Thursday, October 18, 2018

Voters Want Revenge-- This Is What An Anti-Red Wave Looks Like

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Very few voters give a damn about the shitload of crap candidates the DCCC has recruited from coast to coast. The only thing worse than the garbage candidates the DCCC has manufactured-- from ex-CIA spy Abigail Spanberger, who uses Trump talking points in her vomit-inducing anti-immigrant ad, to "ex"-Republican multimillionaires on the West Coast-- are their dreadful Republican opponents. But that difference makes all the difference in the world right now. Voters are angry-- angry at Trump and angry at the congressional Republicans who have enabled him and who have advanced a toxic agenda that is hurting people and threatening their families. See that picture up top? That's what this election is all about. That's why the Republicans are going to lose dozens of seats, not just to GREAT candidates like these, but to worthless, anti-progressive candidates the DCCC took great pains to get into place. No one is excited to vote for these candidates aside from they being the weapons to use against Trump and his rubber-stamps. It's not a blue wave; it's an anti-red wave.

As Ally Mutnick reported yesterday for the National Journal, more than 90 Republican incumbents were outraised by their Democratic opponents. Democratic candidates, she wrote, "aren’t just beating Republicans at the fundraising game-- they’re annihilating them." Luckily for the GOP, they have corrupt, self-serving billionaires like Sheldon Adelson, the Kochs, etc, to make up the gap, at least in part. But it's not enough... at least so far.
Ninety-two Republican incumbents were outraised by a challenger in the third quarter of 2018, a sharp increase from the 56 outraised in the second quarter. And that topline doesn’t even fully capture the scope of Democrats’ cash advantage. More than 50 of those members [I think she meant "candidates," not "members"] were outraised at least 2-to-1 and 31 were outraised 3-to-1 or more.

It’s been clear for weeks that Democrats would notch a record-breaking fundraising period, buoyed by small-dollar online donations from a grassroots base eager to defy President Trump. But Republicans revealed a staggering disparity as they filed their third-quarter reports at the Monday deadline... And these statistics have no recent precedent.

...This cycle, Democrats’ advantage is evident in nearly every top House battleground. In the 69 districts, including open-seats, deemed most competitive by the Cook Political Report, just two Republicans posted a higher third-quarter fundraising than their Democratic opponent: Reps. Mia Love of Utah and George Holding of North Carolina.

...In a Los Angeles-area district, Katie Hill raised $3.8 million, eight times more than Republican Rep. Steve Knight. And in Orange County, Harley Rouda raised $3.1 million, more than seven times as much as Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. In suburban Chicago, Lauren Underwood hauled nearly five times more than Republican Rep. Randy Hultgren. And in northern New Jersey, Tom Malinowski quadrupled the fundraising of Republican Rep. Leonard Lance.
But, as history has shown us, in a wave election, challengers can beat incumbents without even outraising them at all. That's what 2006 and 2010 showed us, in the later when Democrats clobbered Republicans who had 2 and 3 times cash then they did and in 2010 when GOP candidates came along with virtually no money and took out cash-rich Democrats. This year, as long as a Democratic candidate has enough money to get out a message they can beat a much better financed Republican.



There are districts all around the country where the DCCC saw "no chance" and ignored the primaries there-- and are still ignoring them. In many cases-- like in CA-50 (Ammar Campa-Najjar) and TX-10 (Mike Siegel)-- progressives were able to win because of no DCCC interference and now, with a wave, they have a shot in prohibitively red districts. Last week Mike Siegel, the progressive running against entrenched Republican Michael McCaul in a super-gerrymandered red district, was on Maddow's show twice, saw a huge uptick in contributions and, shockingly was endorsed yesterday by the Houston Chronicle.

The DCCC wrote their districts off, so now progressives Dayna Steele and Mike Siegel may ride the wave to wins  in red Texas districts

It’s a challenge for any candidate to run in Texas’ 10th Congressional District, which stretches from Houston’s suburbs all the way to Austin. It’s even harder when one of your staffers gets locked up for trying to ensure that young people in the district can vote.

Jacob Aronowitz, a field director for Democratic candidate Mike Siegel’s campaign, was arrested at the Waller County Courthouse last week. He was there to deliver a letter disputing a decision that would have prevented students at the historically black Prairie View A&M University from voting on campus in the 2018 election. The Waller County Sheriff’s Office said Aronowitz was arrested for failure to identify, a Class C misdemeanor. He was released after two hours.

This is the same county where Sandra Bland died in jail after being pulled over for failure to signal a lane change.

Aronowitz’s brief arrest received national attention, and a day later Texas’ secretary of state announced that students will be allowed to vote on campus without having to fill out change of address forms and observers will be on site.

