Leave It To The DC Establishment To Screw Up Democratic Races Across The Country: Hawaii And Orange County

No reason to settle for crooked GOP-lite candidates in primaries when you have solid progressives like Laura Oatman and Kaniela Ing running

Many of the people who have ever even heard of Doug Chin just know him from the Rachel Maddow show where she celebrates anyone who hates Trump without ever giving any context. In Chin’s case she could have mentioned he was a conservative corporate lobbyist who was appointed-- not even properly vetted for or elected as-- Attorney General. That was common knowledge and Maddow’s researchers should have caught it. What was less easy to find was that he claimed there was an “oversight” after he was exposed for not reporting (hiding) money paid for lobbying for the private prison industry, which is very controversial in Hawaii. Most people who have followed Chin’s career know he kept that information private deliberately to prevent the state Senate from knowing that they were confirming a private prison lobbyist to be the Attorney General.

This has become an issue because Chin has repaid CCA, who paid him a great deal of money (over $100,000), by blocking release to the public of information on problems at the private prison. None of the money he accepted from CCA was disclosed before he was appointed and confirmed as Attorney General in January, 2015. He-- and his clients-- clearly broke state ethics rules by withholding reports of at least 4 payments until after he was confirmed. The shady lobbyist payments were the only amendments to his state filing. Last week a complaint was filed with the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

Chin-- an opportunist and make-believe Democrat-- is now running for Congress and has said all along, quite adamantly just this week in fact, that he would not resign as Attorney General during the campaign. He seems to have changed his mind about that since the ethics complaint was filed.

Another crappy establishment candidate, this one in Orange County, California, is Hans Keirstead, even sillier to think of in Congress than Doug Chin. Hans was recruited by one faction of the clownish DCCC while another faction was recruiting Harley Rouda. Then both were recognized as conservatives by the New Dems, which endorsed them both. The DCCC was then left with 2 lousy candidates from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party running for Dana Rohrabacher’s seat. Fortunately, there’s a progressive in the race as well-- being studiously ignored by the DC Dems-- Laura Oatman. When the DCCC had their “Candidates Week” to introduce their pathetic conservative candidates to lobbyists, they sent invitations to Harley and Hans and thought no one would notice they had excluded Laura. I noticed-- but when I complained, the only answer I could get was that “everyone is invited,” typical of the DCCC as a lamer than lame excuse for sending two formal invitations and then claiming the third candidate was welcome if she found out about it and wanted to crash their little boys club.

Yes, I’ve told that story before but there’s a new aspect that I just read about. Keirstead, easily the lesser of the 2 New Dems, tried pulling the wool over CA-48 voters’ eyes by making up a cock’n’bull story that Steny Hoyer had promised him a committee chairmanship, an absurdity on it’s face, although we’ll never know what Hoyer actually told this fool. Keirstead keeps yapping like a dog about how he’s a scientist and how science needs a voice in Congress. How about we just pick honest scientists instead-- and not liars and manipulators trying to turn scientists into another lame identity group?

Democratic candidate Hans Keirstead faced a familiar question at a local party meeting [in Seal Beach] in November: What kind of committees could you sit on, and how would that benefit the district?

But his answer has caused some confusion.

The prominent cancer researcher and political newcomer said House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, a top member of leadership, told him he would like to give Keirstead an “early appointment” on the influential Appropriations Committee, and that leaders wanted to make him chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

It turns out that wasn’t the case. [Hans was lying his ass off to the people he expected to help make him a congressman.]

Hoyer’s office denied that the whip made such assertions.

“No, neither of those statements is remotely true,” the Maryland Democrat’s spokeswoman Katie Grant said in a statement .“The idea that Mr. Hoyer would promise a candidate either a chairmanship or a seat on Appropriations is preposterous.”

…“It’s not inspiring for me to become a freshman congressman and to be pushed around and told what to vote on by my party and have no power or control,” he said in a video recording of the meeting.

