Do You Want Candidates Who Back Single-Payer? The DCCC Recruiters Don't

The other day, Axios asserted that Republicans are getting nervous about Democratic House recruitment, implying-- incorrectly, of course, that the DCCC is recruiting top quality candidates. I bet I'm more nervous about their recruiting than House Republicans are, and for the opposite reason. As it has for every year since Rahm imprinted his corrupt conservativism on the DCCC recruitment process DNA in 2006, the committee is once again discouraging values-driven progressives and rounding up identity politics numbskulls, "ex"-Republicans, rich self-funders and less-than-useless careerists. Who's in charge of this ugly mess?

Glad you asked. Floating above are Pelosi, Hoyer and their grotesquely corrupt, Wall Street-captive heir apparent former New Dem chairman Joe Crowley, the backroom boss of the Queens Democratic Party Machine. All three oppose John Conyers' Medicare for All bill, H.R. 676. There are now 110 Democratic co-sponsors. You know who else opposes it-- or at least refuses to sign on as co-sponsors? The upper echelon of the DCCC. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) who is basically and utterly worthless lump sitting and waiting for an anti-Trump tsunami to make him seem smart won't sign on. Neither will 3 of his 5 Vice-Chairs. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Jared Polis (D-CO) are both co-sponsors, Lieu because he's a true believer and Polis because he was tired of being harrassed by single-payer activists on twitter and on the phone. But Midwest Vice Chair Betty McCollum refused to sign, as did, the painfully tepid Northeast Vice Chair Joe Kennedy and the Southern Vice Chair Don McEachin. The DCCC recruitment committee is headed up by conservative shitbags Denny Heck (New Dem-WA) and Rahm protégée Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL). Others on the recruitment committee include Lois Frankel (FL), Ann Kuster (New Dem-NH), Cedric Richmond (New Dem-LA), Raul Ruiz (CA) and Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL). All of them have refused to sign onto Medicare-For-All.

So it shouldn't surprise you that the shitty candidates they're coming up with are not single-payer advocates either-- despite the fact that most voters are. Leave it to the DCCC to give voters a reason to stay home and not vote! I spoke with one DCCC recruit here in California who didn't appear to know what Medicare-For-All or single payer is. When I tried discussing it with him, he spontaneously changed the subject to two issues he's wildly enthusiastic about: protecting the Second Amendment and extolling the virtues of the death penalty.

Going back to that Axios report, Republicans are supposed to be fearful of the DCCC's Jennifer Wexton, their recruit against Barbara Comstock in Northern Virginia, whose website has no issues-- always the mark of a DCCC shill-- but who was endorsed by the New Dem vice chair Gerry Connolly. There are at least 4 other Democrats running-- Daniel Helmer, Dave Hanson, Julien Monica and Lindsey Davis Stover. I don't know who's best-- if any-- but I know enough about the DCCC to be very wary of Wexton. (Hillary won this district against Señor Trumpanzee 52.2-42.2% but the wretched and unqualified DCCC/EMILY's List recruit lost 52.9-47.1% on the same day.)

And out in the blue 6th district in the Denver suburbs, the DCCC has recruited Jason Crow as their candidate to run against Mike Coffman. He doesn't even live in the district but he's the kind of identity-politics (veteran) conservative the DCCC drools over. Hillary beat Trump 50.2-41.3% but the DCCC recruit lost to Coffman 51.3% to 42.4%. At the suggestion of the DCCC, Crow hired Bustos-crony Alex Ball, who managed the campaign of the worst Blue Dog elected in 2016, Josh Gottheimer, who has been the House Democrat most firmly behind the Paul Ryan agenda. Of course, there is no issues page on his campaign website. The bad news will come later if he manages to get elected. There are at least 3 other candidates in the race, Levi Tillemann (a guy whose campaign picture is him holding a rifle), David Aarestad, and 25-year old Berniecrat Gabriel McArthur. McArthur, whose website is filled with his stands on issues, has pointed out that the DCCC Democrats generally "can't articulate clearly and loudly what the party stands for and shouldn’t assume that criticizing President Trump will be enough to attract voters."

People are suffering, and they don’t simply have time to be played like a game of Ping-Pong,” McArthur says in a video his campaign posted to Facebook. “I’m running for Congress because single-payer health care, tuition-free college, expanding Social Security benefits, a federal job guarantee, preventing further escalation into foreign wars and a minimizing of influence of money in politics are necessary to heal our nation and the state of Colorado.

In PA-06, Hillary edged Trump 48.2% to 47.6% but the "ex"-Republican recruited and then abandoned by the DCCC, Mike Parrish, lost massively to knee-jerk GOP zombie Ryan Costello 57.3% to 42.7%. Parrish is running again and the DCCC and EMILY's List have come up with one of their godawful recruits, Air Force vet Chrissy Houlahan-- no issues page on her campaign website, just a cleverly written take-no-stands "priorities page." A businessman named Bob Dettore is also running.

I don't like the idea of corrupt conservatives devoid of progressive values who, among other things, oppose Medicare-For-All, being in charge of recruiting candidates for the party. Please be sure to check out candidates carefully and always be skeptical of anyone backed by the DCCC or EMILY's List. There are exceptions but when the DCCC and its front groups (like End Citizens United) and EMILY's List get behind someone, chances are it's a rich, self-funding conservative. Be careful. The candidates on the page you'll reach by clicking on the ActBlue thermometer on the right are carefully vetted progressives with their heads on straight. Use the list as a place to start digging for the kind of candidate you want to back.