Red To Poo

After the odious Debbie Wasserman Schultz chaired the DCCC's Red-to-Blue program in 2008-- while endorsing 3 Republicans in seats neighboring on her own-- the program lost all credibility and the name faded. It's back to its former glory, acting as an arm of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party as it pushes Blue Dogs, New Dems, "ex"-Republicans, EMILY's Listers and assorted other garbage candidates. The DCCC likes to loudly proclaim that it doesn't interfere in primaries, but the Red to Blue program does nothing but interfere in primaries. On Wednesday it announced it was endorsing 7 more shitty candidates, most of them in competitive primaries. There are 18 now. Not one is an anti-Establishment reformer or a progressive. Basically, all 18 are corporate shills from the Republican wing the party, embodiments of why the best anyone can say about the House Democrats is that they're the lesser of two evils. The 7 new ones:

• FL-26- Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
• MN-03- Dean Phillips
• NE-02- Brad Ashford
• NC-13- Kathy Manning
• NJ-11- Mikie Sherrill
• NY-11- Max Rose
• UT-04- Ben McAdams

Worst on the list, as we've discussed before, is "ex"-Republican, ex-Congressman, Blue Dog Brad Ashford who managed to accrue the most Republican voting record of any Democrat in Congress before his constituents kicked him out. After being fired from his next job he decided to try for Congress again-- what's to lose, since the DCCC will finance the whole thing for him. NE-02 is Douglas County (Omaha and its suburbs) plus rural Sarpy County to the west. In 2016 Bernie won both. The DCCC response to that is to back the most reactionary, anti-progressive guy they could find-- and against a grassroots progressive, Kara Eastman. That's why the DCCC has become a serial losing machine. When I called Kara yesterday and asked her about Red-to-Blue endorsing Ashford, she didn't seem overly-concerned. She told me its just "another example of the outside establishment getting involved in Nebraska politics. I am not in this to win over the party, but to win for Nebraskans. Our grassroots campaign is strong, and our positive message is resonating with voters in the second CD. We have knocked over 14,000 doors and have more than 1,000 individual donors. This shows the strength and vitality of our campaign, which is different from previous congressional runs in Nebraska. I’m proud to say that real working- and middle-class Nebraskans are supporting Eastman for Congress and not our conservative opponent who lost the 2016 election."

Each Red-to-Blue endorsement is different but they all have establishment conservatism in common. All their candidates suck and any one of them who is swept into power in the wave cycle, will help make the House Democraps a worse organization. They're all a bunch of hackish Hillary-backers even in districts that were won by Bernie. For example, virtually all the voters in UT-04 live in Salt Lake (southern Salt Lake City and its suburbs) and Utah counties (Provo's suburbs). Bernie won Salt Lake County with 78.8% and Bernie won Utah County with 85.3%. Does that tell you something about how the Democratic base feels about status quo establishment candidates? It doesn't tell the DCCC a damned thing; they picked the most status quo, establishment candidate they could find, Ben McAdams, who had loudly endorsed Hillary in 2016, completely out of touch with Utahns. He's just another DCCC corporate confection with no issues page on his website. Utah Republicans are already referring to him as "Utah’s version of Hillary Clinton." 4 other Democrats are campaigning in the race for the nomination to oppose GOP incumbent Mia Love but the DCCC couldn't lay off and let Utahns decide; they had to big-foot in on behalf of Utah’s version of Hillary Clinton.

Down in South Florida progressive Democrat Steve Machat is running for the nomination to take on Carlos Curbelo. But so is the Debbie Wasserman Schultz candidate, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who lost a state Senate race in 2016. She's also been endorsed by EMILY's List, always a bad sign if you're looking for a progressive. She has a cookie cutter website that promises to protect Obamacare but doesn't mention Medicare-for-all or single payer. Steve Machat is one of the 4 Democrats running for the nomination in FL-26. He told me yesterday that the DCCC has "picked a candidate that will obey the order that runs the Democrat Party. An order that has lost the soul of the people,  this is not FDR’ s party nor Kennedy's either. These DCCC run by Pelosi believe they know the answers. To cure a disease of disservice they became the disease. I am running to represent the people. I will protect and defend the people from the few who have served in office way to long. So long they forgot they got into politics to serve. Not be served. I will win the primary. I will beat Curbelo."

The Hill reported that "the Red to Blue program, from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's (DCCC), program will provide the candidates with fundraising and organizational support. The total number of Democrats backed by the program comes to 18. Democrats need a net gain of 24 seats to take back control of the House." That's not interfering?