A Self-Serving Democratic Establishment Still Has Its Fingers On The Levers Of Power-- And Will Continue Disadvantaging Progressives

Kara Eastman (Democrat) and Brad Ashford ("ex"-GOP Blue Dog)

Alixandria Lapp, a poster child for the DC Dem's revolving door problem worked for New Dem Adam Smith (WA) from 1997-2005 and then went to work for the DCCC. In 2007 she became executive director of the New Dems, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. A year later she was working as a lobbyist for Parven, Pomper & Schuyler and after that as a lobbyist for Akin, Gump. In 2011 she went to work running Pelosi's House Majority PAC, where she still works, triple-dipping her time away, now extremely wealthy.

Yesterday she tweeted a batch of private PPP surveys, that mostly tested voters' reactions to aspects of the Trump/Ryan tax proposal but also testing a generic Democrat against a Republican incumbent in each district-- except one. Last night we looked into the primary in Omaha (NE-02), where a progressive woman, Kara Eastman, is facing off against a party-switching opportunist, Blue Dog Brad Ashford. Ashford has been endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business, organziations that normally back Republicans and Democrats willing to sell out to Big Business.

During the 2016 cycle, Lapp spent $47,470,121 on House races. Most of it had as much impact as it would if she flushed it down the toilet. Million dollar TV campaigns against Michigan's John Bergman ($1,309,400), Colorado's Mike Coffman ($1,734,087), Virginia's Barbara Comstock ($1,909,690), Florida's Carlos Curbelo ($1,482,032), California's Jeff Denham ($1,011,635), Pennsylvania's Brian Fitzpatrick ($2,266,961), Texas' Will Hurd ($1,641,510), Maine's Bruce Poliquin ($1,863,263), California's David Valadao ($1,745,038), New York's Claudia Tenney ($2,084,879), and Colorado's Scott Tipton ($1,430,111) were ineffective and all failed. Lapp managed to help elect 4 ghastly Blue Dog turds: Brad Schneider in Illinois ($1,100,394), Charlie Crist in Florida ($1,567,917), Jacky Rosen in Nevada ($2,124,182) and Josh Gottheimer in New Jersey ($2,366,09), all of whom have earned F's from ProgressivePunch and all of whom keep voting with the GOP against progressive proposals and with the Republicans on Ryan's agenda.

Last year, Lapp spent $741,041 of the House Majority PAC's money in a futile bid to save Ashford's miserable career. (The DCCC spent $2,688,673 in the same race, almost entirely wasted on pointless, uninspiring TV ads that media buyers get a hefty percentage cut of, absolute and dysfunctional corruption.) Ashford lost 141,066 (48.9%) to 137,602 (47.7%), making him the only Democratic incumbent to lose his seat. He lost because he's a Republican masquerading as a Democrat and Democratic voters saw him spend 2 years voting with Ryan and refused to vote for him again.he helped drag Hillary down to defeat in the district-- Trump beat her by 2 points-- and establishment Democrats in DC decided to run him again this year. Brilliant! They are so brilliant. No wonder Pelosi allows the trip-dipping-- salary, a percentage of what she brings in and a percentage of the pointless media buys. The Blue Dogs and New Dems have endorsed him and the DCCC-- professing neutrality, of course-- are doing everything they can to destroy Kara Eastman's campaign while pushing Ashford the Blue Dog/Republican loser. They do it in big ways-- telling institutional donors to not give Eastman money-- and in small ways, like Lapp-dog having PPP poll for Ashford, not for a generic Democrat. From the PPP memo Lapp sent around yesterday:

In Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, Republican incumbent Congressman Don Bacon has an approval rating of 40%, and 48% of voters say they disapprove of the job he is doing. President Trump has an approval rating of 42% and a disapproval rating of 54% in Bacon’s district, while 8% of voters say they approve of the job Congress is doing and 85% say they disapprove. Speaker Paul Ryan is also unpopular with 28% of voters saying they approve of the job he is doing and a majority (62%) responding that they disapprove. These percentages, along with a hypothetical matchup between Bacon (40%) and Democrat Brad Ashford (49%), indicate that Bacon is quite vulnerable in his upcoming re-election. Also, the new tax plan is not popular in his district, and a plurality (48%) of voters indicated they would be less likely to vote for Bacon if he voted in favor of the Republican tax plan.

As long as we're here, let's take a look at some of the other flippable districts they polled, starting with California, where they singled out CA-25 (Santa Clarita, Simi Valley and the Antelope Valley). The district's 2015 PVI of R+3 is now 3 points bluer at dead even. Last time Hillary won the district 50.3% to Trump's 43.6%. But the DCCC ran such a weak uninspiring carpetbagger, Bryan Caforio, that the numbers flipped and he lost to weak incumbent Steve Knight 138,766 (53.1%) to 122,406 (36.9%). Lapp's House Majority PAC wasted $242,487 on Caforio-- the DCCC wasted another $3,164,363. And, Caforio is running again, of course, hoping to take advantage of the anti-Trump wave, as he did, unsuccessfully, last cycle. This time he's likely to lose the primary to a much stronger Democrat, progressive Katie Hill, who has what it takes to beat Knight.

