Did You Know That Every Single Blue Dog Candidate Was Defeated On Tuesday-- Even Though The DCCC Spent Millions On Their Races?

 

"A GOP Senate would mean the end of the Biden-Bernie Sanders 'unity' agenda. No death to the legislative filibuster, no new U.S. states, no Supreme Court packing, no confiscatory tax increases, no Green New Deal. If Mr. Biden wins and he wants to get something done, he would have to go through Mitch the Knife." For normal people, this sounds like the worst kind of post-election woe-is-me scenario. But to the editors of the Wall Street Journal, it's like Ian Drury and the Blockheads' one hit song and a reason to celebrate. "Pelosi," they smirked, will keep her majority, but much reduced from 232-197. The GOP flipped two seats in South Florida amid a surge of Hispanic turnout and toppled 15-year Rep. Collin Peterson in western Minnesota. Republicans had picked up a net five seats by Wednesday afternoon and could gain as many as 12 or 13. They regained seats they’d lost in 2018 in Cedar Rapids, Charleston (SC), and Oklahoma City."

Obviously, they didn't mention that the losing candidates were all crap and that there demise helps unify the Democrats in a more progressive direction. There are at least half a dizen other Blue Dogs and New Dems also on the verge of defeat and that that also makes the Democratic party stronger, not weaker. One Democratic congressman praying for the loss of Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog chair in NY-22, who is currently losing with 43.4% of the vote-- 80% counted) told me that Brindisi's "constant whining" prevented House Democrats from moving forward with anything remotely progressive. "He never ceased to cry that we would be make it impossible for him to be reelected... Everything was through that lens... Cynthia Tenney is a right-wing ideologue who, unlike Brindisi, will have no impact on what our conference does in the House. I'd rather see her in the seat than Brindisi."

The Journal editors assert that these losses-- including other reactionary Blue Dogs and New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party "will reduce Mrs. Pelosi’s legislative running room and perhaps test her party control. Her strategy of refusing to compromise on a Covid-19 relief bill may have cost seats, and now she’ll have a harder time getting a blue-state and union bailout through the Senate. If Mr. Biden wins, the GOP will be better poised to retake the House in 2022." Or maybe the exact opposite. Losses of fake Democratic careerists like Brindisi, Kendra Horn (OK), Xochitl Torres Small (NM), Max Rose (NY), Joe Cunningham (SC), Abby Finkenauer (IA), Collin Peterson (MN)-- as well as for virtually all the Blue Dog and New Dem candidates the DCCC and House Majority PAC wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on-- will allow the Democrats to better define themselves, if they choose to, as a vehicle for the legitimate interests of working families, rather than as the other party of corporate whores.

In her hometown paper this morning, San Francisco Chronicle reporters Tal Kopan and John Wildermuth asserted that "the surprising loss of several front-line Democrats in battleground seats raised questions for Speaker Nancy Pelosi about her leadership of the caucus." Some House Dems are asking her to account for the Cheri Bustos disaster. Kopan and Wildermuth wrote that "Pelosi is not directly responsible for the campaign strategy, though she wields heavy influence. She sets the party’s agenda and the tone for party messaging. Democratic lawmakers directly select their DCCC chair. In a joint news conference on election day, Pelosi had sounded confident and praised DCCC chair Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois for her fundraising, strategy and candidate recruitment. '[Tonight, House Democrats are poised to further strengthen our majority ... thanks to you, Madame Chair,' Pelosi said... Many Democrats said they still supported Pelosi’s leadership, but that the party will have to figure out what went wrong."

Beyond backing the crap conservative incumbents who lost their seats, the DCCC's biggest independent expenditures this cycle were done, overwhelmingly, on behalf of conservative candidates backed by the Blue Dogs and New Dems. DCCC and House Majority PAC expenditures are still being reported and it will be another week before we can do an accurate systematic audit but look at these races the DCCC (and Pelosi-- let me just refer to the expenditures of both the DCCC and her House Majority PAC , for the sake of this post, as "the DCCC") chose to spend big in-- at the expense of progressive candidates like Mike Siegel, Julie Oliver, Mondaire Jones, Liam O'Mara, Adam Christensen, Audrey Denney, etc, who they chose to not spend any money at all on.

• TX-22 (open seat- Republican Troy Nehls vs Blue Dog Sri Kulkarni)- $7,310,059
• NJ-02 (Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew vs New Dem Amy Kennedy)- $6,466,505
• NY-02 (open seat- Republican Andrew Garbarino vs Blue Dog Jackie Gordon)- $5,755,272
• OH-01 (Republican Rep. Steve Chabot vs New Dem Kate Schroder)- $5,459,139
• MN-01 (Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn vs New Dem Dan Feehan)- $5,167,169
• PA-10 (Republican Rep. Scott Perry vs Blue Dog Eugene DePasquale)- $4,467,203
• MO-02 (Republican Rep. Ann Wagner vs New Dem Jill Schupp)- $4,455,799
• IN-05 (open seat- Republican Victoria Spartz vs Blue Dog Christina Hale)- $4,280,277
• PA-01 (Republican Rep Brian Fitzpatrick vs New Dem Christina Finello)- $2,794,118

All of these heavily-financed Democratic candidates lost (or are losing). Hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted. Someone has to answer for that and Democrats had better figure out a way how of finally disgarding the Rahm Emanuel anti-progressive approach to running the DCCC and come up with a better way. Jamie Raskin would make a great chairman-- unlike Bustos, he's brilliant and fair and actually believes in what the Democratic Party stands for and isn't embarrassed to fight for it.