Deadline: Friday-- Net Neutraility Is On The Line... Who To Call NOW

On Friday, the House goes home for the year and this Congress is over. The Resolution for "Restoring Net Neutrality" (H.R. 873) will die. On May 7, Paul Ryan sent it to die in the Rules Committee, where it has languished ever since. Ten days later, Mike Doyle (D-PA), backed by Jerry McNerney (D-CA), moved to discharge the Rules Committee from consideration of the bill and just move it right to the floor of the House for a vote ("Restoring Internet Freedom"). Democrats started signing onto the discharge petition in droves. By the following day, 90 had signed on. By the end of May, the number was 124.

In the last few days, I talked about this quite a bit with Ro Khanna, who represents much of the Silicon Valley, and who is pushing very hard for the discharge petition and the urgent issues behind it. He seemed frustrated that some of his colleagues don't seem interested in helping. "This is such a fundamental issue," he told me yesterday. "To support net neutrality is to support the freedom of expression for everyone on the internet and to prevent the internet from being hijacked by monopolies and oligarchs. Every Democrat should be for this principle."

It's important to remember that by this point, the Senate passed-- with the help of 3 Republicans (Collins of Maine, Murkowski of Alaska and Kennedy of Louisiana)-- legislation to repeal the FCC’s dismantling of net neutrality regulations and reinstate net neutrality, 52-47.

By the end of June it was 175 signatures (all Democrats). Finally on July 17th, Doyle got his first Republican-- Mike Coffman of Colorado, the 177th member to sign. In November there were special elections to fill seats of Republicans who've already left the House. Unlike other freshmen, they can vote and they can sign discharge petitions. Joe Morelle (D-NY), Susan Wild (D-PA) and Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) signed on. There are now 182 of the 218 votes needed to save Net Neutrailty. 36 to go. Do you want to help? It rarely happens that just plain ole citizens can make the difference, but this time is different.

First, keep in mind, this is about the outgoing Congress, not the newly elected one that starts in January. If, for example, you live in AZ-09-- Mesa, Chandler, Tempe, or the Camelback East section of Phoenix-- you might think, oh, this will be easy; I can just call Greg Stanton and ask him to sign... Unfortunately, even though vicious reactionary psychopath Kyrsten Sinema was elected to the Senate, you still have to get the vicious reactionary psychopath to change her mind on this. That's right... it's still Sinema, not Stanton whose signature is needed. So far she's refused. (She's a monster. Schumer should be tarred and feathered for engineering her rise to the Senate, but that's another story.)

As far as I can tell, aside from the vicious reactionary psychopath there are 11 other Democrats needed to save this-- and some Republicans. Let's start with the Democrats. These are the ones who could save net neutrality but who have refused. for one reason or another. In a few cases money has changed hands, but all of the Democrats need to hear from their constituents starting today and for every day until the end of the week:

• California Blue Dog Jim Costa-- Fresno, Merced, Madera, Chowchilla, Los Banos, Atwater
• Illinois Blue Dog Brad Schneider-- North Shore Chicagoland from Glencoe and Northbrook all the way past Highland Park and Waukegan to Zion and the Wisconsin border and island to Niles, Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Lindenhurst, Deerfield and Wheeling
• Indiana Democrat Pete Visclosky-- Gary, Hammond, Portage, Michigan City, Valparaiso, Cedar Lake, Winfield
• New Jersey Blue Dog Josh Gottheimer-- northern Bergen County from Hackensack, Paramus and Bergenfield, across Passaic, Sussex and down into Warren County.
• North Carolina Democrat G.K. Butterfield-- Durham, Greenville, Rocky Mount, Tarboro, Littleton, Lasker, Henderson
• Pennsylvania Democrat Matt Cartwright- Lackawanna, Wayne, Pike counties and most of Monroe and Luzerne counties (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Milford, Honesdale)*
• Pennsylvania New Dem Brendan Boyle- Philadelphia (northern and eastern)
• retiring Pennsylvania Democrat Bob Brady- Philadelphia
• Pennsylvania Democrat Dwight Evans- Philadelphia (southern and western)
• retiring Texas Democrat Gene Green- east Houston, Pasadena, South Houston, Galena Park
• Texas Blue Dog Filemon Vela-- Brownsville, east McAllen, Harlingen, Weslaco, San Benito, Kingsville, Alice, Goliad, Beeville, Cuero

