Why Is Pelosi Allowing Steve Israel To Gratuitously Screw Over Working Families In Southwest Michigan?

The ruin of Franklin Roosevelt's great political party

In a recent report from the Kalamzoo Gazette, Upton challenger Paul Clements sets new record for Democratic fundraising in 6th district, the photograph caption was "WMU Professor Paul Clements, who is looking to unseat U.S. Rep. Fred Upton in 2014, speaks to a packed crowd at the Kalamazoo County Democratic headquarters." Packed crowd? Maybe someone should tell DCCC chairman Steve Israel. Or perhaps mention the title to Israel, the part about setting new fundraising records, supposedly the only thing Israel really cares about anyway.

But no one will, because everyone knows it won't do any good. Israel doesn't challenge Republican committee chairs and policy-makers-- no matter how heinous their policies (and few are as heinous as Upton's). And he especially doesn't challenge his old fraternity brothers, like Upton, from his beloved Center Aisle Caucus. So here's the DCCC prioritizing and wasting money on dreadful deep red districts with even more dreadful conservative candidates, while a true blue progressive in a district ripe to be plucked (MI-6 with a PVI of R+1) is absolutely off the table. How can Nancy Pelosi abandon the working families of southwest Michigan to the tender mercies of Steve Israel this way… again?

Heading into the 2014 election season, Congressman Fred Upton's Democratic challenger announced that he has raised more money than any prior Democratic congressional candidate in Michigan's 6th district.

Paul Clements, 52, a political science professor at Western Michigan University, had raised $365,469 as of March 31, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Clements appears to be the first Democratic candidate in the 6th district to surpass the $300,000 threshold. In 2012, Democrat Mike O'Brien, who at the time had raised more money than any Democratic congressional candidate in the 6th district in 20 years, raised a total of $293,986, according to the FEC. (The current 6th district was formed in 1992, combining parts of the third and fourth districts.)

"Our report shows a broad movement that wants bipartisan solutions on job creation, education and investments in our future," Clements said in a statement. "The people of Southwest Michigan deserve an independent voice focused on their needs, and that's not what they have been getting with Congressman Upton."

During the first quarter of 2014, Clements raised $122,178. Of the more than 2,500 individual contributions, 86 percent were for less than $200, Clements' campaign reported, citing strong grassroots support. According to the FEC, Clements took in $3,950 from political action committees (PACs).

John Taylor, chairman of the Kalamazoo County Democratic Party and a county commissioner, confirmed that Clements had broken the Democratic congressional fundraising record set by O'Brien in 2012 for the 6th district.

"The really impressive thing about Paul's number is there's very little PAC checks in there," he said in a phone interview. "Individuals are stepping up for his race and that's a positive sign."

Israel, instead, is staying focused on Jennifer Garrison an anti-Choice, gay-hating, pro-NRA, pro-fracking conservative who is said to look an awful lot like his former mistress (his latest former mistress, the one his most recent wife divorced him over). Her district doesn't have a PVI of R+1, like Upton's. It has a PVI of R+8. And even with all the help Israel and Steny Hoyer are giving her, she isn't raising the kind of money grassroots progressives like Clements are. This quarter she brought in a meager $89,000, about a third of what the DCCC had assigned her. And she isn't the only Steve Israel recruit who fell flat on their face, rejected by the Democratic grassroots. Among other big Israel Q-1 recruiting failures were Red to Blue designees Jackie McPherson (AR-01)- $112K, Jerry Cannon (MI-01)- $143K, Bobby McKenzie (MI-11)- $133K, and Kevin Strouse (PA-08)- $115K, who is losing the money race to a more grassroots primary candidate Shaunghnessy Naughton, who, unlike him, is campaigning against fracking, which he foolishly supports in the very environmentally-conscious Bucks County (which he is unfamiliar with).

I asked a Member of Congress today if it is too late for the Democrats to win back the House in November. He wasn't optimistic but offered his opinion that damages could be minimized if Pelosi replaced Israel as DCCC chairman. "We'll never win it back with Steve calling the shots there, but I could name half a dozen Members who could walk in there tomorrow, shake the place up, get rid of some of the dead weight, and stop the bleeding… Steve will be lucky to break even. And I don't think Lady Luck has been kind to him in recent years… Nancy should kick him upstairs and give Keith [Ellison] the job. Even [he called me back and asked me to omit this name] would do a better job than Steve."

