Russian Hacking Is Very Real-- Who's In Charge Of Directing The U.S. Targeting? Kushner?

Rohrabacher-- a poor fool doomed by his own inept allies?

The Republican gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania, Scott Wagner, joked that the Russian government will help him beat Tom Wolf in November. Polling indicates that that's basically the only way he would win. It's not actually that funny-- especially when Putin-Gate has spawned Putin-Gate II and that the GRU is now targeting conservatives as well as normal candidates. Microsoft claims to have uncovered broadening threats to Democracy. Microsoft president Brad Smith: "It’s clear that democracies around the world are under attack. Foreign entities are launching cyber strikes to disrupt elections and sow discord. Unfortunately, the internet has become an avenue for some governments to steal and leak information, spread disinformation, and probe and potentially attempt to tamper with voting systems. We saw this during the United States general election in 2016, last May during the French presidential election, and now in a broadening way as Americans are preparing for the November midterm elections."

Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit, he wrote, is on the case. They're making headway against Fancy Bear (aka- APT28 and Strontium). "We’re concerned," he wrote, "that these and other attempts pose security threats to a broadening array of groups connected with both American political parties in the run-up to the 2018 elections." So what's this all mean?

A group affiliated with the Russian government created phony versions of six websites, including some related to the US Senate, with an aim to hack into the computers of people who were tricked into visiting, according to Microsoft.

...The effort by the notorious APT28 hacking group, which has been publicly linked to a Russian intelligence agency and actively interfered in the American 2016 presidential election, underscores the aggressive role Russian operatives are playing ahead of the midterm congressional elections in the US.

APT28 specialises in information warfare or hacking and disinformation operations. "APT" refers to "advanced persistent threat" in cybersecurity circles.

US officials have repeatedly warned that the November vote is a major focus for interference efforts.

Trump and his GOP enablers are purposely leaving the back door open for the Russians, refusing to fund statewide efforts to protect American voting systems and firing top level specialists in cyber-security. A question I've always had-- and will ultimately be answered (or not) by the Mueller investigation-- is who in Trump-world has been helping the Russians with their targeting? I had to laugh when the first reports came out that hackers-- presumably Russians-- interfered in two Orange County Democratic primaries, one to pick a candidate to run in CA-45 against lockstep rubber-stamp Mimi Walters and one to pick a candidate to run against Putin's favorite congressman (and possible Kremlin spy) Dana Rohrabacher in CA-48. Both operations were badly botched.

They were botched because of the targeting. Whomever told the Russians to go after Hans Keirstead in CA-48 and Dave Min in CA-45 were not doing anything to help their Republican opponents. Both Keirstead and Min looked good-- at least inside the Beltway-- on paper. But both turned out-- in real life outside the Beltway-- to be abysmal candidates. Keirstead has a great resume and the DCCC recruited him, but he was a total stiff on the campaign trail and the DCCC abandoned him and leaked opposition research about a sex scandal. Early on, someone clueless inside the Beltway could have easily imagined he would be the strongest candidate against Rohrabacher. As a consequence, they may have blundered into harming Rohrabacher's chances by boosting the much stronger candidate, Harley Rouder, who neat Keirstead narrowly and is likely to beat Rohrabacher in November.

A similar thing happened in CA-45, where a Schumer puppet, Dave Min, may have been perceived in DC (and thereby Moscow) as the stronger Democrat against Walters. But as the campaign unfolded, he turned out to be a miserable politician, way too nasty and vicious to win anything. If the Russian hackers were trying to help Walters, they doomed her by knocking out Min. Instead, Katie Porter, who won the primary, is likely to end Walters' political career in November. Sounds like Kushner-in-law's work. His fingerprints are all over these two collusion operations.


UPDATE: Will Putin Save The GOP From The Voters?

Trump seems to think so. Writing for Yahoo News today, Alexander Nazaryan reported that Trump asked the Senate to block a bill to strengthen the country's defenses against electoral interference. Trump got Roy Blunt (R-MO) to stop the bill in committee yesterday. To me this is way more impeachable than paying off hookers with campaign cash.

The Secure Elections Act, introduced by Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) in December 2017, had co-sponsorship from two of the Senate’s most prominent liberals, Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) as well as from conservative stalwart Lindsey Graham (R-S) and consummate centrist Susan Collins (R-ME).

...As it currently stands, the legislation would grant every state’s top election official security clearance to receive threat information. It would also formalize the practice of information-sharing between the federal government-- in particular, the Department of Homeland Security-- and states regarding threats to electoral infrastructure. A technical advisory board would establish best practices related to election cybersecurity. Perhaps most significantly, the law would mandate that every state conduct a statistically significant audit following a federal election. It would also incentivize the purchase of voting machines that leave a paper record of votes cast, as opposed to some all-electronic models that do not. This would signify a marked shift away from all-electronic voting, which was encouraged with the passage of the Help Americans Vote Act in 2002.

“Paper is not antiquated,” Lankford says. “It’s reliable.”

A paper trail is exactly what Putin and Trump-- and apparently, the Republican Party-- don't want. This is treason.

Frick Beat Frack

One moron at the DCCC recruited Frick to run in CA-48 (the Orange County coastal district) against Dana Rohrabacher. And then DC said "no, no, no; we want Frack; we must have Frack." So everyone was stuck with two candidates, 2 centrists who were both endorsed by the New Dems. The DCCC worked hard to persuade other Democrats, particularly self-funders Gil Cisneros and Ma-Khanh Tran, to run somewhere else; both ran in CA-39 instead, although both live in CA-48. Cisneros, a worthless Republican pretending to be a Democrat, transferred $3,552,762 from his personal bank account into his campaign, while Tran spent $730,000 of her own cash. Another random carpetbagger spent $2,785,900 of his own loot on the race. Meanwhile, back in CA-48, which runs from Seal Beach through Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach down to Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel and Three Arch Bay, Frick kicked in $1,130,500 of his own, while Frack disappointed the DCCC by only ante-ing up a mere $730,400, even though he's very wealthy. The DCCC was so pissed at him that they released some filthy opposition research to kill his chances and quickly endorsed Frick. The race was so close that the lead kept swinging back and forth for over 2 weeks until Frick finally won a spot in the general election... by 70 votes! This appears to be the final count, by who really knows?

