TONS Of Current Democratic Incumbents Were First Elected By Primarying Corrupt Conservative Democrats-- But Cheri Bustos Wants That To Stop

Henry Cuellar has earned a primary

By now, you probably read that the DCCC incumbent protection racket has made one of their old dirty tricks official policy in the hope of discouraging successful primaries against otherwise unaccountable Democratic incumbents. Some Democrats get their seats the easy way-- Lacy Clay, for example. In 2000, Clay Sr. announced his retirement after 32 years in Congress on the day filing closed. Somehow Clay Jr. knew to be waiting with all his papers filled in and ready to file. Most voters didn't even know they weren't voting for the father when they voted for the son! Four years later, the a similar route was how right-wing fake-Dem, Dan Lipinski (of Tennessee) came to represent a Chicagoland district. In 2004, his father actually did run for reelection in the primary-- and immediately after announced his retirement. Lipinski, Sr. was also the Democratic committeeman for Chicago's 23rd Ward, at the time virtually the entire Chicago portion of the congressional district, and he had no trouble persuading the state party to select junior to replace him on the general election ballot in the safe blue district. Again, the voters didn't even know they were voting for the son, not the dad. And IL-03 is still stuck with him.

Marie Newman nearly beat him last cycle but he was rescued at the last minute by a gusher of Republican sewer money courtesy of Nancy Jacobsen's and Mark Penn's No Labels/Problem Solvers web of super-PACs which smeared Marie and frightened low-info voters into thinking she was a monster.

There are all kinds of ways, current members of Congress won their seats. Take Albio Sires. He had been a Democrat but switched parties and ran against a Democratic incumbent (Frank Guarini) as a Republican in 1985. He lost-- 71% to 26%-- and left the GOP a decade later, re-registering as an independent in 1994 and finally as a Democrat in 1998. Ironically he eventually beat a Guarini cousin, a Republican, for the congressional seat.

I don't know how many current members won their seats by primarying an incumbent. But the short answer is-- thank God-- PLENTY. The establishment always discourages primaries against incumbents, no matter how right-wing or how corrupt the incumbent is. Pelosi and Hoyer go insane when any incumbent gets challenged and they contribute lots of money, raise more money, threaten unions and donors and do everything they can to help the incumbent, even if the challenger is awesome-- say Donna Edwards-- and the incumbent is the biggest crooked conservative in the caucus-- say Al Wynn. Pelosi and Hoyer were in the district many times campaigning for the wretched Wynn, who Edwards eventually beat, freeing him up to follow his true dream and become a crooked lobbyist instead of a crooked congressman.

The most recent nightmare for the establishment was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a waitress, slaughtering "the next Speaker of the House," Joe Crowley last year. (Crowley was originally "elected" in a way very much like Lipinksi and Clay were, except by a retiring party boss, not by an actual father.) Also in 2018, another difficult to discipline upstart, Ayanna Pressley, challenged long-time incumbent Mike Capuano in Boston and beat him. It happens. Ro Khanna successfully primaried Mike Honda. Eric Swalwell beat Pelosi-crony Pete Stark in 2012.

When Yvette Clarke ran against another uber-corrupt member, Major Owens, he decided to retire rather than face a sure defeat, whining that her challenge was "a stab in the back." Current Harlem congress man Adriano Espaillat ran again the corrupt Charlie Rangel in 2012 and 2014, nearly beating him. Finally, Rangel announced he'd retire and let Espaillat have the seat, which is a seat-for-life without voters having the opportunity to use a primary to remove someone who no longer fits the district.

Nydia Velázquez was first elected by winning a primary, against my old congressman, nine-term incumbent Stephen Solarz. One of Pelosi's heirs-apparent, Hakeem Jeffries, entered a primary in 2012 against Edolphus Towns, scaring the 30-year incumbent into retirement. In Chicago 1992 saw Bobby Rush defeat Democrat Charles Hayes and in 2016 Dwight Evans beat prison-bound Chakka Fattah in a Philadelphia primary.

Remember Pelosi foe Seth Moulton? I bet deep down she hopes he is beaten in a primary next year, which is how he got into office in the first place, beating Pelosi-pal John Tierney in 2014 (after almost jumping in against him in 2012 as an independent). Another really right-wing dirt-bag incumbent-- this one whining about liberals trying to take him out-- is Texas Blue Dog Henry Cuellar who was first elected in 2004 by primarying progressive Democrat Ciro Rodriguez, doing some vote rigging and managing to win the deep blue seat by 58 votes in a shady recount. He's target numero uno for Blue America and several other progressive groups that help Democrats beat fake-Democrats. The thermometer on the right will take you to the Blue America "Primary a Blue Dog" page.

This new move by bone-headed DCCC chair Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL) was, well... bone-headed. She should apologize to the grassroots of the party and to the dozens of good, solid members who are in Congress now-- like Matt Cartwright-- because they successfully challenged corrupt conservatives. Bustos, by the way is a protégée of Rahm Emanuel's.