Florida Republican David Jolly: "Is the Republic Safer If Democrats Take Over The House In 2018?"

One of the worst of the 2016 Democratic freshmen-- worst in terms of his GOP-aligned voting record-- is Charlie Crist, former Republican, former governor of Florida, current terrible congressman from St Petersburg. He won last year by beating incumbent David Jolly 184,693 (51,9%) to 171,149 (48.1%). Each raised and spent around $2,000,000 on their campaigns, although the DCCC and their aligned House Majority PAC dumped another $2.5 million into the race, while there was no counter-balance from the NRCC for Jolly. Meanwhile, Crist immediately joined the Blue Dogs and New Dems, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, and quickly earned an overall "F" from ProgressivePunch for his decidedly right-of-center voting record. Charlie Crist now has the worst vote score of any Democratic freshman-- 43.10-- and the only Democrats with worse scores-- in order of bad to worse-- are Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN), Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX) and Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog-AZ), 3 Democrats who Ryan can always depend on to support the Republican agenda in nearly everything. I don't think Jolly is seriously considering a rematch in FL-13. Crist, who spends virtually all his time sucking up to corporate donors and lobbyists, has already raised $1,625,562.44 for 2018.

Meanwhile, Jolly has become a regular MSNBC contributor. Last night be was on Lawrence O'Donnell's show, the highlight of which was when he admitted that the country would be better off if the Democrats were to win back the House in 2018. "The Republican Party," he said, "never really recovered and found their footing from the emergence of the Tea Party, from the emergence of the likes of Sarah Palin, that has now manifested in the likes of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump. What is different now is that we have a president who’s known to be unstable. We have a president who’s known to be risky when it comes to matters of national security... I’ll be honest with you: Personally, as a Republican, in the past few weeks I’ve wondered, 'Is the Republic safer if Democrats take over the House in 2018?'" It wouldn't surprise me if Jolly winds up in Kenosha at some point during 2018, campaigning for Randy Bryce!

Nor is Jolly the only one with thoughts like that. Early this morning, CNN released a poll by SSR. When asked, "If the elections for Congress were being held today, which party's candidate would you vote for in your Congressional district," 54% of registered voters say Democrats and just 38% say Republicans. 98% of Democrats favor Democrats while only 88% of Republicans say they prefer a Republican. More Independents also say they will vote for a Democrat.

It looks to me that at this point the only thing that could hold back the Democratic wave is the venal and well-practiced incompetence of the DCCC, an organization that embodies the concept of habitual failure. And they're up to their losing tricks again-- picking conservative GOP-lite candidates in race after race across the country, flying in the race of the progressive energy that has swept the nation. Yesterday, I spoke with Dr. Matt Heinz, a progressive running against centrist Republican Martha McSally in Arizona's ultimate swing district, AZ-02 (Tucson). After Pelosi and DCCC chairman Ben Ray Lujan decided ultra conservative New Dem Ann Kirkpatrick (from northern Arizona) should be the candidate against McSally, many in the Tucson area are left wondering if the Democratic Party is worth supporting at all. Heinz: "Only Southern Arizonans can choose who represents them, and Ann Kirkpatrick's record against DACA kids, against clean energy, and in favor of the NRA, assault weapons and high-capacity magazines will prove problematic. Too much hangs in the balance in this election."