• Dana Rohrabacher, the Putin candidate- 31,790 (30.28%)
• Frick (DCCC/New Dem-#1)- 18,129 (17.27%)
• Frack (DCCC/New Dem-#2)- 18,059 (17.20%)
• Scott Baugh (R)- 16,890 (16.09%)
• Omar Siddiqui (Reagan Democrat from outer space)- 5,098 (4.86%)

I might add that two progressive candidates, Laura Oatman and Michael Kotick, quit early and both endorsed Frick. It was too late to get their names off the ballot and despite urging their fans to vote for Frick, they still got 3,165 votes between them (3.02%).

What a close race! And what do we get? Another New Dem centrist indebted to the DCCC. To be honest, I always thought Frick was slightly better than Frack. He was polite enough to inform me his New Dem endorsement was about to come through a day in advance-- unlike some other candidates Blue America was looking at-- and, in one case, had even endorsed! Points for Frick! This is what Frick's campaign said the other day when it was officially announced he beat Frack:

"I am deeply grateful for the confidence placed in our campaign by the voters of California's 48th Congressional District. I'd like to thank all of our supporters, volunteers, neighbors, elected leaders, working people, grassroots activists and those who joined our effort in this important election. This victory is a testament to the movement we have built around moving Orange County forward. I congratulate all the fine candidates who ran hard-fought campaigns in this primary and look forward to working with them all to flip this seat in November. In the days and weeks ahead, I will continue fighting every day to hold Dana Rohrabacher accountable for his reckless, backward agenda that spans from Orange County all the way to Washington.

Frick! Frick! Frick! Will he consolidate the Democratic vote and send Rohrabacher to some lobbying firm to represent the Kremlin? I think so. And here's what Frack said when he realized the $730,400 was a total waste... and by just 70 votes; there's no prize for "almost." But what a selfless candidate!! "A year ago," he wrote, "I decided to run for Congress to bring science and facts back to Washington. I’d watched Dana Rohrabacher deny climate science for too long-- I couldn’t sit by as Donald Trump marginalized science across his entire administration." Wow! Frack, Frack, Frack... so selfless! Frack, Frack.

[W]e’ve built a powerful organizing movement from the ground up and sparked a spirited debate here in the 48th District. I know that if Democrats keep building on this momentum, we can flip the 48th in November.

After weeks of tireless work to ensure every ballot was counted in our primary, I congratulate Harley Rouda on advancing to the general election to finish the job.

I know that the Rouda campaign values the importance of science and facts in public policy. Harley will fight to fix our broken health care system, stop climate change, and represent ALL of us in Congress-- regardless of our background, our immigration status, where we worship, or who we love.

I wholeheartedly pledge my support and look forward to working alongside Harley to make sure Democrats prevail in November.

[I]t’s been an absolute pleasure to meet so many hardworking and passionate people in our community. I want to thank you sincerely for working your hearts out for what you believe in.

While we may not have advanced to the general election, you should be proud of what your work helped achieve. Together, we’ve restored science and facts to political debate. And together with every Democrat who knocked on doors, made calls, and cast a vote on June 5, we’ve made it clear that we have what it takes to flip the 48th.

I look forward to continuing to work toward making change in Washington-- just not as a candidate. I hope you’ll continue this important work, too.

Thank you again for your support, Howard. Now, let’s get to work to defeat Dana Rohrabacher!

Right on Frack! Frack! Frack! Frack!

Ted Lieu endorsed Frick-- using his actual birth name-- and I thought it would be only fair to include it:

"Our nation faces an existential crisis, one that must be met by a Congress willing to challenge the current Administration for their failure to act lawfully and protect our democratic institutions from foreign interference. Harley Rouda is a principled and thoughtful leader who has the skills, compassion and persistence to be an outstanding member of Congress. I know that he'll fight tirelessly for better schools, a clean and safe environment, and a strong, thriving middle class economy in California. After a strong Democratic primary contest, it's time to unify and flip this district from Red to Blue!"

All Frack's bittiness is gone

One district over (CA-45), an actual progressive, Katie Porter won the primary-- against a Frick-and-Frack kind of primary candidate-- and is now trying to beat one of the worst Trump rubber stamps in Congress. If you want a bluer Congress, a bluer Orange County and a bluer California, please consider contributing to Katie's campaign here. In fact, you can find all the California progressive challengers who will be in the general election at that link.

There's More To The DCCC's Screwed Up Attacks In The CA-48 Hans Vs Harley Kerfuffle

On Sunday we ran an explosive post about why the DCCC dumped Hans Keirstead and endorsed Harley Rouda. Just for the record, I emailed Keirstead's campaign, told them I was writing the story and asked for a call so we could go over it before I published. The response was "I call you in a few minutes." Never did get the call so I ran the post Sunday and included Keirstead's press release. A few days ago the campaign was complaining they had been ill-treated.

A little background: I think both candidates-- Harley and Hans-- would be absolutely dreadful members of Congress. Terrible combination of traits between the two: one's an "ex"-Republican, both were endorsed by the New Dems (the Republican wing of the Democratic Party) and neither seems committed to any progressive values or principles.

Blue America endorsored Laura Oatman, who dropped out because of the huge sums of personal money the various candidates were using to self-finance their campaigns. And there's an even worse candidate running than either Hans or Harley: Omar Siddiqui, another "ex"-Republican who now claims to be "a Reagan Democrat" and who doesn't live in the district but decided to run there because he's such a big supporter of the very right-wing (and racist) incumbent Republican in the district he actually lives in. A dreadful mess in a district that should be a synch for a Democratic flip!

Keirstead's campaign manager complained that the DCCC was using me, something I talked about in the post, which gave me a feeling he didn't actually read the post. In any case, he seems to think, since I published the DCCC smear against Hans, I should also publish another smear against Harley, which he graciously sent along, something along the lines of Rouda firing a woman because she had cancer and her health care bills were causing the company to be in a "downward death spiral" according to him. As I mentioned in the first post, neither of these tragically flawed candidates should have been recruited by the DCCC's imbecilic, right-wing local staffer, Kyle Layman. This whole thing is entirely his fault and the fault of whoever didn't fire him months ago when he started showing clear signs that he didn't have what it takes to do the job. Unfortunately, his boss, Jason Bresler, is even more of a moron-- and more of a threat to the Democratic Party. Ultimate responsibility? Nancy Pelosi, Stenchy Hoyer and Ben Ray Lujan.

