Federal Court Unanimously Strikes Down Republicans Unconstitutional Gerrymander Of Michigan

A federal court Trump hasn't had the opportunity to pervert yet, voted unanimously to strike down the Michigan GOP legislature's grossly unconstitutional gerrymander that handed a 50/50 state over to the Republicans in the state House, state Senate and congressional delegation, even while statewide, the Democrats were kicking GOP butt. The decision will force a redrawing of congressional districts 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12; state Senate Districts 8, 11, 12, 14, 18, 27, and 36; and state House Districts 24, 32, 51, 55, 60, 63, 75, 83, 91, 94, and 95. (The Court let 7 contested legislative districts stand as they are-- three in the state Senate and 4 in the state House but will also require Michigan to conduct special state Senate elections for some seats next year, cutting in half the four-year terms those current lawmakers are now serving.)

Unless the Supreme Court-- which Trump has perverted (very much so)-- grants a stay, fairly likely with 2 similar cases pending for North Carolina and Maryland, the new boundaries will have to be approved by the court in time for the 2020 election. The court characterized the boundaries the legislature drew as a partisan gerrymander "of historical proportions."

The ruling stated flatly that the "predominate purpose" of the Republican redistricting plan (2011) "was to subordinate the interests of Democratic voters and entrench Republicans in power" violating the first and 14th Amendment rights of the plaintiffs. In the statewide races last cycle, the Republicans got just 43.7% in the gubernatorial race and just 45.8% in the U.S. Senate race.

The court ordered a super-transparent redistricting process that requires the legislature to present Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer a new map she agrees to sign by August 1. If they fail-- likely-- the court will appoint a special master, the way the court in Pennsylvania did, which was catastrophic for the Republican congressional delegation. The Pennsylvania delegation went from 13 Republicans and 5 Democrats under the illegally gerrymandered map to 9 Democrats and 9 Republicans (if the GOP holds onto PA-12 next week, as expected).

The unanimous decision was made by 3 judges, 2 Clinton appointees and one appointee of George H.W. Bush. During the process, Michigan's new Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson (D), wasn't nearly as harsh towards the GOP law-breakers as the court was. But yesterday she said that the ruling "confirms that these Michigan state House and Senate and U.S. congressional districts are unconstitutional... As the state’s chief election officer, I’m committed to working with the Legislature, citizens and the court to ensure the new districts comply with our U.S. Constitution."

When the suit began, Michigan had 9 Republicans and 5 Democrats in Congress, despite the fact that the statewide votes are around 50/50. In 2018, though, 2 red seats were flipped and the delegation now stands at 7 Republicans and 7 Democrats. The redrawing could turn the delegation bluer yet. These are the members of Congress directly impacted by the ruling, along with the PVI of each district:

• MI-01- Jack Bergman (R)- R+9
• MI-04- John Moolenaar (R)- R+10
• MI-05- Dan Klildee (D)- D+5
• MI-07- Tim Walberg (R)- R+7
• MI-08- Elissa Slotkin (D)- R+4
• MI-09- Andy Levin (D)- D+4
• MI-10- Paul Mitchell (R)- R+13
• MI-11- Haley Stevens (D)- R+4
• MI-12- Debbie Dingell (D)- D+14

As far as I can tell, a fairer map wouldn't change much. Slotkin and Stevens would probably wind up with less red districts, perhaps with an R+1 lean rather than the current R+4 leans that are usually only flippable in wave cycles. The Republican who could be in serious jeopardy is Tim Walberg in the southeast corner of the state, where his district is likely to end up with more Democratic voters from Washtenaw County in Debbie Dingell's district. It wouldn't put her in jeopardy at all to turn MI-07 into an evenly split district, which is always what courts want to see. Maybe I'm being too conservative in my thinking, but my best guess is that a new map will result in just one change in the delegation. If the DCCC runs a reasonable candidate-- like the sack of Blue Dog garbage they ran in 2018-- they would be able to retire Walberg. That's really it, other than more safety for reelection hopes for Slotkin and Stevens, who are being targeted by the NRCC now, but probably will be just targeted on paper after their districts are made more even.

Walberg beat back wretched Blue Dog Gretchen Driskell, one of the worst candidates the DCCC was pushing last cycle, 158,730 (53.8%) to 136,330 (46.2%). In a slightly fairer district, a non-lesser-of-two-evils Democrat would probably spell the end of Walberg's political career. There are currently 8 counties in the district. The DCCC was eager to field a Blue Dog with relatively little in common with actual Democrats who live in those counties beyond Choice and other social issues. Keep in mind that Democrats in those 8 counties went overwhelmingly for Bernie-- he won all 8 counties-- rather than Hillary in 2016, a real indictment of DCCC interference in local elections. The eight counties are listed here by the size of their voter turnout, but big and small they were all Bernie territory. Democrats chose to back the populist progressive, not the corporatist status quo candidate. That didn't stop-- never stops-- the DCCC from saddling them with an even worse candidate than Hillary, a full-fledged conservative, Republican-lite Blue Dog:

• Monroe- Bernie- 48.1% (to Hillary's 47.2%)
• Jackson- Bernie- 55.0%
• Washtenaw- Bernie- 55.4%
• Eaton- Bernie- 55.6%
• Lenawee- Bernie- 53.9%
• Hillsdale- Bernie- 56.7%
• Branch- Bernie- 53.6%

In the general, Trump won Monroe (58.4%), Jackson (57.2%), Eaton (49.6%), Leenawee (57.6%), Hillsdale (70.9%) and Branch (66.9%). Clinton won only Washtenaw County, where, remember, Bernie has edged her in the primary. It's why people so often say Bernie would have won-- and will in 2020, unless the Democrats manage to run another Clinton-type candidate.

Trump Will Be Best Remembered As The Albatross Who Wrecked The GOP

Last week the malefactors who prop up the Koch network met in Manhattan for two days. They've gotten wind of the gigantic anti-Trump/anti-Ryan tsunami forming up in the hinterland and heading towards DC. And they are shitting a collective brick. Friday the Washington Post reported they "spoke in cataclysmic terms about the price they expect to pay in the midterm elections if their tax reform effort does not win passage. They voiced concerns a demoralized Republican base would stay home, financiers would stop writing campaign donation checks to incumbents and the congressional majorities the party has built in the House and Senate could evaporate overnight." Neo-fascist Texas Senator Ted Cruz was there warning about a 2018 "Watergate-level blowout." Some realized that the Republican Party civil war that has now blown completely out of control is adding gasoline to the fire of GOP inability to get anything done in Washington.