So what about Republicans? Maybe some of the ones who are not coming back in January? Anyone living in Arizona could try persuading Martha McSally since she was just appointed to the Senate but can still sign the discharge petition, something that would probably help her with independents and moderates in the special election she's going to have to face. Approachable Republicans who lost and might be persuadable:

• Jeff Denham (CA-10)- Modesto, Turlock, Tracy, Mateca, Patterson
• David Valadao (CA-21)- Bakersfield, Fresno, Wasco, Delano, Hanford, Coalinga, Kerman
• Ed Royce (CA-39)- Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, La Habra, Diamond Bar, Buena Park, Yorba Linda, Fullerton, Placentia, Chino Hills
• Mimi Walters (CA-45)- Irvine, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest, Villa Park, Anaheim Hills, Lake Forest
• Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48)- Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach
• Darrell Issa (CA-49)- San Diego, San Clemente, Oceanside, Vista, Escondido, Encinitas
• Carlos Curbelo (FL-26)- South Florida
• Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27)- South Florida
• Pete Roskam (IL-06)- Chicago collar counties Lake, DuPage, Kane, McHenry
• Randy Hultgren (IL-14)- further out Chicago collar counties McHenry, Kane, DeKalb, Will, Kendall
• David Young (IA-03)- Des Moines, Indianola, Winterset, Clarinda, Omaha suburbs
• Kevin Yoder (KS-03)- Johnson and Wyandotte counties (Kansas City and suburbs)
• Bruce Poliquin (ME-02)- Lewiston, Bangor, Farmington, Caribou, Presque Isle, Millinocket, Ellsworth, Skowhegan, Rumford, Bar Harbor
• Mike Bishop (MI-08)- Lansing and all of Ingraham and Livingston counties
• Dave Trott MI-11)- Detroit's western suburbs- central Oakland and northern Wayne counties
• Erik Paulsen (MN-03)- Minneapolis suburbs- Bloomington, Minnetonka, Brooklyn Park, Maple Grove, Eden Prairie
• Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02)- south Jersey including Atlantic City, Millville and Wilmington suburbs
• Leonard Lance (NJ-07)- Somerset, Union, Hunterdon counties
• Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ-11)- Essex and Morris counties
• Dan Donovan (NY-11)- Staten Island and South Brooklyn (from Ave P and E ast15th Street through Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Ft Hamilton, Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge
• John Faso (NY-19)- Central Hudson Valley and the Catskills-- Oneonta, Fallsburg, northern and western Poughkeepsie suburbs, Kingston, Brunswick
• Steve Russell (OK-05)- Oklahoma City
• Ryan Costello (PA-06)- suburbs west of Philly
• John Culberson (TX-07)- west Houston
• Mia Love (UT-04)- suburbs south of Salt Lake City and southwest of Provo
• Barbara Comstock (VA-10)- Loudon and Fairfax counties-- Manassas, Chantilly, McLean, Leesburg, Winchester
• Dave Reichert (WA-08)- outer suburbs of Seattle and Tacoma, Ellensburg, Wenatchee, Leavensworth

Each pitch has got to be tailored to the member leaving the House. Some might want to run again (like Mimi Walters in her old district or Darrell Issa in a neighboring district); some might want too run statewide; some are just sick of it and hate Trump and the GOP. Some might just want to do the right thing for people so they don't get spat on in the grocery store. Anyone who took big bribes from Comcast, might pose a special, though not insurmountable, problem.




* Since I used to live in the district and because Matt is a friend and because Blue America helped him win his primary against a reactionary Blue Dog, I followed up on this one myself. This is what he told me: "I support net neutrality 100%. What I do not support is the use of the Congressional Review Act. The CRA, which was enacted as part of Newt Gingrich‘s Contract on America, was designed to be a tool to do nothing but benefit corporations and attack the rights and safety of ordinary Americans. In practice, that is exactly what the CRA has been used exclusively for-- to remove environmental protections, stymie investors’ rights, damage labor rights, eviscerate consumer product safety safeguards and repeal all sorts of regulations that were properly enacted and in place to benefit the people of this nation. I am a proud cosponsor of the House version of Sen. Booker’s bill, the SCRAP Act, which would end the use of this pernicious anti-regulatory device. My own view is that we should not sully our efforts to ensure net neutrality by becoming complicit in the use this terrible thing, the Congressional Review Act."