In any case, the Keirstead campaign's version of the story I ran Sunday is that the whistleblower was someone trying to ruin his life for his own (unrelated) reasons:

While Hans was a professor at UC Irvine and running a lab, a man who was suing his family for $5 million over a piece of artwork filed a complaint with UCI accusing Hans of various forms of misconduct. He did this in an attempt to discredit Hans and gain leverage in the lawsuit.

UCI took the allegations seriously and funded an independent investigation. Hans fully cooperated, encouraged his students and lab employees to do the same. After months of interviews and conversations, the woman hired to conduct the investigation determined there was no wrongdoing and that all the claims were unfounded, not credible, or false. The man who accused Hans was forced to drop his other malicious lawsuit and signed a statement acknowledging the UCI complaint was false.

The man was recorded on a voicemail stating:

“You think, what I did to Keirstead is fucking near child’s play. And I’m not letting up on Keirstead one fucking bit. You have no idea.”

The DCCC acknowledged that this was part of what they based their decision on but claims it is incomplete and that Hans was still promising-- for over a month-- to get them proof "in two days" that he never punched out the woman and knocked her to the ground. He never provided them with the proof. These are the documents I got from Hans' campaign as proof that he's innocent of the DCCC changes they made when they threw him overboard. As I said, they should throw Kyle Layman and Jason Bresler overboard... as well as Hans and Harley.

Click on the images to read the documents

3 Versions Of Why The DCCC Threw Hans Keirstead Overboard And Endorsed Harley Rouda

The coastal Orange County district occupied by Putin ally Dana Rohrabacher, CA-48, has been pretty red for a long time. As crazy as he is, Rohrabacher has never had any serious competition and Obama lost both times there, 51-46% the first time and 55-43% the second time. In 2016, though, Hillary beat Trump 47.9% to 46.2%. The PVI went from R+7 to R+4. I looks fairly winnable, especially in a wave cycle and especially when the GOP tax scam hits California suburbanites especially hard.

That picture up top is from the DCCC's Red-to-Blue page. They added one of the candidates, Harley Rouda, to the page on Friday, a shock since the DCCC recruited two candidates for the seat and have been trying to stay neutral. (Rouda, a former Republican who has been endorsed by the New Dems, was recruited by right-wing DCCC staffer Kyle Layman and then Hans Keirstead was either also recruited by Layman or was pushed on the DCCC by corrupt money-hungry consultant Achim Bergmann.) Anyway, the DCCC, confused and dazed, had been neutral until they started getting uncomfortable with Hans last month-- but I'll get to why in a moment. First, the "official story" from the Beltway press release machine, Roll Call:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is taking sides in a crowded California primary in the 48th District, backing businessman Harley Rouda, in an attempt to avoid a nightmare scenario of being shut out of the November ballot.

Rouda was added to the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” program on Friday, giving him additional access to committee resources. The move is also evidence that Democrats are stepping up the effort to coalesce around one candidate.

In California, the top two vote-getters in the June 5 primary advance to the November election regardless of party affiliation. This district is one of a handful of California races where Democrats are concerned multiple candidates on their side could split the Democratic vote, allowing two Republicans to advance to the November ballot.

...“Harley has demonstrated that he is the strongest Democrat in this race and best prepared for the general election, and with the grass roots and numerous California delegation Members strongly behind him, we know we will flip this district this fall,” DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) said in a press release.

...[T]he DCCC's move does contradict the state Democratic Party's endorsement process, where delegates backed prominent stem cell researcher Hans Keirstead.

State Party chairman Eric Bauman said in a statement that the California Democratic Party and the DCCC have had a "productive and successful partnership", and he encouraged the DCCC not to attack the state party's candidate.

"Throughout our partnership, I have been consistently clear on one key point: when CDP delegates endorse a candidate, that candidate is the official candidate of the Party, and the DCCC should tread carefully in openly supporting a different candidate," Bauman said.

"California Democratic activists value our independence and the grassroots nature of our endorsement process," Bauman said. "Decisions that undercut the independence or our endorsed candidates have the potential to be extraordinarily counterproductive."

So that was the official story for the public. The official story for insiders is that the DCCC is disappointed that Hans didn't spend enough of his own money on the race. As of the March 31 FEC reporting deadline Rouda had spent $1,130,500 of his own on the campaign and another "ex"-Republican masquerading as a Democrat-- and calling himself a "Reagan Democrat," Omar Siddiqui-- had self-funded to the tune of $764,856. But Keirsteaf had "only" put $430,400 of his own into his campaign. That made the DCCC sad.

Frick and Frack... neither would make a good member of Congress

And that may be true. But there's a third story for "inner" insiders, like Pelosi, who seemed punch-drunk at a big end-of-the-day meeting last week between DCCC staffers and interested members when the final decision was made to jettison Hans and endorse Harley. (By the way the two are both New Dems and are basically as indistinguishable ideologically as their names are.) Before I get into the "real" reason, this was Han's response the the betrayal by the DCCC hours after they dumped him and started pressuring him to drop out of the race for the good of the party:

I was shocked this morning when I saw that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) added our opponent Harley Rouda, a former Republican, to its "Red to Blue" program.

“Red to Blue” is meant to help strong, committed Democratic candidates in key districts. On every measure, Harley Rouda doesn’t make the cut.

• Harley Rouda was a registered Republican before he announced his run for Congress in 2017.
• In 2016, Harley Rouda donated $1,000 to anti-choice, anti-union Republican presidential candidate John Kasich.
• The California Democratic Party endorsed Hans Keirstead over Harley Rouda by an overwhelming margin.

"Red to blue" should be adding committed progressive Democrats to its program. Not recent Republicans who failed to win local support.

We’re running the only true grassroots campaign in this district. We’re fueled by more than 3,200 grassroots donors across 49 states, far outpacing our opponent’s level of support.

We’ve built the strongest ground game in the district-- our volunteers and organizers have knocked on tens of thousands of doors.

But this isn’t the first race that D.C. insiders have meddled in. In Texas, New York, and elsewhere, they’ve swooped in and tried to prop up their chosen candidates-- creating chaos and angering local activists.

One of the DCCCers on the now infamous phone call and meeting that settled Hans' fate, first told me the incredible real story and then sent me the back-up documents to prove it, obviously on condition that I wouldn't rat him out. I was so shocked that I took two days before publishing so I could get absolute confirmation. I also worried that I was being used by the scumbags at the DCCC to help disseminate this smear campaign against Hans which is very much the same kind of nightmare they used against Laura Moser in TX-07 and against Andy Thorburn in CA-39. Their excuse is always the same: the Republicans have the info already and if the candidate-- in this case Hans-- gets into the general election the Republican candidate will eviscerate him with it and we'll lose an opportunity to win a crucial red seat. (Is that true? Do the Republicans already have it? Or am I doing the DCCC's dirty work and giving it to them? I was told by several sources that Harley has had the documents for weeks and chose not to use them.)

