Despite The Iowa Democratic Party's Screw Ups Tonight, It Looks Like Bernie Won-- And Tomorrow A Berniecrat Can Win A Congressional Seat In Maryland

Immense turn-out in Iowa this evening-- bigger than anyone expected and the biggest in history in some the precincts.

Tomorrow is election day in Baltimore-- actually a special election to fill the open 7th district seat, previously held by Elijah Cummings. The district includes the western and northern parts of the city, plus suburbs and small towns to the west and north of the city in Baltimore and Howard counties. The district is unassailably blue-- PVI is D+26. Blue America endorsed state Senator Jill Carter and yesterday, so did the Baltimore Sun.

The 55-year-old city resident, lawyer and daughter of civil rights leader Walter P. Carter would add a female voice to the Maryland delegation, which has been missing since Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski retired in 2017, and she knows Baltimore-- the heart of the district. Ms. Carter was an early opponent of a mass arrest policy that disproportionately targeted African American residents in the city under the Martin O’Malley mayoral administration. And she has continued the theme of equity in justice and improving opportunities for those caught up in the system ever since.

She was also behind legislation introduced last session to end contracts between the University of Maryland Medical System and its board members, which launched a Baltimore Sun investigation that led to the board’s overhaul, and Mayor Catherine Pugh’s resignation and criminal conviction. And she has long served Maryland: She was also a state delegate for 14 years.

The big criticism that the editors of the Sun managed to offer is that "Senator Carter is considered the most progressive candidate in the race, and some of her ideas lean too far left." That should an incentive for even more people to vote for her than the rest of the endorsement!

It is also expected that Biden's big loss in Iowa today, will reverberate everywhere else. No one wants to back a loser. In fact, Biden's firewall (South Carolina) was already starting to get shaky even before today's verdict. Change Research polled the state's Democratic primary voters and noticed Biden is finally beginning to collapse in South Carolina. Praise the Lord!

The Real Clear Politics polling average still shows Biden way ahead with 30.5%, compared to 17.0% for Bernie, 16.5% for Steyer and 10.5% for Elizabeth. But the new poll tells a familiar story: people get to know who Biden really is and they abandon him in droves:

The Sunday Post and Courier reported that "Biden's hold atop South Carolina Democratic primary polls has never wavered over nearly a year. But the former vice president’s lead continues to slide with the South’s first primary just under a month away. Biden, who once led by as much as 31 percentage points in South Carolina, holds a 5-point edge over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the latest Post and Courier-Change Research poll released Sunday. Biden sits at 25 percent to Sanders’ 20 percent.

Biden’s lead in South Carolina has diminished because his support has fallen from a high of 46 percent in May. Few political observers expected Biden to win South Carolina by the 20-point leads he held over the summer when the Democratic field boasted two dozen contenders.

His drop in S.C. support comes as the race becomes more focused with the field cut by more than half and the leading contenders consistently standing out in the early-voting states.

Sanders has taken leads in Iowa and New Hampshire with Warren and Buttigieg joining Biden to round out the top four leaders. Iowa voters head to their caucus Monday. New Hampshire holds its primary on Feb. 11.

Biden keeps a lead in South Carolina’s Feb. 29 primary thanks to black voters who account for close to two-thirds of Democratic ballots cast. 

Biden was once the choice of half the state's African-American Democratic primary voters, and that has now shrunk to less than a third. I'm going to guess that back-to-back Bernie wins in Iowa and New Hampshire (a week from now) will help close that 5% gap between himself and Biden. And if Bernie wins in Nevada on February 22, you'll see Biden's support in the Palmetto State disintegrate entirely. Want to help Bernie drive home his message in South Carolina? That's why I included the DWT Bernie thermometer on the right.

Next Big Congressional Race Is In Baltimore-- In Days 5 Days! And The DCCC Would Prefer You To Not Know It's Even Happening

Yesterday was a very good day for our congressional candidate in Baltimore, Jill Carter. The Baltimore Sun published a piece about her, Progressive groups hope to rally voters to put state Senator Jill P. Carter of Baltimore in Congress, making it very clear why she would make a great congresswoman. We'll get back to that in a moment. The other good news for Carter, came in the form of an e-mail from Marianne Williamson to her own million + supporters. "I said when my campaign ended that I hoped the ideas we stood for would find seed within the campaigns of others," wrote Williamson. "Indeed, there are congressional candidates all over the country who are standing for things that matter. It is up to us to help them get into positions of power."