A good example was the Wall Street Journal reporting that Señor Trumpanzee urging "voters to oust lawmakers who don’t support his tax overhaul plan this year; he phoned his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, to offer encouragement after Mr. Bannon appeared on Fox News on Monday vowing to unseat sitting Republicans who don’t actively support the president’s agenda." Even an imbecile like Kushner-in-law phoned Bannon to encourage him after an appearance with Hannity that could have easily have beens scripted by Chuck Schumer. One of Bannon's lines was "There's a coalition coming together that is going to challenge every Republican incumbent except for Ted Cruz."

Mainstream conservatives are increasingly worried and now wondering not if a wave is coming, but how high it will be and how deep and long-lasting the damage the Trump Circus will cause. Friday the Nevada Independent, for example, reported how popular Republican Governor Brian Sandoval reacted to Trump's latest stumble with healthcare. Sandoval: "It’s going to hurt people. It’s going to hurt kids. It’s going to hurt families. It’s going to hurt individuals. It’s going to hurt people with mental health issues. It’s going to hurt veterans. It’s going to hurt everybody... [T]this is going to make it much more difficult for those people out in the rural counties and in the urban areas to be able to obtain affordable insurance. So this is something I don’t support, I think that this has been very good for Nevada, and I think the administration should keep providing those subsidies."

Last week New Yorker reporter Susan Glasser interviewed long-time swamp resident and GOP establishment figure, lobbyist Ed Rogers. "There’s fires all around" was how he greeted her before her first question, before she had even taken a seat. "It’s surreal... Why does it have to be this way?" She observed, aloud, that Republicans seem to be finding life under Trump a lot harder than Democrats; he agreed. "You want to be loyal," he said. "You want to be a good member of the team."

Rogers cited his partner Barbour’s dictum for surviving Washington under this volatile new President-- sometimes Trump’s gonna help, sometimes he’s gonna hurt-- before asking, “When is he going to help? Life is all about the net, not the gross. Where’s the help?” The confirmation of the Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, last spring, often cited as one of Trump’s major accomplishments, “seems like a long time ago,” Rogers said. “And is the totality of Trump still a net plus? Is it going to be a net plus?”

The weekend war of words between Corker and Trump had left Rogers, like many lobbyists in town, thinking not so much of the actual world war that Corker warned about (though he’s worried about that, too) but about the fate of Trump’s proposed tax-reform plan. Given Corker’s public skepticism about the proposal, Rogers and others now suspect that it may run into the same problems that blocked the repeal of Obamacare. “Is this what legislative momentum looks like?” he asked, before joking that perhaps “the flames and all are just a façade” and that, “behind it, Gary Cohn”-- the President’s chief economic adviser-- “is really doing magic and something big is coming together that is going to have fifty votes.”

...When I cited Corker’s comments that most Republicans at least privately shared the belief that the White House had been turned into an “adult day care” center for its capricious seventy-one-year-old chief resident, Rogers offered his own criticism of the White House.

A sampling:

“They’re grasping at straws.”

“There is a permanent hunkered-down quality.”

“It’s shocking, it’s embarrassing.”

“They’re just making it up every day as they go along.”

And yet, he hesitated when I asked whether Republicans agreed with Corker that Trump was dangerous. “I think the word ‘dangerous’ is still a rare word,” Rogers corrected me, saying that the words “reckless” and “destructive” were far more common. He went on, “Saying the D-word is different than believing there are now stewards of normalcy in [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions, in Tillerson, in Kelly, and others that, I think everybody acknowledges, are protecting institutions from Trump, and protecting Trump from Trump, for that matter.”

“The only thing that is reliable and dependable about Trump is that he’s unreliable and not dependable,” he added.

...Back in January, the conventional wisdom had been that Trump, a Washington novice with a clear disregard for the details, would leave the governing to Congress, making Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell perhaps the capital’s most important player. Now, Trump and McConnell are barely on speaking terms, and tensions within the Party are proliferating. “Of course it’s personal,” Eliot Cohen, a former Bush Administration official who organized his national-security colleagues to sign open letters against Trump during the primaries, said. “These are the kind of rifts that don’t heal.”

For Washington Republicans, Corker’s public chastising of Trump has only increased the pressure: Are you speaking out? And if not, why not? “I don’t think it’s responsible to hold back,” Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a veteran of both Bush Administrations, told me. “I don’t believe this is a time to hold back. A lot of people have gone along or stood there quiet when they disagreed. But not to weigh in when you actually do disagree seems to me wrong.”

It is now taken as axiomatic that the Washington wing of the G.O.P. loathes and fears Trump, but still, there are genuine differences of opinion about how to deal with him. As a Republican veteran of Capitol Hill explained to me, “The taxonomy of Washington Republicans is not a bright line of Never Trump versus pro-Trump.” There is, instead, “a continuum of people who are to varying degrees either outright supportive of the President or comfortable with the fact that getting things done requires working with the Administration to outright disgust and opposition.” As I have found, and with the exception of a small handful of officials who came to town with Trump, the private comments of even the most publicly pro-Trump Republicans often differ little from their more outspoken colleagues.

Elected Republican officials like Corker are in a somewhat different situation, given Trump’s continued popularity with the core G.O.P. electorate, and their need to face those voters back home. In terms of the ease with which Republicans in Congress can oppose Trump, “there is a hierarchy, in ascending order,” the Hill veteran said, with House “members and senators in cycle next year” at the bottom, followed by “senators who intend to run for reëlection but are not in cycle next year,” then “senators who will probably retire but have not yet announced,” and finally, at the top, “senators who have announced they will retire.” When Corker decided not to run for reëlection, last month, he likely did not change his mind about the President but simply “transitioned from category two to category five.”

...Trump, of course, ran against Washington, promising to “drain the Swamp,” so if the swamp decides to fight back, that’s not necessarily such a terrible thing for Trump. This may be why Steve Bannon is not pretending that Trump commands the respect and allegiance of Republicans inside the Beltway. “This is what they think about President Trump behind closed doors,” Bannon said on Fox News on Monday night, when asked about the Corker comments. Bannon is already turning the topic into a TV talking point, a rallying cry to the Trump base: See how horrible those swamp creatures are, how much they oppose Trump? By Wednesday, the intramural fight among Republicans was playing so well that Bannon was on television promising to mount primary challenges for every single Senate Republican incumbent (except Trump’s G.O.P. Presidential rival turned more or less faithful defender, Ted Cruz).

For lifers like Rogers, who’ve figured out how to survive and prosper no matter which party is in power, Washington means having a healthy appreciation for the fact that your team doesn’t always win. But now that it’s clearer that getting along in the traditional Washington sense is not part of Trump’s plan, Rogers said he has changed his view of what is possible in this Presidency. “Republican loyalists have gone from ‘gigantic things are going to happen; the world really is going to change; there’s going to be a fundamental shift in what the government does,’ . . . to, ‘Can we keep the lights on around here?’ ” He added, “The possibilities are getting narrower. Consequences are piling up.”