The documents accuse Hans of having had sexual affairs with multiple students and employees at UC Irvine. Even worse, it documents a scene that Hans promised for weeks to refute and then never could, that he punched a young woman in the face when he was drunk and in a limo filled with female students he was partying with. The first memo is 14 pages. Here are the first 2 pages that the DCCC was handing out internally and seems to have decided it would be a good idea to send to me as well:

You'll have to click on the 2 images to read them

Is there a moral to this sordid story? The DCCC needs a new staff and a totally new direction. And the DCCC should stop interfering in primaries and spend its resources fighting Republicans, not other Democrats. Nor should the DCCC be recruiting such totally flawed candidates like Harley and Hans. There was a grassroots activist in the race, Laura Oatman, but the immense self-funding and DCCC pressure drove her out of the race. Today she would surely look like the best candidate to beat Rohrabacher.


UPDATE: Why The Mess in Orange County?

A DCCC source-- someone different from the one who sent me the documents-- called to congratulate me on the story. He also wanted to remind me that Hans is the reason for the mess in another Orange County district-- the 39th in the northeast part of the county. "Kyle Layman is the most incompetent and pig-headed staffer I 've ever met. He recruited Hans and, to help clear the field for him, he pushed Cisneros and Dr. Tran to run in the 39th, where neither of them lives. We are in our mess in the 39th largely because the DCCC was in love with the concept of Hans... We fucked up royally and, thanks to Kyle, may now lose both districts.

2018 Opposition Research Against Nothing-Burger DCCC Recruits Is Going To Be Even Worse Than Usual

Hans-- a congenital liar

One of the problems with the DCCC pretending not to be a bunch of scummy politicians and recruiting "clean" non-politicians is that politicians who have been coming up in the ranks are usually well-vetted by the voters. The garbage candidates the DCCC digs up from under rocks invariably have a little something horrible they've been hiding-- perfect for GOP opposition research firms to find. The NationalJournal gave some juicy Orange County examples-- without even getting into the silliest DCCC recruits of all, Gil Cisneros and Sarah the Quaalcomm heiress, the two super-rich vanity candidates who are destined to provide the biggest laughs of the cycle.

The NationalJournal begins with the DCCC's biggest recruit of the cycle, Hans Keirstead, who looks excellent on paper, but who has turned out to be a really dismal failure on the stump. First off, in a season where the energy of the the voters has nothing to do with preserving the status quo, Hans is the epitome of a status quo candidate-- and immediately sought out and received an endorsement from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, the New Dems. The Journal immediately notes that Hans "has the kind of standout resume that national Democrats [meaning the corrupt slime dogs who run the DCCC and have a decade of serial failures for paying attention to people like Ian Russell; see below] have prized as they recruit fresh talent in a bid to take back the House.

He’s a pioneering stem-cell biologist specializing in spinal-cord injuries whose work has been profiled in the New York Times. And, according to his LinkedIn profile and a biography on his biomedical company’s website, he holds a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of British Columbia.

But that Ph.D, as national Democratic consultants found, is technically in zoology-- a discrepancy, however innocent or not it may be, that could hinder a top challenger to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress.

This is just the latest example of what strategists predict will be a trove of opposition research dogging the glut of Democratic political neophytes hoping to benefit from a favorable national climate. And it will be dug up by Republicans and primary rivals alike.

“The Democratic nomination is worth having in 2018,” said Ian Russell, a former deputy executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who now advises several House campaigns. “You’re going to see candidates and campaigns pull out more stops than they would otherwise to win the primaries."

At this point, the NationalJournal probably should have identified Russell as representing one of the Orange County candidates, the wealthy, but otherwise total nothing-burger of a candidate, Sarah the heiress. Maybe Russell didn't tell them. He's like that. He used to work at the DCCC, which he was instrumental in ruining.

Consultants working on House races said they expect a flurry of oppo dumps as primaries begin in earnest, describing rumors they’ve heard or files circulating that reveal potential candidate vulnerabilities. Several operatives described it as routine for campaigns to conduct cursory research into the background of an opponent, even if only to inform strategy.

The problem is particularly acute in California, where a jungle-primary system, swingy open seats, and the state Democratic Party’s endorsement process, which began last weekend, increase the urgency to stand out in crowded fields.

A Keirstead spokesman confirmed the candidate’s doctorate was in zoology, but clarified that it was with a specialty in neuroscience and added that he later became a professor of that discipline after further study at Cambridge University. Keirstead’s LinkedIn page was updated by Monday morning to note that his Ph.D. came from the university’s zoology department.

“Whomever tried to pitch this laughable attempt at mudslinging stands to benefit from Hans’ tireless efforts to boost STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) curriculum in our public-education system,” campaign spokesman Kyle Quinn-Quesada said.

Opponents on both sides of the aisle could use Keirstead’s academic characterization to craft a narrative that he has a tendency to exaggerate. He drew scrutiny this month when he said that Democratic leaders wanted to appoint him chairman of the House Science committee and give him a seat on Appropriations-- something that leadership quickly denied to Roll Call.

In other words, he's already a known liar, as we noted, in all its gory details, a month ago. The DCCC should have dumped him then but they didn't and now they may be stuck with a candidate who can't win (unless the nationalized blue wave is just too strong to not drag him along as well). And it isn't just Keirstead. The other New Dem in the CA-48 race, isn't as bad but... "Harley Rouda, sits on the board of a shoe company that did business with a supplier accused of using sweatshop labor. In response, Rouda’s campaign stressed that he had never been involved in the company’s day-to-day operations." One of his consultants, Mac Zilber, said that "This is the first Harley has heard of this allegation and bragged that Rouda had been endorsed by six major labor unions. Maybe they wouldn't have endorsed him if they knew about the sweat shops.

