Three More Primaries This Week: New Hampshire Today, Rhode Island Mañana, New York Thursday

In a few hours we should have results from New Hampshire's first congressional district, where Carol Shea Porter is retiring, and from the gubernatorial race. This is 2018's last contested congressional primary in the country. We'll get back to that in a moment. Tomorrow we'll be watching Rhode Island, where a a disgusting pair of corrupt conservative Democrats, Governor Gina Raimondo and Lt. Governor Daniel McKee, are fighting for reelection. And then Thursday, it's New York's non-federal primaries. Lots of excitement-- and probably lots of disappointment.

Last time I counted there were a dozen Democrats, 5 Republicans and a really horrible independent, Shawn O'Connor (who challenged Shea-Porter in 2016, first as a Democrat backed by Bernie (no one is perfect), then as an "independent"-- but always from the right and always steeped in dishonesty.

As of the August 22 FEC reporting deadline, 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans had raised significant money and gotten most of the endorsements.

• Carpetbagger and ex-Marine Maura Sullivan (D)- $1,840,889- The rotgut conservative among Democrats, endorsed by EMILY's List and right-of-center Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton (conveniently, one of the current signifiers that a candidate is terrible).
• State Senator and sexual harasser Andy Sanborn (R)- $865,440 (mostly self-funded), endorsed by Rand Paul, Corey Lewandowski, Gun Owners of America and a gaggle of right-wing state Reps.
• Executive Councilor Chris Pappas (D)- $823,289- Clearly the establishment candidate, endorsed by Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan and Annie Kuster and the majority of Democratic state Representatives, state Senators and local mayors, as well as lots of unions, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, End Citizens United, and the Giffords gun safety organization (the 2 last ones an indication that he's the DCCC candidate). He's openly gay.
• Corrupt lobbyist Eddie Edwards (R)- $628,699, endorsed by Rudy Giuliani, Rick Santorum, and former Senator Bob Smith. He's openly African-American.

Levi & some guy

Progressives running include Carol Shea-Porter's chief of staff, Naomi Andrews-- who only raised $86,641 but has been endorsed by Shea-Porter as well as by Donna Edwards, Marcy Kaptur and the Feminist Majority PAC-- and Levi Sanders (yep, Bernie's son), who raised even less money than Andrews ($39,270) and was endorsed by Ro Khanna, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and a couple of state Reps. Unlike the other top candidates, he explicitly backs Medicare-for-All and tuition-free college and trade schools-- Bernie issues. Bernie hasn't endorsed him and Levi lives just outside the district.

Other Medicare-for-All (and single-payer) proponents are Mark MacKenzie, who raised $277,110 and has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, the SEIU and 18 other unions; Lincoln Soldati, who raised $156,967; Mindi Messmer, who raised $100,569; Deaglan McEachern, who raised $215,085; William Martin, a vanity candidate; and Paul Cardinal, another vanity candidate.

There are also two Democrats, former Portsmouth Mayor Steve Marchand and former state Sen. Molly Kelly (the establishment candidate) competing to take on almost certain winner, popular GOP incumbent Chris Sununu. Kelly has raised $639,000 to Marchand's $291,000.

On to tomorrow's Rhode Island primary. Rhode Island is, ostensibly, one of the bluest states in the union-- D+10. And Hillary beat Trump 54.4% to 38.9%. But a corrupt and reactionary Democratic machine controls the state and people are sick of it-- and sick of Raimondo and Lt. Governor McKee, both just Republicans with disguised as conservative Democrats. Progressive former Secretary of State Matt Brown is challenging her and Berniecrat state Rep. Aaron Regunberg is going after McKee. If Raimondo wins the primary there's a good chance progressives will just sit on their hands in November and let Cranston Mayor Allan Fung (R), beat her. Yeah, she's that disgusting-- and has national ambitions. Wealthy Republicans have been funneling money into Rhode Island to help the conservative Democrats.

And then on Thursday... New York. But this is getting long-- and New York will double it-- so let me take on New York tomorrow or Thursday morning, OK?


UPDATE: NH-01:

Just 6 small precincts left to count in in the district. What do you think November will look like? Trump beat Hillary here 48.2% to 46.6%. And the PVI is R+2. Today 61,503 Democrats voted and just 47,058 Republicans. Expect a midterm bloodbath... and not just in New Hampshire. Anywhere where there are significant numbers of independent voters, the Republicans who have enabled and rubber-stamped Trump will suffer.