Most Beltway pundits and prognosticators aren't ready to take this to the next step yet-- a 2018 blowout. But CNBC's John Harwood is starting to get it. He wrote that while Señor Trumpanzee "takes a baseball bat to Obamacare and the Iran nuclear deal, odds are rising that he could break the Republican majority in Congress, too. Midterm elections remain just more than a year away. But a leading nonpartisan analyst now sees a slightly better than even chance that Democrats win back the House in November 2018, which would halt Trump's current legislative agenda and even jeopardize his ability to complete his term."



A friend who works at the DCCC smuggled me copy of one of the PPP memos for the DCCC's associated House Majority PAC poll, this one about 3 GOP held open seats. Enjoy:

A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that the tax plan proposed by Congressional Republicans is deeply unpopular, and Congressional seats in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Washington are looking to be quite competitive. Despite the fact that they are not running for re-election, the current Members of Congress should be open to persuasion on the Republican tax reform plan, especially if they are listening to their constituents who are not in favor of this plan and its provisions.

PA-15

In Pennsylvania’s 15th Congressional District, Congress has a 9% approval and 84% disapproval rating, and Speaker Paul Ryan has a 25% approval and 61% disapproval rating. President Trump is just as popular as he is unpopular (47/47), but a majority (53%) of his supporters oppose the provision in the tax plan that would give wealthy Americans a tax cut. The hypothetical election matchup between a Democratic candidate (44%) and a Republican candidate (43%) is quite close and indicates that this will be a very competitive race. Candidates should be aware that the tax plan proposed by Congressional Republicans is very unpopular in this district. Incumbent Republican Congressman Charlie Dent should also note that his constituents strongly oppose this plan and key components in it.

MI-11

In Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, President Trump, Congress, and Speaker Paul Ryan are all quite unpopular. Trump has a 44% approval rating and 50% say they disapprove of the job he is doing, while 10% of voters say they approve of the job Congress is doing and 80% say they disapprove. 22% approve of the job Speaker Ryan is doing and 65% disapprove. The hypothetical election matchup between a Democratic candidate and a Republican candidate is currently tied (42/42). Candidates should be aware that the tax plan proposed by Congressional Republicans is very unpopular in this district. Incumbent Republican Congressman David Trott should also note that his constituents strongly oppose this plan and key components in it.

WA-08

In Washington’s 8th Congressional District, President Trump, Congress, and Speaker Paul Ryan are all unpopular. Trump has a 40% approval rating and 55% say they disapprove of the job he is doing, while 12% of voters say they approve of the job Congress is doing and 79% say they disapprove. 20% approve of the job Speaker Ryan is doing and 67% disapprove. The hypothetical election matchup between Dino Rossi (42%) and a “Democratic candidate” (43%) is very close. Candidates should be aware that the tax plan proposed by Congressional Republicans is very unpopular in this district. Incumbent Republican Congressman Dave Reichert should also note that his constituents strongly oppose this plan and key components in it.

Back to the lunatic on the fascist right for a moment. Yesterday Bannon, a master manipulator for the severely simpleminded, spoke to neo-Nazis and imbeciles gathered for their annual convention at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in DC. McConnel was a speaker at the shindig as well, but he wasn't in the room when a deranged Bannon addressed him: "Yeah, Mitch, the donors are not happy. They’ve all left you. We’ve cut your oxygen off, Mitch." He was particularly venomous towards John Barrasso (R-WY), Bob Corker (R-TN), Dean Heller (R-NV) and Deb Fischer (R-NE). Give him a listen; he's dangerous.

Another Republican Congressman Calling It Quits-- Michigan Foreclosure King Dave Trott Heads For The Hills

Dave Trott, the guy who made a living evicting little old ladies from their homes during snow storms, is the latest congressional Republican announcing his retirement. A- Excellent! B- If there was a competent DCCC there would never have been a Congressman Trott to begin with. DCCC chair Steve Israel boosted him by undercutting his progressive opponent who was guilty of the crime of being Muslim. Yeah, you thought it was only Republicans with that kind warped degenerate mind? Nope Pelosi pulled Blue Dog scumbag Steve Israel out of the toilet to head her DCCC-- twice!

Trott was first elected in 2014 after beating a pyscho-teabagger Kerry Bentivolio, in a district covering the suburns west and northwest of Detroit-- southern Oakland County (Troy, Birmingham, Novi, Wixon, Bloomfield Hills) and western Wayne County (Livonia, Northville, Plymouth). Obama won the district, narrowly, in 2008 and, after gerrymandering, lost in narrowly in 2012. Last year it was Trump's worst-performing of the 9 GOP-held Michigan districts. He beat Clinton 49.7% to 45.3%. The DCCC had no interest in helping the Democratic candidate there-- Anil Kumar-- and Trott was reelected with just 52.9% of the vote, the worst performance for any Michigan Republican incumbent, although-- of course-- the DCCC spent millions in other districts on dirty GOP-lite Blue Dogs. Kumar absolutely would have beaten Trott had someone blown up the DCCC in 2015.

This cycle, the Democrats have a candidate, Haley Stevens, who probably could have beaten Trott. She was the chief of staff for the Obama administration’s auto bailout and her unparalleled expertise in manufacturing is sorely lacking inside the halls of Congress; she’s an excellent fit for the district.

Trott is a garden variety rubber stamp Republican with a 97.6% Trump adhesion score, about as bad as it comes. On Monday he announced that "This was not an easy decision, but after careful consideration, I have decided that the best course for me is to spend more time with my family and return to the private sector."

Political analysts at the Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball promptly changed their ratings for Michigan’s 11th District from “likely” Republican to a toss-up to reflect Democrats’ increased chances of flipping the seat.

“Midterm elections typically are challenging for the presidential party, particularly if the president is unpopular, as Donald Trump is at the moment,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

“So while MI-11 is a Republican-leaning district ... a favorable Democratic environment could easily put it in play, and Democrats could very well nominate a strong challenger.”

President Donald Trump won the district by about 4.5 percentage points last fall-- slightly worse than Mitt Romney fared in the well-educated, affluent district in 2012, Kondik noted.

Trott’s retirement comes as another Michigan congressman, GOP Rep. Fred Upton of St. Joseph, pushed back against rumors that he’s leaving Congress.

Upton, a member of the U.S. House since 1987, is still considering running for re-election or for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.

“Fred is very happy with his day job and very focused on the work he’s doing for our region and state,” Upton spokesman Tom Wilbur said. “He is exploring all of his options, but retirement is not in the cards.”

Trott’s post-congressional plans were not immediately clear. In the House, Trott sits on the Committee on Financial Services, which he joined earlier year.

