More Sad; More Triage

Paul Ryan's corporately-funded SuperPAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund has poured $1.8 million into WI-01 to defeat Randy Bryce with a campaign of vicious personal smears-- please help us respond here at IronStache Fund-- but because they are so obsessed with @IronStache and a handful of other progressives they want to keep out of Congress-- they no longer have the funds to help some of their own most vulnerable incumbents. As we pointed out in recent weeks, they've been practicing the art of triage on walking dead incumbents Keith Rothfus (PA), Chris Collins (NY), Barbara Comstock (VA), Erik Paulsen (MN), Jason Lewis (MN), and Rod Blum (IA), among others.

Late Friday, Alex Isenstadt added two more to the growing list of GOP incumbents Ryan is writing off as goners: Mike Coffman (CO) and Mike Bishop (MI). Bishop was a bit of a surprise, since Trump beat Hillary in his district 50.6% to 43.9% and the PVI is a fairly comfortable R+4. Bishop has been a loyal Trump rubber-stamp and the 538 forecaster still shows a 49.3-47.6% race.

Coffman is a different story, of course. He's in a blue district (PVI D+2) that Trump lost by 9 points. Coffman's only hope is that the Democratic nominee, Jason Crow is so terrible that Coffman could weather the wave. As bad a candidate as Crow is, polling shows him being swept into Congress by the wave anyway. Coffman is forecasted to have just a 1 in 5 shot to win. Maybe he shouldn't have been a devoted Trump ass-kisser.

Istenstadt reported that Ryan's PAC "will cancel its planned TV advertising for both members, a move that comes as the party refocuses its funds on races that leaders feel confident they can win-- and away from those it sees as out of reach. The organization had $1 million in TV advertising reserved for Coffman and $2.1 million for Bishop, dollars that will now be redistributed elsewhere. Party officials say both incumbents are trailing Democratic challengers ahead of the midterm elections, and both are expected to be significantly outspent during the final weeks of their campaigns."

Among the seats that the party feels increasingly pessimistic about are those held by Minnesota Reps. Erik Paulsen and Jason Lewis, Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock, and Iowa Rep. Rod Blum.

Party officials say additional incumbents will likely need to be cut off in the weeks to come.

The decision to cut off Bishop in particular, however, caught some by surprise. The second-term lawmaker represents an exurban Detroit-area district that was carried by Donald Trump in 2016 and Mitt Romney four years earlier. Bishop, a former leader in the Michigan state legislature, won reelection in 2016 by 17 percentage points. This year, he is running against Democrat Elissa Slotkin, who was a defense official in the Obama administration.

Bishop aides pushed back on the notion their race was lost. On Friday afternoon, following the super PAC’s announcement that it was withdrawing, Bishop’s campaign released a memo claiming that recent polling showed the incumbent with a small lead over his Democratic opponent. The internal poll conducted last week showed Bishop with a slim 2-point edge over Slotkin, 45 percent to 43 percent.

“Our internals show us leading and we feel confident Mike Bishop will be re-elected," said Stu Sandler, a Bishop adviser.

A poll conducted for Slotkin's campaign the same week showed her with a 4-point advantage over Bishop, 47 percent to 43 percent.

Democrats appear especially confident in their prospects of defeating Coffman, a fifth-term political survivor who represents a Denver-area swing district. Earlier this week, the Democratic super PAC House Majority PAC canceled nearly $800,000 in planned TV advertising in the district.

CLF's move is the latest Republican move to pull money out of districts that are starting to look unwinnable. Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee canceled all of its ad reservations in Rep. Keith Rothfus' (R-Pa.) district, as he faces an uphill battle for reelection against Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb.

The Ryan's PAC and the NRCC have also started going back on promises which were made when luring Republicans into House races. They recently wrote off Diane Harkey (CA-49), Janice Arnold-Jones (NM), Jay Webber (NJ), Pearl Kim (PA), Greg McCauley (PA), Marty Nothstein (PA), Lena Epstein (MI), Steve Watkins (KS) and Lea Marquez-Peterson (AZ) for dead. Trump had promised support, for example, to Danny Tarkanian in a Las Vegas-metro district but the GOP has now jettisoned him and left him to die out in the desert... alone.

Incumbents on the next round triage watch-list include Drunken Hunter (CA), Dana Rohrabacher (CA), Jeff Denham (CA), Carlos Curbelo (FL), Claudia Tenney (NY) and Leonard Lance (NJ).

How The DCCC Guarantees A Red Wave In 2022-- Take Colorado For Example

A pure lesser-of-two-evils race in CO-06

Mike Coffman (R-CO) tries very, very hard to pass himself off as a moderate. It's a farce. Coffman's suburban district wraps around Denver from Littletown and Centennial in the south, Aurora in the east and then Barr Lake and Brighton in the north. The PVI is D+2 and Obama won it both times he ran. Hillary didn't do as well as Obama, but Trump did worse than either McCain or Romney. In the end Hillary beat Trump in the 6th 50.2% to 41.3%-- two flawed candidates who voters didn't like. (Bernie beat Hillary in all three counties that make up the district.) Coffman has survived all the attempts the DCCC has made to dislodge him. This cycle the voters are wise to him and realize he isn't the moderate anti-Trump hero he pretends to be. How independent does this look to you?

Yesterday Alexis Levinson, reporting for BuzzFeed News, warned that Trump could send him crashing down. What she doesn't mention is that Coffman is running against the worst Democrat to ever challenge him-- and, in fact, one of the worst Democrats to be running this cycle. Jason Crow has joined the New Dems, a natural place for him. He's certainly from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party and the DCCC tried hard to pass him off as a lawyer who championed "the people," even though he was actually a lawyer for the pay day lending industry. My guess is that he's going to win and go on to be a truly terrible member of Congress and lose the seat to a Republican in 2022, like so many DCCC recruits this cycle. But in a wave elections, it barely matters how horrible the challenger is; he gets swept into office anyway. People in the 6th district want to vote against Trump and they'll vote against his enabler and rubber-stamp instead.

“The Trump effect is very real,” said Morgan Carroll, the chair the Colorado Democratic Party. Carroll is intimately familiar with the unique difficulties Democrats have faced in ousting Coffman: She was his Democratic opponent in 2016, and he beat her 51% to 43%, even as Hillary Clinton bested Donald Trump 50% to 41% in the district.

...[T]ime has demonstrated how little [Coffman] can hold its own against the din of whatever Trump tweeted most recently, or whatever chaos is emerging from the White House and its orbit.

“In a year like this I think you have a lot of independent voters that basically just want to put a check on the president, and they’re going to send that message through those House members,” said former representative Tom Davis, who chaired the House Republican campaign arm.

“I try and tune out the president whenever I can, in terms of his tone and saying things that I think are inappropriate,” Coffman told BuzzFeed News.

“Unfortunately,” he acknowledges, “it takes a lot of oxygen.”

