If We're LUCKY, Trump's Economy Will End In Recession, Not Something Worse

Former California Congressman David Dreier (R) could've been a contender. Except for the homophobia. Closet case Denny Hastert, then GOP speaker, named him Majority Leader for half an hour, but when the House Republican leaders started melting down over the "gay thing," Hastert relented and gave it to a perpetually tanned alcoholic instead. Poor Dreier; he worked so hard before bumping into a glass ceiling he never imagined would end his career. He retired soon after and moved to a couple of fancy digs in Malibu and Beverly Hills, a million light years away from his old district. I think he's like a lobbyist for China or Chinese interests or something like that. He was on the local NBC-TV affiliate here in L.A. hawking his new documentary about China when he happened to mention that his former colleagues in the House were punished by voters for enabling Trump. "Oversight, which is a Constitutionally directed responsibility, is so critically important," he said, "and my Republican colleagues did not, I believe, do an adequate enough job... When President Bush was president and I was chairing the Rules Committee, we insisted on oversight among our committee chairmen and we did a lot of it. Ours is a nation of institutions. We need to remember that, and Congress needs to exercise that [oversight] authority."

I'm sure you've noticed that it's always the retired of retiring Republicans who want to hold Trump accountable, right? Yesterday, in her first public appearance since losing to Blue Dog Ben McAdams, Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) struck back at Trump, who mocked her after the election blaming her defeat on her decision to keep him at arm’s length in the election. Notably, she didn't speak up while the counting was still going on and while it looked like she could win. "This gave me a clear vision of [Trump's] world as it is. No real relationships, just convenient transactions. It is an insufficient way to implement sincere service and policy."

She vowed to continue to deliver such biting attacks now that her defeat means she is “unleashed, untethered and I am unshackled and I can say exactly what is on my mind.”

Love, the first and only black Republican woman elected to the House, took bipartisan shots on Monday-- saying Democratic policies hurt blacks, that Republicans fail to embrace minorities-- as shown by some actions by Trump.

She said she was surprised that while votes were still being counted, Trump took his jab at her.

“The president’s behavior toward me made me wonder: what did he have to gain by saying such a thing about a fellow Republican?” she said. “It was not really about asking him to do more was it? Or was it something else?”

Just when Love was speaking Monday morning in Salt Lake City, New York Magazine was publishing a column by Jonathan Chait, The Deficit Grew Because Trump’s a Republican, Not Because He’s an Idiot". Absolutely! And that's why Trump voters in the Midwest are seeing their jobs disappear. He's just hot air, transactional to his core and never held accountable for any of his bad behavior. Chait explained to his readers that the increasingly out-of-control low IQ ape in the Oval Office "has been demanding that his aides draft a plan to reduce the swelling budget deficit while simultaneously ruling out virtually all categories of possible deficit reduction and demanding new deficit-increasing measures of his own. The Washington Post has plenty of hilarious details from the administration’s internal fiscal deliberations, such as they are. Trump comes across as possessing every bit as much fiscal acumen as you would expect from a man who managed to bankrupt a casino, required hundreds of millions of dollars in secret cash infusions from his father to stay afloat, and can barely absorb written material of even the shortest length."

The Post's account draws heavily from the perspective of Trump’s current and former advisers, who treat his buffoonery as the central cause of the administration’s fiscal straits. But the reality is that Trump is simply expressing a more ignorant version of standard-issue Republican budgeting.

The deficit is the gap between revenue and outlays, and Trump opposes any increase in revenue under any circumstances whatsoever. The story notes that Trump “has said no changes can be made to Medicare and Social Security,” and has boasted about his increase in spending on defense. Those categories, plus interest on the debt, account for 80 percent of federal spending, and the remaining 20 percent has been targeted by desperate budget-cutters for the better part of three decades. When you refuse to increase the revenue side of the equation (and, indeed, make it worse through tax-cutting), and rule out four-fifths of the spending side of the equation, you’ve ruled out any reduction to the deficit.

Trump’s advisers frame this as a story about Trump’s ignorance thwarting their efforts to impose sane and good Republican budget policy. Former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn is portrayed as telling his staff not to bother briefing Trump about the deficit because he doesn’t care. Current chief of staff John Kelly quizzes Trump about the salary of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the president guesses $5 million. (Actual answer: under $200,000.)

It is fair to say that no other Republican president would be quite this ignorant. But in other ways, Trump is indistinguishable from the policies any Republican advocates.

Trump’s refusal to consider higher taxes is a point of uniform party dogma. In 2012, when the Republican presidential candidates were asked if they might support a budget deal with ten dollars of spending cuts for every dollar of higher taxes, every single one said no. If Trump came out for a tax increase he might literally be impeached and removed from office.

The story notes that Trump “has said no changes can be made to Medicare and Social Security.” But every Republican likewise supports maintaining retirement benefits for workers at or near retirement (meaning age 55 or above). By definition this would rule out even the first penny of budget savings within ten years. And only a handful of Republicans support any cuts to the defense budget.

Trump learned most of what he knows about politics by binge-watching Fox News, which has in some ways given him a keener sense of the desires of the party rank and file. Take this anecdote about Trump’s hesitation to frontally attack Medicare for All during the campaign:

When staffers sought to include an attack on Democrats’ Medicare-for-all proposals in Trump’s campaign speeches this fall, he initially blanched, two administration aides said. Medicare is popular, he said, and voters want it. Eventually, he agreed to the attack if he could say Democrats were going to take the entitlement away.

Snickering administration advisers probably see this episode as evidence of either Trump’s buffoonery or his harboring of secret big-government instincts. In reality, Republicans understand full well that Medicare and Social Security command deep support even among their own voters. Trump’s conclusion that the only safe ground to attack an expansion of the safety net is from the left, as a defense of existing benefits, is the exact same strategy Republicans used against Obamacare. The signature national ad that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan ran in 2012 stated:

“You paid in to Medicare for years. Every paycheck. Now when you need it, Obama has cut $716 billion from Medicare. Why? To pay for Obamacare. So now the money you paid for your guaranteed healthcare is going to a massive new government program that’s not for you.”

Trump’s inherent Trumpiness is not the reason the deficit has increased. The iconic Republican Ronald Reagan cut taxes, jacked up defense spending, and massively increased the deficit, and his presidency is worshipped as a model all subsequent Republicans must follow. Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush, did break from his party in order to reduce the deficit, and conservatives loathed him for it and use his apostasy as a cautionary tale to this day. The next Republican president, George W. Bush, promised to follow Reagan’s example rather than his father’s, and he delivered, jacking up defense spending and cutting taxes and causing the deficit to spike.

Trump has signed onto legislation designed by Republicans in Congress that increased defense spending and cut taxes. The deficit has risen as a result. That’s what Republicans do.

The other part of Republican policy is formally denouncing deficits and insisting that the deficit increases their party systematically engineers are not their fault. Trump’s comical ignorance of budget policy makes him a useful scapegoat for this purpose. But the reality is that fiscal policy is one area where the president’s complete ignorance is irrelevant to the outcome.

Yeah, ha, ha, ha. Real comical-- especially for the Trumbull County, Ohio, factory workers who flipped from blue to voting overwhelming for Trump because they loved the populist economic message he stole from Bernie but who just found out the county car factory is closing down. I wonder how many of them recall Trump's Youngstown speech last year where he boasted that the Ohio jobs are "all coming back. They’re all coming back. Don’t move, don’t sell your house. We’re going to fill up those factories or rip them down and build new ones."

Why Cry Over A Blue Dog Loser?

It would have made more sense for Matheson and McAdams to run as Republicans

[Note: This post is for progressives, not for garden variety Democrats or corporatists.] There’s one district in Utah-- the 4th-- that looks winnable for a Democrat. The last Democrat from the district, Jim Matheson, was an ultra-reactionary Blue Dog who made a career out of voting with the Republicans on crucial matters. In 2013, after he announced his retirement, I wrote a “good riddance” post that noted that Matheson was one of the worst-- if not the worst-- Democrats in Congress. He was the Kyrsten Sinema of his day. Aside from voting more frequently with the GOP than any other Democrat in 2012-- his crucial vote ProgressivePunch score was a ghastly 23.13 (tied with fellow Blue Dog John Barrow and worse than 5 conservative Republicans!)-- Matheson was a corrupt insider who traded his votes away to the corporations that financed his sleazy career. The only reason he was able to hang on is because enough slow-witted Utahans thought he was his father, popular and well-respected Utah Governor (1977-'85) Scott Matheson. In 2012 Mia Love came within 768 votes of beating him. The final score was 119,803- 119,035. He didn’t want to face her again so the 53 year old career politician announced he would be retiring at the end of the term. Love had held the seat since 2015 when she beat hapless Blue Dog Doug Owens who tried to replicate Matheson but without the Matheson name.

When looking at who to run there, the DCCC immediately decided only a Blue Dog could win. You know… because… Matheson. But if Democrats in Utah wanted to vote for a conservative, they’d vote for a Republican. Democrats in Utah don’t like being stuck with Blue Dog candidates. In the 2016 presidential caucuses Bernie swept the state. He took 61,333 votes (79.3%) to Hillary's 15,666 (20.3%). Look at those numbers again; there is a message there. In Salt Lake County, he didn’t just beat Hillary, he also beat Trump-- by a lot.

• Bernie- 35,610
• Trumpanzee- 6,542

Only the DCCC could imagine that people who picked Bernie over Hillary and Trump-- he had more than twice as many votes as both of them together-- would want some reactionary Blue Dog. But… that’s the DCCC. By the way, they tried the same thing in Maine’s second district, hoping to persuade primary front-runner Jared Golden to join the Blue Dogs. A progressive fire-brand, he laughed and threw his lot in with the Congressional Progressive Caucus instead. The DCCC backed away from the ME-02 primary and Golden won it anyway and went on to win the general election too with minimal help from them. (The DCCC and House Majority PAC spent around $2 million in Maine, while the NRCC and Ryan’s shady SuperPAC spent over double that smearing Golden.)

In Utah they didn’t have to try to persuade Ben McAdams to become a Blue Dog. He is a Blue Dog and ran his campaign as one, with the backing of the DC Blue Dogs. So now McAdams is in Washington with the freshmen class, taking pictures and signing onto the right-wing anti-Pelosi letter, pretending to have been elected… while Mia Love’s vote total creeps high and higher and has now overcome his own. He may win; she may win. It doesn’t matter. The Democrats have the majority-- by a lot-- and they don’t need Ben McAdams. In fact… if he wins you can count on him to be relentlessly pushing the caucus further right on every issue, working to water down progressive legislation and always voting with the GOP. Want to pass Medicare-For-All? $15 minimum wage? Free state college? Mia Love won’t vote for any of that-- and neither will Ben McAdams, but he can do the efforts a lot more harm than she could. I am happy to see him losing.

Petty Narcissistic Sociopath

The world is so black and white for narcissistic sociopaths, especially the malignant kinds... like you-know-who. There's Trump and then there's the rest of the world... and what those in the rest of the world can do for him (or to him). He call to consolidate members of his party who lost their seats Tuesday or to ask how their families are bucking up. He'd didn't send them a message through an intermediary that he would keep an eye out for a job for them.

Instead-- and totally in line with his character and moral fiber-- he razed them and wished them the worst. NCB News reported yesterday that at a White House news conference he said of one member whose race is still too close to call that "Mia Love gave me no love, but then she lost. Too bad."

He was sure to single her out because she's both black and a woman-- two cohorts among his subjects who he has particular animus towards-- but he didn't stop with poor Rep. Love, who's vote he may need in the lame duck session or... if she winds up winning after all.

He listed several other GOP lawmakers he said had rejected his "embrace" before falling to Democratic opponents: Reps. Carlos Curbelo in Florida; Mike Coffman in Colorado; Peter Roskam in Illinois; and Barbara Comstock in Virginia, among them... Retiring Rep. Ryan Costello (R-PA) fired back at Trump on behalf of his colleagues:

The main lesson he learned from the midterms, he said, was "I think people like me."