One of the most stellar of those candidates is my friend, Maryland Senator Jill Carter, who is running in a special election for Congress on February 4th for Maryland's 7th Congressional District.

Jill’s track record is impressive-- from her support for reparations, to her long-standing independence from party leadership, to her track record fighting to eradicate lead, to her work to enhance school funding formulas, to her insistence on holding police accountable, to her stand for guaranteed healthcare for all. Her work in Maryland has been deeply inspiring.

I am honored to support Jill, just as she supported me with an endorsement of my presidential candidacy. She is a brave and independent thinker, and she deserves our support.

Jill has just a few days until her special election on February 4. She can win this race but she can’t do it without us. Please consider making a contribution of $100, $50, $25, or even $1 to help us put #JillOnTheHill.

If we want the best people serving in Washington, we’re going to have to work to send them there. And this is the moment when it matters most.

Yesterday's Sun piece on Jill explained why progressives from all over Maryland are behind her. "Progressive groups in Maryland," wrote Luke Broadwater, "are rallying around Jill P. Carter, 55, a 2016 Bernie Sanders delegate who shares their vision of sweeping change: a 'Green New Deal' to fight climate change, Medicare for All to help the uninsured, and ending foreign wars. She’s picked up the endorsements of notable progressives, such as 2018 gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous. When the members of the Sanders-affiliated Our Revolution Maryland picked which of the 32 candidates in the field to back, the vote was about 88% for Carter. 'She’s clearly the most progressive candidate in the race,' said Sheila Ruth, the co-chairwoman of Our Revolution Baltimore."

Beyond her vision, there’s more to Carter’s pitch. There’s her tale of an underdog.

In the crowded campaign office, Carter told the story of her rise from a state delegate, often at odds with leadership in Annapolis and at City Hall, to an influential state senator who won widespread praise last legislative session.

“I spent many years in the House of Delegates, very difficult and painful years,” Carter says. “I was very much isolated and marginalized. ... Now, it looks like things are on the upswing. Too bad I’m going to miss it, because I’m going to be in the Congress!”

...After years of seeing certain bills important to her die in the state House, Carter had a fresh start in 2019 after winning election to the Senate. Carter’s bill calling for an end to contracts between the University of Maryland Medical System and its board members helped expose a scandal and became one of the session’s highest-profile pieces of legislation.

Carter’s concerns about the medical system helped prompt a Baltimore Sun investigation into self-dealing by UMMS, including its $500,000 in payments to Catherine Pugh, who resigned as a board member in March and as mayor in May.

Carter also successfully sponsored bills banning employers from inquiring about an ex-offender’s criminal record before a job interview-- called “Ban the Box” legislation-- and changing state law to make it easier for people convicted of minor crimes to serve on juries.

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed the “Ban the Box” legislation, but the General Assembly is expected to override the veto. She is the lead sponsor of more than 50 bills that have become law.

Carter has a record of taking positions outside Democratic orthodoxy, sometimes angering powerful figures.

Carter vocally opposed widespread arrests in Baltimore under the administration of Democratic Mayor Martin O’Malley; police arrested more than 110,000 people in 2003 alone. She upset advocates of same-sex marriage when she sought to tie passage of the legalization effort to gaining more state money for Baltimore schools.

Last session, she voted against a bill that would have eliminated a statute of limitations for civil claims related to child sexual abuse. Carter argued the law must protect the rights of the accused in civil cases, where there is a lower standard of evidence than for criminal charges.

In 2016, after Pugh won election, she appointed Carter director of the Office of Civil Rights, which Carter saw as a dream job.

But Carter found herself in conflict with City Solicitor Andre Davis, who Carter believed sought too much power over a police Civilian Review Board that Carter wanted to use to hold officers accountable. At one point, Carter forwarded Davis’ emails to Pugh, saying they showed “how extremely pompous, disrespectful, unprofessional, and inappropriate Andre Davis was comfortable being in his interactions with me.”

Recently, Davis took to Facebook to criticize Carter, calling her leadership “deeply flawed” and accusing her of “making a lot of political noise" by trying to empower the board beyond its legal reach. He declined to comment for this article.