We Back Replacing Democraps But Not Primarying Good Dems For The Sake Of Identity Politics

There aren't many primaries left this cycle-- Massachusetts today, Delaware Thursday, New Hampshire a week from today, Rhode Island a week from tomorrow and Louisiana on election day in November (don't ask). Dave Weigel covered this month's primaries for the Washington Post, but from their very peculiar angle: 'Any old blue just won’t do': Insurgents seek to topple more Democratic veterans in September primaries.

A little background. Only two outside PACs did any independent spending in the New York primary in which Alexandria Ocasio Cortez ousted powerful, entrenched Machine hack Joe Crowley. One was the Sierra Club, which, of course, backed Crowley. (Their mission is great but, politically, that's who they are.) The only other PAC spending in that race was Blue America-- and we backed Ocasio. Our hatred of Crowley was more than a decade old but Ocasio convinced me that she and her team had what it took to do what no one believed possible: beat Crowley, which she did 56.75% to 43.25%.

Crowley deserved-- richly-- his defeat. It wasn't just a matter of a better Democrat defeating a good Democrat. That primary was an excellent Democrat defeating a complete piece of shit, a major danger to his constituents and to the country. The Sierra Club didn't see that... and neither did almost any of the constituent parts of the Democratic Party coalition. The entire establishment backed Crowley-- included groups (like the Working Families Party) who should have known better. Groups that generally do whatever the Democratic Party bosses tell them to do-- the AFL-CIO, the SEIU, Gabby Gifford's conservative-backing anti-gun group, NARAL, Planned Parenthood... You get the picture.

Weigel reported that "Ayanna Pressley’s rationale for unseating a 20-year incumbent was simple, starting with what Rep. Michael E. Capuano has done right. Yes, the Democratic congressman had voted the right way nearly all of the time. Sure, he’d resisted President Trump. 'A progressive voting record in the most progressive seat in the country is not enough,' Pressley said recently at a small canvass launch that quickly took over most of a coffee shop. 'This district deserves bold, activist leadership! The only way we can beat the hate coming out from Washington is not with a vote-- it’s with a movement!' Pressley, a 44-year-old Boston City Council member with a long political résumé, was long expected to make a play for higher office. Her race against Capuano, a well-liked liberal and leading antiwar voice in his party, has created an expensive and divisive race in a seat Republicans have not contested since 1998."

MA-07, which includes most of Boston, part of Cambridge and all of Somerville, Chelsea, Randolph and Everett, is not "the most progressive seat in the country," as she claims. The PVI is D+34, the most progressive district in Massachusetts for sure. But ... California 12 has a PVI of D+37, California 13 is D+40, California 34 and 44 each has a D+35, California 37 is D+37. Other districts that tie MA-07's D+34 include Florida 24, Georgia 05 and New York 09. Other that beat Capuano's district:

• IL-07- D+38
• NJ-10- D+36
• NY-05- D+37
• NY-07- D+38
• NY-08- D+36
• NY-13- D+43
• NY-15- D+44 (the actual most progressive seat in the country)
• PA-03- D+41
• DC- D+43

Some of these super-blue districts actually desperately need primaries to remove incumbents who are far less progressive than the districts. CA-12 is Nancy Pelosi's district. She used to be as progressive as the district... a long time ago. Frederica Wilson is a garden variety Democrat is a super-blue seat. Danny Davis isn't as progressive as his Chicago district. Donald Payne is less progressive than his Newark/Jersey City district. Gregory Meeks is the worst Democrat in a super-blue seat-- conservative and corrupt. Hakeem Jeffries should stop thinking about higher office and step up his game to better serve his current constituents in Brooklyn. But if you want to follow Pressley's reasoning, Democrats who might have to watch their backs would include some of the best of the best, like Barbara Lee in Oakland and Jerry Nadler in NYC.

Capuano told Weigel that "Some people want to snap their fingers and get whatever they want. So do I. But I haven’t had that experience any place in my life."

In four of September’s five primary states-- Massachusetts, Delaware, Rhode Island and New York [stae, not federal]-- efforts are underway to dismantle the party establishment, starting with long-tenured politicians who first took power when compromises with the right were more routine. Democrats who are used to locking up endorsements and rolling into November are being challenged on decades-old votes, or their slowness to embrace reform, or why they haven’t been more visible in the Trump era. The same dynamic is playing out in open seats, where candidates are often debating who can provide the brightest, loudest contrast to Republicans.