NationalJournal, which depends a little too much on the DCCC for "facts," then went on to claim that "Elsewhere in Orange County, three top Democratic contenders are running to replace retiring Republican Rep. Ed Royce, including two self-funding multimillionaires. Researchers compiled a 27-page file on one of them, Andy Thorburn, a businessman who seeded his campaign with a $2 million loan." Which are the 3? Can you tell from this graphic below? The self-funding millionaires are Gil Cisneros and May-Khanh Tran (each of whom got one vote from the California Democratic Party pre-endorsement conference last weekend) and Andy Thorburn,who got two votes.

The report showed, among other things, that the IRS took out several tax liens against him [Thorburn] when he failed to pay an estimated $600,000 in back taxes, and that Thorburn’s company bases some of its operations in Guernsey, an island off the coast of France that has been blacklisted as a tax haven by some European countries.

Thorburn’s campaign said it doesn’t view the research as a liability, noting that Thorburn has never hidden his bankruptcy filing and that Guernsey is one of the few places with regulations that enabled the creation of Thorburn’s insurance company.

Meanwhile, Republican outside groups, which dug up much of the opposition research that dogged Democratic folk musician Rob Quist in last year’s Montana special election, plan to have a similar role ahead of November’s elections.

The Congressional Leadership Fund began conducting field research last year in 15 races as part of its $100 million campaign to protect the Republican House majority. Its team of researchers deploys in the districts to scour old court cases, dig up property records, and conduct interviews. CLF partners with America Rising, which plans to target 30 to 40 House districts this cycle in an effort to discredit Democratic challengers.

Corry Bliss, CLF’s executive director, said the effort has uncovered potentially damaging information on several Democrats, particularly those who are wealthy or first-time candidates. He highlighted as an example possibly harmful divorce records that his team found on one highly touted DCCC recruit.

“In a couple of the races, the research is so good we don’t want to use it too early because a candidate may drop out of the race or it may cause their lead in a primary to crater,” Bliss said. “Timing is everything.”

CLF plans to engage in some Democratic primaries and will use its research to guide its efforts, boosting the weakest general-election nominee.

With an unusually large battlefield this cycle, Democrats can dust off research collected on longtime incumbents who haven’t had a competitive race in years. American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC, has trackers on the ground in 25 states who have recorded more than 1,200 House GOP campaign events this cycle. Its video database has more than 25,000 hours of footage of Republicans.

Leave It To The DC Establishment To Screw Up Democratic Races Across The Country: Hawaii And Orange County

No reason to settle for crooked GOP-lite candidates in primaries when you have solid progressives like Laura Oatman and Kaniela Ing running

Many of the people who have ever even heard of Doug Chin just know him from the Rachel Maddow show where she celebrates anyone who hates Trump without ever giving any context. In Chin’s case she could have mentioned he was a conservative corporate lobbyist who was appointed-- not even properly vetted for or elected as-- Attorney General. That was common knowledge and Maddow’s researchers should have caught it. What was less easy to find was that he claimed there was an “oversight” after he was exposed for not reporting (hiding) money paid for lobbying for the private prison industry, which is very controversial in Hawaii. Most people who have followed Chin’s career know he kept that information private deliberately to prevent the state Senate from knowing that they were confirming a private prison lobbyist to be the Attorney General.

This has become an issue because Chin has repaid CCA, who paid him a great deal of money (over $100,000), by blocking release to the public of information on problems at the private prison. None of the money he accepted from CCA was disclosed before he was appointed and confirmed as Attorney General in January, 2015. He-- and his clients-- clearly broke state ethics rules by withholding reports of at least 4 payments until after he was confirmed. The shady lobbyist payments were the only amendments to his state filing. Last week a complaint was filed with the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

Chin-- an opportunist and make-believe Democrat-- is now running for Congress and has said all along, quite adamantly just this week in fact, that he would not resign as Attorney General during the campaign. He seems to have changed his mind about that since the ethics complaint was filed.

Another crappy establishment candidate, this one in Orange County, California, is Hans Keirstead, even sillier to think of in Congress than Doug Chin. Hans was recruited by one faction of the clownish DCCC while another faction was recruiting Harley Rouda. Then both were recognized as conservatives by the New Dems, which endorsed them both. The DCCC was then left with 2 lousy candidates from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party running for Dana Rohrabacher’s seat. Fortunately, there’s a progressive in the race as well-- being studiously ignored by the DC Dems-- Laura Oatman. When the DCCC had their “Candidates Week” to introduce their pathetic conservative candidates to lobbyists, they sent invitations to Harley and Hans and thought no one would notice they had excluded Laura. I noticed-- but when I complained, the only answer I could get was that “everyone is invited,” typical of the DCCC as a lamer than lame excuse for sending two formal invitations and then claiming the third candidate was welcome if she found out about it and wanted to crash their little boys club.

Yes, I’ve told that story before but there’s a new aspect that I just read about. Keirstead, easily the lesser of the 2 New Dems, tried pulling the wool over CA-48 voters’ eyes by making up a cock’n’bull story that Steny Hoyer had promised him a committee chairmanship, an absurdity on it’s face, although we’ll never know what Hoyer actually told this fool. Keirstead keeps yapping like a dog about how he’s a scientist and how science needs a voice in Congress. How about we just pick honest scientists instead-- and not liars and manipulators trying to turn scientists into another lame identity group?

Democratic candidate Hans Keirstead faced a familiar question at a local party meeting [in Seal Beach] in November: What kind of committees could you sit on, and how would that benefit the district?

But his answer has caused some confusion.

The prominent cancer researcher and political newcomer said House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, a top member of leadership, told him he would like to give Keirstead an “early appointment” on the influential Appropriations Committee, and that leaders wanted to make him chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

It turns out that wasn’t the case. [Hans was lying his ass off to the people he expected to help make him a congressman.]

Hoyer’s office denied that the whip made such assertions.

“No, neither of those statements is remotely true,” the Maryland Democrat’s spokeswoman Katie Grant said in a statement .“The idea that Mr. Hoyer would promise a candidate either a chairmanship or a seat on Appropriations is preposterous.”

…“It’s not inspiring for me to become a freshman congressman and to be pushed around and told what to vote on by my party and have no power or control,” he said in a video recording of the meeting.

He described meeting with dozens of members of Congress, including top leaders like Hoyer.

“I have been honored, I have been just humbled by the fact that they want me to chair the Science Committee, which is actually no great compliment because it’s an embarrassment,” Keirstead said.

“So in a meeting that I had with Steny Hoyer, he said, ‘We would like to put you as chairman of the Science Committee, rejigger that thing, get it, get it working and get it up to scruff. But that’s not going to do you any favors in the short term. I’d also like to give you an early appointment onto Appropriations,’” Keirstead said.