Where Davis saw a penchant for conflict, Carter’s supporters see independence and a willingness to take on the political establishment.

“She’s shown she’s not afraid to take on the tough issues,” said the Rev. Heber Brown, pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore. “The way she stood up against illegal arrests under Martin O’Malley. No one in the Democratic Party was trying to touch that issue like Jill Carter was."

Carter has for years has been a top vote-getter in Northwest Baltimore, and has the endorsements of every delegate from the area, including centrist Democrats. Now, she believes she has a good chance to beat former national NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and former Maryland Democratic Party Chairwoman Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, who political analysts see as strong contenders.

Nina Kasniunas, an assistant political science professor at Goucher College, said Carter needs to make inroads in Baltimore County and Howard County to be successful.

“I’m not so sure how much she stands out outside of Baltimore,” Kasniunas said.

To that end, Carter and her team of volunteers have been out in force knocking on doors... She has sought to contrast herself with the records of Mfume and Rockeymoore Cummings. At a recent debate in West Baltimore, Carter criticized Mfume for supporting a 1994 crime bill signed by then-President Bill Clinton, also a Democrat. Carter called him a “champion” of fueling “mass incarceration."

She argues Rockeymoore Cummings hasn’t done enough for Baltimore residents to deserve the seat.

“If you went to the average voter in Baltimore City and said the name ‘Maya Cummings,’ nobody would know who that was,” Carter said.

Carter said she would push to create a national gun registry, end the Trump administration’s “cruel and inhumane” policies against immigrants at the southern U.S. border and support Elijah Cummings’ bill to provide $100 billion over 10 years to fight the opioid epidemic. Meanwhile, she plans to introduce state-level “Medicare for All” legislation.

Carter told her volunteers she would be a “pit bull” for the issues they care about.

“Once I get ahold of an issue, I’m not letting it go until we get it done," she said.

In 43 Days We Can Send A Fighting Progressive To Congress... Or Settle For A Garden Variety Democrat

Maryland's 7th congressional district-- plus the suburbs and small towns to the west and to the north of the city including Ellicott City, Cooksville and Columbia-- is so blue (D+26) that the election that matters is not in November but 43 days from today-- primary day in Maryland. Whichever Democrat wins on that day, will be the next Congress member. The choice isn't between a Democrat and a Republican. The choice is between any number of run of the mill corporate careerist Democrats or a real live, bold progressive.

Among the three top contenders, there are 2 establishment Democrats, Kwesi Mfume and Maya Cummings and one-rarin' to go progressive, Jill Carter, who Blue America is endorsing today. Jill is a state senator and a 2016 Bernie delegate. Please take a look at the endorsement video former NAACP president Ben Jealous cut for her last week:





Jill's platform is entirely oriented towards working families (backing positions like Medicare-for-All, the Green New Deal and free state colleges) and in the state Senate, she has a reputation as a strong independent voice-- something that scares establishment organizations like the DCCC-- and is known as the "People's Champion." Our Revolution Maryland has also endorsed her.

Jill's dad, Walter P. Carter, a legendary Baltimore civil rights activist, committed himself completely to the movement and raised Jill with a social consciousness. "When I was seven years old," he told me recently, "he abruptly died, while giving a speech to the Black United Front, having just won a legal battle against Baltimore’s most notorious slumlord, Morris Goldseker. I spent much of my younger life distraught over his death and always in search of him. He, and Parren J. Mitchell, the first black congressman to represent the district, are two of the greatest men I’ve ever known. They courageously, and selflessly, fought for equality of opportunity for black people, wanting nothing for themselves."

Jill, then an attorney, was one of the first black women elected to the Maryland legislature. "During that time,' she said, "Baltimore’s mayor was executing a policy of mass arrests that violated our constitutional and human rights. I fought against the policy of en masse illegal arrests. The entire Democrat establishment chose to ignore the hard data and cry of the people in favor of defending the then mayor. I was labeled a renegade and treated as a pariah. I became disenchanted with the Democratic leadership and party. Their contempt for poor people, black people, and for me, was palpable. For three and a half terms, I was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates always as the highest vote getter of all delegates in the city. I relentlessly advocated for criminal justice reform, juvenile justice reform, law enforcement reform, lead paint poison prevention and justice for victims, and economic justice. The mayor became the governor and I was marginalized as a legislator. It was then that I realized I no longer had to search for my father because he lived within me."