Democrats are hoping to capitalize on that fact. Trump is “certainly a big figure in this race,” Jason Crow, Coffman’s Democratic opponent, told BuzzFeed News in an interview in his campaign office. In 2016, when Coffman spoke directly to the camera in an ad and promised to “stand up” to Trump, a Trump presidency was theoretical. Now, argued Crow, “He’s had two years to fulfill that promise, and he’s broken it." The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has turned that ad into an ad of its own-- splicing Coffman’s words together alongside a calculation from FiveThirtyEight that he voted with Trump 96% of the time. It’s a stat Coffman calls “bogus.”

Coffman is desperate... and lying. His voting record is hard core Trump. Meanwhile Crow says he's "a very different candidate than folks who have run in this race before." That's true; he's barely a Democrat and will undoubtably alienate Democratic voters once he gets into office. "And we’re in a very different world than we certainly have been in prior election cycles." Also true. All the garbage gets swept into Congress... 'til the next midterm. FiveThirtyEight.com gives him an 81.1% chance to win the seat.

What Happened Last Night? Alexandria's Earthquake-- And The DCCC Stinks Up The Room Again

NY-14 voters knew exactly what they were voting for

On Wednesday mornings after elections, I like giving a recap of the important things that happened, at least important to progressives. I was all set to start with the way Jason Crow and he's sleazeball allies-- we're looking at you, Steny-- stole the CO-06 election from Levi Tillemann. We'll get to that soon. First we should just say a few words about the biggest political upset since Señor Trumpanzee was declared the winner of the 2016 election. Or, in congressional terms, since Eric Cantor went down to some crackpot teabagger. 28 year old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did exactly what she told me she would do several months ago... she defeated the #4 member of the House Democratic leadership, and most corrupt Democrat in Congress, Joe Crowley. She did it by working and working and working and working smart and working hard. Crowley, who's taken more bribes from Wall Street than any other House Democrat-- $7,148,700-- spent-- as of June 6th-- $3,354,370 to her $300,709. And outside independent spending... minimal. as you can see below, the Sierra Club spending $10 on Crowley and Blue America spending $11,000 on Alexandria. (Thanks all the small donors who chipped in here.)

Anyway, Alexandria beat him 15,897 (57.5%) to 11,761 (42.5%)-- a big win, especially considering EMILY's List absolutely refused to endorse her. Everyone is Congress who got involved, including big women's champion Kirsten Gillibrand, endorsed him and only Ro Khanna backed her (although it was a dual endorsement). No one from the establishment took her seriously. Now they have to learn how to pronounce her name. Randy Bryce was delighted and speaking for fellow grassroots progressives said, "Tonight was yet another example of the Beltway getting it wrong-- regular, working people are on a mission. We’re on a mission to stand for our values and win the monumental battles at hand. Alexandria proved people wrong and I’m excited to serve with her and unite in defying the odds." This is a great day for for NY-14, a great day for progressives, a great day for Alexandria's team (including the Justice Democrats), a great day for the Democratic Party, a great day for America, a miserable day for Mark Pocan.

Also in New York, the DCCC lost another one. Up in the Syracuse area (NY-24), all the local Democrats were firmly behind Dana Balter when suddenly, the DCCC-- ignoring the local Democratic Party, as they always do-- parachuted their own candidate into the race, Juanita Perez Williams. The locals were furious. The final score:

The DCCC should fight Republicans-- and first learn how to-- and stop fighting their own party's grassroots and progressives. Syracuse voters slapped them hard across the snout, just the way voters in Omaha, Nebraska and Lexington, Kentucky did recently.

Yesterday's big DCCC win was NRA ally and right-wing Blue Dog Anthony Brindisi in NY-22 (Utica, Rome, Oneida, Cortland, Binghamton), who ran unopposed and will now face Claudia Tenney in the DCCC's favorite kind of race-- forcing voters to pick between the lesser of two evils.



As long as we're on bad news, let's move on to Colorado, where one of the DCCC's worst candidates of the cycle, payday lender attorney Jason Crow, or one of his allies, sent out the robocall above. Sounds like Bernie, right? It isn't. Our Revolution endorsed Levi Tillemann, against the reactionary corporate shill Crow and Bernie didn't get involved. But every Democrat in the suburban Denver district got that illegal call yesterday. Notice there is no "paid for by" at the end of the ad. This is sickening and exactly what you can expect from Crow if he beats Mike Coffman, a moderate Republican incumbent who might be the lesser evil of these two. I know I'd never vote for Crow. He beat Tillemann 49,101 (66.1%) to 25,237 (33.9%) in a district that Bernie won in 2016.

Socially progressive Jared Polis, a Boulder-based congressman, had a big win in a 4-person race for governor. Will he be the first openly LGBT man ever elected to a governorship?

• Jared Polis- 264,464 (44.7%)
• Cary Kennedy- 145,908 (24.7%)
• Mike Johnston- 137,617 (23.3%)
• Donna Lynne- 43,010 (7.3%)

He'll face conservative Trumpist Walker Stapleton in November. The other gubernatorial race we were watching was in Maryland, where Berniecrat Ben Jealous came out on top in an 9-person Democratic race.

The only other race we were watching was the Oklahoma City congressional contest which goes to an August 28 primary runoff between garden variety Democrat Kendra Horn and progressive Tom Guild.

And there was one Republican race we were paying attention to-- NY-11 (Staten Island and part of southern Brooklyn). Mafia thug Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm lost his come-back attempt to mainstream Republican incumbent Dan Donovan 12,774 (63.9%) to 7,219 (36.1%). We'll probably never hear from Grimm again, unless he's arrested for... judging by his past, it could be anything. Donovan will face wretched Blue Dog Max Rose in November, another lesser of two evils contest.

Tuesday Is The Big Day In Colorado Between Progressive Levi Tillermann And The DC Bosses' Candidate

With all the excitement over Alexandria Ocasio's shot at beating Joe Crowley on Tuesday another crucial race that hasn't gotten the kind of traction it deserves is the contest in the Denver suburbs (CO-06), a district that wraps around the city on three sides, from Littleton in the south west, across through Centennial, up through Aurora in the east and then across Brighton in the north. The PVI is a swingy D+2. Obama beat McCain and Romney and Hillary beat Trump 50.2% to 41.3%. So why is a unaccomplished Republican, Mike Coffman, still in office? Have you ever heard of the DCCC, the GOP's most potent weapon?

And the DCCC is at it again. They found a really worthless New Dem, Jason Crow, who they're trying to pass off as an attorney who fights for working families. Actually he fights for pay day lenders who are screwing working families. But what's a word or two difference. The tragedy here is that the DCCC, by blatantly backing the conservative hack in the race, has been blatantly undercutting the grassroots progressive, Levi Tillemann.