…The House Democratic Caucus relies heavily on seniority when selecting committee chairmen. The Science, Space and Technology Committee, which has jurisdiction over research and development projects, has 16 Democrats on the panel, and most would be senior to Keirstead if he is elected.

Committee assignments are determined by the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee at the beginning of each Congress. Lawmakers can lobby for spots on desired panels, but determinations involve an array of factors including seniority, available openings, regional balance, and a lawmaker’s applicability to the committee’s issues.

The Appropriations Committee is one of the most powerful panels in Congress since it oversees government spending. It is also an exclusive committee for Democrats, meaning members on Appropriations do not serve on other panels.

Keirstead said at the November meeting that a seat on the committee would give him considerable sway over health care issues.

“I will be one of the most influential people in science, medicine and health care in this nation,” he said.

Keirstead also said the prospect of having influence, even as a first-term lawmaker, is one of the reasons he decided to run for Congress.

 Roll Call made one error in reporting. The writer reported that the Science Committee “has 16 Democrats on the panel, and most would be senior to Keirstead if he is elected.” Actually, every single one of them would be senior to Keirstead. The two most senior Democrats, chairwomen Eddie Bernie Johnson, and Zoe Lofgren, have no intention of giving up years of seniority so Hans can waltz into the chairmanship. I talked to another member (on condition of anonymity) who told me that Hans “sounds like a prima dona [with]… an inflated vision of his capacity… I wish guys like him would start on the town council or the state legislature and figure out how governing works… [and] how to work and play well with others… How do you think Johnson feels about that report in the press? If he’s even elected, I’m sure Don Beyer will teach him how to behave when EB puts him on the oversight subcommittee. He shouldn’t expect anything more relevant until he’s put in some service beyond self-service.”

And, yes, there’s an even worse candidate running in Rohrabacher’s district, another self funder from another district, Omar Siddiqui who was a Republican and now calls himself (openly) a “Reagan Democrat.” He lives in CA-39 but doesn’t want to run against Ed Royce because he likes him too much. Blue America is enthusiastic about Laura Oatman and if you’d like to help make sure that neither Hans nor Omar gets into Congress as Democrats, please consider clicking on the ActBlue California thermometer on the right and contributing what you can to Laura’s grassroots campaign. The fact that the DCCC is ignoring her efforts makes her an even more attractive candidate. Her Bernie-oriented platform is far more in line with what energized voters in Orange County are looking for than a plateful of GOP-lite garbage. Hans’ website is all about Hans-- not about Orange County voters and not about any issues at all. The guy’s a joker, a product of typical DCCC incompetence. One thing everyone can agree on-- DC has enough unethical players already without adding more sleaze bags like Doug Chin and Hans Keistead.

Here’s the truculent crackpot, caught live on CNN, who Laura Oatman will have to work to replace in November after she beats the conservative Democrats in the primary:



UPDATE: Corrupt AG Steps Down

As we predicted, ex-private prison and Wall Street lobbyist Doug Chin, Hawaii’s sleazy appointed Attorney General, quit his job just days after saying he wouldn’t. He says he quit so he could devote all his energy to his congressional race, but what really made him back away from his pledge to keep working? See above but, the short version is that he didn’t want voters to see him fighting charges that he has an ethics battle over shady dealings with private prison firm CCA and how he got confirmed. His last day is March 15.

Aside From Nancy Pelosi, Who Thinks Congress Needs More Clueless Multimillionaires Buying House Seats?

I'm afraid that if Pelosi stays on as House Democratic Leader for another decade-- she'd only be 87, barely older than DiFi when she starts her next 6-year Senate term-- there will be no Democratic members of Congress who aren't multimillionaires. Pelosi's net worth is around $192 million. She likes-- and encourages-- candidates like what she sees in the mirror to run as Democrats. There are at least 5 Democrats in the House in that same super-duper-rich category-- Jared Polis (New Dem-CO- $476 million), John Delaney (New Dem-MD- $369 million), Scott Peters (New Dem-CA- $118.3 million), Suzan DelBene (New Dem-WA- $97.3 million), and Don Beyer (New Dem-VA- $79.8 million). Will you look at that! A bunch of conservatives from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- at least when it comes to economic issues. Multimillionaires tend to be that way. All these sickening New Dems who play footsie with the Republicans and the same corrupting elements who fund the Republicans.

But it's the crappy candidates Pelosi has the DCCC recruiting that get me going. I never saw so many multimillionaires running as I have this year. I want to throw up. See the nice "I'm Running!" video up top-- like from an undergraduate communications class? That was released yesterday by Sara Jacobs, the self-entitled heiress to the Qualcomm fortune. And there's already a completely pointless multimillionaire in that race, Paul Kerr, a crony of one of California's worst (and richest) members, Scott Peters, who persuaded him to run. This is a district where the incredible grassroots work by Doug Applegate and his team last year exposed how weak Darrell Issa is-- and nearly beat him. The final vote wasn't declared 'til January-- last in the nation-- and Issa squeaked through 155,888 (50.3%) to 154,267 (49.7%). So Applegate announced he would finish what he started in 2016. But a vile gaggle of predatory super-rich scumbags, like Peters, started telling their friends it would be easy to roll over Applegate and then let the wave sweep them to victory against Issa with no real effort. Worst of all is Pelosi crony Ira Lechner, a failed Virginia political hack who persuaded one of his pals, Mike Levin-- who never lifted a finger against Issa previously-- to jump in, promising him that a thuggish political operative in Pasasda, Park Skelton, could "deliver" Pelosi and force Applegate out of the race. None of these people were in the Marines and don't understand that you don't "roll over" or "force" a Marine colonel, which is what today's frontrunner, Doug Applegate, is. So now, you have a totally spoiled heiress-- another one who has absolutely nothing to do with the district and still lives in Brooklyn with a bunch of hipsters-- jumping in too. Consultants are getting incredibly rich over the Southern California cash cows they milking for all they're worth.