“Anyone who represents this district is going to vote the right way on what gets to the floor,” said Andre Green, 37, a Somerville city councilor who is backing Pressley. “I want leaders who will change what actually gets to the floor.”

The Pressley-Capuano race, like most of September’s primaries, is taking place in an environment where Republicans have opted not to compete.

...In New York, primaries for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and the state Senate have become referendums on the leadership of Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).

While actor Cynthia Nixon’s challenge to Cuomo has lagged in polls, activists have forced serious contests in a half-dozen Senate races. And in the race for attorney general, law professor and activist Zephyr Teachout, a 2014 Cuomo primary opponent, has risen from fringe status to the front of a four-way race. While Republicans have picked candidates for both offices, they’ve raised around $1 million apiece, less than each of the leading Democrats.

In Rhode Island, where Democrats hold every statewide office, both Gov. Gina Raimondo and Lt. Gov. Dan McKee [both corrupt and conservative] are facing credible challengers from their left-- former secretary of state Matt Brown and 28-year-old state legislator Aaron Regunberg. As in New York, the challengers have asked why a state that votes overwhelmingly for Democrats cannot pass the sort of reforms-- starting with automatic voter registration-- that some other blue states have passed easily.

“I’ve fought to pass protections for working families in our state, like higher wages, like paid sick days,” Regunberg said in a debate recently. “My opponent sided with corporate lobbyists.”

And in Delaware, where Democrats only narrowly control the legislature, statewide races have been reshaped by liberal politics. A primary for attorney general has turned on a debate over whether to end “mass incarceration,” while the primary for U.S. Senate has found challenger Kerri Evelyn Harris asking whether incumbent Thomas R. Carper [a conservative Democrat] has answered to business interests instead of voters.

“Any old blue just won’t do,” Harris said during her sole debate with Carper.

National Republicans have not targeted the Delaware race, and none of the Republicans running for Carper’s seat has raised more than $350,000-- less than one-tenth of what the party spent in 2000, when Carper knocked off an incumbent to win.

...Democratic activists, however, have piled into races where incumbents have not faced serious competition in a decade, if ever. [Right-of-center Dems] Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-MA) and Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA) are being challenged, respectively, by Muslim civil rights attorney Tahirah Amatul-Wadud and transgender video game designer Brianna Wu. And longtime Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin, who heads the state’s elections system, is being challenged by Josh Zakim, a Boston legislator half his age.

“We need to be willing to challenge people, even in our own party, when they’re wrong,” Zakim said in an interview after a town hall at a Somerville brewpub. “When I got into this race, he was against automatic registration. Now he’s for it. What does that tell you?”

Democrats crowing about left-wing bona fides have also crowded into the race for the newly open 3rd Congressional District, which stretches between the outskirts of Boston and the state’s border with New Hampshire.

The five front-running candidates-- 10 will appear on the ballot-- agree that Medicare should become a universal program, that the minimum wage should be raised to $15 an hour, and that college should be tuition-free. None of the contenders is, like retiring Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-MA), related to a former U.S. senator. None of the front-runners is a straight, white man.

That has led to a fight about something candidates cannot change-- namely, whose biography would position them as the fiercest liberal advocate. Dan Koh, a former chief of staff to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, has piled up $3 million for his first-ever political campaign. The son of a Korean father and a Lebanese mother-- “the most random combination in the world,” he told supporters at one rally-- Koh has argued that his roots and his record in a liberal city hall qualify him to run.

“If Donald Trump had his way, I literally wouldn’t exist,” Koh said in an interview, adding that he worked to help Boston fight climate change even as Trump spurned such efforts. “Sure, people want to hear you stand up to Trump, but they want to know how you’ve done it.”

Koh’s rivals refuse to concede the biography wars. Juana Matias, a first-term state legislator, points out that she immigrated to the United States when she was 5 years old. “I don’t need to talk to anyone about these issues; I’m living them as I speak,” she said.

State Sen. Barbara L’Italien reminds voters of her legislative service and adds that she is the only candidate to call for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Rufus Gifford, a wealthy former ambassador to Denmark, tells audiences that he has a unique perspective on how universal health care and tough climate laws can work, but acknowledges that some voters are yearning for candidates who can reate to their life experiences.

“My story, growing up as a young gay kid, feeling isolated in communities like this-- that told me that I wanted to devote my life to service,” Gifford said after a house party in a wealthy neighborhood of Concord.