Though Republicans lost control of the House Tuesday night, Trump portrayed the midterms as a "tremendous" success because the GOP picked up several Senate seats-- against the headwinds of historical precedent.

He said Republicans in the House "dramatically over-performed" expectations. And he even framed the loss of the chamber as a victory for him.

"If we had the majority and we had one or two or three votes to play with we would have been at a standstill," he said. With Democrats in charge, he said, "we can do a tremendous amount of legislation."

But he also warned that if Democrats try to investigate him, Senate Republicans will do the same to them, producing a stalemate. And he said that he would not work with them on policy if they investigate his administration.

"If they do that then all it is is just a war-like posture," he said.

Ronald Reagan Must Be Spinning In His Grave But Will Trump Cost The GOP Congressional Seats? In Utah?

Utah is a very red state-- but it isn't exactly a Trump red state. The PVI is R+20 but in 2016 Trump only wound up with 45.5% of the vote. That's right More Utahans voted against him than for him. Hillary won the biggest county in the state, Salt Lake-- 175,863 to 138,043 (with McMullin pulling 79,880. Shocking as it may sound to people who aren't aware of Utah politics, Trump only took 33% of Salt Lake County. and in the 4th Congressional district-- where incumbent Republican Mia Love is considered vulnerable in November, Trump pulled 39% of the vote. Now that he's president, he's even less popular than he was in 2016. His popularity has sunk precipitously.

Robert Genrke, a columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune is no Trump fan to begin with. His column Tuesday was addressed to Utah favorite son Jon Huntsman, who served as ambassador to China under Obama and who Trump appointed ambassador to Russia in 2017. The paper's owner and publisher is Paul Huntsman, brother of Ambassador Huntsman. Salt Lake's Fox affiliate asked if Huntsman would resign after the Señor Trumpanzee contradicted his assessment of Russia as a "malign" actor on the world stage? Huntsman assessed the Kremlin on Fox News Sunday: "trying to influence other elections, not only our own but those in Europe, tampering with the Brexit vote, funding nefarious political movements within Europe. The list goes on and on and on." His daughter Abby, an anchor on the Fox News Channel told him that "No negotiation is worth throwing your own people and country under the bus."

Gehrke's column, Come home, Ambassador Huntsman, your country needs you, is what everyone in Utah is talking about. Gehrke addressed him directly: "Ambassador Huntsman, you work for a pawn, not a president. It’s time to come home."

As Utahns, many of us were a bit stunned last year when you accepted the job as U.S. ambassador to Russia, but your explanation made sense: It was a role you took on, much like your tenure in China, out of a deep sense of duty.

But that duty is to your country and the best way now to serve your country is not by holding on to some title and being the emissary of a president who doesn’t share your values, or American values, for that matter.

It’s by resigning immediately and speaking out against a president who attacks our allies, gives comfort to our adversaries and undermines our moral standing, our commitment to democratic ideals and our interest in human rights every time he opens his gaping mouth.

For Trump to simply accept at face value Putin’s assertion that Russia played no part in the plot to meddle in U.S. elections is a tragic disservice to the U.S. intelligence community, those diplomats who work in your office, and the integrity of our democracy and justice system.

“I have great confidence in my intelligence people,” Trump said (which he has demonstrated again and again is a lie). “But I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

Was his denial stronger and more powerful than the unanimous assessment of the entire U.S. intelligence community-- the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency, the director of national intelligence-- as well as the Senate Intelligence Committee, which all agree Russia meddled in the elections??

Was it stronger than the charges laid out in shocking detail just three days ago by Trump’s own Justice Department that a dozen Russian military and intelligence agents orchestrated the hacking of Democratic computers, compromised election offices and stole voter data, and worked with WikiLeaks to release damaging information?

...Ronald Reagan must be spinning in his grave.

Mr. Ambassador, members of your own Republican Party are condemning Trump’s shameful sellout of our country.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) said Putin “gained a tremendous amount” from Trump’s validation. “I would guess he’s having caviar right now,” Corker said.

“I would never thought I would see the day when our American president would stand on the stage with the Russian president and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ).