Trott was taking substantial bribes from the banksters he was charged, as a member of the Financial Services Committee, with overseeing. Since getting to Congress, Trott has gobbled up $614,065 in legalistic bribes from the crooks he's consistently voted to deregulate. This cycle Stevens was matching him dollar for dollar in the fund-raising department As of the June 30 FEC reporting deadline, Trott had $284,191 in his campaign war chest and Stevens had $281,387. MI-11 is clearly the Democrats' best shots for flipping a red seat blue and not even the regular gross incompetence will cause the DCCC to fail to see the viability of Stevens. This is what she told us last night:

"This is a new moment. My campaign is about people, our community, and working families. I am running for Congress to usher in a 21st century labor movement, to address the broken system that has resulted in over 40% of Michigan families being unable to pay for basic necessities, where student loan debt topples an average of $30,000. The time is now to send a new and progressive voice to Washington and be a real voice representing the people of Michigan's 11th district. Yes we can and yes we will."

The DCCC Has Proven They Can't Win Seats In Michigan; Maybe Haley Stevens Can Teach Them How To

Last year the most winnable Republican-held seat in Michigan was the 11th district, cut out of Oakland and Wayne counties northwest of Detroit and Dearborn. It carefully skirts Pontiac but stretches awkwardly from Troy and Birmingham in the east to Novi and Livonia to the west. Trump didn’t do as well as Romney did but he narrowly beat Hillary, 49.7% to 45.3% in the district. Although the incompetent and corrupt DCCC chose to waste millions of dollars in other districts, promoting Blue Dog conservatives with no chance to win, they steered clear of MI-11 where a progressive, Anil Kumar, did better against David Trott than any of the DCCC did against their opponents. Kumar held Trott to a 52.9% win and the district looks like to flip-- unless the DCCC sabotages the Democratic candidate again-- in 2018.

The most prominent candidate to emerge so far is Haley Stevens, who was born and raised in Rochester Hills. That she lived in DC while working as chief of staff for the Obama administration’s auto bailout, has caused Trott’s desperate campaign to try to label her a “carpetbagger.” No one’s buying it, especially not from the out-of-touch former foreclosure king. Her expertise in manufacturing is sorely lacking inside the halls of Congress and she’s an excellent fit for the district. We asked her to introduce herself by explaining a little about what she is offering folks in MI-11 that Trott isn't providing. Her guest post is below and you can visit her website here and if you’d like, contribute to her campaign as well.

In Michigan, I See the Future of America
-by Haley Stevens

The great innovation, export and import engine epitomizing 20th century economic might rises today to tell a new story.

Today, Michigan boasts 75% of the country’s autonomous vehicle research and development. In 2006, Google’s first office outside of Silicon Valley moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan. And our freshwater lakes still remain the envy of the world.

Michigan innovation, and occasionally our natural resources, are just as connected to Silicon Valley as they are to us; and Silicon Valley needs Michigan a great deal.

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, in his Harvard graduation address declared, “We should have a society that measures progress not just by economic metrics like GDP, but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful.”

As a policy maker, I invite this conversation and opportunity to shine a light on the true spirit of human capabilities and our future economy.

Many people live to work and are lucky enough to find community and passion in their work. The men and women I have met in manufacturing offices and on shop floors over the past decade stand proud of their daily output. At the same time, the United States maintains a skills gap as defined by hundreds of thousands of open manufacturing positions that go unfilled each year. There is an overwhelming demand from companies of all sizes for welders, computer numerical controls operators, and technicians, but there are just not enough qualified people to fill these jobs.

Many emerging and mid-sized companies driving the maker economy are fighting for technology and manufacturing talent just to stay afloat. We are in a newfound competitive skills environment where computer and coding skills meet traditional manufacturing work.

Coding and computer science must make their way into school curricula from an early age, whereas we can make skills obtainment in these fields universal and affordable. We can lower the barrier to entry and even the playing field so everyone competes fairly for jobs and available work.

During my years spent running a multi-million-dollar future of work agenda funded by the Department of Defense, I frequently cited the importance of analog skills meeting digital requirements. I’ll tip my hat to Mark Zuckerberg on this point, who also said last month, “as technology keeps changing, we need to focus more on continuous education throughout our lives.”

Overnight global technology advances more rapidly than policymakers can put their pens to paper, and as a result we find ourselves going into the quarter 21st century mark with profound questions looming.

What is the role and value of human work? Now more than ever we can encourage, foster, and place value on the bounty of human work and human driven experiences.

These questions centralize on the critical role policy makers play working in tandem with industry leaders to determine outcomes, catalyze growth and ultimately the value of our work.

I’m prepared to be one policy maker leading the charge. Alongside the Michigan innovation story, my central motivations to run for Congress in Michigan’s-11th district comprising metro-Detroit are to promote a true progressive agenda that holds current and reckless leadership accountable. As a lifelong Democrat running for Congress my message for the party and to voters is: The value of work matters, each individual life matters, and that is why we do what we do; because your health, our environment and the richness of our economy for everyone matters.

While the economy has been growing in Michigan since coming out of the Great Recession, it has only been growing for a few. Incomes have remained stagnant.

We feel it: we could all be a little better off and our children’s future could appear brighter, student loan debt not as burdensome or non-existent if we choose to address this looming problem vis-à-vis collaborative, industry driven solutions before debt is even incurred.

By coming together with industry leaders, chambers, universities, and associations for pro-growth, inclusive solutions; government leaders are in a poignant position to address the challenges that have left so many hard-working people behind. And to top it off, government can find a way to remove itself as necessary and promote efficiency. Identifying where the government can come in as a strategic partner is where leading policy makers can make a proven difference.

By seeking an office in the nation’s capital and asking everyone I know to support me in any way they can, I am also making a bet on the future and declaring it exists right here in southeastern Michigan with our world class workforce, technology hubs, and our overwhelming ability to innovate. Something my opponent, two term Republican incumbent Dave Trott who has profited off his peculiar and disappointing foreclosure business does not know much about.

“Detroit hustles harder” is the saying that emerged in the throes of the Great Recession, and today that note continues to ring throughout our region. And that’s because in Michigan we know the value and meaning of hard-work, it is in our blood and we don’t stop.

Michiganders Are Sick Of Trump, But How Many Republicans Will Lose Their Seats In 2018?

Morning Consult's new poll brings more bad news for Señor Trumpanzee after his disastrous trip abroad. More voters want Congress to impeach him. Last week, their poll showed only 38% want him impeached. In just one week, that's risen to 43%. So far, though "much of the support for impeaching Trump comes from political considerations, the poll shows-- not a belief that Trump is actually guilty of impeachable offenses, like treason, bribery or obstructing justice." It's only a matter of time before the evidence is there to show some undeniable combination of treason, bribery and obstruction of justice.