In California’s 25th Congressional District, Republican incumbent Congressman Steve Knight has an approval rating of 33%, and 50% disapprove of his job performance. President Trump has an approval rating of 40% and a disapproval rating of 58% in his district, while 9% of voters say they approve of the job Congress is doing and 84% say they disapprove. Speaker Paul Ryan is also unpopular with 23% of voters saying they approve of the job he is doing and a majority (66%) responding that they disapprove. These percentages, along with a hypothetical matchup between Knight (38%) and a “Democratic opponent” (50%), indicate that Knight is quite vulnerable in his upcoming re-election. The new tax plan is not popular in his district, and a majority of voters (51%) indicated they would be less likely to vote for Knight if he voted in favor of the Republican tax plan.

The DCCC has never recognized CA-48 as an opportunity before. But Hillary won the district (narrowly) and Dana Rohrabacher, the crackpot incumbent, is all tied up in Putin-Gate and a major embarrassment to the district. Democrats are coming out of the woodwork to run against him-- 7 at last count. One, Omar Siddiqui from CA-39, doesn't want to run in his home district because he loves the racist, right-wing Republican, Ed Royce, who represents it. Siddiqui is the self-proclaimed "Reagan Democrat" in the race, a self-funder with no traction. The DCCC is pumping up two New Dems, Hans Keirstead and Harley Rouda and studiously ignoring the progressive woman in the race, Laura Oatman, the same way they're ignoring Kara Eastman in Omaha.

In California’s 48th Congressional District, Republican incumbent Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has an approval rating of 36%, and 51% say they do not approve of the job he is doing. President Trump has an approval rating of 44% and a disapproval rating of 54% in Rohrabacher’s district, while 9% of voters say they approve of the job Congress is doing and 86% reported that they do not approve. Speaker Paul Ryan is also unpopular with 28% of voters saying they approve of the job he is doing and a majority (63%) responding that they disapprove. These percentages, along with a hypothetical matchup between Rohrabacher (41%) and a “Democratic opponent” (51%), indicate that Rohrabacher is quite vulnerable in his upcoming re-election. The new tax plan is not popular in his district, and a plurality of voters (46%) indicated they would be less likely to vote for Rohrabacher if he voted in favor of the Republican tax plan.

There are several more interesting races they polled in Michigan, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota and Florida but let me skip right to the two in Texas, one in Houston and one in Dallas, both districts that went for Clinton over Trump and both with multiple candidates, good, bad and ugly. The best candidate in the Houston district is award-winning cancer doctor Jason Westin and the best one in the Dallas district is Obama's former undersecretary of Agriculture, Lillian Salerno.

TX-07

In Texas’ 7th Congressional District, Republican incumbent Congressman John Culberson has an approval rating of 31%, and 55% of voters say they disapprove of the job he is doing. President Trump has an approval rating of 37% and a disapproval rating of 59% in Culberson’s district, while 12% of voters say they approve of the job Congress is doing and 83% say they disapprove. Speaker Paul Ryan is also unpopular with 29% of voters saying they approve of the job he is doing and a majority (65%) responding that they disapprove. These percentages, along with a hypothetical matchup between Culberson (39%) and a “Democratic opponent” (49%), indicate that Culberson is quite vulnerable in his upcoming re-election. The new tax plan is not popular in his district, and a majority (53%) of voters indicated they would be less likely to vote for Culberson if he voted in favor of the Republican tax plan.

TX-32

In Texas’ 32nd Congressional District, Republican incumbent Congressman Pete Sessions has an approval rating of 36%, and 52% of voters say they disapprove of the job he is doing. President Trump has an approval rating of 39% and a disapproval rating of 58% in Sessions’ district, while 6% of voters say they approve of the job Congress is doing and 85% say they disapprove. Speaker Paul Ryan is also unpopular with 27% of voters saying they approve of the job he is doing and a majority (66%) responding that they disapprove. These percentages, along with a hypothetical matchup between Sessions and a “Democratic opponent,” where Sessions has 43% of the vote and his Democratic opponent has 48%, indicate that Sessions is quite vulnerable in his upcoming re-election. The new tax plan is not popular in his district, and a majority (51%) of voters indicated they would be less likely to vote for Sessions if he voted in favor of the Republican tax plan.

John Fetterman isn't running for Congress. He launched a campaign for Pennsylvania Lt. Governor yesterday. But the DCCC and DSCC should be looking for candidates like him, not like Gil Cisneros and not like Kyrsten Sinema. Watch this incredibly effective launch video for a future national political leader: