Big Shakeup In An Illinois House Race-- Durbin Endorses Nancy Rotering, Not The DCCC Hack Candidate

When it comes to recruiting, the DCCC is always attracted to conservative ex-colleagues who have already lost to Republicans. We've talked about how Steve Israel and his crew of incompetents managed to lose the D+5 district centered around Syracuse, New York last cycle by running Republican-lite New Dem Dan Maffei after he had already been beaten in 2010. He road back into office on Obama's strong 2012 coattails, only to be thoroughly thrashed by the voters again in 2014 after 2 years of proving, again, he's not in the least bit progressive. Obama won NY-24 171,502 (57%) to 123,534 (41%) in 2014 while Maffei took 130,969 (48%) to beat Tea Party incumbent Ann Marie Buerkle's 118,578 (44%). Two years later, predictably, Democrats stayed away from the polls in droves and Maffei only managed to get 80,304 votes (40%) and lost to John Katko's 118,474 (60%). This is a blue district and its only the DCCC's ideological, anti-progressive interference that has saddled it with a Republican congressman again.

The story in IL-10 is similar-- except this is a D+8 district, the bluest district in the country with a Republican congressman. In 2012 Republican incumbent Mark Kirk gave up the seat to run for the Senate. The Democrats ran a conservative Democrat, Brad Schneider and, like Maffei in NY, he got into office on Obama's coattails. Obama beat Romney there 157,400 (58%) to 112,552 (41%) and Schneider-- after the DCCC helped him defeat progressive champion Ilya Sheyman in a close primary-- beat Bob Dold much more narrowly-- 130,941 (50%) to 128,423 (50%). And of course, again, quite predictably, Democratic voters saw Schneider in action and just didn't show up at the polls in 2014. Dold beat him 95,992 (51%) to 91,136 (49%).

So now Schneider wants back in again-- and, of course, the DCCC is trying to help him win, which is very possible since either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders could be expected to do very well in the north Chicagoland district. And, then it would be time for a Republican to beat Schneider again in 2016. Seems silly, huh? In NY-24 the likely nominee is a progressive Eric Kingson, who will break that cycle.

I've been worried about IL-10, where the DCCC is making every effort to disadvantage the more progressive primary challenger Nancy Rotering in order to bolster their New Dem loser, Brad Schneider, who used to throw fundraising events at his hold for Mark Kirk. High profile Democrats have been pealing away from Schneider in recent weeks. Jan Schakowsky had endorsed him and withdrew her endorsement after he backed the Republican move to undermine President Obama's deal with Iran. Adlai Stevenson III and Abner Mikva also withdrew their endorsements and then each endorsed Nancy. But yesterday there was an even bigger break in the DCCC pattern of inevitable failure. Illinois' senior senator, Dick Durbin, very publicly announced that he was on team Rotering. "Nancy, a working mom and skilled attorney, has the courage, leadership and determination to return the 10th Congressional District to the Democratic fold," he said.

Nancy brings to this race an extraordinary record for a first-time Congressional candidate. As Mayor of Highland Park she successfully confronted ComEd when local families were suffering from unreliable service, balanced the City budget five consecutive years and enacted real reforms. Her most noteworthy achievement gained national attention when she passed one of the nation's first local assault weapons ban and successfully defended the ordinance against an onslaught of gun lobby attacks all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. While the Republican-led Congress refused to respond to the nation's gun violence, Nancy Rotering and her City of Highland Park showed real leadership. Nancy combines fiscal responsibility with true progressive values.

The primary is March 15 and Durbin's endorsement must have shocked the DCCC hacks, not enough to make them up from their incompetence or corruption. But enough to discomfort them. This is a race Nancy can win-- both against Schneider and against Dold, two conservatives who shouldn't be presenting an area like IL10.

Wall Street Has A Batch Of Very Unsavory Favorite Candidates

Bill Maher has told people that this Alan Grayson response to GOP hacks Nicolle Wallace and P.J. O'Rourke is the only instance of his Real Time audience ever giving one of his guests a standing ovation. And now there's a pretty good song based on it! Not a song, though, that the Senator from Wall Street, Chuck Schumer ($23,059,037), is likely to play at the next fundraising event he or one of his allies throws for Wall Street's pick for the open Florida senate seat, Patrick Murphy ($2,260,848). What are those number amounts next to their names? It's the amount of legalized bribery that each legislator has accepted from the Finance Sector in their careers. Schumer's had a long career-- as a congressional Wall Street lackey-- so he's got a huge amount, more, in fact, than any other Member of Congress in history with the exception of few candidates who ran for president. Murphy is relatively new but no one in Congress-- not ever-- has been given as much Wall Street loot as Murphy is such a short amount of time. So why is that?

I'll answer that question with another question. How do you know who carries water for Wall Street? Easy: Wall Street pays them-- and pays them a lot. Of the top 10 recipients of legalized bribes from the Financial Sector so far this election cycle, 8 are Republicans and 2 are Democrats. Let's take a look-see at who the corrupt culprits are and how much cash they've gotten and then we'll try to figure out why. Remember this is just for the House (not the Senate) and just for this one election cycle, which has over a year to run:

• John Boehner (R-OH)- $1,133,340
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- $768,500
• Patrick Murphy (D-FL)- $659,600
• Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)- $521,715
• Paul Ryan (R-WI)- $490,875
• Bob Dold (R-IL)- $431,593
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC)- $425,900
• Steve Stivers (R-OH)- $384,102
• Bruce Poliquin (R-ME)- $353,033
• Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)- $340,807

The two biggest recipients need no explanation. Boehner and McCarthy, respectively Speaker and Majority Leader, control the House's agenda. They decide what gets on the floor and what doesn't and who gets on which committees and who doesn't. Whomever holds those positions is who Wall Street wants to own. Simple. We'll come back to Murphy (#3) in a moment and discuss his special case when we look at the only other Democrat on the list, Maryland Establishment shill Chris Van Hollen. But first, the rest of the Republicrooks.

Hensarling's $521,715 (and his career-long $6,610,960 from the banksters) is easy to explain. He's not just a loud opponent to any consumer protects for banking and insurance customers, he's the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, the guy who is dismantling, piece by piece, Dodd Frank on behalf of Wall Street's worst criminals.