The plague of Pelosi's ridiculous multimillionaire menagerie gets worse as you travel around Orange County. After recruiting several shady characters to run against Dana Rohrabacher, the DCCC decided their favorite is Hans Keirstead, an immensely wealthy Canadian stem cell businessman with no knowledge of politics or anything else beyond how grateful the residents of coastal Orange County should be that he's decided to represent him. He looks good on paper, but completely flopped as a candidate. Other than the people on his payroll, no one likes him at all. But the DCCC had already chased a bunch of multimillionaires who live in the district out to run in other districts. The silliest one of all is Gil Cisneros, the "ex"-Republican Frito-Lay's potato-chip taster who won $266 million in a lottery and has been bribing lowlife Democrats in Congress to endorse him. Does that ever reek of Pelosi! So here's a guy living in a $10 million dollar beachfront mansion in Rohrabacher's district-- with all Republican instincts-- who the DCCC persuaded to run in Ed Royce's district. They also talked a wealthy doctor, Mai-Khanh Tran, also a CA-48 resident, to run in CA-39 too. That one was hilarious because one of the DCCC brain surgeons figured she would do well because CA-39 has lots of Asians, not understanding that Dr. Tran is Vietnamese and that the whole Vietnamese community lives in CA-48, not CA-39, which is heavily Chinese. And then there's another very wealthy guy-- who plunked down $2 million on the day he jumped into the race-- Andy Thornburn, who also lives in CA-48 but is running in CA-39. At least he's an independent operator and not part of the Pelosi/DCCC posse.

As though this wasn't funny enough, some super-rich attorney, Omar Siddiqui actually does live in CA-39... but he's not running there. A self-described "Reagan Democrat," he says he admires CA-39 incumbent, Republican Ed Royce (a far right bigot) too much to run against him so he went in the opposite direction and is running against Rohrabacher instead. Rohrabacher, though doesn't just have the clueless Keirstead, who was, of course, endorsed by the New Dems, trying to win the Democratic nomination to take him on. He also has to contend with a Keirstead type, but with a bit of personality to make of for Hans' total lack of any, Harley Rouda, another multimillionaire (and ex-Republican), also endorsed by the New Dems. Sounds like a circus, right? Good news in that district-- and easy to remember: vote for the woman. Laura Oatman, a middle class architect who's actually from the district, is a long-time activist and an actual progressive.

OK, I'm exhausted now, and you must be too. So I won't go through every damn district from coast to coast where Pelosi and her minions are recruiting these abominable multimillionaire zombies. But let me leave you with just one more clean across the country-- in Maine, but not in the richie-rich southeast coastal Maine district (Portland) but in the totally blue collar part of Maine where the last thing the folks want is some phony baloney rich kid who's mommy, Roxanne Quimby from Burt's Bees, wants him to run because... well, just because. And this guy, Lucas St. Clair, is tight with the Maine donor elite headed by Pelosi-super-donor hedge fund billionaire and slum lord Donald Sussman, former husband of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. The folks in ME-02 hate nothing more than being told how to live their lives by the rich folks in Portland. And there's a solid blue collar candidate in the race too, Maine House Majority Whip Jared Golden, a Marine Vet and and an "of the people" kind of guy, who St Clair hopes to bury under a flood of Burt's Bees and Maine Donor Table money. The only chance Bruce Poliquin, the Republican incumbent, has of being reelected would be if Pelosi can somehow get St. Clair the nomination. But even the DCCC now realizes she's flipped her lid and is trying to keep her from screwing up a good thing in Maine.

Will Orange County Help Save America From Trump Next Year? Rohrabacher's Race

Dana Rohrabacher's district, CA-48, covers 42 miles of coastal Orange County-- the primest of the prime residential real estate in Southern California. It stretches from Seal Beach in the north through Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach down to Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel and Three Arch Bay where Darrell Issa's district starts. It's been a very Republican district for a very long time. In 2015 the PVI was R+7. This year, though... R+4. No one remembers a Democrat presidential candidate winning the district-- Romney beat Obama 54.7% to 43.0%-- but last year, the distaste for Trump was so pronounced that Hillary beat him 47.9-46.2%. The DCCC didn't back the Democratic candidate, Sue Savary and incumbent (since 1988) Dana Rohrabacher beat her 165,987 (58.5%) to 117,716 (41.5%). Rohrabacher spent $646,004 to Savory's $102,133.

2018 will be an entirely different race. Rohrabacher, who has been implicated in Putin-Gate and is viewed by U.S. intelligence agencies as a possible spy for the Russians, has 2 Republican challengers-- Stelian Onufrei and Paul Martin-- and 8 Democratic opponents. (The DCCC was determined to give Hans Keirstead the nomination and pushed two other CA-48 residents, "ex"-Republican lottery winner Gil Cisneros and pediatrician Mai-Khanh Tran into the equally crowded 39th district.) This are the Democratic challengers, listed in order of money raised-- with their self-funding in parenthesis:

• Harley Rouda- $600,292 ($230,500)
• Hans Keirstead- $464,307 ($55,400)
• Omar Siddiqui- $322,833 ($255,786)
• Michael Kotick- $236,727 ($130,452)
• Laura Oatman- $163,389 ($11,578)
• Tony Zarkades- no report
• Boyd Roberts- no report

Last week, Democratic front-runner, Harley Rouda, one of the 2 New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party (the other being Han Keirstead), was pushing a poll of likely voters that he commissioned from Tulchin Research. The memo claims "a statistical dead heat in a hypothetical general election between Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Democratic Harley Rouda" but doesn't include stats on hypothetical general election match-ups with any of the other candidates. Worse yet, a generic Democrat beats a generic Republican in the district 42% to 40%.

Worse for Rohrabacher is that Trump, with whom he is closely associated, is "viewed unfavorably by nearly 6 in 10 voters (58%) and very unfavorably by nearly half (48%) of voters. Meanwhile Putin proves a universally unpopular figure as he is viewed unfavorably by 87 percent of voters, including nearly two-thirds (65%) who view him very unfavorably, and is viewed highly negatively by Democrats (96% unfavorable), independents (92% unfavorable), and Republicans (77% unfavorable)."

In California's jungle primary system, all the Democrats, all the Republicans and all the 3rd party candidates compete on the same ballot and the top two-- regardless of party-- move on to the general election. With 3 Republicans running it'd even possible, though unlikely, that 2 Democrats will wind up in the general election, although that would take evens stronger revelations about Rohrabacher's relations with the Kremlin than have come out so far. Last August we looked at the first GOP opponent that Rohrabacher drew, Stelian Onufrei and last week the OC Weekly looked at the new Republican in the race, Paul Martin. Hew refers to his party's incumbent as "Depraved Dana Rohrabacher."