Meet Congressmember X

18 of the Blue America-endorsed candidates won congressional seats this year. One of the new members got home from a week in DC last night and called me. I'm not going to identify who the member is or even if it's a man or a woman, although for the sake of simplicity I'll refer to the member-- now and forever-- as "he." He was exhausted and talked with me for a couple hours about the first week-- fascinating stuff and I'm hoping to persuade him to create a bogus FDL account and come on one day as Congressmember X and share his first impressions.

Actually he's not a member yet-- won't be 'til January. But he had to go in for orientation and to get an office and talk about a committeee assignment and vote in the hotly contested leadership race between Dingell and Waxman. Not all the Blue America candidates voted for Waxman. Our two Michigan members, Mark Schauer and Gary Peters, were backers of Dingell. In fact Congressmember X said they were very persuasive advocates for Dingell. Further, all the very persuasive advocates were for Dingell. "He ran a far better campaign in every respect. His spokesmen gave much better speeches. John Lewis' speech on behalf of Dingell got a standing ovation." The NY Times reports that Waxman's campaign was "better organized." I suspect they got it wrong.

Waxman and many others think that Mr. Dingell’s single-minded defense of the automobile industry’s interests set back safety, mileage and emissions standards by years and helped lead the companies to their present precarious position.

Still, Mr. Dingell retained the loyalty of moderate New Democrats, conservative Blue Dogs, much of the Black Caucus and representatives of the many districts with automobile or automotive supplier plants. And many members of all stripes were reluctant to upend the seniority system that they benefit from, or hope to. Mr. Dingell, 82, has represented a suburban Detroit district since 1955 and will become the longest-serving member in House history in February. He has been the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee for 28 years.

And in the end the only argument was that you don't kill off someone who has been serving so long. It was all about seniority and loyalty and some lame excuses about the little matter of the Big 3 going bankrupt and about CAFE standards. When I told Congressmember X that he may have to go back and vote on Waxman's successor at the Oversight Committee, it was news to him.

He also told me there was no pressure whatsoever from the Leadership to do anything. He wondered if it was going to be too lax as far as direction. I expect we'll be hearing him changing that view in a short time-- although without a flaming asshole like Emanuel in the leadership there isn't an obviously personality around to wield a rubber hose on reluctant members.

So, I already pretty much told you that Congressman X is not Schauer or Peters. I'll also pretty much tell you that it's also not Larry Kissell. Larry didn't call me but he revealed his feelings about week one to Lisa Zagaroli, a McClatchy correspondent.

Larry Kissell pulled into town after dark to a "stirring sight," the grand U.S. Capitol awash with light, and the magnitude of the job before him settled in.

"It was just a great sense of humbleness and recognizing the task that I'd been entrusted with-- and a great deal of enthusiasm with the opportunity to be part of this change," said Kissell, the high school civics teacher who beat five-term incumbent Robin Hayes to represent North Carolina's 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House.

...Kissell got his first taste of being lobbied, as two long-serving lawmakers battled over the chairmanship of the influential Energy and Commerce Committee.

"There are legitimate arguments both ways. I've done my homework," said Kissell, who wouldn't say how he would vote.

Between meetings this past week, Kissell was soaking in what he could, and feeling part of history.

"As a civics teacher, you cannot escape that feeling of responsibility, the significance of what we are entrusted to do, and the history of those who came before us," he said. "There have been less than 12,000 people who have ever served in Congress."

One of the most significant meetings for him came Monday when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., brought freshmen, both Democrats and Republicans, together on the House floor in a gesture of bipartisanship.

"There's a great sense of we need to work together, and take on the nation's problems together," he said.

Kissell said he's not worried about becoming ungrounded on Capitol Hill.

"I always say I've got a 93-year-old mom at home who told me if I lost my way she'd come help me straighten it out as she has done all my life," he jokes. "I have confidence in the people around me that together we can stay directed. I remember why I took this giant step and as a school teacher saying I was going to run for Congress.…I know where I want to go. I'm not worried… I’m too far along in who I am."