Despite Capuano’s best efforts, his primary also has been defined by identity, and not by his voting record. In his latest televised showdown with Pressley, Capuano looked on in amazement as the challenger said he should have blocked an effort to mollify antiabortion Democrats to get their votes for Obamacare-- and said she would have opposed the law unless that was fixed.

“I have a hard time with that,” said Capuano. “We won it by one vote, and you wouldn’t have voted for it, because it’s not perfect?”

Capuano, who points out that he has a more liberal voting record than Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), has gotten some reinforcements on the left. Antiwar groups have endorsed him because of his effort to end the war in Afghanistan, and because Pressley was unclear on whether she would undo the post-9/11 authorization of war that’s been used to justify 17 years of intervention.

...Pressley, with a record in local government of her own, has argued that voters could trade one congressman who votes the right way for one who would inspire and organize them. The difference was clear in a few comments Capuano made about race, said Pressley, who is black. In a 2017 town hall, Capuano said that he disliked how “Democrats had balkanized themselves,” and that former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick had “turned off half of America” by kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.

The incident was a boon for Pressley, who has outpaced other Democratic challengers with endorsements from local politicians and from Boston’s major newspapers.

Last month, as Pressley marched in the city’s Caribbean parade, Mimi Jones, 70, waved from the sidelines. Pressley, she said, would get her vote over Capuano.

“I like him, I’ve voted him, he’s done a good job,” said Jones. “But we need some changes, and we need some people who look like I do.”

Blue America has endorsed Aaron Regunberg because he has an excellent record and his entrenched primary opponent is a corrupt conservative. That was easy. We endorsed Zephyr Teachout because she's much, much better than any of her opponents. I don't believe in primarying elected officials who have done a good job just because someone else is from a different identity group; in fact, I hate that. (Note: We would have happily endorsed Brianna Wu against Stephen Lynch, but she never quite got it together to return any messages. I hope she wins today, but I wouldn't bet on it. Competent campaigns matter too, not just being better than a crappy opponent.)

Pressley's great... but so is Capuano

Conservative Billionaires Think They Can Buy Democratic Primaries-- Can They?

The day after the New York congressional primaries, geniuses in the mass media, including in New York City, were running around asking how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spells her name. They missed the boat on that one-- missed it entirely. Now they're missing the boat on another big story-- that Republican billionaires are spending heavily in Democratic primaries. They want to pick the Democratic nominees, just the way they pick the Republican nominees. I sent one of the smartest mainstream media guys a tip-off about it. His response was "hey man, will def take a look and give it some thought! maybe not today, buried. but this week. will be in touch." Let's see, that was on August 8 so it's no longer "this week," nor even the week after.

The money is being funneled into Democratic primaries by one of the shadiest conservative operatives in American politics, Nancy Jacobson who controls a network of SuperPACs through her No Labels/Problem Solvers outfits. I first noticed when she was up to when she dumped a ton of last minute sewer money into the IL-03 race pitting progressive Marie Newman against right-wing Blue Dog Dan Lipinski. Marie was winning the race when a tidal wave of Jacobson slime flooded the district, one smear after another. In the end all the No Labels garbage ads saved Lipinski's neck. He beat Newman 48,675 (51.1%) to 46,530 (48.9%). Who put up the millions of dollars for a Democratic primary? Republicans and conservative Democrats. One name I noticed today was in a letter from progressive candidate for Rhode Island Lt. Governor, Aaron Regunberg, running against a conservative Republican with a "D" next to his name, Dan McKee (who took $150,000 from the Walton family and from Jonathan Sackler, the big Bobby Jindal and Joe Lieberman financial backer and the pharmaceutical billionaire behind the nation’s OxyContin crisis. The name I recognized from the Wall Sreet billionaire campaign to save Lipinski was Tony Davis, a Rahm Emanuel ally who founded and is president of Linden Capital Partners. He just dumped $50,000 into the relatively low-profile Rhode Island race.

"We think," wrote Regunberg, "this is just the beginning of the corporate dark money coming into our state to support Dan McKee... I’m proud to run a campaign that doesn’t take money from Wall Street, corporate PACs, fossil fuel interests, drug manufacturers or the gun lobby. We don’t have out-of-state millionaires and billionaires, because we have something more powerful-- the people. And in a fight with Big Money, the people can win."

I hope he's right because billionaire Republicans are spending big to defeat progressive Democrats in every part of the country. And that trend is accelerating right now. James Rupert Murdoch-- yeah, the Fox guy-- gave Jacobson SuperPACs to support conservative Democrat Darren Soto against Alan Grayson in their primary. Jacobson is also spending dark money in favor of Arizona conservative Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick in her primary against Matt Heinz. Sad Horrifying that the DCCC and EMILY's List and the Republican billionaires-- including James Murdoch-- behind the Progress Tomorrow right-wing PAC, are all spending money against the progressive in the Tucson primary, Matt Heinz, and trying to bolster Kirkpatrick. So far they've spent half a million dollars to make sure the Democratic nominee is a conservative. Ironically, the ugliest and most vicious and untruthful of all the ads are from EMILY's List, a group that never used to but now absolutely hates progressive men even more than the DCCC or the GOP does.

Jacobson's web of sleazoid SuperPACs include innocuous-sounding outfits like United for Progress, United Together, Forward Not Back, Progress Tomorrow, Patriotic Americans PAC, Citizens for a Strong America, etc, but they are entirely funded by contributions from 5 and 6-figure right wing donors, such as Rupert Murdoch and his son, Chicago White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, hedge fund manager Louis Bacon, former Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan Selig and Wheels Inc. executive Jim Frank. As of Friday they had poured almost $600,000 into the smear campaign against Grayson. Jacobson has already lost in primary races for right-wing Democrats John Morganelli (PA) against Susan Wild (PA) and against Debra Haaland for No Labels DINO, Damon Martinez in Albuquerque.

Darren Soto is exactly the kind of fake Democrat Jacobson, the Murdochs and other GOP billionaires want to see beat progressives like Grayson. Soto voted to prosecute all abortions as murder and voted to force women who want an abortion to undergo a humiliating procedure called "transvaginal ultrasound." Since being primaried by Grayson he's been apologizing for those votes, saying he "made a mistake." He hasn't apologized for the votes that earned him "A" ratings from the NRA-- twice. And because of those hair-raising votes, the NRA endorsed him. He voted for Trump-sponsored laws 58 times in Congress and both times impeaching Trump came up in Congress, Soto voted NO. The reason No Labels is so enthusiastic about him is because he has said that he is "open-minded" about phasing out Social Security benefits or eliminating them altogether, No Labels' top issue.

Meanwhile, Soto is one of Congress' most corrupt Democrats, well known for partying with lobbyists, spending taxpayer money and campaign money illegally on personal items for himself and his wife. He has even accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign support from Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her charter school allies. Generally speaking he's been a big waste of a solidly blue seat in Congress, accomplishing nothing for anyone... but himself. That compares badly with Grayson's record:

During a debate with Grayson two weeks ago, Soto claimed "to be a great champion of women’s rights," a lie Grayson directly challenged, bringing up the specifics of Soto's shameful voting record-- like voting twice to criminalize abortion so that doctors could be charged with murder for performing one. Soto had no answer... except to say he regrets those votes. He doesn't regret them enough to turn down the help he's getting now from the anti-Choice extremists who are flooding central Florida with lies against Grayson and nonsensical assertions of Soto's grandeur.

Blue America members have been helping Grayson with his election campaigns since 2006. And he's never let us down-- always one of the 2 or 3 best members of Congress and living up to his promises. He needs us again now. The primary is August 28 and he really needs to get on the air and respond to the lies Jacobson and Murdock are flooding TV and radio with. Please consider contributing what you can by clicking on the Blue America 2018 congressional elections thermometer on the right. As of yesterday another dark money PAC had bought ads on one of the big Spanish language radio stations-- one ad every hour until election day! That's called brain-washing. It's what fascists do; it's what Republicans do. Republican billionaires know their party is going to lose control of Congress in November. So they are working to defeat progressives and make certain friendly conservative DINOs become the nominees of the Democratic Party. We can't let this happen. It's our party, not theirs.

The Rhode Island Democratic Party Establishment-- Just Like The DCCC

This is the right-wing Trumpist nut the Rhode Island Democratic Party endorsed instead of the progressive incumbent

Rhode Island is a very blue state. In 1928 the whole country lined up behind Herbert Hoover, except the Lincoln-hating Solid South plus Massachusetts and Rhode Island which both voted for Al Smith. It wasn't until 1952 and 1956 that Rhode Island went Republican (they loved Ike)-- as did everyone but the Lincoln-haters. All Democratic after that except for 1972 (Nixon over McGovern) and 1984 (Reagan over Mondale, narrowly). Other than those it was all Democrats. The state's PVI is D+10. Bernie won the primary 54.6% to 43.6% and Hillary beat Trump 55.4% to 39.8%. Of the 75 members in the state House, only 12 are Republicans. And in the state Senate just 5 of 38 members are Republicans. All the federal officials are Democrats, as are the governor and lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer and secretary of state-- every statewide post. The voters vote for Democrats and they tend to vote progressively. The Democratic establishment stinks to high heaven and calls itself Democratic but is almost entirely corrupt, owned by Wall Street, backward and from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Rhode Island is always an uphill battle for progressives because of the state establishment which always prefers Republicans to progressives.

There's been an exposure of this dynamic blowing up in the last week. Ted Nesi, reporting for WPRI wrote that progressives are at war with the establishment shitheads House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Warwick Rep. Joe McNamara. Why? The party they control-- the Democratic Party (not us, them, our enemies)-- endorsed corrupt conservatives, one of whom, Michael Earnheart, a challnger against a sitting Democratic state Rep, Moira Walsh, had voted for Trump.

“It is absolutely shameful that the establishment machine is lining up behind conservative, unethical and anti-woman candidates to run against real Democrats in races across Rhode Island,” state Rep. Aaron Regunberg, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, said in a statement Monday.

The controversy is the latest evidence of a deep divide in the Rhode Island Democratic Party, which holds every federal and statewide office as well as durable supermajorities in the state legislature, at the price of massive differences in policy and perspective across its membership.

...Progressive women have also been frustrated that their priorities got short shrift in this year's legislative session, particularly a high-profile bill on abortion rights that the General Assembly's pro-life leaders kept bottled up in committee.

In addition to Earnheart and Carnevale, Regunberg took issue with the state party’s endorsement of former state Sen. Gregory Acciardo over Bridget Valverde in Senate District 35, as well as the House District 5 Democratic committee’s endorsement of Holly Coolman over incumbent Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell. Acciardo pleaded no contest to driving under the influence in 2010 and is currently seeking to have the record expunged; Coolman is pro-life, while Ranglin-Vassell is pro-choice.

...A story on Slate.com asked, "Why did the Rhode Island Democratic Party endorse an alt-right supporter over a progressive incumbent?" Topher Spiro, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Jack Reed who is now a prominent leader at the liberal Center for American Progress, called on Reed, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Gov. Gina Raimondo to endorse Walsh and "call for a shake up" in state party leadership.

"This is totally unacceptable," Spiro tweeted. "Deal with it swiftly."

The first high-level officeholder to take sides was Democratic Congressman David Cicilline, who said he had reached out to Walsh to offer his support. "Rep. Walsh has consistently stood up for Democratic values," he tweeted. "Something that clearly cannot be said for her opponent." Within hours, General Treasuer Seth Magaziner and state Sen. Donna Nesselbush said they had donated to Walsh, too.

A few days later Nesi was back on the beat: "The ex-Republican endorsed by Rhode Island Democratic Party leaders to unseat a progressive incumbent female lawmaker says he has no plans to exit the race despite a backlash that’s drawing national attention." This is exactly the problem with the Democratic Party nationally as well. Party Chairman Joe McNamara is like the DCCC-- corrupt, conservative, authoritarian. He gave "the party" endorsement to Trumpist (an "ex"-Republican crackpot) over Rep. Moira Walsh, for giving right-wing corrupt House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello shit. "[P]rogressive women,"he wrote, "[are] casting it as another sign the male-dominated party leadership doesn’t respect them. A number of prominent elected officials have broken with party leadership and sided with Walsh, while old-guard Democrats have mostly remained silent so far." Meanwhile Mattiello and the other establishment thugs are avoiding the media and laying low to try to ride out the growing firestorm.

“Rhode Island is very much a microcosm of what’s going on nationally,” Walsh, who defeated an incumbent herself in the 2016 primary, argued in an interview. She linked her situation with last week’s primary victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old progressive, over powerful New York Congressman Joe Crowley.

“The establishment often puts their weight behind the wrong horse,” she said. “And more times than not, young progressive women get snubbed for male candidates who aren’t going to have the audacity to ask for reproductive rights or equal pay or many of the other things that us progressive women are demanding and deserve.”

"Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo [a total Wall Street whore] weighed in Tuesday, tweeting: "Endorsed Democrats should be candidates who embrace our party’s values and stand against the Trump agenda. If I’ve learned anything, it's that being in the trenches fighting for change and helping people keep up and get ahead matters more than any endorsement." Her primary opponent, Matt Brown, criticized Raimondo for not explicitly backing Walsh, and called the endorsement of Earnheart "outrageous."

Walsh and Earnheart will square off in the Sept. 12 primary in House District 3, a heavily Democratic seat that includes Providence's North End. The primary winner will be unopposed in the November election, virtually guaranteeing he or she will take the seat.

Earnheart was a registered Democrat from 2008 to 2014, then a registered Republican from 2014 until last year, when he switched back to Democratic, according to the secretary of state’s office. A photo circulating on social media shows him holding a “Make America Great Again” sign at a pro-Trump rally. He also voted in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

“I only voted for Trump on economic policies,” Earnheart said. “Trump’s rhetoric is awful. He says divisive things. He’s a little bit mean-spirited and bullyish. But the reality of the situation is he’s a very pro-business candidate, and … I want to be able to see that trickle down into Rhode Island.”

Earnheart said he was not impressed by either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, the major 2016 Democratic presidential candidates.

Sanders has “basically never had a job in his entire life. He’s going to dictate how the economy runs?” Earnheart said. “And then Hillary Clinton, who got so fabulously well-connected and disconnected from the populace that it’s almost laughable. These were my choices.”

“So I was, like, I can’t do this,” he continued. “I’ve got to go with somebody who’s a proven businessperson or somebody who at least purports to support the interests of the middle class, the working class. That was him.”

Earnheart had told Eyewitness News back in late May that he planned to run as an independent, not a Democrat. But he said he eventually approached McNamara to ask for the endorsement. “I think he represents more of the vision of the party that I ascribe to, which is the moderates,” Earnheart said, adding that he also “knew Moira was kind of a controversial figure.”

You can contribute to Moira Walsh's grassroots campaign by clicking on the 2018 ActBlue state legislative thermometer on the right. Moira needs a little love to take on the stinking corrupt establishment and their Rhode Island Trump-like swamp. Earnheart is exactly the kind of fake "Democrat," the establishment recruits and thereby confuses voters who then find it hard to even identify which party actually is the lesser evil.


UPDATE: Ghost In The Machine

This morning, Aaron Regunberg, the progressive state legislator, Blue America endorsed for the lieutenant governor job, issued a statement: "In a string of shameful endorsements this week, the State Democratic Party endorsed conservative, criminally indicted, and even Trump-supporting candidates running against strong progressive women incumbents. The state party machine has been operating like this for a long time. What's new is that our Democratic movement is actually standing together, speaking up and fighting back. And guess what-- this advocacy works! Today, the party officially rescinded its endorsements in two of these races, against Rep. Moira Walsh and Bridget Valverde. That is the power of this movement. But we’re not done yet. There are other powerful women incumbents still being targeted. Let’s keep the pressure on... The machine is getting nervous. They should be. Let’s show them what our movement is really made of."

Can The Koch Brothers Buy Democratic Primaries Too? Rhode Island

Yesterday, we looked at a few Democrats with their greasy palms out for cash from the Koch brothers, like Ben Ray Luján (NM), Raul Ruiz (CA) and Pete Aguilar (CA). And it isn't just corrupt conservative Democrats in Congress who have been compromised by the Koch brothers and their network. A Koch aligned organization is sending out attack mailers against progressive Rhode Island Lt. Governor candidate Aaron Regunberg. And here’s the thing-- they're attacking him in the DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY.

We're starting to see this more and more frequently around the country-- right-wing groups backing New Dems, Blue Dogs and other faux-Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party in Democratic primaries. It's revolting... especially whenBen Ray Luján, chair of the DCCC is very much a part of it. almost every candidate endorsed by the DCCC this cycle is from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. It was horrifying yesterday when the bodies of the dead students in Texas weren't even counted yet and Democrats had two contend with the DCCC's recruitment of NRA allies-- like Jeff Van Drew (NJ), Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ), Anthony Brindisi (NY), Paul Davis (KS) and Elaine Luria (VA). Establishment Democrats have been accusing progressives of not being "real Democrats."

And in Rhode Island, a blue blue state, state Rep. Aaron Regunberg, who's running for Lieutenant Governor against a corporate DINO extraordinaire, incumbent Dan McKee, is watching his own progressive record being savaged by people who have nothing to do with Democratic values and principles. McKee-- while technically a “Democrat”-- looks a lot like a Republican on every important issue. He fought against increasing the minimum wage and job protections like paid sick days for workers (both legislative wins that Regunberg successfully led the charge for in the state legislature). He opposes single payer (Regunberg has introduced single payer legislation each year since he’s been elected).