Paul Ryan's contributions from Wall Street (#5) are about to shoot up into the stratosphere. He's about to replace Boehner as Speaker and he just hired David Hoppe, a shady lobbyist adept at extorting money from banksters, as his chief of staff. They've already given Ryan $5,420,978 since he was first elected in 1998 and have been thrilled with his work on their behalf, first as the Budget Committee chairman and now as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. That was the best $5,420,978 they ever invested!

#6, Bob Dold from Illinois is an interesting case-- $431,593 so far this year, for a very tough reelection battle against another Wall Street shill, grotesquely corrupt New Dem Brad Schneider who he beat last year. Now, keep in mind that the financial sector showered Schneider with $1,123,544 in his short career and has given him another $135,381 this cycle, not as much as Dold, but far from nothing. Old is a Wall Street-supporting conservative on Ryan's House Ways and Means Committee and they're loathe to lose his services, but if he loses to Schneider... they don't lose much. Schneider was always helpful with Wall Street's agenda and is one of the few Democrats who openly admits-- as do Murphy and Van Hollen-- that he is open to cuts in entitlements (i.e., gutting Social Security and Medicare). The only nightmare for the banksters would be if Schneider loses the primary to a far more progressive Democrat, Nancy Rotering, and that she beats Dold, a likely scenario. That's why this year's bankster contributions in IL-10 look like this:

• Bob Dold (R)- $431,593
• Brad Schneider (New Dem)- $135,381
• Nancy Rotering (D)- $68,298

Rotering understands-- as the banksters do-- that there's not much difference between Dold and Schneider on the issues most important to them. The other day she told us, "Both of my opponents, Brad Schneider and Bob Dold are part of the Washington establishment that has failed our families by stacking the economic deck against them. Both Scheinder and Dold have taken hundreds of thousands from the financial industry (450k for Schneider and over 800k for Dold) and then used their power to do the financial industry's bidding. Our families will not catch the economic break they need if we continue sending the same old people to Washington to do the same old thing. I will be new progressive voice watching out for families not the financial industry."

And that brings us to North Carolina Republican closet case Patrick McHenry, who's in a safely gerrymandered red district (R+11) and doesn't face any serious opposition. Yet... the Financial Sector has given him $2,966,186 since he was first elected in 2004 (and already $425,900 this year). It's not just because they like diminutive closet cases ready to go to any lengths in a quest for power. McHenry is an up-and-comer in the dysfunctional GOP House Leadership, the Chief Deputy Whip since last year and, perhaps more importantly, a Member of the House Financial Services Committee, always eager to do Wall Street's bidding (like act as an attack dog against Elizabeth Warren) and the chairman of the TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Next up: former Bank One/Bank of America lobbyist Steve Stivers. Again, safely gerrymandered and ethnically-cleansed red district that carefully skirts Columbus (R+6) and is designed not just to prevent a Democrat from winning, but to also make sure no non-Franklin County teababgger can ever cobble together a natural majority. Stivers has no opposition so far this cycle. He wasn't elected until 2010 but Wall Street has showered him with legalistic bribery, $3,411,738 in his first 4 years in Congress and now this keel $384,102 chunk. And he's earned it, working diligently against his own constituents and for the banksters from his little perchs at the Financial Services Committee and on the Capital Markets and on the Insurance subcommittees.

The last Republicrook on the Top 10 list is Maine sociopath Bruce Poliquin, who represents a blue-leaning district (D+2) and would be likely to be defeated next year if not for the gross incompetence of the DCCC. (Obama beat McCain in this district 54-44% and then beat Romney 53-44%.) Before running for office Poliquin, a mutimillionaire Tea Party loon, was a bankster in Chicago. He was Maine's appointed Treasurer and used his office to further enrich himself. He's a freshman who won the seat in a 3-way race and immediately got onto the House Financial Services Committee, where he has endeared himself to Wall Street and, like Stivers, serves on the Capital Markets subcommittee. He's widely considered one of Congress' most corrupt members and the Finance Sector has been happy to give him checks amounting to $644,183 so far in his miserable congressional career.

And that brings to the two unsavory Democrats running for Senate, New Dem and Wall Street darling Patrick Murphy, an opportunistic "ex"-Republican who tends to always vote with the Republicans, especially at the House Financial Services Committee, where he is a low-ranking member but is widely regarded, along with Jim Himes and John Delaney to speak for the Wall Street banksters. He is the Democrat who most backs the banksters' agenda for complete dominance. And now they want him in the Senate, where he can do far more damage. A Goldman Sachs patsy, the Finance Sector has loaded him up with $2,260,848 during his brief tenure in Congress (part of which is the $659,600 they've given him so far this year). Getting Patrick Murphy into the Senate is Wall Street's top electoral priority for 2016. His $659,600 haul this year is a lot more than the Finance Sector gave Alan Grayson, a former economist-- $3,625. That should tell you something about who the banksters want in the Senate... and who they fear.

They are also extremely eager to get the only other Democrat on this List of Shame, Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, into the Senate. Van Hollen, a hideously failed former chair of the DCCC, is the Ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee and is regarded as someone who never holds the banksters' feet to the fire. The banksters appreciate his friendliness and have given him $1,935,871 career-long (considerably more than they've given to Congresswoman Donna Edwards who he is trying to defeat for the open Senate seat. This cycle, just $65,290 compared to Van Hollen's hefty 2015 $340,807 payoff).

If you'd like to keep Wall Street allies like Patrick Murphy and Chris Van Hollen out of the Senate, you can help both Donna Edwards and Alan Grayson on this Blue America ActBlue page.

DSCC And DCCC Continue Searching For Conservative Candidates

IL-10 Dems Schneider & Rotering

Yesterday 4 generally conservative Democrats-- Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Bob Casey (PA), Joe Manchin (WV) and Joe Donnelly (IN)-- voted with the GOP to end the Senate Democrats' filibuster of an anti-human trafficking bill that includes anti-Choice provisions. Even with supposedly pro-Choice Maine Senator Susan Collins voting with her own party on this, the final vote, 55-43 wasn't enough to shut down the filibuster.

People wonder how we wind up with Democrats like these. It's easy enough to make excuses for conservaDems in red states like West Virginia and North Dakota, but Democrats could have/should have done a lot better in Pennsylvania, where progressives don't have pander to bigots, haters and anti-Choice fanatics to get elected. But the Democratic Beltway Establishment never learned that lesson and is always encouraging the worst Democrats to run for office. This year, the DSCC is encouraging horrible conservative candidates, like Patrick Murphy in Florida and Bill Foster in Illinois, to run for the Senate, after watching them vote with Republicans over and over and over for two terms. Florida and Illinois are not red states.

The DCCC is, if anything, even worse than the DSCC. With anti-family/pro-Big Business millionaire New Dem Denny Heck as chairman of the Recruitment Committee (which also includes Blue Dogs Steve Israel and Cheri Bustos and New Dems Ann Kuster and Terri Sewell), they've been doing a dreadful job all cycle, encouraging an especially wretched batch of horrible conservative candidates like "former" Republican Monica Vernon (IA), pro-business lobbyist tool Isidore Hall (CA) and defeated Blue Dog Pete Gallego (TX).

The DCCC especially loves conservative losers former colleagues who were defeated the cycle before. They're trying to recruit plenty of them. One, for example, is Wall Street shill New Dem Brad Schneider, who managed to lose a district gerrymandered by the Democratic legislature to elect Democrats. The PVI is D+8, the bluest district won by a Republican in 2014. In 2012, when Schneider beat incumbent Robert Dold-- the one who came back and beat him last November-- he only won, and just barely (50.6-49.4%), because Obama was at the top of the ticket. Out of 264,000 votes cast, Schneider only managed to win by around 3,000 votes. In 2014, Dold beat him 93,984 (51.6%) to 88.010 (48.4%), Schneider having catered to Republicans for 2 years and turned off the Democratic base, many of whom just stayed home. But the DCCC thinks it's smart to run him again-- even though a far better candidate, Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, has already declared her candidacy.

I spoke with Nancy yesterday a few hours after he announced and her campaign seems to be all about her how her local experience working to expand and protect middle can translate on a national level. "You can't change the gridlock in DC," she told me, "by electing the same people over andover again... The rate of poverty in the suburbs has been growing rapidly-- in this district and across the country-- and that's something that has to be addressed seriously on a national level... To expand the middle class we need to provide constant, sufficient education across the entire district. Fair wages are critical. 81% of SNAP recipients have at least one full time employee in the family. What does that say about wages?" We'll be hearing more from Nancy as the primary unfolds.

Likeliest Congressional One Termers

Robert Dold, GOP freshman in the bluest district Steve Israel managed to lose

This morning, Roll Call ran a short list of the likeliest congressional one-termers. It wasn't based on the likelihood of whacked out extremists saying something blatantly insane. Newly elected radicals like Jody Hice (R-GA), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), Mark Walker (R-NC), Tom Emmer (R-MN), and Ken Buck (R-CO) were elected by voters who knew exactly what they were buying... and went for it anyway. You can expect, for example, the kind of primitive rural voters and the smug, well-fed, white suburbanites in Columbia County and around Lake Oconee in the R+14 north central Georgia district who were happy enough with science denying crackpot Paul Broun to be just as happy with his replacement, gun-worshipper Jody Hice, the guy who says women need to get permission from their husbands or fathers (or sons) if they want to run for office. That doesn't make any sense to folks in Athens but 66.5% of the voters backed Hice on November 4 and they're not going to care all that much when he starts howling about how every home should have a bazooka. Nope, Jody Hice is not going to be a one-term congressman. Worse yet, the 42 GOP freshmen elected Ken Buck Republican freshman class president!

The freshmen who are most likely to lose their seats are the freshmen who were elected in blue districts. The 5 fringe nuts listed above, are in red districts Romney won with big margins:

• GA-10 (Hice)- Romney-63%
• WI-06 (Grothman)- Romney- 53%
• NC-06 (Walker)- 58%
• MN-06 (Emmer)- Romney- 56%
• CO-04 (Buck)- Romney- 59%

Compare that to what freshmen like Robert Dold (R-IL), John Katko (R-NY) and Cresent Hardy (R-NV) will have to contend with in 2016. With Steve Israel, his incompetence and perfidious deals with the Republicans finally gone from the DCCC, Republicans are going to have a much less easy time holding onto the Obama districts they just scooped up. These are Republican freshmen who are going to be representing a lot of Democratic voters-- in districts Obama won in 2008 and 2012, like these half dozen with Obama 2012 victory percentages:

• Robert Dold (IL-10)- Obama- 58%
• John Katko (NY-24)- Obama- 57%
• Rod Blum (IA-01)- Obama 56%
• Cresent Hardy (NV-04)- Obama- 54%
• Bruce Poliquin (ME-02)- Obama- 53%
• Carlos Curbelo (FL-26)- Obama- 53%
• Tom MacArthur (NJ-03)- Obama- 53%
• Elise Stefanik (NY-21)- Obama- 52%
• Mike Bost (IL-12)- Obama- 50%
• Lee Zeldin (NY-01)- Obama- 50%
• Frank Guinta (NH-01)- Obama- 50%
• David Jolly (FL-13)- Obama- 50%

That will be a good list for new DCCC Chair, Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), to start his targeting strategies... even before getting to the Republican incumbents Israel left off the table through incompetent recruiting, lack of vision and in the shady deals he made with the NRCC, like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Fred Upton (R-MI), John Kline (R-MN), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Michael Grimm (R-NY), Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Scott Rigell (R-VA), John Mica (R-FL), Eric Paulsen (R-MN), Peter King (R-NY), Charles Dent (R-PA), Dave Reichert (WA-08), Sean Duffy (R-WI), Reid Ribble (R-WI), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Joe Heck (R-NV), Chris Gibson (R-NY), David Valadao (R-CA), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Jeff Denham (R-CA), Rodney Davis (R-IL)... and three more freshmen: Steve Knight (R-CA), David Young (R-IA), and Barbara Comstock (R-VA).

Roll Call reminds us that one Democrat, Blue Dog Brad Ashford is a sure NRCC target in the red Omaha, Nebtraska district he just narrowly won, 76,354 (48.6%) to 72,222 (46.0%) against bumbling GOP incumbent Lee Terry, a district Romney carried by 7 points.

Republicans say Terry’s gaffes, and his gaffes alone, were what made him vulnerable. Ashford successfully capitalized on Terry’s chronic foot-in-mouth disease to win-- with a major investment by national Democrats.

But there’s a long line of potential Republican opponents who could challenge Ashford in two years.