Your friend, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the soccer ball Putin gave to Trump should be checked for listening devices and never allowed in the White House.

...To remain silent and continue to serve this president would be complicity in the undoing of our nation and its status as a world leader.

Come home, Mr. Huntsman. Your country needs you.

Mia Love's district includes the southern part of Salt Lake City plus the city's southern suburbs, like West Jordan, South Jordan, Riverton and shoots south through Lehi and Nephi as far south as Moroni, Spring City and Yuba Lake. She and Blue Dog Ben McAdams are all tied up in the money-raising race. As of the June 30 FEC report she had $1,233,151 in the bank and he had $1,249,035. And in the latest polls they are in a statistical tie. Will Trump hurt Love's reelection chances. McAdams told the media that he joins "Utahns of both political parties in expressing my frustration over what transpired in Helsinki. By interfering in our election, as all of our intelligence agencies have concluded, Russia attacked our country and our ideals. While we must find a way to live with our enemies, we should never confuse our adversaries with our allies. And we must resist Russian attacks with all the tools at our disposal. Democrats and Republicans should stand shoulder in this. Patriotism knows no party."

Love, like Republicans in tight races everywhere in the country, was clearly on the defensive and unable to defend Trump. In fact, she went as far as she could to distance herself from him: "Despite what was stated at today's summit, there is no question that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. Both the Intelligence community and the House Intelligence Committee have demonstrated that fact. Unfortunately, Russia continues a long and persistent track record of hostility towards our nation and values. There's a reason that I, as a Member of Congress, have consistently voted to sanction Russia for its behavior. President Trump must understand that the world counts on our nation to set the tone and hold thugs accountable. Today he failed to do so."

Red To Poo

After the odious Debbie Wasserman Schultz chaired the DCCC's Red-to-Blue program in 2008-- while endorsing 3 Republicans in seats neighboring on her own-- the program lost all credibility and the name faded. It's back to its former glory, acting as an arm of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party as it pushes Blue Dogs, New Dems, "ex"-Republicans, EMILY's Listers and assorted other garbage candidates. The DCCC likes to loudly proclaim that it doesn't interfere in primaries, but the Red to Blue program does nothing but interfere in primaries. On Wednesday it announced it was endorsing 7 more shitty candidates, most of them in competitive primaries. There are 18 now. Not one is an anti-Establishment reformer or a progressive. Basically, all 18 are corporate shills from the Republican wing the party, embodiments of why the best anyone can say about the House Democrats is that they're the lesser of two evils. The 7 new ones:

• FL-26- Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
• MN-03- Dean Phillips
• NE-02- Brad Ashford
• NC-13- Kathy Manning
• NJ-11- Mikie Sherrill
• NY-11- Max Rose
• UT-04- Ben McAdams

Worst on the list, as we've discussed before, is "ex"-Republican, ex-Congressman, Blue Dog Brad Ashford who managed to accrue the most Republican voting record of any Democrat in Congress before his constituents kicked him out. After being fired from his next job he decided to try for Congress again-- what's to lose, since the DCCC will finance the whole thing for him. NE-02 is Douglas County (Omaha and its suburbs) plus rural Sarpy County to the west. In 2016 Bernie won both. The DCCC response to that is to back the most reactionary, anti-progressive guy they could find-- and against a grassroots progressive, Kara Eastman. That's why the DCCC has become a serial losing machine. When I called Kara yesterday and asked her about Red-to-Blue endorsing Ashford, she didn't seem overly-concerned. She told me its just "another example of the outside establishment getting involved in Nebraska politics. I am not in this to win over the party, but to win for Nebraskans. Our grassroots campaign is strong, and our positive message is resonating with voters in the second CD. We have knocked over 14,000 doors and have more than 1,000 individual donors. This shows the strength and vitality of our campaign, which is different from previous congressional runs in Nebraska. I’m proud to say that real working- and middle-class Nebraskans are supporting Eastman for Congress and not our conservative opponent who lost the 2016 election."