Consider us impressed with a campaign that fought for and succeeded in protecting voting rights even before winning an election.

This is a tough call because we’re fans of incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul, but in this race Siegel has our endorsement.

An assistant city attorney in Austin, Siegel, 40, wants to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, though he told us ideally he’d prefer single-payer health care.

Goal ThermometerHe thinks the federal government has failed to make the proper investments in flood control infrastructure. That includes a coastal storm surge protection at the Port of Houston, which is outside his district but, as he recognizes, is key to the national economy. He’s also pushing for a pragmatic immigration plan similar to the 2013 bipartisan Senate bill.

Siegel has a specific focus on helping the rural parts of this district. He pointed to preventing rural hospitals from closing and expanding high-speed Internet access outside cities. Overall he’s running on a New Deal-style policy and wants to see the return of national public works projects.

Even if he doesn’t win. Siegel’s robust campaign may help turn out voters in areas that Democrats often don’t reach, such as Austin, Bastrop, Burleson, Lee, Waller and Washington Counties, and that statewide candidates.

...We’ve routinely endorsed [McCaul] for office, but he didn’t meet with the editorial board this cycle.

Despite his impressive record, McCaul has spoken all too softly over the past two years when it came time to put his foreign policy toughness to the test... he’s failed to step up and call out the president with the same honest voice we’ve heard from Republicans like U.S. Sens. Ben Sasse (R-NE), and Jeff Flake (R-AZ).

The nation could use McCaul’s voice right about now. In a 60 Minutes interview aired over the weekend Trump yet again gave Russia a pass for interfering in the 2016 election.

McCaul is acting like supporting the White House is worth a massive foreign policy surrender, contrary to everything we’ve seen him advocate for over the years. He wouldn’t put up with what he’s tolerating from Trump if Barack Obama were still president.


Early voting as been beyond what anyone inside the Beltway could have possibly predicted. Normal Americans are matching to the polls to defeat the fascist threat. It would seem impossible, but in some states turnout is on track to be higher than it was in the 2016 presidential election, which would be a first in American history. But, of course, Trump is a first in American history too. For example, in the last midterm (2014), 2,080,071 Coloradans voted with advance ballots. So far this year Coloradans have requested 3,297,951 advance ballots. And... this is what disdain for Trump and his rubber-stamps in Congress-- and love for our country-- looked like in California for the last 3 months. Amazing!



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3 Comments:

At 1:42 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Voters don't care about the crap candidates being put up by the DCCC? Really Howie???

I disagree. Look at how many eligible voters don't submit a ballot. THAT tells me that there is a serious disconnect of the two faces of the corporatist party with the voters.

While I still vote (and I am about to fill out my CA absentee ballot), I can commiserate with those who feel like voting is a waste of their time. Republicans? 'Nuff said. Democraps? Blue Dogs and New Dems who will vote like Republicans?? Hell NO!! 'Nuff said. The Progressives who get through rigged primaries and battle to electoral victories against the Party machinery??? Bring 'em on! They will have my vote!

And probably many others who have been sitting out elections waiting for this to happen.

 
At 4:49 PM, Anonymous Marc McKenzie said...

Wow....the GOP threatens to fuck us up by gutting SS, Medicare, Medicaid, and will rip the ACA apart if they stay in power, Trump basically collaborated with the Saudis in the killing of Kashoggi, the GOP is corrupt as fuck and is actively carrying out actions that are denying African-Americans their voting rights....

....and here you are blasting away at the DCCC. For what?

Like that line from The Prisoner goes: whose side are you on?

 
At 6:13 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Marc, you simpleton, don't you know that the enemy of your enemy is not always your friend?

1:42, I remind you that electing ANY democrap, even the best ones, is empowering Pelosi and scummer to unilaterally and tyrannically determine what does and what does not get done. You're not empowering Jayapal. You're empowering the most corrupt people ever in congress.

We elected a house democrap majority in 2006. What did it do for you? nothing. cheney/bush continued torture, wars and standing aside for the 2008 crash.
The crash anti-red wave swept 60 democraps into the senate, a huge majority in the house and an articulate democrap liar into the white house. What came of that?
nothing.
$20 trillion in fraud went unpunished; dimon and blankfein are both still bank ceos; cheney is not in prison for ordering torture; drone murders increased by 2 orders of magnitude; we lost voting rights; vote fraud marches on; taxes were cut; and so forth.
the obamanation admin was the best republican admin since Clinton (props to Michael Moore who isn't usually wrong... well, except about $hillbillary).

in fact, obamanation was so great, the anti blue wave in 2010 kept 15 million lefty voters at home contemplating their navels.

Marc, that's what the fuck happens when you are a simpleton.

 

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