Republican Chip Maxwell, a tea party Republican who toyed with an independent bid in 2014, already announced his intention to run.

There are other potential Republican challengers:

• Former Omaha City Council member Dan Welch, who lost a bid for mayor of Omaha in 2013.
• Current Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, the first woman elected to that office.
• Attorney Bryan Slone, who lost a bid for governor in the Cornhusker State.
• State Sen. Beay McCoy, who also ran an unsuccessful bid for governor in Nebraska.
• Omaha City Council woman Aimee Melton.

As one of the few GOP-leaning seats held by a Democrat on the map, expect Republicans to line up behind their nominee.


Rep. Bruce Braley’s poor performance in the Senate race helped [Rod] Blum pull off an upset in this northeastern Iowa district, which President Barack Obama carried by a 14-point margin in 2012.

They continued with a very Inside-the-Beltway look at some of the races, mostly a product of cluelessness, some of it flat-out incorrect. If you want to skip part of this post, skip the rest of this stuff from Roll Call; I shouldn't even be including it.

Democrats said their candidate, state Rep. Pat Murphy, had baggage, and Republicans capitalized on it-- including video footage of an angry tirade on the state House floor. Privately, Democrats griped Murphy ran a lazy campaign, assuming the seat would be safe for him.

But Democrats say there is a deep bench here, including the four Democrats Murphy defeated in the June primary. They include Cedar Rapids City Councilwoman Monica Vernon, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2014, and state Rep. Anesa Kajtazovic.

Democrats concede they’ll have to spend a few million on the race, but they are optimistic they can pick up the seat in 2016.

Dismal turnout in Nevada helped propel Hardy over Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford, 49 percent to 46 percent-- even though Obama carried the district by double digits last time.

But in 2016, soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid will be up for re-election. Democrats plan to run an aggressive get-out-the-vote operation, and party leaders say that will all but sink Hardy’s re-election hopes.

The DCCC is aiming to convince Horsford to run a comeback bid for his seat. Privately, Nevada Democrats confess they have a thin bench, thanks to a statewide drubbing earlier this month.

[John] Katko defeated Rep. Dan Maffei, by an astonishing 20-point margin in this Syracuse-based district-- marking the second time a GOP wave felled the Democrat. But the district prefers Democrats in presidential cycles, picking Obama by a 16-point margin in 2012.

If Hillary Rodham Clinton is the Democratic presidential nominee, she’ll likely get strong support from the Empire State, where it’s rumored she’ll base her campaign headquarters. That stacks the odds against Katko.

Maffei could look to run again, but after losing the seat twice he could sit out another bid.

Current Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, the former co-chair of the state party, was also mentioned by Democratic operatives as a potential challenger. Miner won re-election last year.

[Bruce] Poliquin captured this open seat in northern Maine by a 5-point margin. His victory was boosted by Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s win, as well as a third-party candidate who drew 11 percent of the vote in the House contest.

But Maine’s 2nd District prefers Democratic in presidential elections. Obama carried the district by a 9-point margin in 2012.

And Poliquin captured the seat with 47 percent of the vote-- meaning more than a majority of the district voted for someone other than Poliquin. Democratic operatives say that leaves him vulnerable in 2016.

National Democrats [i.e., party hacks from EMILY's List, the New Dems and Israel's DCCC] hope state Sen. Emily Cain, who lost to Poliquin, mounts another challenge. Cain could not be reached for comment, but she told the Kennebec Journal she is “flattered” by Democrats’ request and is contemplating another run.

Democratic state Rep. Jeff McCabe is also contemplating a bid, the Kennebec Journal reported.

Also this morning, Alex Isenstadt at Politico was sure to mention that the DC Democratic politicians, basically incapable of learning from their mistakes, are eagerly re-recruiting some of the shitty losing candidates from this cycle, primarily untalented people, like New Dem, Brad Schneider, who weren't any good at their jobs. The ultimate Democratic loser, Steve Israel, is pushing the hardest to get defeated candidates to run again. Here's the narrow, dysfunctional thinking among Beltway types out of touch with America:

Only two weeks after a political blowout that left Democrats with their smallest House minority in over 80 years, at least a half-dozen of the party’s candidates who fell short are already being courted to run again in 2016. And some of them are seriously considering it.

Their thinking reflects what has become prevailing wisdom in Democratic circles: that presidential elections are as favorable to the party as midterms are punishing. Democrats who lost close races in battleground districts this year could just as easily come out on top in 2016, when the electorate is sure to be younger, more diverse and more liberal.

“There are numerous good Democratic candidates who ran solid campaigns who were nonetheless swallowed up by a toxic national environment,” said Zac McCrary, a Democratic pollster who worked on a number of campaigns this year. “In 2016, the political climate should be at least somewhat better for Democrats and the composition of the electorate will certainly be more Democratic leaning.”

While they recover from painful losses, aides to many of the ousted members say they’re convinced they lost not because of any serious failure on their part but because of turnout dynamics that simply worked against them this year. Two years ago, they point out, six of the 10 defeated House Democratic incumbents won by 8 percentage points or more-- an indication of just how sharp the party’s drop-off was this midterm year.

What’s more, the strategists point out, Democrats won’t have the Obama factor to deal with anymore; instead, they believe an open race for the White House, with Hillary Clinton potentially leading the ticket, could turbocharge the candidacies of down-ballot hopefuls.

Among the candidates Isenstadt says they are courting are Schneider, utterly worthless Blue Dog Pete Gallego (TX) and Steve Horsford, who wouldn't have lost if not for Israel's own reflexive racism.

Ratings Changes-- From A "Leans Dem" Down To A "Tilts Dem"

Rich, conservative New Dem in trouble with the Democratic base back home…I wonder why!

The Rothenberg Political Report (Roll Call) changed some of it's November ratings today. Stuart Rothenberg's and Nathan Gonzales' Beltway-oriented ratings changes are worthless. The silliest one day was moving Julia Brownley's reelection contest (CA-26) from "safe" down a tick to "Democrat favored." Either one is accurate in the real world but in their own world it is a demotion. And what was it based on? It seems to be based entirely on what the NRCC told them. Their analysis didn't include a word about the preferred GOP candidate, Tony Strickland, backing out of the race to run in another district. Instead:

When the Republican wave hit in 2010, it lost virtually all of its strength before it got to the West Coast. Most Democrats in competitive races west of the Rocky Mountains held on.

