If The DCCC Manages To Lose CA-10 Again, Should That Trigger Capital Punishment For The Incompetent Committee?

A staffer at the DCCC called me the other day out of the blue-- me... who usually has some pretty unkind words for the committee-- and asked me if I knew anyone who wanted to run against Jeff Denham in CA-10, a district at the northern end of the Central Valley that includes Modesto, Turlock, Manteca, Ripon and Tracy. It's a nice blue district east of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Obama beat McCain there 50-48% and beat Romney 51-47%. Even Hillary won, albeit without a majority: 48.5% to 45.5%. The district is just 45% white but the DCCC has consistently managed to blow winning the district. The congressman is Jeff Denham, a Republican backbencher with nothing to recommend him and nothing to keep him in office other than sheer and determined DCCC incompetence.

Even as Trump was losing to Hillary Denham was being reelected against the DCCC's uninspiring candidate, Michael Eggman, a bee rancher. Denham won 124,671 (51.7%) to 116,470 (48.3%). In 2014 Denham had beaten Eggman 56-44% and two years earlier had beaten astronaut Jose Hernandez 53-47%. In 2016 Denham spent $4,174,467 to Engman's $1,551,905. Ryan's Congressional Leadership Fund kicked in $3,305,985 to help Denham and that was countered by $3,781,667 from the DCCC and another $1,019,837 from Pelosi's House Majority PAC. The only thing that could have made Eggman's dreary and pointless campaign any worse would have been the participation of EMILY's List. It was a standard variety DCCC contentless shit-show with nothing going for it except the hope that Hillary's margin would be big enough to pull their small candidate-with-nothing-to-offer to victory.

The DCCC has identified CA-10 as a target district. But they have no candidate yet. After two runs the name Eggman is pretty familiar and some are arguing for his sister, Susan Talamantes Eggman, an Assemblywoman who doesn't live in the district but was born and raised in Turlock and represents the sliver of CA-10 around Tracy. She's openly gay and she's part Latino. I don't know what's spooking Denham but Monday night at a raucous downhill meeting in tiny, off-the-beaten track and overwhelmingly white Denair, Denham was booed and heckled so much that he claimed he believes in Climate Change and announced that "he wouldn't support his party's healthcare legislation unless it left significant parts of Obamacare intact." He doesn't want any of Trump's rampaging toxicity to rub off on him.

"I've expressed to leadership that I'm a 'no' on the healthcare vote until it is responsive to my community," he said during a town hall meeting with hundreds of voters in his district.

"There are things in the Affordable Care Act we expect to stay," Denham added, such as coverage for pre-existing conditions and expanded Medicaid coverage.

How many dozen times did Denham vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act? And... when the DCCC announces their candidate, will it make Denham breath easier-- or make him denounce Trump at every opportunity?