Furthermore, McKee was singled out for praise by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos for being one of the leading proponents of school privatization in the country (Regunberg is a champion for public education). And McKee has dismissed efforts to protect abortion rights at the state level (Regunberg is endorsed by Planned Parenthood, RI-NOW, and other reproductive justice groups for his leadership on choice).

The media routinely labels McKee a "moderate," but is an anti-Choice, anti-worker, anti-public education conservaDem a "moderate?" Give me a break!

Luckily, in Rhode Island, there actually is a chance to pass bold progressive policy, from universal healthcare to the Fight for $15 to 100% clean energy transition and more, and those successes can ripple out to the rest of the nation. And for that to happen we need to elect a bold progressive like Aaron Regunberg, the first Lt. Governor candidate ever endorsed by Blue America. We thought this race was too important to pass by-- Aaron is too good a candidate and McKee is absolutely too horrible. The Blue America thermometer on the right includes the state executive branch candidates we've endorsed so far this cycle. There aren't many. In Rhode Island, the Koch brothers are trying to decide the Democratic primaries. Let's not let them. Click on that thermometer and help Aaron win. Or go right to his campaign's own ActBlue page. Let's not let them turn the phrase "progressive" into something reactionaries can use against champions of working families.

Aaron Regunberg, Rhode Island's Contribution To A Better American Future

We talk a lot here at Blue America about the need to primary conservative Democrats and replace them with bold progressives. And there's a powerful example of that action happening right now in Rhode Island. We've never endorsed in a Lt. Governor's race before but Rhode Island's leading young progressive voice in state government, State Representative Aaron Regunberg, recently announced a primary challenge to the incumbent Lieutenant Governor Dan McKee. This is a race Blue America wants to get involved with. Please consider contributing to Aaron's campaign by clicking on the ActBlue thermometer on the right. Why? Because Aaron and his crooked conservative opponent are a classic study in the battle that's being fought today all over the country for the soul of the Democratic Party-- and the future of the United States.

Dan McKee is a stereotype of a conservative DINO. He's supported right-to-work; championed corporate school privatization; received hundreds of thousands of dollars of support from the Waltons (that's the WalMart family). He's even refused to speak critically of the Trump tax plan. And he's a Democratic statewide elected official in one of the most Democratic states in the country.

Aaron Regunberg, on the other hand, is exactly the kind of candidate that gets us excited at Blue America. Aaron comes out of community organizing. He founded the Providence Student Union, a youth organizing organization which empowers public school students and has won real progressive policy change-- free student transportation, ethnic studies classes, a fairer use of standardized testing, healthier school lunches, and more.

Since his 2014 election as state representative, Aaron has led winning campaigns to increase the minimum wage, expand renewable energy programs, reform the use of solitary confinement, and pass earned sick days for over 100,000 RI families who did not have them before. And he's been a leader in pulling the policy conversation in Rhode Island to the left by introducing single payer, carbon pricing and tax-the-rich legislation every year since he was elected.

Aaron's led the effort to build a stronger progressive infrastructure in his state. He helped found Rhode Island's chapter of the Working Families Party, and supported several winning Our Revolution-supported candidates in 2016. He was also one of the only Rhode Island elected officials-- and by far the earliest and loudest-- to endorse Bernie in the presidential primary (Bernie won Rhode Island by double digits, 54.6% to 43.6%.)



Regunberg's race is already being seen as a referendum on this bold progressive agenda, and that's just fine with him. "I believe Rhode Islanders want to guarantee healthcare as a right, not a privilege for those who can afford it," he told us earlier in the week. "They want to make sure the top 1% pays their fair share. They want to protect a woman's right to choose, and put Rhode Islanders to work transitioning to 100% clean energy, and fight for a living wage for all working families. We can win these battles, and I'm running statewide to send a message to every elected official in our state that these are issues they need to pay attention to, because their voters are demanding it."

This is a very big race for our movement. CNN recently highlighted Aaron's race, and the Boston Globe recently wrote, "If Regunberg were to unseat McKee, it would say a lot about the future of the Democratic Party." Let's say a lot about the Democratic Party's future by supporting Aaron Regunberg for Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor! If you haven't done so yet. please go back to the top of the page and contribute what you can by tapping on the thermometer. Aaron is-- at least so far-- the only candidate for Lieutenant Governor we're backing anywhere in the country.