So Democrats are in a precarious electoral position this cycle, and it’s unclear whether some districts that look Democratic on paper could be a struggle to hold in November.

Barack Obama carried California’s 26th District by 10 points in 2012 and by a whopping 16 points in 2008. But Republicans believe that state Assemblyman Jeff Gorell is a unique candidate who can run a competitive race against Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley.

"Republicans believe that state Assemblyman Jeff Gorell is a unique candidate who can run a competitive race against Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley." Well, by all means, change that rating! Not going into Rothenberg predictions-- not ever-- are findings like this from reputable, nonpartisan pollsters: Reason-Rupe/ Princeton Survey Research Associates International: 62% of Americans oppose the subsidies that the federal government gives to oil, gas and coal companies or from the Pew Research Center: "65% of Americans favor setting stricter emission limits on power plants in order to address climate change." And this contrast:

But Rothenberg's silliest "analysis" today came in IL-10. I don't even disagree with the finding, just how they reached it. Short version: Dold has a chance to beat Schneider in a rematch. They downgraded the rating from "leans Democrat" to "Tilts Democrat." Here's the Rothenberg version:

Illinois’ 10th District was drawn by Democrats to elect a Democrat, and it did just that in 2012 when Brad Schneider defeated GOP Rep. Robert Dold.

But Schneider won very narrowly, 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent, a margin of a slightly more than 3,000 votes out of 264,000 cast. And he did it with President Barack Obama running at the top of the ballot. This year, Obama is not on the ballot, he’s more unpopular and Dold is running again.

This race likely won’t be decided by money. Both men should be able to raise and spend enough money to compete.

But it will likely be decided by Democrats’ ability to define Dold as being too conservative for the district, and Republicans banking on Schneider not yet being entrenched in the suburban Chicago territory.

This race could go down to the wire once again. We’re changing our Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call rating of the race from Leans Democrat to Tossup/Tilts Democrat.

The reason the "Democrats’ ability to define Dold as being too conservative for the district" comes into play is because the wretched New Dem incumbent, Brad Schneider, is also too conservative for the district. His consistent pattern of voting against progressive legislation and crossing the aisle in a way Democrats in red districts are told to do by the DCCC, will only do one thing in IL-10 (with its D+8 PVI)-- keep progressives home sitting on their hands. No mention of any of that by Rothenberg or Gonzales and no peak into Schneider's ugly conservative voting record which seems custom-made to win over Republican voters in Republican-leaning districts. If Schneider's record comes into play it will be a classic case of voter discouragement, a Steve Israel specialty when it come sot advising his lamest and most credulous freshmen.

3 Wall Street-Owned New Dems Face Rematches

Teabagger Robert Lowry poses with realistic Ted Cruz blow-up doll

Everyone is probably relieved there won't be a Patrick Murphy-Alan West rematch, but next year a handful of New Dems almost as bad as Murphy are going to have to face the Republican ex-congressmember they beat in 2012.
Actually, Sean Patrick Maloney has an even worse voting record than Murphy. In fact, Maloney, who does his call-time from the office of a sleazy hedge fund in Manhattan, has the single worst voting record of any Democratic freshman-- yes, generally worse than Sinema and Gallego. He votes even more conservatively than the DCCC recommends. Not a very astute man, he thinks conservatives will vote for him because he's almost as conservative as a Republican. That won't happen and now that Democrats know he isn't really one of them, the base that elected him in 2012 isn't likely to turn out for him next year. Maloney's district, NY-18-- all of Orange County, all of Putnam County and parts of Dutchess and Westchester counties-- has an even PVI (one of only 9 in the nation) and he beat incumbent Nan Hayworth last year (143,845 to 133,049) largely because Obama turned out the voters. Obama beat Romney in NY-18 149,610 to 137,144. In the last race Maloney spent $2,246,008 to Hayworth's $3,254,072 (which included $110,033 from her personal fortune). This cycle she's expected to spend a lot more of her own cash, although she hasn't reported raising anything yet and Maloney, a notorious Wall Street whore, has already brought in $1,362,653 (64% from big donations and 28% from PACs). And he's already taken $76,050 from Wall Street, which is reflected in one of the most pro-Wall Street voting records of any Member of Congress. Last week, for example, he voted with the Republicans to exempt private equity fund investment advisers from its registration and reporting requirements. His sole claim to being "progressive" is that he's gay and married with adopted children. It's a profoundly false claim on progressivism and the only thing that could possibly keep him in office is what a horrible candidate Hayworth is.

Another really bad New Dem facing the Republican he beat in 2012 is Brad Schneider (IL-10, a carefully gerrymandered district north of Chicago that was redrawn specifically to elect Democrats). Like Maloney, Schneider is a Wall Street whore who also voted last week with Republicans for that same dreadful exemption for private equity fund investment advisers. Last year, Obama won IL-10 157,400 (58%) to 112,552 (41%) but Dold nearly held onto the seat anyway. Schneider was clearly saved by Obama's coattails, barely beating Dold 133,890 (51%) to 130,564 (49%). Last year Dold outspent Schneider $4,543,049 to $3,029,605. So far Schneider has raised $1,144,430. At the end of September, Dold reported he had $819,000 in the bank, slightly more than Schneider's $767,000 cash on hand. This is a real toss-up.

Another extremely conservative New Dem-- and Blue Dog-- is Pete Gallego and he may or may not face the very flawed Republican he beat in 2012, Francisco “Quico” Canseco. I'm sure he hopes he does. The Republican Party Establishment, on the other hand, opposes Conseco and is reluctantly backing an ex-CIA agent, Will Hurd (after failing to recruit a more plausible opponent to Gallego).

TX-23, the biggest district in the state (23% of Texas, 29 counties), is a long stretch of border country between San Antonio's western suburbs and El Paso. 70% of the people there are Hispanic, although last year Romney won 51-48%, around the same margin that Obama won it in 2008. The PVI is R+3, but that index is backward-looking and the district is getting bluer. Last year Gallego actually outpolled Obama, winning against Canseco 96,676 (50%) to 87,547 (46%). Canseco beat Hurd in 2010 but the NRCC didn't want him to run again and trued recruiting Rolando Pablos, a Rick Perry crony who declined to run. But the GOP doesn't acknowledge that what makes Canseco so weak in this Hispanic and military-oriented district-- even against an incumbent as lame and incompetent as Gallego-- is that he opposed both comprehensive immigration reform and the Dream Act and voted for sequestration that caused unpaid furloughs and hundreds of millions of dollars in lost wages for defense employees, a much bigger deal in the San Antonio area than almost anywhere else in America. The third GOP loser in the primary is a fringy Ron Paul backer who is being backed by the Tea Party (and potheads), Robert Lowry.