After Hoyer's stunt, Blue America got in touch with Adgreetz, one of the most innovative digital ad agencies in the world, to see if we could help even-out the playing field a little. They haven't worked in the political world but among their current and past clients are Amazon, Google, BMW, Anheuser-Busch, Quaker, Pepsi, Kraft, Disney, HBO, the Wall Street Journal, Acura, NBC, Universal Pictures, ABC, Intel and Toyota.

They specialize in very targeted, personalized communications. This one is a video they developed with Levi and have been getting out to likely Democratic primary voters in the district-- in this instance to "someone" named Eric.

This similarly personalized GIF was sent via e-mail to all the likely Democratic primary voters in the district; again to "Eric."

The company CEO, Eric Frankel, told the company's clients that "the Levi for Colorado personalized messages are a prime example of the positive ways in which data-driven technology can be used in our ever-changing world. This upcoming midterm election is a very important one for the country, and finding smart and innovative ways to cut through the noise of disinformation is paramount... The personalized messaging content was tailored to recipients by name, contribution history and location.

Tillemann said that he has been "blown away by the power of the platform and how easy it was for us to build videos that were specifically targeted to each voter. We're looking forward to collaborating with them in the general election."

On Wednesday the local Fox affiliate in Denver spotlighted the primary race, Crow, playing the identity politics game-- "I'm a veteran," focusing on me, me, me-- while Tillermann tried talking about what he hopes to achieve for the residents of the district: "I'm the only progressive running in the 6th congressional district."

Tillemann has positioned himself as the most progressive in the race vowing to impeach Trump and vote out Nancy Pelosi as Democratic Leader.

"I'm the only candidate who is fighting to impeach Donald Trump," Tillemann said.

Crow for his part believes the Mueller probe into Trump should be protected but isn't ready to commit to an impeachment vote.

Crow believes a challenger to Pelosi should emerge but wouldn't rule out voting for her.

"I would like to see healthy competition, I got to win my race first," Crow said.

On the issues the candidates can appear similar but on health care Crow is for a federal public option to improve health care costs while Tillemann supports Medicare for all.

If you want a status quo, establishment candidate who uses words to hide meanings, Crow is your guy. On the other hand if you prefer a straight-talking agent of change who is addressing many of the same issues Bernie addressed in 2016, Tillemann is the candidate to vote for on Tuesday.

DCCC Caught Lying In Colorado Again. What Is Wrong With These People?

Ben Ray and Levi

Do you recall that a few days ago I offered to bet that Stenchy Hoyer and Ben Ray Luján were lying when they went on TV and made up some cock'n'bull story that the only way the Democrats could beat Mike Coffman in his suburban Denver district was by nominating a corrupt, right-wing Democrat Stenchy and Ben Ray were supporting, Jason Snow. No one took me up on my bet. But I would have won. In fact the exact opposite was true-- that only Levi Tillemann was the sure winner. After Stenchys and Ben Ray's lie, Tillemann's campaign contacted the same polling firm they used, PPP, and asked them to do the poll over, this time so it could be used publicly. Hoyer and Luján claimed the poll showed "very clearly" that Tillemann could not beat Coffman.

“His claims didn’t resonate with what we were seeing in the district. It felt like a convenient, but dishonest, excuse for their ongoing interference in our primary” said Tillemann. Of note, PPP is the same polling agency used by Tillemann’s opponent for his much touted head-to-head poll against Coffman. Tillemann went a step further, promising that if the poll showed he did not have a credible path to defeating Coffman in the general election, for the good of the country and the Democratic Party, Tillemann would immediately withdraw from the race.

Tillemann will not be withdrawing.

The poll surveyed 606 likely voters on two rounds of questions about head-to-head matchups between both Democratic challengers and Mike Coffman. First the poll questioned respondents offering no information apart from party affiliation and the candidates’ names. In that round, both Tillemann and his opponent are statistically tied with Coffman; this is attributable to low name recognition and biographical knowledge regarding the Democratic contenders. The poll then offered positive biographical details about both Levi Tillemann (Obama appointee, clean-energy entrepreneur, and language fluency) and his opponent (Army veteran, father, and attorney). With biographical information on both Tillemann and his Democratic opponent, Tillemann opened up a significant lead (43%/38%) against Coffman. This result represents the only head-to-head matchup with Coffman outside the poll’s ±4% statistical margin of error.

“These are great results and I’m not surprised” said Tillemann. “As we’ve knocked on thousands of doors across the district, it’s become clear that most voters are still learning about me and my primary opponent. What they do know is that they’re ready for a change. Moreover, when people hear about my background they see a candidate who has invested in our diverse communities and future, and is profoundly different from Mike Coffman. That contrast is much less clear for my primary opponent.”

While the poll answered important questions regarding general election viability for both Democratic candidates, it also raised questions regarding the integrity of Jason Crow and his patrons in Washington, DC. “The Crow team either polled on Levi and discovered that he posed a credible threat to Coffman in the general election, then chose to lie about it. Or they didn’t poll on him, pretended they had, and chose to lie about it. This is part of a disturbing pattern of deception. Crow claims he’s not accepting corporate PAC money (he does, funneled through special interest PACs); he claimed he wasn’t being helped by the DCCC (he was); and he claimed he came from a family of bricklayers (his father owns a wealth managerment firm). Here, once again, Mr. Crow and his party bosses are lying to the voters of the 6th Congressional District” said Joe Erlich, a senior staffer at Levi for Colorado. “It’s deeply troubling.”

Tillemann added, “integrity used to be considered an asset in pursuit of public office, and getting caught in a bald-faced lie was often enough to end a career. Donald Trump has removed all shame from GOP politicians. We worry Mr. Crow and the DCCC may have contracted that same virus. They seem to believe lying is OK so long as they can get away with it. As Democrats, we must reject this race to the bottom.”

Jason Crow and his allies in the DCCC have, once again, been caught red handed. They are lying to the voters of Colorado and undermining progressive candidates and ideals across the country. It’s divisive and will hurt our chances against Coffman in November. It goes against everything we as Democrats need to be fighting for right now. Because of this, Crow is damaged goods. He should withdraw from the race and the DCCC should stop their meddling in the Democratic Primaries nationally.

The DCCC has justified their interference arguing that it will bring Democrats a payday in November. This poll makes it clear Democrats don’t need to compromise their values for that payday. “We want something more,” said Tillemann. “We want a payday for truth, a payday for justice and a payday for democracy.”

Who Wants To Bet On A Colorado Race? I Would Especially Challenge Stenchy Hoyer And Ben Ray Luján

I don't know how this is going to turn out Tuesday-- but I feel strongly enough that Stenchy and Ben Ray are compulsive liars that I'm willing to risk a grand on it. Here's how this all started-- an e-mail from Levi Tillemann, the progressive candidate running in the suburban Denver district (CO-06) currently held by conservative Republican Mike Coffman. Hopefully you'll remember a few weeks ago when the tape came out of Stenchy trying to bum rush Levi out of the race. I've known Stenchy for over a decade and that kind of crap never ends when it comes to him. He's as sleazy and corrupt as any Republican.