The poll shows TrumpCare is still in the toilet in the minds of Americans-- 47% disapproving and 38% approving. The 33% who disapprove of the "strongly" far outpaces the 14% of imbeciles who approve strongly. 32%-- the hardcore Trumpists, most of whom don't have functioning minds because of prescription drug addiction-- think TrumpCare will make the health care system batter and 47% say TrumpCare would make the health care system worse.

So how's that playing out in states as we head inexorably towards the 2018 midterms? Let's look at Michigan, a blue state which had last voted for the Republican presidential ticket in 1988 when George W.H. Bush beat Michael Dukakis. After that Clinton won both times, Gore won, Kerry won and Obama beat McCain 57.43% to 40.96% and then beat Romney (hometown boy) 54.21% to 44.71%. And then along came the wrong Democratic candidate and Trump won the state 2,277,914 (47.60%) to 2,264,807 (47.33%). Hillary never quite understood why Bernie beat her in so much of the state-- 598,943 (49.68%) to 581,775 (48.26%), never having had to worry about it since Wasserman Schultz fixed the process to award Clinton 73 delegates to Bernie's 67. (In way of comparison, Bernie's 598,943 votes on March 8 stacked up nicely against Señor Trumpanzee's 483,753.) Michigan has 83 counties. Hillary won 10 and Bernie won 73... but the DNC had the state in the bag for Hillary anyway.

Come election day, none of the DCCC's crap candidates who thought they could coast to victory on Hillary's coattails won. Pitifully-- but par for the course for the DCCC-- every single one of them was defeated. Crap candidates usually are. The DCCC spent heavily on a drunken asshole way up north, Blue Dog Lon Johnson, and he was defeated in the MI-01 open seat unable to even win 40% of the vote. But he has a well-connected wife so... the DCCC may well wind up backing him again in 2018. The Democrat who did the best against a Republican anywhere in the state was Anil Kumar in MI-11, who took 40.2% of the vote, with the DCCC talking down his race and urging donors to not waste their money on him. With nothing from the DCCC but bad vibes, Kumar sill managed to beat all their wretched Republican-lite congressional candidates and raise $1,116,535, almost as much as incumbent Dave Trott.

Yesterday the Detroit Free Press reported on a new statewide poll showing Trump's job approval cratering in Michigan.

The survey of 600 likely Michigan voters done May 20-24 by EPIC-MRA of Lansing also indicates that 56% of  Michiganders  view former President Barack Obama favorably while Trump, who won Michigan last November, received a favorable rating of 37% from those polled.

The poll shows that, since the last poll by EPIC-MRA in February, Trump’s job approval rating-- which is different from his favorability score-- has fallen substantially.

Sixty-one percent of those surveyed gave Trump a negative job rating-- up five percentage points from February. That matched the increase from 50% to 55% of Michiganders who believe the direction of the country has taken a “wrong turn,” according to the poll.

The percentage of Michiganders giving Trump positive job ratings fell from 18% to 12% as  the number of respondents saying the U.S. is headed in the “right direction” dropped from 35% to 31%. EPIC-MRA,  which does polling for the Free Press, selects a demographically random sample of respondents from across the state for its surveys.

The pollster told the Free Press that he's "beginning to see some slippage among Republicans for (Trump’s) performance. If he comes to a point where his numbers slip even further among Republicans, you’re going to see more and more legislators jump ship from him." Every single one of the 9 House Republicans from Michigan voted for the extremely unpopular TrumpCare bill. The DCCC, which has virtually no credibility among Michigan Democrats, has announced they're targeting 5 Republican incumbents in 2018: Jack Bergman (MI-01), Fred Upton (MI-06), Tim Walberg (MI-07), Mike Bishop (MI-08), Dave Trott (MI-11).



During a town hall meeting on Friday, Walberg was happy to change the subject from TrumpCare and told his constituents not to worry about Trump dumping the Paris Climate Accord. I believe there’s been climate change since the beginning of time… I believe there are cycles. Do I think man has some impact? Yeah, of course. Can man change the entire universe? No. As a Christian, I believe that there is a creator in God who is much bigger than us. And I’m confident that, if there’s a real problem, he can take care of it."

God: "You shall not defile the land in which you live" (Numbers 35:33-34)

I spoke with one of the most respected political operatives in Michigan this morning. He told me it doesn't matter who the DCCC claims to be targeting at this point in the cycle. "I'd be surprised if they help finance even two of those races," he said after I read him the list. "Trott should be worried. Oakland County went pretty strongly for Clinton and Trump came closer to losing his district than any other Republican-held district in the state." [The score was Trump 49.7, Clinton 45.3%] If they run strong candidates with their heads on straight they could beat Upton and Bishop too. Trump didn't do well in either district." [Trump beat Clinton 51.3-42.9% in Upton's district and 50.6-43.9% in Bishop's district.] But they're go get behind a couple of their Republican-lite candidates and blow the chance for winning, You're writing all the time that's that what they always do; it's true. Michigan should kick them out of the state. They do more harm than good to the party here."

Yesterday's Detroit News carried a piece by Melissa Burke about how Upton's role in the passage of TrumpCare is hurting him back home. There's some talk that he may run against --and the DSCC even ran a preemptive 6 second online ad against him, but if, as is likely, he decides to run for reelection, whichever Democrat rans against him will be able to use his vote-- in committee and on the floor-- for TrumpCare, and his key role in persuading mainstream Republicans to back the radical right plan.

Upton came out against the GOP health care bill in the first week of May. The 64-year-old lawmaker wasn’t comfortable with an amendment allowing states to seek a federal waiver for some requirements of the Affordable Care Act, including the rule that insurers may not set premiums based on an individual’s current and past “health status.”

That means that, in states with waivers, insurers could hike premiums for people with underlying conditions who had a lapse in coverage. Gov. Rick Snyder has said Michigan wouldn’t seek a waiver.

In a 20-minute call with Upton, the president raised his voice and cursed, but Upton said he didn’t bend. He explained his concerns, reading back something the president had said on TV days earlier promising the GOP bill would be as strong on protecting those with pre-existing conditions as Obamacare.

“He was a little gruff, to say the least. I was a little gruff back,” Upton recalled. “But I told him, in no uncertain terms, that I could not vote for this bill.”

Hearing no from Upton-- who never endorsed Trump during the campaign-- was one thing, but hearing the same concerns from Missouri GOP Rep. Billy Long was another. Long was the first Republican in Congress to endorse Trump, back in 2015.

Upton and Long met with Trump the next morning. Upton credits Long with ultimately convincing the president to sign off on his amendment-- $8 billion over five years to reduce premiums or out-of-pocket costs for people that face rate hikes in waiver states.