Some Hope-y Change-y Stuff Amid the Debt Ceiling Ripoff

Looking for the silver lining in the passage of the Boehner debt ceiling bill?

There is none.

Okay, okay. There are some bright spots we can look to amid the current Tea Party madness. That's what Blue America is all about. And one of our brightest glimmers of hope comes from the campaign of Ilya Sheyman, who is running for Congress up in Illinois’ 10th District (Chicago’s northern suburbs)-- the most Democratic district in the country currently held by a Republican.

We’ve written about Ilya before, because he’s a serious progressive with a real chance to kick out Rep. Robert Dold, a Republican freshman who has shown he’s more than willing to put anything, including Grandma’s Medicare, on the chopping block, if his Tea Party so dictates.

In the midst of the House debate around this fabricated debt ceiling "crisis," Ilya was one of only a few Democratic candidates around the country willing to take the potentially risky position against the debt deal, saying, very clearly, he would have voted “no” if he was able.

In the 10th, Ilya was the only candidate with the chutzpah to take the right position. The only other Democratic candidate, a business consultant named Brad Schneider, sided with incumbent Dold and Republican Sen. Mark Kirk in supporting the bill. I should mention that Schneider has also donated big bucks to Kirk over the years. Oh, and, he says he’ll not only be more “bipartispan” but also “pro-business” if elected. Not the kind of Democrat we need in Congress, especially if we hope to win back the Democratic Party for the Big Business special interests.

Ilya, on the other hand, stood with neighboring Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky in opposing the bill, which he called “a bad deal for the American people.”

“It would be irresponsible to support legislation that reduces the deficit on the backs of struggling working families and the most vulnerable” Sheyman said in an article published by the local Patch site yesterday. "By putting at risk Medicare and other core services, this plan will make conditions worse at a time of tremendous economic strain."

So here’s our point of optimism. We can seize this moment and reject the Tea Party politicians who hijacked this process (and the Blue Dogs who proved their willingness to sell out working families once again). Let’s support Ilya and other candidates who actually took the right position, even when it meant standing up to powerful forces within their own party.

Here’s the Act Blue page we set up for him and the other progressives who are standing up for working families against the corporatocracy. Now’s our chance.

Off the topic, we'd like to raise $2,000 for Ilya's campaign in the next 24 hours. I don't expect any one person to contribute that much, of course, but if enough people give $10 and $20 contributions, it's going to mount up fast-- and that will set off the trigger. Trigger? A different kind of trigger from the one in the SatanSandwich bill. You see, I used to run Reprise Records, Green Day's record company, and Ilya mentioned to me that he's a huge Green Day fan. So, when we hit the trigger, someone will be eligible to win an autographed-- like in signed by Billie Joe Armstrong, Trey Cool and Mike Dirnt-- Fender strat that the band gave me around the time they were recording Warning. So who gets the guitar? If we were Republicans, we'd give it to whoever gave the most money. But we're not. So everyone has an equal chance. As soon as we reach $2,000 we start a random drawing. We'll pick one name out of a bowl on Thursday at 6pm (PT). and I'll send you the guitar. Enter here.

Will Redistricting End Bob Dold's Short, Shameful Stay In Congress?

In 2000 Gore took IL-10 with 51%. Four years later Kerry beat George Bush 53-47%. And in 2010 Obama crushed John McCain 61-38%. But each year the Chicagoland North Shore district elected mainstream conservative, Mark Kirk over a conservative-leaning Democrat. Last year, Kirk jumped to the Senate and a carbon-copy conservative, Bob Dold, beat another me-too-conservative Democrat, Dan Seals (51-49%), Dold winning in GOP-leaning Cook County suburbs, Seals taking the bluer Lake County portions of the district.

There are several factors that make 2012 very different from previous years. First and foremost, the Democrat running against Dold will be a genuine progressive, Ilya Sheyman. A former Field Director for Democracy for America and, more recently, National Mobilization Director at MoveOn, Ilya understands what bold politics is all about and how to make it work. Last year was a Republican wave election and even GOP dreck, like Dold, managed to be swept into office. Next year is shaping up to be another wave election, one that will re-balance Congress... and get rid of accidental Members like Dold. Yes, and Dold voted to turn Medicare into an unsustainable voucher system that would destroy the retirement of working families and was one of the first GOP shills to be called on the carpet by his constituents for his lockstep record on the right-wing social engineering agenda..

And as if this weren't enough to doom his prospects for a career in Congress, redistricting doesn't look to be going his way. IL-10 is likely to look a lot bluer next year. One of the changes in the redistricting is that the neighboring 9th CD, represented by Jan Schakowsky, is set to incorporate Republican-leaning areas of the 10th, such as Wilmette, Northbrook, and Kenilworth (Dold’s home).

Dold’s district would get more Democratic by adding on more heavily Democratic territory in Lake County, such as Mundelein and some of the Lakes. Dold would also lose his Republican-leaning portion of Palatine, making his reelection efforts much dicier.

Today might be an especially good time to contribute to Ilya's campaign.

Blue America Welcomes Ilya Sheyman

The first time I mentioned Ilya Sheyman, the progressive Democrat running for the northern Chicago suburban seat held by GOP freshman Robert Dold, it was in a long and rambling post lashing out against conventional wisdom. When I finally got to Ilya, former Field Director for Democracy for America and, more recently, National Mobilization Director at MoveOn, who Blue America was urging to run against Dold, he quoted Paul Wellstone to me:

“Politics is not just about power and money games, politics can be about the improvement of peoples lives, about lessening human suffering in our world and bringing about more peace and more justice.”

Candidates with this kind of mindset are candidates Blue America is looking for to help solve the country's problems. That's why we're enthusiastic about endorsing him today and why we'd like to invite you to meet him at a live blog session at Crooks and Liars at 1pm (Central Time), 11am on the West Coast.

