690,917
• Doug Applegate (CA)- $667,071
• Zephyr Teachout (NY)- $613,240
• Brad Schneider (IL)- $596,322
• Emilio Huerta (CA)- $576,232

Not what the DCCC wants

So far a dozen, almost half, are either New Dems and/or Blue Dogs. To date the Congressional Progressive Cause has endorsed 17 candidates (although some of them aren't remotely progressive; the Caucus has strayed far, even endorsing Vicente Gonzalez, for example, who brags publicly about being a conservative and laughing at the Progressive Caucus for being stupid enough to endorse him against a real progressive). Of the 17 CPC endorsees only Bryan Cafario (not a real progressive), Colleen Deacon (not a real progressive), Michael Eggman, Morgan Carroll, Angie Craig (endorsed by the New Dems), Emilio Huerta, Ruben Kihuen, Zephyr Teachout and Monica Vernon (not a real progressive, more a Republican than a Democrat) have gotten any DCCC or House Majority PAC help at all. The DCCC is certainly being stingy with Zephyr-- the most revolutionary candidate running this cycle-- and their $613,240 doesn't measure up to $2,746,898 Paul Ryan and the $952,603 the NRCC have put into ads smearing her-- not to mention another $915,268 from a SuperPAC funded by predatory hedge fund billionaires Robert Mercer and Paul Singer to bolster their errand boy John Faso. That's $4,614,769 from the GOP to beat Zephyr and a grand total of $613,240 from Pelosi and the DCCC. Instead they're wasting money on conservative Democrats who will get into Congress and vote with the GOP-- the way three of them-- Joe Garcia, Pete Gallego and Brad Schneider-- already did when they were in Congress between 2012 and 2014. And there were reports Friday that the DCCC had committed a million dollars in ads for Jay Sidie, a Kansas businessman they recruited to run against Yevin Yoder in an R+6 district that Romney won by 10 points. The DCCC really, really, really wants conservative Democrats and not progressives in Congress. Really, really, really. The Daily Kos in-house Blue Dog-oriented conservaDem is celebrating.

Yesterday, in a fundraising e-mail, Alan Grayson did endeavor to help Carol beat the onslaught of GOP money against her. "I served in the House with Carol Shea-Porter for four years, 2009-10 and 2013-14," her wrote. "I got to watch her in situations that only other Members of Congress get to see. In Democratic Caucus meetings. In closed-door hearings. In progressive meetings. In the 'cloakroom' (a private room off the Floor the House, where Democratic Members go between votes). Take it from me. She’s a progressive. In her bones. Carol Shea-Porter’s reelection campaign is not a lesser-of-two-evils, I-don’t-care, what-difference-does-it-make kind of race. It’s a clear choice. We either get a solid progressive, one of the few in 'swing districts' that the Democratic Party Establishment hasn’t torpedoed (yet). Or we get a knee-jerk Republican who is bad on Social Security, bad on healthcare, bad on progressive taxation and bad on abortion."

Meanwhile the DCCC had adamantly refused to help Carol Shea-Porter (even with the NRCC having already spent $783,678 in the New Hampshire district), refused to help DuWayne Gregory (NY), refused to help Alina Valdes (FL), Tom Wakely (TX), Paul Clements (MI), Mary Hoeft (WI), Peter Jacob (NJ) or Mary Ellen Balchunis (PA). You can contribute to Carol Shea-Porter's campaign here and to the rest of these candidates here on the page for candidates the DCCC is ignoring: