Tomorrow's Non-Presidential Primaries

The corrupt Democratic establishment has been far more successful shutting down primaries than has the corrupt Republican establishment. Primaries are usually the only way it ever challenge entrenched incumbents in gerrymandered safe districts. All Americans actually owe the Tea Party a debt of gratitude for scaring the congressional Republicans and for cleaning out some trash, particularly Wall Street whore Eric Cantor. This cycle, the most comparable action on the Democratic side of the aisle is Tim Canova's challenge to a Democrat as vile and deserving of ignominious defeat as Cantor was: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, although head Blue Dog Kurt Schrader (OR) and So. Jersey machine corruptionist Donald Norcross are also being pounded, respectively, by reformers Dave McTeague and Alex Law.

Tomorrow, though, there aren't many primaries in either party against incumbents that are likely to yield surprises. The one exception might be in northeast Ohio-- (OH-14) between Cleveland's eastern suburbs and the Pennsylvania state line west of Erie-- where dull backbencher David Joyce is being challenged by a crackpot extremist again. In 2014, Joyce fended off the very same crackpot extremist, ex-state Rep. Matt Lynch, 27,547 (55%) to 22,546 (45%). This year though, election officials in Lake, Cuyahoga, Geauga and Summit counties are expecting much, much larger turnouts because of the simultaneous presidential primary. Lynch is counting on Trump and Cruz voters figuring out that he's their man, while Joyce is counting on Kaisich backers voting for him. Lynch has been spending money on tarring Joyce as a compromiser afraid to shut down the government while making it clear that the radicals and extremists back his race against Joyce.

Unfortunately for Lynch, by the Feb. 24 reporting deadline Joyce had already spent $1,058,471 and had another $549,665 ready to deploy, while all he had managed it raise was $173,406. He's getting free airtime on Hate Talk Radio (especially on Beck's show) but will it be enough? Few think so and the establishment and all the newspapers in the area have endorsed Joyce. The DCCC is once again ignoring the race although, presumably, if Lynch wins tomorrow, they'd jump in to try to bolster Michael Wager, the progressive who ran against Joyce in 2014 and is on the ballot again. With Bernie-- or even Hillary-- at the top of the Democratic ticket in November, particularly against Trump, Wager would likely be a shoo-in.



There's also a far right extremist running against John Shimkus in the sprawling, empty southeastern district (IL-15) that skirts all cities and big towns that might have a library. It was Obama's worst-performing district in the state and the last Democrat who ran for the congressional seat, spent $24,243 and won 25% of the vote. This cycle there isn't even a Democrat running at all. Instead, Shimkus, the congressman who repeatedly allowed Mark Foley access to the underage pages he molested for years, is facing far right state Sen. Kyle McCarter, who's being supported-- to the tune of $345,650) by Club for Growth. This is the completely deceptive-- and probably ineffective-- ad they're running in the district:



Shimkus had spent $1,764,009 by Feb. 24 and reported another $995,864 in the bank, while McCarter had spent $245,018 and was getting ready to spend $106,985. American Action Network-- a Chamber of Commerce establishment group run by notorious anti-Semite Fred Malek and ex-Jew Norm Coleman-- spent $200,485 helping Shimkus. Shimkus doesn't appear to be in any real trouble.

The races where there actually could be upsets are both Democratic primaries, a Senate race in Ohio and a House race in Illinois' 10th district. The DSCC and DCCC had each mandated a candidate, the elderly and feeble conservative Ted Strickland in Ohio and the corrupt conservative New Dem Brad Schneider in Illinois. Schneider and his DCCC backers appear to be about to lose to Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, who is strongly backed by Se. Dick Durbin and endorsed by all the local newspapers.

The Ohio race is a much bigger longshot and Blue America has strongly backed challenger PG Sittenfeld against the NRA's top Democrat, Ted Strickland. Paul Rosenberg covered the primary in great detail forSalon over the weekend. He noted that "when 78-year-old former Ohio governor Dick Celeste endorsed Sittenfeld recently, he directly invoked what was happening in the presidential race. 'What we’re seeing in the presidential campaigns across the country is a growing level of discontent with party leadership in both parties. And I think it was a mistake for the Democratic Party of Ohio, for example, to make an early endorsement in the Senate race,' Celeste said. 'PG Sittenfeld represents a fresh way of moving forward,' he said, pointing to Sittenfeld’s hands-on engagement in dealing with a multitude of urban issues. 'What we have here is a race between the future and the past,' Celeste continued. 'When I say the past, I’m talking about the Democratic Party itself. It is trying to operate in an old way. And that old way was insiders who tried to make decisions and insiders who tried to call the shots. And that’s not what people want.'"

At the most obvious level, this race pits an aging, backward-looking insider against a young, forward-thinking outsider. As Celeste said, it’s “a race between the future and the past.” But the past also means an aging candidate significantly at odds with his party’s voting base-- though with varying degrees of obfuscation-- who has repeatedly refused to debate his opponent… for good reason, it would seem.

On guns, Strickland bragged to a radio caller last year, “As a Congressman I had A and most of the time an A+ rating with the National Rifle Association.” He went on to brag that he voted against the 1994 assault weapons ban that Ohio Gov. John Kasich voted for. As governor, he signed a so-called “castle doctrine” law  that was opposed by Ohio prosecutors and police chiefs associations, who said it would provide legal cover for bad guys hurting folks who had no intention of harming them. He also supported a bill that would allow firearms in family restaurants and bars-- a measure opposed by police groups, which was blocked by the speaker of the state assembly at the end of the 2010 session. He now claims to have undergone a conversion, but even so he admitted, “My record is mixed and spotty and I could be criticized for that.”

On the environment, Strickland got a 100 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters just one year out of 12 he spent in Congress, as opposed to seven years with scores in the 60s and 70s, and four in the 80s. He voted repeatedly for coal and fossil fuel subsidies (1993, 1994, 1997, 2001), against higher fuel economy standards (2001, 2003, 2005), and against protecting public forest lands (1999, 2000, 2003), along with a range of other anti-environmental votes.

Although Strickland calls himself “pro-choice,” his record is more multiple-choice. He did score 100 percent twice on NARAL’s scorecard, but also scored in the 30s twice, and 60 or lower five times. He cast multiple votes that would restrict abortion rights, including a 1998 vote to override a Clinton veto. As governor, he signed an abortion-ultrasound bill that drew anti-choice activists’ praise.

On all three of these  issues, Sittenfeld’s progressive positions signal a clear-cut break with Strickland. He’s pledged that he will only support a Supreme Court nominee who pledges to uphold Roe v. Wade. He’s got a comprehensive agenda to reduce gun violence: first, by closing loopholes to make background checks truly mandatory; second, by holding gun manufacturers and dealers accountable; and third, by keeping violent weapons out of dangerous hands. On the environment, Sittenfeld has a proven leadership record on the city council, chairing the committee overseeing all environmental issues. When a GOP plan was launched to defund the city’s Office of Environmental Quality (OEQ) as part of a cost-cutting plan, he alerted local activists to fight back, pointing out that “OEQ saves tax-payers more money each year than the Department costs-- so axing it would represent broken fiscal management and in no way be productive for our budget situation.” Regarding global warming, he supports Obama’s Clean Power Plan, opposes the Keystone Pipeline, and says “the need to act has never been more urgent or more important.”

But beyond these key issue positions, reflecting the vast majority of Ohio’s Democratic base, Sittenfeld has a mature sense of how intricately different issues and ideas interweave and synergize with one another, based on his own lived experience. Before being elected to city council, Sittenfeld served as the assistant director of the Community Learning Center Institute, which played a key role in dramatically transforming the city’s public schools. He described the result in a speech laying out his urban agenda last year:

Virtually all of our schools are new. But instead of using them only during the school day-- and then shooing the kids out of the building and into the streets-- we’ve turned them into bustling, round-the-clock community centers.

Co-located health and dental facilities…. adult education programs… and enhanced cultural and recreational opportunities have removed barriers to student learning, boosted academic achievement, and sparked broader neighborhood revitalization.

Rather than seeing education through the narrow lens of high-stakes testing of individual students, destroying neighborhood schools in the process, as has happened in Chicago and other major cities, Cincinnati’s approach was the complete opposite, seeing education as the process of a whole community creating a better future by investing in its children holistically, synergizing different support systems that had previously been disconnected, or even absent. Similarly, a careful reading of his issue agenda shows a constant awareness of how different pieces of the progressive policy puzzle fit together.

Under the heading of “rebuilding the middle class,” he says he will “fight for a livable minimum wage, expanded overtime pay, better child care assistance, family leave, and paid sick days,” and “reject bad trade deals that create an uneven playing field for American workers,” pledging to “always be steadfast in standing up for workers’ rights, including collective bargaining,” which Ohio Republicans have fiercely attacked since 2010. At the same time, he won’t be pigeonholed as defending dying industries of the past, saying, “We won’t rebuild the middle class by yearning for yesterday or clinging to a past that will never return. We must embrace innovation, champion change, and understand the tools of tomorrow, including ensuring fast, affordable internet for all Americans.”