But the best coverage of the CA-48 race this cycle is easily a blogger who goes by the nom de guerre "Crazy Dana Rohrabacher." His posts use the header: "The congressman for California's 48th district wants you to think he's a supercool surf dude who feels your pain. He's actually a Russia-loving, Trump-worshiping coward who avoids his constituents as if they carried a deadly virus. Heck, try giving him a call. You'll never hear back (Unless you're pledging a big donation)." And he digs for the details and presents the sharpest analysis of anyone covering the election so far. A couple of weeks ago he went to the Aliso Niguel Democratic Club's forum in Laguna Niguel and rated all 7 participants.



The big loser was-- as usual-- the DCCC, whose hand-picked recruit, Hans Keirstead has proven to be a much better candidate on paper than in real life. Here's the Crazy Dana ranking from the forum:

• 1. Harley Rouda: So I met Harley for breakfast several months ago, and came away with mixed feelings. I liked him, I thought his heart was in the right place. But I couldn’t tell how well versed he was on issues, and whether his background (Ohio, not California) would hurt. Well, he sorta owned tonight. Harley has a presence-- a factual presence. He speaks clearly, he stands straight, he looks like the president of a bank. When he referred to Donald Trump as “a madman … a threat to world security,” people felt the rage. Is he liberal enough for far-left Dems? Maybe not. But do the optics work when he stands next to Dana Rohrabacher? Yes. Can he hold his own in a debate setting? Based on this evening—also yes.

• 2. Michael Kotick: Throughout the early stages of this race, a solid 95 percent of the attention has been devoted to Rouda, Hans Keirstead and Laura Oatman. Among other things, that means guys like Kotick have sorta slipped beneath the radar. Well, tonight the 34-year-old Nestlé executive emerged. I found Kotick to be energetic, smart, extremely informed and articulate. Late in the evening the candidates were asked by a high school student to name what they considered to be the greatest threat to America. There were varied replies, most of them flat and predictable. Kotick’s statement, however, morphed into this poignant address on how we, as Democrats, need to stop bashing folks who voted for Trump, and instead work on wooing them. For my money, it was the moment of the night.

• 3. Laura Oatman: I met Laura for the first time earlier today, at Starbucks, and I walked away impressed. I thought she really soared through the first, oh, 40 percent of the event-- then dropped precipitously. In particular, three of the candidates were asked a question related to the FAA, and planes flying inappropriate patterns as they leave Orange County. Both Rouda and Keirstead deftly offered their takes. Oatman, meanwhile, admitted she really didn’t know much about the problem. This was both honest and (to be blunt) unfortunate. People tend to hate politics because the practitioners are deemed full of shit. But sometimes you do (factually) have to bullshit your way through an answer. This was one of those moments.

Oatman also went on a bit of a riff on how, with women in charge, things work out better. Which may well be true. In fact, it probably is true. But those sort of lines, while good for quick applause, don’t fly in a general election when 50 percent of your voters are male.

Bright side: She owned climate change and spoke passionately about her desire to run out of love for Orange County. Those were stirring (and important) moments.

• 4. Omar Siddiqui: Really interesting candidate with the most unique background of the bunch. Throughout the election I’ve repeatedly heard Siddiqui referred to as a “Reagan Democrat,” and (just being honest) I cringe. I mean, on the one hand, whoever runs against Dana Rohrabacher will have to be moderate. This is non-negotiable—you can’t win the 48th with a granola-eating, John Denver-quoting, Bernie Sanders-immitating uber liberal. I wish you could, but we’re not there yet. So perhaps “Reagan Democrat” is OK. But … well … um … when the phrase was uttered, you felt a cold shudder in the room. You just did. Stylistically, I also didn’t love his need to stand with every answer, as the other candidates sat. It felt rehearsed and inauthentic.

That all being said, Siddiqui has worked as a private advisor and consultant to the FBI, and he was the only person in the room able to name drop personal encounters with Barack Obama and James Comey. That kind of thing matters, especially when you’re running against a congressman who’s been around since the heyday of Juan Samuel and the Cabbage Patch Kid.

• 5. Hans Keirstead: So I’ve now seen Keirstead twice, and I’m increasingly confident that the Democratic National Committee*-- which seems committed to backing Hans as its candidate of choice-- is making a mistake. Resume? Check. Money? Check. Turns invisible in a room? Check. I’m not trying to be mean, because he seems like a lovely guy. But Keirstead was barely noticeable, even though he sat in the front of the room. He also tends to answer in long, winding statements and sentences. When asked to name America’s top threat, he said, “Macroeconomic destabilization of the country.” And while this is, in fact, a valid thought, it’s also one that leaves 75.7 percent of the folks in any room collectively scratching their heads.

In short, he’s quickly becoming the Jeb Bush of this race. That needs to change.

• 6. Tony Zarkades: Of the seven people on the stage, this is the one I’d choose to have a beer with. That said, I’d also enjoy a beer with George W. Bush.

Zarkades goes by “Tony Z.” That’s mistake No. 1-- it comes off amateurish. I’m selecting a congressman, not my son’s flag football coach. Mistake No. 2-- he just didn’t seem to have a strong grasp on the specifics of issues. These sort of events can by dry and sleep-inducing, but they do serve to expose people who might not be ready for the majors. Tony Z was entertaining, sincere, dogged, funny. But I couldn’t imagine voting for him over the five other prime candidates.

• 7. Boyd Roberts: I mean … um … eh … I’ll just leave it with this: His stated goal is to have 100 percent of Orange County voting blue.

My stated goal is to fly to Jupiter in five minutes powered by Coca Cola and Thin Mints.

Reminder: Siddiqui identifies as a "Reagan Democrat" and decided not to run in the district he lives in because the Republican incumbent, Ed Royce, is someone he really likes and respects and thinks is a great congressman. (Royce is a virulent racist and one of Ryan's most loyal lieutenants-- and a Trump rubber stamp). Keistead and Rouda were both endorsed by the corrupt Wall Street-owned New Dems, a very, very bad sign-- unless you're looking for Republican-lite candidates who will get to Congress and vote against progressive policies. The progressive in the race is Laura Oatman. We're still trying to figure Michael Kotick out but he sure comes off as an earnest, out-of-the-box, original thinker.

* He means the DCCC, not the DNC. The DNC isn't involved in congressional races and doesn't know Hans from Tony Z. The DCCC recruited Hans and has been trying to grease the skids for him. They should get way better recruiters or, better yet, stay out of recruiting altogether.