What Levi explained in his e-mail was that Stenchy and his henchman, DCCC chair Ben Ray Luján, haven't ceased their slimy tactics when trying to force their crooked candidate, Jason Crow, into the general election against Coffman, by forcing Levi to quit. In fact the title of the e-mail was Dropping out?

On Sunday, May 6, DCCC Chair Ben Ray Lujan told National Public Radio that “polling shows very clearly that the only candidate in this race that has a chance to defeat Mr. Coffman is Jason Crow.”

Last night on an appearance on The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur, Levi made a bold pledge: If Ben Ray Lujan’s claim proves true, for the good of the nation and party, Levi will withdraw from the primary in order to increase the chance that Democrats take back the House.

But unfortunately, both Jason Crow and the DCCC have a long history of working together to deceive the voters of Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. Lujan has not complied with four separate public requests to release his polling data. We suspected they might be at it again, so Levi took matters into his own hands.

On May 9, Levi for Colorado commissioned a poll on the race through Public Policy Polling (PPP). PPP predicted they would have results by Monday, May 13. Of note, PPP is the same polling agency Mr. Crow used for his much touted head-to-head poll against Coffman.

If this new poll shows (as Mr. Crow and his allies claim) that Levi is at a dramatic deficit relative to Mr. Crow in a head-to-head matchup against Mike Coffman, Levi will withdraw from the primary on Tuesday.

If, on the other hand, this is another example of Mr. Crow and the DCCC lying to voters and inventing "alternative facts," then we say enough is enough. Jason Crow should withdraw from the race and the discredited DCCC should immediately suspend all efforts to interfere in Democratic primaries nationally.

Integrity used to be considered an asset in pursuit of public office, and getting caught in a bald-faced lie was often enough to end a career. Donald Trump has removed all shame from GOP politicians. Mr. Crow and the DCCC seem to have contracted that same virus. They seem to believe lying is OK so long as they can get away with it. We as Democrats, must reject this race to the bottom.

Integrity matters to Levi Tillemann. The question is: Does integrity matter to Jason Crow?

Help us fight for truth and democracy.

So here's my bet: I'll match anyone who wants to say Stenchy and Ben Ray have it right and that only the crooked Crow, who has spent his professional career helping pay-day lenders cheat working families, can beat Coffman. I think PPP will deliver the results Tuesday. If you want to bet, just e-mail me at downwithtyranny@gmail.com/ Anything I win goes right into Levi Tillemann's campaign war-chest. Or, if you want to forego the bet and just contribute to Tillemann directly, here's the Blue America 2018 congressional ActBlue thermometer on the right. Levi is running a grassroots campaign and Crow is getting lots of help from the crooks at the DCCC, which has already put him on their shameful Red-to-Blue page, and from the New Dems, which only endorses candidates who have to pull their heads out of Wall Street's ass to answer a question.

If The DCCC Can't Fight Republicans-- Instead Of Progressives-- They Should All Be Fired

What's wrong with the DCCC? Jason Bresler and Steny Hoyer

I hope you read Lee Fang's blockbuster post at The Intercept yesterday, featuring a secret recording of crooked K Street whore Steny Hoyer trying to crush another progressive candidate for Congress. [We added our two-cents here] and Levi Tillemann addressed it as well:

“Trickle Down Democracy”

American Democracy is under attack. Foreign powers have hacked our elections system, the U.S. president is a purveyor of conspiracy theories, far right-wing ideology and foreign influence. Democrats have an opportunity to fight for truth and democracy and to champion the cause of free and fair elections. We believe that America can solve this crisis if it listens to the voice of the American people. But if Washington insiders meet Trump’s avalanche of corruption with a different shade of corruption, we’ll be right back where we started. That’s what’s happening today. The same people who jumped on the scales during the 2016 presidential election are doing it again. They likely believe they are doing the right thing. We disagree. We’ve made the decision to shine a light onto the dark backroom politics of Washington, DC and let the American people decide.

Background on Colorado’s 6th Congressional District

The Republican incumbent in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District (Mike Coffman) is a lifetime politician who has consistently voted against the interests of working Americans on issues ranging from healthcare, to the environment, to taxes. In a district Hillary Clinton carried by 9-points, his secret to success has been reaching out to the diverse communities of the district (130 languages are spoken in Aurora public schools alone). He has become famous for learning Spanish and appearing on a Spanish-language radio show every week.

Levi Tillemann is an Obama administration alum, clean energy entrepreneur and native Coloradan raised in a working-class Latino neighborhood. He speaks five languages fluently-- including Spanish and Chinese. He supports Medicare for All, a $15/hr minimum wage, a complete transition to renewable energy by 2035 and impeaching Donald Trump. When Obama urged young Americans to “run for something” Levi took up that call.

The Problem

When the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) told Levi he would need to raise $2 million to win the primary, it was a surprise. By late Spring of 2017 it became clear that the reason for the astronomical price tag was the DCCC’s intention to shovel money towards an establishment-backed candidate. The DCCC’s choice was a white collar criminal defense lawyer who represented payday lenders, scam artists (who preyed on senior citizens) and fracking companies; he didn’t even live in the district.  The DCCC was preparing to flood that candidate with money and resources and create “facts on the ground” to ensure he would represent Democrats in November in one of the bluest Republican-held districts in the country.

At least six candidates explored running in the 6th. But one by one the DCCC and its allies picked them off. A free and fair election was never the goal. Instead, the DCCC worked assiduously to ensure that one candidate (their candidate) had the money and connections to outperform. This wasn’t exceptional. In dozens of races across the country, establishment politicians and corporate interests are using big money and political influence to load the dice in favor of candidates that will fall in line with moneyed interests and Democratic leadership. (We saw this on full display in the Texas 7th congressional race, where the DCCC attacked Laura Moser-- one of the two Democrats in a Democratic runoff.) This phenomenon has been catalogued in national publications ranging from New York Times, to the Washington Post, to The Intercept.

Rigging primaries has profound impact on our Democracy.

Because rigging primaries is an insider’s game, these efforts generally fall below the radar of major media outlets. This allows Washington insiders and the DCCC to meddle with impunity. But this means that a tiny elite effectively chooses the candidates who represent us and the negative impacts on our democracy are profound.

As Louis D. Brandeis famously said, sunlight is the best disinfectant. That’s why we’ve decided to shine a light on the particulars of the DCCC’s efforts in the 6th Congressional District and across the country. Over the days to come, we hope you join us in what we view as a national civics lesson. We believe that money and backroom politics are drowning out the voices for change in America and corrupting our democracy. There’s no better time to push for change than leading up to the historic primaries of 2018.

I would like to challenge Hoyer to a one question debate: "Was this the only time over the last decade you (personally) did this to a progressive Democrat on behalf of a crooked right-of-center candidate-- and how did they work out for you?" He'll never accept because he knows the answer and he knows I do as well. Stephanie Taylor a co-founder of the PCCC asserts, correctly, that the DCCC is up to this crap all over the map this year. "Establishment figures like Steny Hoyer and the corporate-funded New Democrats," she wrote, "hurt Democratic chances of taking back the House every time they support uninspiring, corporate candidates with unpopular ideas. The Democratic Party should not be looking to Hoyer's 'leadership' if they want to take back the House-- he's leading them in the wrong direction. Polling in swing districts like KS-3, W1-1, CA-45, CA-25, CA-49, and NJ-3, and all across the nation show that big ideas like Medicare For All, expanding Social Security, debt-free college, and challenging big corporations like Big Pharma are hugely popular. There is a battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party, and Steny Hoyer and his corporate cronies already lost. They don't represent the future, and it's time for them to step aside and make room for a new generation of leadership-- one that inspires and motivates the base instead of depressing it."

I asked a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who asked for anonymity-- "I have to wage my battles covertly in order to keep getting invited behind enemy lines"-- if he thinks his CPC colleagues agree with his stand that the DCCC should not be wasting their energy and resources on this kind of crap. "I think," he said, "that the vast majority of them would agree that the DCCC playing in primaries is really dumb and that this cycle has reinforced how really dumb it is."

DCCC Is Forcing Crappy Status Quo Candidates In Districts That Voted For Bernie Over Hillary-- CO-06

This morning Lee Fang broke a story at The Intercept that we touched on back in January-- basically how the Democratic establishment is trying to crush progressive CO-06 candidate Levi Tillemann in order to push their corrupt conservative candidate Jason Crow. The story stars Steny Hoyer and if it reminds you of what the DCCC did to Laura Moser in Texas, it should... for more reasons that are apparent.

Last year Pelosi (along with her incompetent DCCC chair, Ben Ray Lujan) were forced to allow the Democratic House conference to elect the leaders of the DCCC. No one ran against Lujan. And only one member ran for vice chair in each region. So... more an election in a dictatorship than in a democracy. In the region that includes Colorado and Texas, Jared Polis was the candidate and the new regional vice chair. But his interest in doing the job was exactly zero since he is running for governor of Colorado. There are at least half a dozen GOP-occupied winnable seats in the region-- and no regional vice chair. That's bad. Polis finally did the right thing and resigned. But Lujan and Pelosi have adamantly refused to replace him. They promised "soon" but it's been over a year and they've allowed the corrupt conservative staffers to run the show-- ergo: the Laura Moser scandal and now the Levi Tillemann one.

Lee Fang:

The secretly taped audio recording, released here for the first time, reveals how senior Democratic officials have worked to crush competitive primaries and steer political resources, money, and other support to hand-picked candidates in key races across the country, long before the party publicly announces a preference. The invisible assistance boosts the preferred candidate in fundraising and endorsements, and then that fundraising success and those endorsements are used to justify national party support. Meanwhile, opponents of the party’s unspoken pick are driven into paranoia, wondering if they are merely imagining that unseen hands are working against them.

Hoyer bluntly told Tillemann that it wasn’t his imagination, and that mobilizing support for one Democratic candidate over another in a primary isn’t unusual. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., chair of the DCCC, has a “policy that early on, we’d try to agree on a candidate who we thought could win the general and give the candidate all the help we could give them,” Hoyer told Tillemann matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, I’m for Crow,” Hoyer explained. “I am for Crow because a judgment was made very early on. I didn’t know Crow. I didn’t participate in the decision. But a decision was made early on by the Colorado delegation,” he said, referencing the three House Democrats elected from Colorado.

“So your position is, a decision was made very early on before voters had a say, and that’s fine because the DCCC knows better than the voters of the 6th Congressional District, and we should line up behind that candidate,” asked Tillemann during the conversation.

“That’s certainly a consequence of our decision,” responded Hoyer.

“Staying out of primaries sounds small-D democratic, very intellectual, and very interesting,” said Hoyer. “But if you stay out of primaries, and somebody wins in the primary who can’t possibly win in the general,” the Maryland representative said, citing the surprise victory of Democrat Doug Jones over Republican Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate election, “I’m not saying you’re that person.” But staying out of primaries, he argued, is “not very smart strategy.”

...During the conversation, Hoyer asked Tillemann to leave the race multiple times and make way for Crow. “You keep saying I would like you to get out of the race, and of course that’s correct,” Hoyer said, adding that he hoped Tillemann would refrain from criticizing the party’s chosen candidate if he decided to stay in.

The party, notably, has a poor track record in selecting candidates that can win the general election.

...In races in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Texas, Nebraska, California, and beyond, progressive candidates are finding that the DCCC has mobilized support for moderate candidates with access to early campaign cash at the expense of progressives. As we’ve reported, many first-time candidates are told by the DCCC that before they can even be considered, they have to perform the “rolodex” test to show they can raise $250,000 or more from the contact list on their phone.

...For the 2018 midterm cycle, the party has not only courted moderate Democrats and formed a renewed partnership with the conservative Blue Dog caucus for candidate recruitment, but has discouraged candidates from embracing populist ideas, such as single-payer health care.

For Tillemann, however, the party’s closeness with the corporate elite is the very reason why the DCCC continues to lose general elections.

“They squash progressive candidates. They destroy the diversity of ideas in their caucus. They keep ideas like ‘Medicare for All,’ free community college, or impeaching Donald Trump from having a significant role in the national conversation,” says Tillemann. “The issues that resonate most with voters are not the issues that the DCCC is telling candidates to focus on.”

Is he worried that even if he is successful in his campaign, that he’s already betrayed one of the most powerful Democrats, making him an outsider as soon as he arrives in Washington?

“To a certain extent, people like Elizabeth Warren and people like Bernie Sanders have been ostracized by the party, and they have been marginalized by the establishment to the extent that is possible,” says Tillemann. “But the fact of the matter is that the people are crying out for genuine leaders, and the people are crying out for a solution to inequality and systemic injustice, and to the extent that I am fighting for those solutions, then I think there will be a powerful constituency for that.”

“I’m proud to be on the side of truth,” he added. “I’m proud to be on the right side of democracy, and I’m proud to be on the right side of free and fair elections.”

Crow applied for-- and got-- an endorsement from the corrupt, Wall Street owned nd operated New Dem PAC. It fits him well, considering his background as an attorney who made a living protecting payday lenders and other vultures who preyed on working families. He was also added to the DCCC's list of shame, the Red to Blue page.

This is a district, represented by Republican Mike Coffman, that should have flipped blue years ago. DCCC interence prevented that. Obama beat McCain in the district 175,487 (54%) to 147,091 (45%) and then beat Romney 182,464 (52%) to 164,398 (47%). In 2016 Trump was rejected by CO-06 voters and Hillary beat him 50.2% to 41.3%. Meanwhile, Democrats in the district were clear in the 2016 caucuses that they wanted a progressive like Tillemann, not a conservative like Crow. In all three counties that make up CO-06 Bernie won, not Hillary.