With the amendment, both Upton and Long supported the bill, attracting a few straggling Republicans and giving GOP leadership the final votes they needed to pass the legislation 217-213 on May 4.

Critics said $8 billion over five years was a “pittance.” Democrats said Upton had flip-flopped and sold out to special interests.

“This was a fig leaf, unfortunately, that allowed a few members to vote yes, even though it made no difference in terms of improving the bill,” Stabenow said.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that 23 million more people will be uninsured over 10 years if the bill becomes law. On average, premiums for insurance on the individual market would be lower, in part because the insurance would cover fewer health care costs.

The CBO also expects Upton’s added $8 billion would increase the number of states electing a federal waiver.

Not only is it unclear if Upton will run for the Senate or the MI-06 seat, it's not clear who the Democratic candidate will be. Paul Clements who ran last year and the cycle before hasn't decided if he'll run again or not yet. David Benac, a progressive history professor at Western Michigan University and Eponine Garrod, a 23 year old chemist who works in quality-control testing at Pfizer are running and Matt Longjohn, a progressive physician and public health expert living in Portage, is likely to jump in. The 3 other possible candidates are Rich Eichholtz, a corporate guy from Illinois with a summer house in the district, Cathy Albro from Grand Rapids not far from the district and, worst of all, conservative clown George Franklin, a slimy lobbyist who contributes to both parties, including thousands of dollars over the years to Upton-- $3,000 of which was money he gave Upton to spend against Clements. He's exactly the kind of garbage candidate the DCCC is probably looking for.

Kerry Bentivolio Kicked Out Of The GOP Cult-- And Forced To Sell All His Reindeer

"This is what happens," groused Kerry Bentivolio, "when a regular guy gets an opportunity to come to Congress." He's feeling pretty aggrieved all around. Not many Republicans lost their seats this year. But Bentivolio did-- and he lost ugly to Michigan's foreclosure king, who unleashed a torrent of cash-- over $4,000,000, including $3,623,402 from his own bank account-- to smear him mercilessly from Canton, Livonia and Novi to Auburn Hills and Washington, DC. In the end Trott and his Establishment allies beat him 138,229 (56.1%) to 100,665 (40.8%). Bentivolio calls himself a "a regular guy," but that's a bit of a stretch. He's an unconventional guy with a typical Tea Party sense of victimhood and way to independent-minded to fit in with garden variety, button-downed Republicans. He never really fit in anywhere in DC and, as disgusting as everyone acknowledges Trott is, not many are going to cry in their beers over the premature end of Bentivolio's accidental ascension to Congress.

Some Republican thugs are going in the opposite direction-- trying to wipe out the memory that he ever existed! Trott sent out word that he wouldn't be interested in any Bentivolio staffers and that he wouldn't look favorably on anyone else who hired any of them.

Bentivolio had hired a martial arts trainer from Ann Arbor, Robert Dindoffer, as his senior advisor and then gave him the job of campaign manager, firing him 7 months later. Dindoffer is widely considered a real scumbag and he's one of the leading forces behind Michigan Republicans' efforts to steal electoral votes by changing the way the state apportions them between candidates. When Bentivolio fired him-- basically for submitting false expenses and stealing from the campaign-- Dindoffier sued over some weird contract with a typically Republican type scam to extract more money from the campaign than is normal. Republicans always do this to each other.

Although he isn't willing to talk about it, Bentivolio has made it clear that Dindoffer wasn't just scamming the cash-strapped campaign for money but was also disloyal and looking out for himself, not his boss. This week a local judge ruled that Bentivolio has to pay Dindoffer $120,000.

Dindoffer’s attorney said on Wednesday both sides had reached a confidential settlement agreement this summer and Bentivolio had made some but not all payments as required by a Nov. 30 deadline, which prompted the Dec. 15 consent judgment by Oakland Circuit Judge James Alexander.

“It was confidential until he (Bentivolio) stopped making payments,” said Dindoffer’s attorney Kevin J. Stoops.

Bentivolio, 63, will leave office next month. He was defeated in the Republican primary and then ran unsuccessfully as a write-in candidate.

The judgment is against Bentivolio, and two of his campaign committees, Kerry Bentivolio for US Congress and Bentivolio for Congress. The judgment, which represents 1.5 times the amount due and owed to Dindoffer, resolves the last pending claim and closes the case, Alexander said in his ruling.

In an interview off the House floor last week, Bentivolio told the Detroit News that he was facing financial troubles in the face of the significant judgment. He criticized the conduct of his former campaign manager and questioned the bills and his loyalty.

But he acknowledged agreeing to settle the case earlier this year to reduce possible additional losses and said he had not been able to make payments.

“What can I do? I’m in the middle of a campaign. I’ve got all these people telling me to settle,” Bentivolio said last week, saying he was looking to reduce additional losses.

Bentivolio, a former school teacher who drew attention for being a part-time reindeer farmer, said he sold his reindeer earlier this year to pay bills and fund his campaign along with borrowing from his retirement fund. He said he has been “beat up” by establishment Republicans and the media.

“This is what happens when a regular guy gets an opportunity to come to Congress,” he said.

Defeated Tea Party Congressman Kerry Bentivolio Is Very Bitter Towards The GOP Establishment

No one can ever accuse me of having ever said anything good about one-term Republican soon-to-be ex-Congressman Kerry Bentivolio, a Michigan teabagger. (Here's proof.) A reindeer farmer and Santa Claus actor tainted with some crooked business dealings, Bentivolio became an accidental congressman when his predecessor, Thaddeus McCotter was busted in an electoral fraud case and was forced to resign from Congress and end his campaign for another term. Bentivolio soon found himself in Congress, where he was out of his depth and unable to cope. He tried aping Justin Amash's principled libertarian opposition to the Establishment but lacked the skills and political talent to even be a successful follower.

The Republican Establishment got behind Michigan foreclosure king David Trott, a self-funder who spent $2.5 million from his own personal wealth against Bentivolio and beat him decisively 42,008 (66.4%) to 21,254 (33.6%). A perfect pick-up opportunity for the Democrats, Steve Israel instead decided to try to help the CIA infiltrate one of their agents into Congress and backed sure-loser Bobby McKenzie, who, of course, lost. The official results are David Trott- 138,229 (56.06%), Bobby McKenzie- 100,665 (40,83) and Libertarian John Tatar- 7,668 (3.11%). Although that adds up to exactly 100%, it doesn't take into account the write-in ballots. And there were write-in ballots. Bentivolio decided to run a quixotic write-in campaign against Trott in the general, claiming Trott staffers kept demonizing him and his family even after he had won the primary.