Each Red-to-Blue endorsement is different but they all have establishment conservatism in common. All their candidates suck and any one of them who is swept into power in the wave cycle, will help make the House Democraps a worse organization. They're all a bunch of hackish Hillary-backers even in districts that were won by Bernie. For example, virtually all the voters in UT-04 live in Salt Lake (southern Salt Lake City and its suburbs) and Utah counties (Provo's suburbs). Bernie won Salt Lake County with 78.8% and Bernie won Utah County with 85.3%. Does that tell you something about how the Democratic base feels about status quo establishment candidates? It doesn't tell the DCCC a damned thing; they picked the most status quo, establishment candidate they could find, Ben McAdams, who had loudly endorsed Hillary in 2016, completely out of touch with Utahns. He's just another DCCC corporate confection with no issues page on his website. Utah Republicans are already referring to him as "Utah’s version of Hillary Clinton." 4 other Democrats are campaigning in the race for the nomination to oppose GOP incumbent Mia Love but the DCCC couldn't lay off and let Utahns decide; they had to big-foot in on behalf of Utah’s version of Hillary Clinton.

Down in South Florida progressive Democrat Steve Machat is running for the nomination to take on Carlos Curbelo. But so is the Debbie Wasserman Schultz candidate, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who lost a state Senate race in 2016. She's also been endorsed by EMILY's List, always a bad sign if you're looking for a progressive. She has a cookie cutter website that promises to protect Obamacare but doesn't mention Medicare-for-all or single payer. Steve Machat is one of the 4 Democrats running for the nomination in FL-26. He told me yesterday that the DCCC has "picked a candidate that will obey the order that runs the Democrat Party. An order that has lost the soul of the people,  this is not FDR’ s party nor Kennedy's either. These DCCC run by Pelosi believe they know the answers. To cure a disease of disservice they became the disease. I am running to represent the people. I will protect and defend the people from the few who have served in office way to long. So long they forgot they got into politics to serve. Not be served. I will win the primary. I will beat Curbelo."

The Hill reported that "the Red to Blue program, from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's (DCCC), program will provide the candidates with fundraising and organizational support. The total number of Democrats backed by the program comes to 18. Democrats need a net gain of 24 seats to take back control of the House." That's not interfering?

Hot Congressional Race In Utah? Don't Write It Off Yet

Ben McAdams visits Mia Love's office

Utah has 4 congressional districts-- all very red. But it would be easy as pie to create a Democratic district. Right now the Republican legislature diluted Salta Lake City's Democratic majority by grafting it onto the very backward, rural, gigantic second CD, basically most of the western and southern part of the state, 13 blood red counties with almost no Democratic votes. If the legislature kept Salt Lake County-- with over a million voters-- whole, it would be a solidly Democratic district, instead of a diluted bit of UT-02, a diluted part of UT-03 and a diluted part of UT-04. In fact, UT-04, even without much of the city itself, just the suburbs south and southwest of the city, makes it the least Republican district in the state. Blue Dog Jim Matheson was still winning congressional races there as recently as 2012. He retired in 2014 and Mia Love beat another Blue Dog, Doug Owens, 50-46%, outspending him $5,159,840 to $866,595. She's been an unobtrusive backbencher and a 100% rubber-stamp for Ryan and Trump.

Wednesday, the mayor of Salt Lake County, Democrat Ben McAdams announced that he's running for her seat next year. (There are 3 other Democrats already running, Darlene McDonald, whose website extols ObamaCare as a good conservative solution to healthcare, Marla Mott-Smith, who doesn't mention healthcare on her website and Tom Taylor, whose website sounds like he's a Berniecrat. McAdams has no issues or positions on his website yet, possibly indicating he's a conservative.

Utah Democrats aren't interested in conservatives; if they were, they'd be Republicans. Last year's caucuses saw Bernie sweep the state. He took 61,333 votes (79.3%) to Hillary's 15,666 (20.3%). Over on the Republican side, Cruz came in first, followed by Kasich and Señor Trumpanzee drew only 24,864 votes, significantly fewer than Bernie. In Salt Lake County. Hillary lost every county to Bernie-- and by huge numbers. Salt Lake County's results were just like the state's:

• Bernie- 35,610
• Hillary- 9,431
• Señor Trumpanzee- 6,542

On election day, Trump crushed Hillary statewide, but not in Salt Lake County, which she won, 154,831 (42.8%) to 117,901 (32.6%). Evan McMullin won 68,209 votes (18.9%).

Yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune seemed very excited by McAdams decision to run, reminding readers that he is "one of the state’s most politically popular and ambitious Democrats." He doesn't sound very exciting to me.

He told the Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday he’d zeroed in on the House seat because Congress and the federal government have created roadblocks to solving issues Utahns face.

“I would hope that our representatives in Washington rolled up their sleeves and knew what was going on and knew what our challenges were and how they could help to solve our challenges,” he said. “Instead it feels like they’re just enamored with the national spotlight and partisan games that both parties seem to play.”

McAdams lives about a block outside the 4th District, but as mayor he represents about 85 percent of the voters in the district. Because he was re-elected last year, McAdams won’t have to give up his position to run.

As mayor, McAdams has been involved in some of the region’s highest-profile issues. He led a committee that studies how to reform homeless services as the county has spent years grappling with how it can improve services and prevent homelessness.

The issue has proved politically challenging as well. A state law required McAdams to pick a location for a new homeless shelter before the state closes a 1,100-bed shelter downtown and build three smaller ones throughout the county. McAdams picked South Salt Lake, which is in the 4th District, sparking a battle with that city’s mayor and upsetting residents near the shelter.

“My approach has been to dive in and to make the decisions that we need to make to move forward,” he said. “That was a tough process, and I guess we’ll see what people think about that. But I hope people will see that I was faced with some tough challenges that we were trying to solve.”

During a 20-minute conversation, McAdams said Wednesday he was willing to work with anyone to get things done-- including President Donald Trump, whom McAdams also called “overly divisive.”

“I would like to see leaders who bring us together rather than divide us,” McAdams said of Trump. “But that won’t stop me from working to find common ground and bring solutions back to Utah.”

He pointed to the state’s request to expand Medicaid to cover very low-income residents. The expansion is considered crucial to the state’s effort to cover drug treatment under the ongoing Operation Rio Grande. The state is awaiting approval from the federal government.

“We’re waiting for federal approval and we’ve been waiting for federal approval for two years now,” he said. “We cannot get the federal government to take action.”

McAdams’ first choice was a much larger expansion of Medicaid to cover far more Utahns. But when the state showed it wasn’t willing to take on the higher costs of the federal insurance coverage under Medicaid, McAdams says he worked with Republican House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, to get something through the Legislature that could pass.

...McAdams is uniquely positioned for a challenge given his high visibility in the county, his experience and his ability to mount a campaign close to his home, said Tim Chambless, an associate political science professor at the University of Utah.

“If he can just do fairly well in the other three, more rural counties, campaign well in the highly suburban parts of Salt Lake County,” Chambless said, “he can win.”

McAdams said he expects the campaign will cost about $2.5 million and that he plans to run a positive campaign but expects plenty of outside money that typically funds negative ad campaigns.

“We sat down with our kids and we told them that we expect that this will be ugly. There will be a lot of negativity. And that does give me pause,” he said. “Ultimately, the moment that good people are bullied out of running for office because of fear of the negativity, then Washington really is lost.

“I decided that I believe in the good, human nature of Utahns. That people know me,” he said. “I care about Utah and that’s why I’m doing this.”

And the first poll is already out! It's more a name ID poll than anything else but it shows McAdams pretty close to Love. The Trib reported this morning that "Both candidates are viewed favorably by a majority of voters in the district, which includes portions of Salt Lake, Utah, Juab and Sanpete counties. Fifty-seven percent of voters viewed Love favorably, with 20 percent saying they had a 'very favorable' view of her. Fifty-six percent of voters had favorable view of McAdams. Fewer voters had a negative view of McAdams than Love. Fifteen percent had either a 'somewhat' or 'very' unfavorable view of McAdams, compared to 36 percent for Love. Eighteen percent of voters had no opinion of McAdams, compared to just 6 percent for Love."