• Adams- 61.0%, Hillary- 38.3%
• Arapahoe- Bernie- 53.0%, Hillary- 46.3%
• Douglas- Bernie- 49.7%, Hillary- 49.6%

The folks in the district want real change and real reform, not a status quo nothing candidate with a biography like Crow. They're not looking for an establishment character who will have trouble holding the seat-- part of the New Dems, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- who will probably be swept away in the next midterm.

The DCCC Is Trying To Pull Another Laura Moser Stunt In Colorado-- This Time Against Levi Tillemann

You think what the DCCC has done-- is doing-- in undermining Laura Moser is unique? It isn't. It's been fairly standard operating procedure since 2006 when Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer decided they should determine who Democratic nominees should be, not local Democratic voters. The only thing unique about the Laura Moser incident was how incompetently it was handled and how embarrassingly public it became.

More "normal" DCCC interference in local primaries is better illustrated by how they're trying to destroy another progressive, Levi Tillemann, for another corrupt New Dem from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, Jason Crow, in the Denver suburbs (CO-06). The Republican incumbent, Mike Coffman, is one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country. Hillary beat Trump 50.2% to 41.3% in this district, which has a D+2 PVI. It is ready to flip from red to blue and there is no need for a corrupt, conservative Democrat as a nominee.

Levi Tillemann, who Blue America has endorsed today, asked if we remember in 2016 when Washington insiders confidently predicted an overwhelming victory for Democrats up and down the ticket? "Well," he reminded us, "that didn’t happen-- we lost, up and down the ticket. Remember how Democratic insiders spoke confidently about 'viability' and tried to stigmatize candidates who challenged the establishment? It turns out those 'viable' candidates weren’t so viable after all. That broken system got us to where we are today." Levi is confident that we can fix it. "First, we must stand for our progressive agenda; Second, we must push back against the backroom Washington dealers who got us here." This is a guest post from Levi:

Let’s start with the progressive agenda. Before I decided to run, I spent months listening and here’s what I heard people say: too many workers are being squeezed by the modern economy; hard work should mean a good life; the excesses of extreme capitalism and inequality are threatening the American Dream; things need to change. I agreed.

Like you, I believe

●  Universal healthcare is a right
●  Americans deserve a living minimum wage of at least $15/hr
●  The future of our planet and the U.S. economy requires a transition to renewable energy by 2035
● All Americans must be treated equally before the law
● Donald Trump is a criminal (and Democrats need to fight to remove him from office)

Voters are crying out for an economic and social agenda that delivers economic justice and equal opportunity for all. Progressives demand that these policies address the crushing inequality in America today. I’m committed to fighting for that agenda in Washington.

But we’ll never get there if we don’t push back against Washington insiders. Lobbyists and establishment politicians are trying to slow-walk our fight for equality. They peddle half-truths, influence and big money donations on behalf of candidates and causes that don’t represent you. Those candidates fit the Washington mold-- and that’s not a good thing. They will go with the flow and won’t stand up for what’s right when it really matters. If we keep sending that type of person to Washington, they’ll keep rigging the system against us. That’s exactly what’s happening in CO-06.

In CO-06 the DCCC decided they wanted a white collar criminal defense lawyer (who has represented payday lenders, fracking companies and defended scammers who have targeted senior citizens) to represent us. What we’ve seen is a textbook case of Washington working to rig a primary. Despite our opponent’s crippling weaknesses as a general election candidate, the DCCC is determined to inflict their candidate upon primary voters by creating facts on the ground.

This has been going on for more than a year (they have supplied him with staff, data and hundreds of thousands in donations). Last November, the DCCC brought these efforts into the open by designating our opponent as a “Red to Blue” candidate. The DCCC has now embedded full-time field staffers with our opponent’s campaign, they share polling data with him and help secure endorsements. They traffic in lies, rumor and innuendo about our progressive campaign.

That’s not only morally wrong, it’s not going to help us win a general election. The DCCC has deployed it’s strongarm tactics here before... and they don’t work. Let’s take a look at the DCCC’s losing record over the years.

The 2014 Bloodbath

In 2014 one of Colorado’s most impressive leaders, Andrew Romanoff was the Democratic nominee against Mike Coffman.  Leading up to the general election, the DCCC committed to funding Romanoff’s advertising costs during the last weeks of the election. But the DCCC reneged on their promise -- leaving Andrew high and dry.  The DCCC cut the legs out from Romanoff’s campaign and didn’t spend a single cent on the promised advertising. In other words, the DCCC allowed the GOP and Mike Coffman to demolish Romanoff’s good name and record via TV and radio.  Andrew had no way to fight back. Why? Because he trusted the DCCC. The result was an electoral bloodbath.

The DCCC knows best?

In 2016, the Democratic nominee for CD-6 was Colorado State Sen. Morgan Carroll.  Morgan was an extremely qualified, intelligent and charismatic candidate whose campaign was also tanked by the DCCC. The DCCC wanted to tie Coffman to Trump and that was the entirety of their plan: Tie Coffman to Trump.

An astute politician with local knowledge, Carroll knew this wasn’t the silver bullet. She had a plan to defeat Coffman that was issues driven and focused on aggressive field outreach. But the DC insiders at the DCCC demanded that Senator Carroll follow their orders and threatened to withdraw financial support unless she did as they said. In the face of those threats, Carroll felt she had no choice but to accept the dictates of unelected, unaccountable DC insiders. Coffman won the election in another landslide.

Blue America is asking for your help in Colorado.

Ever since he realized that the DCCC was jumping on the scale early last spring, Levi and other progressives have called on them to back off and let the voters decide. Unfortunately, as we've all seen in Houston in the past weeks, that’s not the DCCC way. They’ve doubled down on their candidate, lied about it and done everything in their power to stack the primary deck, alienating the democratic base and alienating the independent voters who will be needed in November to defeat Coffman. Please consider contributing what you can to Levi Tillemann's campaign by clicking on the ActBlue congressional thermometer on the right. We can win this one by beating the forces of Insider Beltway corruption-- first the DCCC and in November, the GOP. As Bernie said, in reference to the DCCC Lee Atwater/Karl Rove techniques in TX-07, "I detest that type of politics and I think most Americans do... That is to my mind, absolutely unacceptable. And it’s got to end."

Hoyer Admits Trying To Rig A Colorado Congressional Race For The Corrupt Conservative Candidate

DCCC incompetence has kept CO-06 in Republican hands for years after the district turned blue. And it's almost as though Steny Hoyer and Ben Ray Lujan are working to keep up their unlikely record of failure. Obama won the district-- the suburbs south and east of Denver (including Aurora, Littleton and Centennial-- in 2008 with 54% and in 2012 with 52%. In 2016 Hillary beat Trump 50.2% to 41.3%. and the PVI went from D+1 in 2015 to D+2 now. In 2016 Bernie won the district and beat Hillary in all 3 counties (Arapahoe, Douglas and Adams). Even though Democratic voters in the district expressed that they were not interested in another status quo establishment candidate, last week, the DCCC interfered in the district primary by endorsing a more-of-the-same corrupt conservative New Dem, Jason Crow (who isn't from the district), over the grassroots progressive in the race, Levi Tillemann, and then going a step further by meeting with Levi and trying to bully him into dropping out.