Basically, he feels that Trott and the GOP establishment stabbed him in the back, have worked for two years to ruin his reputation, and he isn’t going to take it anymore.

He is well aware of his image as “Krazy Kerry,” who has been lampooned as a nutty reindeer farmer and part-time Santa Claus.

In fact, he seems himself as a principled conservative whose first and greatest love is constituent service.

At one point, he put a staff member on the phone line, who told me that the two cardinal rules in his office were “transparency” and “never lie.” He also told me that his reputation for shunning the media was the fault of a former campaign manager who never passed along requests for interviews.

The only bad things Bentivolio had to say were about the GOP establishment.

“They believe you have to be anointed to run for office-- that you are supposed to kiss the ring,” he told me, adding, “That’s not how the founding fathers saw this country.”

I told him that some Republicans saw his effort as sour grape resentment, and he admits that he does feel some of that.

Bentivolio also knows that his write-in effort could well help Democratic nominee Bobby McKenzie, but he feels that when a Republican congressman is doing a good job, he doesn’t deserve to be challenged in his own party’s primary.

Not only did Trott do that, but Bentivolio feels he unfairly smeared his reputation.

When he left some of those attacks up on the internet after the primary, Bentivolio announced he would write his own name in “as a shot across his bow.”

But Trott still didn’t take the offending material down, and meanwhile, Bentivolio’s staff members in Washington started hearing they would be blacklisted from new jobs.

That did it.

Kerry Bentivolio, a career army officer and former teacher, is not a wealthy man.

He doesn’t know what he will do if he doesn’t get reelected, and may be looking at personal bankruptcy.

But he told me he felt he’s done his best in Congress, and has never been afraid of a fight. “There’s something flattering when a guy spends $5 million to beat you,” he said of Trott.

Although no actual numbers for the write-in ballots are available, on Friday the Toledo Blade reported that Bentivolio's low-budget effort ($40,000) failed and they claim that he "appeared to have gotten fewer than 1 percent of the vote, from stalwart supporters who wrote in his name." Bentivolio says the effort was worth doing anyway.

"I was hoping for a miracle, but it was worth making a point," he said. "I owe the Republicans nothing. They did nothing for me. They have this attitude that you can’t just run for office. You are supposed to be anointed by them, that you have to kiss the ring.

"Well, that’s not how the Founding Fathers saw this country."

Mr. Bentivolio was famous for shunning news media during his time in office, He often was painted as flaky and irascible.

However, he called me a week before the election. "I know you may disagree with me,” he said, "but you strike me as fair." He wanted to tell his story.

He has one thing in common with liberals such as independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont: Mr. Bentivolio feels that the system is broken, corrupt, and dominated by a moneyed establishment that is happy to destroy anyone it can’t control.

..."[T]he establishment said from the start I was going to be a one-term congressman," Mr. Bentivolio said. "They smeared me, spread lies about my teaching record, started the 'Krazy Kerry' stuff."

Here's Krazy Kerry talking with a pack of krazy konstituents. Is he nuts? You decide:

Is Steve Israel Helping The CIA Infiltrate Congress With Its Own Agents?

I don't know the answer to the question posed in the title above. I've been trying to find out and I've been tracking down several leads. The names that come up most frequently are Kevin Strouse, who like all CIA spies bills himself as an "ex-CIA analyst" and is running against Mike Fitzpatrick in Bucks County (PA-08); Bobby McKenzie, another former CIA spy who glosses over that and calls himself an "ex-US State Dept. Counterterrorism Official" and is running in MI-11 against Michigan's least attractive politician, Dave Trott the state's foreclosure king; and Jerry Cannon the former comandante of the Guantánamo gulag/torture prison who is running against GOP sad sack Dan Benishek way up in the sparsely populated, desolate Upper Peninsula of Michigan, flush up against Canada.

I spoke to one Bucks County political expert this morning about Strouse's CIA connections and he told me Strouse has no chance to win and that the DCCC, after recruiting him and pushing him against a plausible grassroots Democrat, Shaughnessy Naughton, has abandoned Strouse entirely. "There is no way," he told me, "that Strouse wins this race unless the CIA arranges to kill Fitzpatrick. I'm hearing Strouse is down by 20 points." 20 points?!!?! This is an R+1 swing district that Obama won 53-46% in 2008 and then fought Romney to a 49-49% head heat 4 years later. How does a Democrat-- even a crappy Steve Israel Mystery Meat candidate like Kevin Strouse lose a district like that by 20 points.

Meanwhile, as of the June 30 FEC filing deadline, Strouse had only raised $1,016,010 to Fitzpatrick's $2,482,114 and only had $268,721 cash-on-hand to Fitzpatrick's $1,906,830. The DCCC hasn't spent a dime on Strouse's behalf so far. However, the DCCC as reserved $1.9 million on Philadelphia broadcast from Oct. 21 to Nov. 4, which could mean ads for Strouse or Manan Trivedi (PA-06) or Aimee Belgard (NJ-03). Their House Majority PAC has reserved another $1.2 million for unspecified candidates in the Philly area. Despite the rumors that the DCCC has kicked Strouse to the curb, unlike some of the candidates that they have dumped, he's still on the most current Red-to-Blue list soliciting money for their candidates. I guess if Michael Fitzpatrick turns up dead or suddenly resigns for some bizarre reason, we'll know the CIA plan is operational.

Jerry Cannon has also been seriously underperforming as a candidate. He and Benishek last reported on July 16 and Benishek had raised $1,497,655 and had $830,703 on hand while Canon only raised $647,734 and had $336,663 on hand. This unlikely red-to-blue district has a PVI of R+5 and would be a steep climb for even a good Democratic candidate. Obama, though, did beat McCain, 50-48%, although he lost to Romney four years later 54-45%. (Benishek barely fended off his last challenge by another bad Democratic recruit, Gary McDowell, 167,060 to 165,179.) What McDowell and Cannon have in common is that they're both conservatives from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Is the CIA behind Cannon? I haven't found anything that would make me comfortable asserting as much, just rumors.

The DCCC has spent $237,304 in negative ads against Benishek so far, part of a $450,000 Traverse City broadcast from Sept. 2 to Sept. 22 they reserved. They have another $490,000 on hold for Oct. 14 through election day. Yesterday, Emily Cahn at Roll Call reported that the NRCC just reserved a million dollars worth of ad time in the district to defend Benishek and will start running them on Friday and not stop until November 4.