In 2016, Jill resigned from the House of Delegates to take a job as Baltimore City Director of Civil Rights and Wage Enforcement and then, in 2019 was elected to the state Senate. "I sponsored a bill that exposed the self-dealing and political corruption of members of the University of Maryland Medical System board," she told us. "Nine of the members were awarding multi-million dollar contracts to themselves and the board purchased $500,000 books from the mayor, also a board member, some of which had not yet been printed. Fallout from the legislation caused the entire board of directors to be removed or resign, the president stepped down and the mayor resigned from office. For the first time in my political career, I was allowed to function as a legislator without legislative leaders seeking to malign me.

Since she had been a Bernie delegate in 2016, I asked her how she came to endorse Marianne Williamson in 2019. She told me she had read a number of Marianne's books and then listened to numerous lectures. "I also often rely upon her guided meditation to ground myself. I believe in her authenticity. She has written and talked about a politics of love. Put simply, Marianne operates on a higher plane that most people and all politicians. With her as the moral leader of the country, I believe our individual and collective energy would be elevated. She is a deep thinker who started her campaign saying, 'Why should I get shallow for you. It’s time for you to get deep with me' and 'it’s time for the people to step in.'  That resonated with me because campaign 'experts' encourage candidates to synthesize complex issues into sound bytes. Marianne understands that we need, not only a deeper conversation, but that issues and plans mean nothing without the ability reaching into people’s hearts. She understands the interconnectedness between environment and health, and that we have a system of sick care not healthcare. She also understands that affirmative action programs are inadequate to close the racial divide and heal America without acknowledging the root cause of the divide which is America’s original sin of slavery followed by legal discrimination. While I love Bernie and believe we need a political revolution, Marianne championed a political and societal evolution."

The Special Election To Replace Elijah Cummings Is Coming Up-- Will It Be A Progressive?

Cummings, Carter, Mfume

Maryland's 7th congressional district, represented since 1996 by Elijah Cummings, is getting ready for the February 4 special election primary (and an April 28th special election general) to replace him. The district includes central, western and much of northern Baltimore plus the suburbs and small towns to the west and to the north of the city including Ellicott City, Cooksville and Columbia. Most of the votes come from Baltimore, but with substantial amounts from both Baltimore County and Howard County. All are strongly blue and the district has a PVI of D+26. Obama won it with just over 76% both times he ran and Hillary took almost 76%. 53.3% of the residents are African American, 33.3% white, 7.1% Asian and 3.7% Latino.

Although there are two dozen Democratic candidates in the special, the three top-rated being state Senator Jill Carter, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings (the former congressman's widow) and ex-Congressman Kwesi Mfume, former president of the NAACP. Carter is the progressive in this contest.

Mfume endorsed Hillary in 2016. Carter was a Bernie delegate. Her platform is oriented towards working families (backing positions like Medicare-for-All, the Green New Deal and free state colleges); his platform is moderate, status quo and oriented towards the donor class. In the state Senate, Carter has a reputation as a strong independent voice-- something that scares establishment organizations like the DCCC-- and is known as the People's Champion.

Carter's campaign has been focused on her policy plans, particularly in regard to criminal justice and single payer healthcare, and her campaign claims to have hit more doors than every other candidate in this race combined. The're planning on engaging 500,000 potential voters via social media while contacting at least 50,000 voters at their doors and by phone before next month's special primary. Carter has been endorsed by Our Revolution Maryland, the College Democrats of Salisbury and Frostburg University, Demand Universal Healthcare Now, Baltimore City Councilman Ryan Dorsey, state Senator Anthony Muse, Baltimore City Council candidate Joe Kane, and former 41st District candidate Dr. Richard Bruno.

Yesterday, former NAACP president Ben Jealous endorsed her. A Ben Jealous endorsement would be a big deal for anyone anytime, but the fact that Jill's top opponent is another NAACP former president-- Mfume-- makes it even more significant and noteworthy. People eager to contribute to Jill's campaign, can do it here on the Congress Needs More Progressive Women Act Blue page. This is a good investment in a deep blue seat, where we'd be better off with a strong progressive than just another establishment careerist.