Until his vote to phase out Medicare and replace it with a pathetic voucher system so that the wealthiest Americans get more tax breaks, not many people had heard of Dold outside the 10th CD between Arlington Heights and Waukegan in Chicagoland. But that triggered an angry reaction at Dold's town hall meeting in Buffalo Grove last week and now Dold has become another right-wing poster boy for Paul Ryan's dystopian vision of a mean, dark, reactionary America.

Rep. Robert Dold (R-Ill.) cut a presentation on the federal deficit short at a town hall meeting he held last week, after audience members began firing questions at him about the Ryan budget and its changes to entitlement programs, including Medicare and Social Security, according to the Chicago newspaper the Daily Herald.

Senior citizens in the audience expressed their discontent with turning Medicare into a voucher program, calling the change a “shell game” that would bog senior citizens down with uncertainty in dealing with private healthcare companies.

And senior citizens are getting to know Dold better now that he's been in Congress for 4 months. He may be trying to hide his support for dismembering Medicare but he's surprisingly open about his contempt for Social Security and what he insists is the need to trim it back. Dold has been the perfect little rubber stamp for the radical House leadership, buying into all their harebrained schemes. "Rep. Dold and the right wing of the Republican Party," Ilya confirmed "are hell-bent on dismantling Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and eliminating the foundations of the American Dream that have made millions of middle-class lives possible-- and we can't let them get away with it... The fact that he continues to advocate for cuts in Social Security benefits shows just how out of touch he is with the voters of the 10th District [and] his vote for the radical Republican budget that ends Medicare in order to give tax breaks to giant corporations and the wealthiest 2% of Americans should put to rest any notion that he actually cares about the deficit."

A few weeks ago a staffer for a DCCC-approved candidate called and asked if Blue America would endorse him. I asked to speak with him and, embarrassed, the staffer said he isn't familiar enough with the issues to speak with the media yet but he's learning them. That's not the kind of candidates Blue America is looking for and that's about as far from what Ilya Sheyman is all about as you can be. "I am in this race," he told us, "because I believe that government and politics are about doing good. They're about helping every man, woman, and child with a dream-- and the willingness to work for it-- achieve his or her potential... I'm sick and tired of a Democratic Party that on issue after issue seems to pre-negotiate, pre-triangulate, and pre-capitulate rather than standing up for the progressive values we know make a difference in real people's lives." This is what he's been doing as a grassroots activist for years. We need people like Ilya in Congress to save us from Beltway Democrats who are chosen by the Establishment for one reason and one reason only: an ability to self-fund campaigns-- i.e., whore themselves out to corporate interests. That isn't Ilya:

"I can't wait to organize together with grassroots advocates in our community, and allies inside Congress, to pass a real jobs bill that will put millions of Americans back to work and pave the way to a new green energy economy.

"Rep. Jan Schakowsky's 'Fairness in Taxation Act' is a model of the kind of progressive legislation we should be fighting for, and I'm eager to work alongside her to bring back fairness to our tax code so we can invest in America again."

Dold was caught asking the Tea Party to not publicly endorse him in the general election because it could blow his cover as a fake moderate. Since getting into Congress with a narrow 51-49% win, in a district Obama won with 61% in 2008, Dold has blown his own cover, voting for Ryan's toxic budget, voting to renew the Patriot Act and just marching along in lockstep to everything John Boehner and Eric Cantor wanted him for. This time Chicagoland voters get a real choice. Please help us welcome Ilya to the Blue America family and, if you can, please contribute to his campaign through our ActBlue page. An active admirer of Raul Grijalva's and Keith Ellison's Put America Back To Work Act, Ilya will be working inside the Progressive Caucus helping to advance real solutions for working families. It's what he's campaigning on and it's what has drawn him into politics. And it's why Blue America has endorsed him.

Voters Tell Republican Corporate Shills "Let Them Leave"

I once ran a large company, a division of TimeWarner, and made a seven-figure income. I paid a lot of tax, a lot more tax than people in that position pay today. But even back then if my tax rate had gone up-- instead of down as it always did-- would I have moved out of the country... gone to China or someplace like that to live? I had even lived overseas for nearly 7 years right after I graduated from college and I even maintained an office in London when I was at TimeWarner. But leave the country because of my tax rate? Uh... no. Before that I had a small company of my own that I started from scratch. Same question, same answer. I would never consider leaving the U.S. because of a tax rate. But, then again, I'm not a typical Republican tax cheat with overseas tax-evading accounts either.

Last week, as Republican congressmen, headed back to their home districts to defend their votes for the Ryan budget-- yesterday we saw Ryan, Barletta and Bass being booed and panned by their constituents-- one of their tired GOP talking points was that unless millionaires got lower tax rates they would leave. That doesn't go over well, as freshman Ryan-supporter Robert Dold (R-IL) discovered when he pulled it out during a townhall meeting in Buffalo Grove Wednesday.

Dold couldn’t even get to the end of the presentation before audience members began peppering him with questions about the Ryan budget, named after House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin. It began with audience members telling Dold they don’t believe chopping 10 percentage points off the highest corporate tax rate will create jobs. A handful of people in the audience identified themselves as business owners and accountants who said their effective corporate income tax rate is already lower than the lowest rates proposed in the Ryan plan. They pointed to companies such as GE that pay almost no taxes despite billions in profits as evidence.

Dold said closing tax loopholes will eliminate the tax anomalies that let GE off the hook, and there are multiple benefits to lowering the tax rates.

“You’ve got to lower corporate taxes to make us more competitive in the international marketplace,” Dold said. “Some people want to penalize companies for moving their businesses off shore. A lot of companies out there say, ‘Fine, I’ll take all my jobs overseas.’ We want an environment where we keep them on shore.”

Even that statement didn’t win favor with the crowd, which responded with multiple people yelling, “Let them leave!”

As Thom Hartmann pointed out Thursday, since 2001 CEOs fired 2.9 million workers-- in an environment with taxes on corporations and on rich people falling-- and then hired 2.4 million people overseas. How do disingenuous Republicans like Dold respond to these kinds of objections? “This is the best budget that has been produced so far,” Dold told his angry constituents. Next week Blue America will be endorsing Ilya Sheyman, the progressive Democrat running against Dold in the Illinois suburbs north of Chicago. Yesterday he was clear how he felt about the prefabricated Republican bullshit they're feeding to their constituents. "Rep. Dold's vote to dismantle Medicare, slash Medicaid, and give more tax breaks to corporations, all while pushing to cut Social Security benefits, shows just how out of touch he is with the needs of 10th district voters."

Presumably, disgruntled CEOs could move to China, but as Paul Krugman made clear yesterday, U.S. taxes are way lower than they are for the rest of the developed world.

Conventional Wisdom... And Meet Ilya Sheyman

I was just a teenager-- and a huge Dostoevsky fan-- when I got my first indication of the worth of conventional wisdom. I was mesmerized by Dylan's lyrics on his new single "Subterranean Homesick Blues," released a couple weeks later on Bringing It All Back Home, but it took a few years before I connected all the dots. That happened when I sold a bunch of hash so I could buy a new VW camper at the Volkswagen factory in Wiesbaden, Germany ($2,500) and drive to India.

The first leg of the trip was from London to Istanbul. Yugoslavia was still a country but now I consider myself having driven through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro. I just loved it, especially driving along the Dalmatian Coast. After that came a quick jaunt through Bulgaria to the European sliver of Turkey and down into Istanbul which straddles both continents. Here's where the conventional wisdom started-- the conventional wisdom of the Hippie Trail. "Everybody" knew Bulgaria just sucked and the way to do it was to drive straight from Nis, through gray, Communist Sofia and then 300 miles down the main highway through Plovdiv and right into Istanbul. Do not stop; do not even look out the window. The Bulgarians are Stalinist creeps and the country should be avoided except that it's on the way to Istanbul and Asia (and, the real crux, as I soon learned, hashish). That was the conventional wisdom.

I didn't mean to rebel or anything but I had a feeling I wasn't going to get another chance to wander around Bulgaria and I was in no rush. So I stopped in Sofia, explored the city, didn't find it forbidding at all and then decided to head due east to the Black Sea instead of southeast to Edirne and Istanbul. I had hardly parked my van at the seaside at Burgas before I had two new best friends. They couldn't wait to show me their country and I wound up spending two weeks driving around Bulgaria, staying on communal farms, seeing towns that never got any Hippie Trail traffic, like Varna, Novi Pazar, Targoviste. It was amazing but it still didn't dawn on my that conventional wisdom was worthless, especially not that conventional wisdom from groups you identified with was worthless. Months later in Afghanistan I was still eating delicious fruits and veggies and kefir farmers had given me in Bulgaria. (I had kefir for breakfast today, over 40 years later.)

Istanbul is where I finally got it. The conventional wisdom was that the Turks, like the Bulgarians were assholes to be avoided. The only way to enjoy Turkey was to hole up in the hippie enclave around the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet). So I did. I was actually in the pudding shop when the real Midnight Express was going down!



The Turks were assholes? All seventy million of them? It was then that I started watching my parking meters instead of following leaders. Sure, the cops and robbers drawn to Sultanahmet to pray on drugged out hippies were assholes-- cops and robbers are assholes everywhere. But you didn't have to drive far to meet the greatest people in the world: Turks. It was there that I realized how worthless conventional wisdom is. I've tried to studiously ignore it ever since-- in all aspects of my life.

The hippies-- relatively much more open-minded than your average Joe-- only liked people they could do drugs with: Afs, Nepalis, Indians... Everyone else was an asshole. I thought the Turks were among the most amazing, hospitable, empathic people I had ever met and I lingered for months in Anatolia-- and have been back a dozen times since then-- something "everyone" knows is a waste of time. And, like I said, I learned the worth of conventional wisdom. I guess that's why I hate the Republican Party and have nothing but contempt for Inside-the-Beltway Democrats.

The above paragraphs could be an introduction for almost anything we post here at DWT. Let's make it... about our evil foes at the DCCC. The political consultant class in DC has been trying to recruit a hackish state legislator, Susan Garrett of Lake Forest, or-- worse-- recently defeated corporate shill Melissa Bean (from the 8th CD)-- to run against Republican freshman Robert Dold. Inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom is that only a professional politician is worthy of their support. Meanwhile, grassroots activists in Illinois and hoping to persuade Ilya Sheyman, former Field Director for Democracy for America and, more recently, National Mobilization Director at MoveOn, to run for the seat.

Conventional wisdom always comes down on the side of money, never on the side of people power. The DCCC will claim neutrality, of course (they usually do) and then attempt to undermine the grassroots candidate in favor of the worst Chamber of Commerce shill in the Democratic Party (Bean) if she makes a try for the seat, or else state Senator Garrett if she's the Establishment candidate. And Ilya? Let's hear what he has to say about himself. Is this the kind of guy you'd like to see Blue America endorse and work for?

I believe in a simple idea at the heart of progressive politics-- an idea best articulated by the late Senator Paul Wellstone:

“Politics is not just about power and money games, politics can be about the improvement of peoples lives, about lessening human suffering in our world and bringing about more peace and more justice.”

As I travel around the 10th Congressional District, I look forward to listening to you and learning from your stories about the issues and values that are important in your lives. Here are a few of my thoughts on critical issues to start off our conversation:

Jobs:

It is time to invest in our shared prosperity by passing a new jobs bill that would provide a life vest of unemployment assistance to those drowning without work, that would guarantee state aid, so that communities wouldn’t have to continue letting go of cops, firefighters or teachers, and that would stimulate public and private sector job creation through direct hiring for infrastructure projects and the creation of a national green jobs bank that will provide loans directly to small businesses.

Investment:

I support a fixed timetable to extricate ourselves from the quagmire in Afghanistan and to finally bring every brave man and woman home from Iraq-- so that we can start building bridges and roads, schools and hospitals, mass transit and a green economy right here in Buffalo Grove and North Chicago instead of Kabul and Baghdad.

Security:

I will defend our commitment to Health and Retirement Security with a plan that asks the wealthy to pay their fair share into Social Security, keeping its promise to future generations. And I support gradually expanding Medicare to cover every single American, and stand behind the promise that quality, affordable health care should in fact be a birthright of every single American.

Opportunity:

I will fight for real immigration reform that finally takes 12 million of our neighbors out of the shadows and gives them a pathway to citizenship and an ability to realize their dreams and aspirations right here in the United States of America.

Equality:

I will work with allies in our community and in Congress to introduce a Civil Rights Act for the 21st Century that guarantees the full spectrum of over one thousand rights, responsibilities and privileges that come with equal citizenship to all our LGBTQ brothers and sisters.