OK, now let's go back to MI-11, Kerry Bentivolio's mostly suburban district north and northwest of Detroit that includes parts of Oakland and Wayne Counties, an R+4 district but good hunting for a Democrat, especially with such an awful and indefensible candidate like Trott. But the CIA agent, or, supposedly, "ex"-CIA agent, McKenzie, just wasn't closing the deal. Trott, who wrote his campaign a casual $2,423,402 check for the primary, had $1,018,913 cash-on-hand on July 16. McKenzie only raised $375,432 and had $68,448 left after the primary, which shouldn't be enough to stay competitive. The DCCC hasn't spent any money in the district yet but they've reserved $850,000 in the Detroit broadcast market and $290,000 in the Lansing market between Oct. 21 to Nov. 4, money that could go to help McKenzie (who is no longer on their Red-to-Blue page at all) or Pam Byrnes (who the DCCC has reportedly given up on entirely). Strange. I suppose they could use the reservations to support Eric Schertzing against Mike Bishop in the district Mike Rogers is abandoning (MI-08, Ingham and Livingston counties, R+2 PVI) but there is no indication they are getting behind Schertzing or any other Michigan candidates.

And now the big "however" in this race. Someone (a CIA cutout, supposedly) persuaded Bentivolio to run as a write-in candidate and pull the extreme right away from Trott, who he really hates, so that McKenzie wins the seat. Yesterday, the Detroit Free Press reported that a very bitter Bentivolio just wants Trott to lose.

“Everywhere I went here at home or in D.C. I had a Trott tracker working for a self-serving, self-absorbed entitled bully,” Bentivolio said in an e-mail to the Free Press. “Now they want unity?”

In last month’s primary, Trott beat Bentivolio by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. In the race to represent a district widely considered to lean Republican, Trott faces Bobby McKenzie, a former U.S. State Department employee and the Democratic nominee, who Bentivolio said he also opposes.

Bentivolio told MIRS he was “pretty frustrated” by the loss and the amount of money Trott spent defeating him. He said he has been approached by “a lot of people out there” who want him to run as a write-in “because they don’t see much difference” between the two parties.

…[H]e e said that it’s difficult for him to listen to Republican Party calls for unity and support given that he was targeted for defeat by mainstream elements in the party when former U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter resigned abruptly in 2012 and left Bentivolio the only other GOP name on the ballot.

I'm trying to track down what Bentivolio meant exactly when he said he's being pushed to run by "a lot of people out there." It would mean a lot to the CIA and other intelligence entities to have one of their own-- or 3 of their own-- inside the branch of government charged with overseeing all the unconstitutional activities.

Last Night's Primaries-- Justin Amash Kicks Boehner's Ass

I knew it was coming but I'll still amazed it came. The teabaggers couldn't even save one of their incumbents, Kerry Bentivolio in the suburbs west and northwest of Detroit in Oakland and Wayne counties. Boehner's Chamber of Commerce wing of the party recognized he was weak and they moved in for the kill. But what was so startling was that the Republicans of the district picked this monstrosity to replace him. Watch that video up top made by some Bentivolio supporters. This guy Dave Trott's going to be the worst piece of crap in the whole Congress. And he nearly beat Bentivolio two to one-- 40,421 (66%) to 20,572 (34%). Trott wrote himself a check for $2,423,402, collected another $921,196 from big donors and went up against Bentivolio's relatively puny $570,022.

MI-11 is a winnable district too. Even at R+4, Obama won it narrowly in 2008 and lost it narrowly to native son Mitt Romney in 2012. But Israel recruited some ex-CIA spook, Bobb McKenzie, who's not going to beat anyone. He barely even won the primary last night against an Indian-American urologist, Anil Kumar who's doesn't seem to be an actual Democrat as far as I could tell from chatting with him. The DCCC pushed for McKenzie, who raised $375,432 but urologists and the Asian community helped Kumar who took in $756,973. McKenzie won by a few hundred votes, 12,765 (34%) to 12,094 (32%) and with progressive radio host Nancy Skinner, who raised virtually no money at all, taking 9,960 votes (27%). Trott, the weakest Republican candidate in years, will probably annihilate McKenzie in November.

The other libertarian-oriented incumbent the Boehner wing tried really hard to destroy was Justin Amash in MI-03 (Kent, Calhoun, Barry, Ionia and Montcalm counties). Boehner got the Chamber of Commerce to run a wealthy self-funder, Brian Ellis, who wrote his campaign a check for $1,007,214, raised another $555,145 in big donations and outspent Amash $1,230,307 to $840,370. (Club for Growth spent $510,588 attacking Ellis while the Chamber of Commerce tried bolstering him with around $200,000.) In the end Amash beat him comfortably 35,309 (57%) to 26,498 (43%). And Boehner has another target on his back in the eyes of the Liberty Caucus. Amash was quoted saying "To Brian Ellis, you owe my family and this community an apology for a disgusting & despicable smear campaign… I ran for office to stop people like you." He also unleashed the rhetorical kracken on Ellis backer and Republican ex-Congressman Pete Hoekstra pretty harshly too: "I want to say to lobbyist Pete Hoekstra, you're a disgrace. I'm glad we could hand you one more loss before you fade into total obscurity and irrelevance." But he didn't call out Boehner (yet)-- unless you count this as an attack on Boehner: "My race should give confidence to people in Congress. There are a lot of people who are bullied by the leadership. They're bullied by lobbyists. I'm giving confidence to them that they can do the write thing. That they can stand up for regular people. That they can follow the Constitution."

Kansas had some Republican primaries but nothing or progressives to spend any time thinking about. As expected, Brownback won his primary (63%) but is neck and neck-- or losing-- for the November battle with moderate Democrat Paul Davis. Racist icon Kris Kobach was renominated for his Secretary of State job. beating Scott Morgan 65-35%.

In the Kansas House races Tim Huelskamp had a relatively close call against Alan LaPolice but won renomination 54-46%. And in KS-04 the congressional Koch employee, Mike Pompeo, beat back a challenge from the former congressman from the district, Todd Tiahrt, 63-37%. Probably time for Tiahrt, a radical right extremist, to start thinking about getting some honest work and to forget about this whole politics thing. As expected, confused old Pat Roberts was renominated by beating a serious challenge from right-wing superstar Milton Wolf, 48-41%.

Washington state's jungle primary is all mail-in-ballots. No real surprises that matter for progressives. Good news was that in WA-08, Jason Ritchie beat the other Democrat in the race 24,368 to 7,540. If Steve Israel allows the DCCC to help him now-- which isn't likely-- he might be able to beat Republican Dave Reichert in this R+1 district Obama won both times. I'm guessing Israel wants Ritchie to lose so the Republican wing of the Democratic Party can slip a conservative in in 2016 when Hillary's landslide coattails will make Reichert a sitting duck.

Nothing interesting happened in Missouri, but no one thought anything would. Next up: Saturday's big deal races in Hawaii, where two progressives-- Brian Schatz for Senate and Stanley Chang for the open House seat-- face up against corrupt conservatives from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.