He described meeting with dozens of members of Congress, including top leaders like Hoyer.

“I have been honored, I have been just humbled by the fact that they want me to chair the Science Committee, which is actually no great compliment because it’s an embarrassment,” Keirstead said.

“So in a meeting that I had with Steny Hoyer, he said, ‘We would like to put you as chairman of the Science Committee, rejigger that thing, get it, get it working and get it up to scruff. But that’s not going to do you any favors in the short term. I’d also like to give you an early appointment onto Appropriations,’” Keirstead said.

…The House Democratic Caucus relies heavily on seniority when selecting committee chairmen. The Science, Space and Technology Committee, which has jurisdiction over research and development projects, has 16 Democrats on the panel, and most would be senior to Keirstead if he is elected.

Committee assignments are determined by the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee at the beginning of each Congress. Lawmakers can lobby for spots on desired panels, but determinations involve an array of factors including seniority, available openings, regional balance, and a lawmaker’s applicability to the committee’s issues.

The Appropriations Committee is one of the most powerful panels in Congress since it oversees government spending. It is also an exclusive committee for Democrats, meaning members on Appropriations do not serve on other panels.

Keirstead said at the November meeting that a seat on the committee would give him considerable sway over health care issues.

“I will be one of the most influential people in science, medicine and health care in this nation,” he said.

Keirstead also said the prospect of having influence, even as a first-term lawmaker, is one of the reasons he decided to run for Congress.

 Roll Call made one error in reporting. The writer reported that the Science Committee “has 16 Democrats on the panel, and most would be senior to Keirstead if he is elected.” Actually, every single one of them would be senior to Keirstead. The two most senior Democrats, chairwomen Eddie Bernie Johnson, and Zoe Lofgren, have no intention of giving up years of seniority so Hans can waltz into the chairmanship. I talked to another member (on condition of anonymity) who told me that Hans “sounds like a prima dona [with]… an inflated vision of his capacity… I wish guys like him would start on the town council or the state legislature and figure out how governing works… [and] how to work and play well with others… How do you think Johnson feels about that report in the press? If he’s even elected, I’m sure Don Beyer will teach him how to behave when EB puts him on the oversight subcommittee. He shouldn’t expect anything more relevant until he’s put in some service beyond self-service.”

And, yes, there’s an even worse candidate running in Rohrabacher’s district, another self funder from another district, Omar Siddiqui who was a Republican and now calls himself (openly) a “Reagan Democrat.” He lives in CA-39 but doesn’t want to run against Ed Royce because he likes him too much. Blue America is enthusiastic about Laura Oatman and if you’d like to help make sure that neither Hans nor Omar gets into Congress as Democrats, please consider clicking on the ActBlue California thermometer on the right and contributing what you can to Laura’s grassroots campaign. The fact that the DCCC is ignoring her efforts makes her an even more attractive candidate. Her Bernie-oriented platform is far more in line with what energized voters in Orange County are looking for than a plateful of GOP-lite garbage. Hans’ website is all about Hans-- not about Orange County voters and not about any issues at all. The guy’s a joker, a product of typical DCCC incompetence. One thing everyone can agree on-- DC has enough unethical players already without adding more sleaze bags like Doug Chin and Hans Keistead.

Here’s the truculent crackpot, caught live on CNN, who Laura Oatman will have to work to replace in November after she beats the conservative Democrats in the primary:



UPDATE: Corrupt AG Steps Down

As we predicted, ex-private prison and Wall Street lobbyist Doug Chin, Hawaii’s sleazy appointed Attorney General, quit his job just days after saying he wouldn’t. He says he quit so he could devote all his energy to his congressional race, but what really made him back away from his pledge to keep working? See above but, the short version is that he didn’t want voters to see him fighting charges that he has an ethics battle over shady dealings with private prison firm CCA and how he got confirmed. His last day is March 15.