First a little about Crow, from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party who was recruited by the DCCC. As I've explained before, Steny Hoyer and Ben Ray Luján have taken great pains to present their puppet candidate as a veteran and a family guy. He has no real issues page on his website, of course-- just a lot of identity politics bullshit and superficial platitudes galore. Crow's a lawyer in Denver who spent his career rigging the system against the poor, the marginalized, the vulnerable, and the forgotten. The DCCC will never let on that they are completely aware that he profited by making sure that there’s one type of "justice" for rich, white, well-connected men, and no justice at all for those they harm. For years, Crow’s marketing bio described him as an expert in everything from protecting abusive private medical groups and con men guilty of wire fraud to making sure bankers guilty of securities fraud and insider trading and business owners who bribed foreign governments got off the hook. He got rich by siding with the big guys and against the little guys and by defending payday lenders from justice-- again and again and again, systematically and with a sense of purpose. The DCCC looks at that and sees only the capacity for self-funding and low ethics-- their top two requirements for recruitment. Suddenly, with a little of that DCCC magic that has caused the Democratic Party to lose dozens and dozens of seats over the past decade-- including CO-06-- the guy is Captain America (and also Mother Teresa).

On the DCCC's Red-to-Blue endorsement page-- all shit right-of-center candidates-- they describe Crow as having "a stellar record of service. The son of small business owners [a laugh since his father had a private wealth management firm], Jason worked minimum-wage jobs during high school, enlisted in the National Guard, and worked construction to help pay his way through college. After the horrific 9/11 attacks, he served as a paratrooper in the invasion of Iraq where he earned a Bronze Star. Jason then served two combat tours in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger. Now he’s an attorney and veterans advocate." He's one of their very worst this cycle. Hoyer and Luján are helping him raise money and telling institutional donors and bu Democratic contributors to not give any money to Tillemann, the typical DCCC trick which then allows them to claim the candidates they don't back aren't "serious contenders."

I've been fighting with Hoyer about this for over a decade and I found this post I did from November 2006 after he asked me to interview him. It's a hoot. After the DCCC backed Crow last November, Tillemann slammed them for getting involved with one Democratic candidate while giving a cold shoulder to the others.

Levi Tillemann, a clean energy expert and former Obama administration official, said the results of last week’s election-- including sweeping wins by Democrats in swing states and in longstanding Republican-held districts across the country-- make it clear that voters in Colorado’s 6th District are ready to elect a Democrat, something they’ve never done.

“You saw a slate of progressive school board members and a number of strong, progressive city council members elected,” Tillemann told Colorado Politics, referring to election results in Aurora and Douglas County-- both parts of the 6th District. “This is a red-to-blue district, it’s been a red-to-blue district. The question is how we can actually flip the 6th in 2018.

“Let’s be honest. The DNC has put its finger on the scale before voters even have had a chance to meet the candidates. We’ve seen what happened when the DNC gets involved in primaries, and it’s not pretty. I’d suggest they let the Democrats vote rather than seeking to inflict their will on the voters of Colorado.”

While the DCCC insists it maintains strict neutrality in races with contested primaries-- “provid[ing] support to all Democratic House candidates willing to have open lines of communication and work collaboratively with the Committee,” a spokesperson said in a statement-- skeptics made hay when it turned out that leadership PACs run by Luján and Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House Democrats’ No. 2 leader, both donated to Crow’s campaign earlier this year but not to his primary opponents.

Yesterday ColoradoPolitics updated a post from last week about Hoyer's attempt to bully Tillemann out of the race, something I've seen him do dozens of times all over the country, always to help corrupt conservative candidates against progressives. He's real piece of shit. It's because of scumbags like Hoyer that the Democrats will never be anything more than the lesser of two evils in a corrupt political system. The sooner he's gone from Congress the better. He's 78; keep your fingers crossed.

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in House leadership, encouraged Democrat Levi Tillemann to end his primary campaign in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District during a December meeting at a Denver hotel, saying that state and national congressional and party leaders had decided “very early on” to consolidate their resources behind another Democrat, Jason Crow, to run against Republican incumbent Mike Coffman, according to detailed notes Tillemann wrote immediately after the meeting.

Hoyer told Tillemann that party leaders who had been through a few go-arounds in the district-- one of the top-targeted and most expensive congressional races in the country the past two cycles-- would be “negligent” if they didn’t get involved, adding, “If we just lay back as leaders that have some experience, as leaders that have gone thorough that district four or five times and lost, that’s not a rational thing to do,” according to the notes and a conversation Tillemann had with his campaign manager, Juan Rodriguez, minutes after the meeting ended.

“If you stay in the race-- and, frankly I would hope you would not-- but if you stay in the race, it is not useful to the objective to tear down Crow,” Hoyer told Tillemann, according to the notes.

Hoyer doesn’t comment on private meetings, a spokeswoman told Colorado Politics, but the veteran lawmaker said in a statement he was proud to support Crow.

...Hoyer’s support for Crow, one of four Democrats running in a primary in the district, has been public since his leadership PAC made campaign contributions to Crow last year. But his explanation that party bosses consider Tillemann a spoiler and are leaning on him to stand down, in part because the party’s state delegation recruited Crow-- and recommended that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee support him-- directly contradicts the DCCC’s repeated insistence it’s staying neutral in the battleground race.

U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette, Jared Polis and Ed Perlmutter, Colorado’s Democratic House members, disputed the account through spokespersons. While Perlmutter acknowledged he supports Crow-- he’s known Crow and worked with him for a decade on veterans’ issues-- all three lawmakers denied they had a hand in recruiting Crow and maintained there had been no decision by the delegation to marshal resources in support of his campaign.

A spokeswoman for the DCCC declined to comment for this story.

The DCCC, the campaign arm of the House Democrats, in mid-November listed Crow among 11 congressional candidates named to its Red to Blue program to provide fundraising and organizational support. The announcement drew protests on social media from Colorado Democratic Party Chair Morgan Carroll, Coffman’s 2016 challenger and a DCCC Red to Blue candidate in that year’s election, who said the move amounted to an endorsement. It was, she said, contrary to both what DCCC officials had told her to expect and the organization’s stated policy of neutrality.

“The DCCC verbally said they would be neutral and in practice just endorsed one of the candidates in CD6,” Carroll wrote in a Nov. 16 Facebook comment reacting to news Crow had receivd the DCCC’s designation. “The neutrality policy is ours at the Colorado Democratic Party but it SHOULD be their policy too at the national level. My 2 cents.”

...Tillemann and Rodriguez told Colorado Politics that Hoyer’s exhortation, and the extraordinarily candid explanation that accompanied it, suggest Democratic party leaders haven’t learned from the scandals that rocked the party during and after the 2016 presidential contest, when accusations emerged that the party tilted the nomination toward Hillary Clinton and away from Bernie Sanders.

“It’s about the DCCC not trusting the judgment of their own people, not trusting the efforts of local party officials who have worked assiduously to make sure it’s a fair fight,” Tillemann said in an interview.

“It’s about a systemic effort to disenfranchise Democratic voters. The DCCC is acting like these contests are fair fights, and they’re not. It’s happening all across the country, and it’s at odds with our fundamental values of fairness and democracy. It’s a form of voter suppression, and it’s something we would condemn in the strongest terms if we saw the Republicans doing anything analogous.”

Rodriguez, who worked on the Sanders campaign in Nevada and Colorado, said he was appalled but not surprised.

“The DCCC is deciding months before the primary who’s going to be the nominee, who they’re going to back and who they’re going to try to force out. It comes down to who has the willingness to do what they tell them to do,” he said.

...Rodriguez said his description of Tillemann’s meeting with Hoyer was based on a discussion with Tillemann that took place almost as soon as the meeting had concluded, along with his review of notes the candidate took right after it had occurred, which was also Rodriguez’ first day on the job. He said Tillemann, author of the book The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future and a journalist with credits in the New Yorker, among other publications, wrote an extensive and detailed narration of the meeting, including numerous direct quotes.

Hoyer had proposed that the two sit down late on the afternoon of Dec. 15 at the downtown Denver hotel where Hoyer would be attending a Crow fundraiser later that evening.

They met for more than an hour in a roped-off section of the lobby of the Hilton Denver Downtown, a regular site of Democratic events and fundraisers-- the 2017 state reorganization meeting and annual fundraising dinner were held there, as will be next month’s Obama Dinner. First they engaged in what Tillemann characterized as a pleasant talk, for a time discussing their shared acquaintance with Tillemann’s grandfather, the late U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, a Bay Area Democrat who entered Congress in 1981, the same year Hoyer was first elected.

Soon, however, the conversation took a turn.

Hoyer told Tillemann he hadn’t known he was planning on getting in the race and added that it wasn’t personal, but maintained that “very early on” a decision had been made by congressional leaders in Colorado and people in Washington, D.C., that Crow was the candidate they were going to run against Coffman, and they had decided to consolidate their money, resources and political capital around Crow.

He repeated the assertion several times that the decision to back Crow had been made “very early on” and said that party elders would be “negligent” if they didn’t get involved in the race.

An incredulous Tillemann asked if that meant Democratic leaders had made their decision before voters would have a say and if that meant they’d decided the DCCC knows best.

“That’s certainly the consequence of our decision,” Hoyer replied, adding, “A judgment was made very early on by the Colorado delegation, and that decision redounds to your detriment.”

Pressing, Tillemann asked whether Democrats shouldn’t have a say in the caucus and assembly process, to which Hoyer said, “They’ll make a choice of one candidate over the other in the primary, but the choice they will make that will make a consequence to the Congress of the United States is in the general (election).”

At another point, Hoyer agreed with Levi’s characterization of Hoyer’s position to mean voters should just line up behind the party’s candidate.

“That’s certainly the consequence of our decision,” Hoyer said, admonishing Tillemann for putting “it in the most negative of terms.” He suggested Tillemann was “reject[ing] out of hand” the responsibility of “the party and the DCCC and the leadership of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives” to do their best to win the seat, which could help hand the gavel to Democrats after the 2018 election.

Then Hoyer stated in no uncertain terms: “I’m for Crow. Because a judgement was made very early on. I don’t know Crow. I didn’t participate in the decision. But a decision was made very early on by the Colorado delegation.”

Soon after, a Hoyer staffer interrupted to say the congressman had to wrap things up.

Tillemann said he appreciated Hoyer’s time and respected his service to the country but disagreed with the approach Hoyer had articulated and would be in touch. Hoyer closed the meeting by asking Tillemann to call his office to discuss Tillemann’s allegation that his campaign was facing attacks from Democrats like Hoyer had said could damage the party’s prospects in the fall election.

Tillemann told Colorado Politics the exchange with Hoyer confirmed his worst qualms about the Democratic Party.

“Our system is committed to the idea that primaries are an important step within the process during which party voters have a say as to which candidate represents their values, their community and their vision for the future,” he said. “What we see not only in the 6th Congressional District but across the country is a proactive and systematic effort by backroom politicians to circumvent the democratic process. That is not democracy, that is paternalism. That is what turns people off from the entire political process.”

Tillemann added that Hoyer’s message, while unexpectedly explicit, wasn’t a surprise.

“We had the sense the DCCC was trying to rig the primary,” he said. After meeting with DCCC officials early last year, Tillemann said he felt frustrated, so his campaign reached out to other Democrats in Washington but ran into cold shoulders there too.

“We don’t want favoritism; all we want is a fair fight,” he said. “We couldn’t get past a receptionist. What we requested was that the DCCC stop jumping on the scales and that they give all candidates within that primary process a fair shot.”

Through a spokeswoman, DCCC officials confirmed they met with Tillemann multiple times.

It isn’t just an insiders’ game, he continued, but an attempt to “drag us toward the center” when the Democratic establishment supports more conservative candidates regardless of the district-- even when the chances of electing Democrats appears higher this year than in memory, as evidenced by results late last year in Virginia, Alabama and across Colorado in local elections.

“What we see is a systemic set of forces that is driving the Democratic Party toward a conservative bias, candidates who are cookie-cutter and uninspiring chosen by party apparatchiks,” Tilleman said.

“This is what I call trickle down democracy. They’re doing the exact same thing we criticize Republicans for in the economic sphere. They are drowning out the voices of voters with money and backroom deal-making. It doesn’t work when you give all the resources to someone at the top in an economy, and it doesn’t produce the best results for your constituents when you give all the resources to a favored candidate in an election in Democratic primaries.”

Hoyer is a slimy character, even by DC standards, 100% owned by the K Street lobbyists. I remember when he used this bullying tactic to win right-wing Republican sex maniac Tim Mahoney a Florida congressional seat. Mahoney was a wretched Blue Dog pretending to be a Democrat and served one term after Hoyer got him the seat and was then driven from office for a series of sex escapades. Hoyer tried the same tactic to drive now-Congressman Matt Cartwright out of his first race against corrupt Hoyer crony Tim Holden. Despite Hoyer's efforts, Pennsylvania Democrats helped Cartwright bury Holden-- along with his disgraceful political career. As long as creatures like Hoyer are crawling around Washington, our country's politics will be something decent people will be hard-pressed to stomach.