His positive stance toward innovation is reflected in other issue areas he stresses as well-- most notably education and the environment. And he has a detailed urban policy agenda, encompassing four major components: ending mass incarceration, improving police-community relations and better gun safety, jobs and economic opportunity, and improving urban schools and making college affordable. This is not a laundry list of issues in his view, but a tightly interrelated set of concerns. Being grounded in the reality of that interrelation is arguably Sittenfeld’s greatest strength-- and given the nature of the Democratic Party’s diverse constituency, it’s just the sort of leadership strength the party desperately needs. “All of us want our best selves represented by who we cast a vote for,” Celeste said. “And I believe PG Sittenfeld represents the best of us.”

But the party also needs leaders who can bring people together in different ways. And that’s precisely where the outsiders excel over the anointed insiders in the other three states as well.

The state's newspapers are all disgusted with Strickland for ducking debates and have almost all endorsed Sittenfeld. Hillary Clinton, who makes believe she opposes the NRA and cares about families, is strongly behind Strickland despite his very Republican record that spans decades. Summing up months of coverage, the Columbus Dispatch closed Saturday by noting that "Ted Strickland, a 74-year-old veteran politician, has been employing a rope-a-dope strategy ... Meanwhile, Sittenfeld, a 31-year-old Cincinnati councilman, has pressed for debates, held news conferences and traveled the state." And the final Toledo Blade editorial reported that "Strickland...has largely limited his campaign appearances to friendly audiences, and even other Democrats have noted his overall lack of visibility... In a year in which voters are turning to insurgent candidates at every level, in search of new voices and fresh faces, such a contrast could work in Mr. Sittenfeld’s favor."

But Chuck Schumer doesn't want energetic and committed independent thinkers like Sittenfeld in the Senate. He wants tired old conservative hacks like Strickland who will just do what they're told. Schumer has no realistic hope that a doddering and incoherent Strickland could actually beat Republican incumbent Rob Portman and he and Tester are just gambling that November will see a battle between Hillary and Trump and that she will be seen as the lesser evil and have the coattails needed to drag Strickland's NRA carcass across the finish line. Ohio Democratic primary voters should give Chuck Schumer the finger tomorrow and nominate PG Sittenfeld. Beyond tomorrow's primaries... in Illinois and Ohio:

Corporate Bailout for Ohio’s Weakest Incumbent, Dave Joyce

Despite recent ratings changes to the contrary, Congressman Dave Joyce is in trouble in Ohio’s 14th District. Defending Main Street Super PAC, a corporate backed special interest group funded by former 14th District Congressman turned lobbyist, Steve LaTourette, just swooped in with a $67,000 TV buy to bail out Joyce.

It’s no surprise that Joyce is in trouble, given that OH-14 is a true swing district, voting for Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown 48-47% in 2012, and polling shows Congressman Joyce is vulnerable to defeat from a Democratic challenger.

 

Joyce has built virtually his entire campaign with big money from corporate PACs and Super PACs, to the tune of over $1.7 million this cycle. But voters are ready to toss Joyce for his 90% voting record with Speaker John Boehner, and his turning a blind eye to corporate inversions, a practice that allows large companies to dump their tax burden on the middle class by reincorporating in tax havens overseas.

Michael Wager, Joyce’s Democratic opponent, has been relentless in calling out Joyce’s support for corporate interests, taking him to task in a recent interview for being the largest recipient of PAC dollars from Eaton Corporation, a formerly Cleveland-area based company that moved its headquarters to Ireland to dodge paying taxes. Here’s what Wager said in a Cleveland Scene interview this week:

I’ve been aware of what are called corporate inversions for a long time. It's just another one of the enormous loopholes in the way the tax code is set up in the U.S. They're largely taken advantage of by large companies, corporations and very wealthy people who have tax planners. What they're doing is not illegal. It's just wrong. Eaton Corp. is the example I use, because they're local. And they're not fond of me using them. In a sense, I don't blame Eaton Corp. They did what was in their interest to maximize their profits. Do I believe it was wrong and inconsistent with the notion of being an American company? Of course I do. And I understand why they did it. What I don't accept is that the U.S. Congress knows they're doing it and that dozens of other large companies are doing it — and the list is growing as we sit here.

I've tried to draw David Joyce out on this. And it's more than just, 'He's a Republican in Congress and he hasn't acted on it.' He is the single largest recipient of PAC money from Eaton Corp. When I mentioned that to him in a side-by-side debate last Friday, he didn't respond. He just said it's a big loophole and something should be done about it.

Wager, a corporate lawyer, knows the tricks that these large companies use to dodge paying their fair share. That’s why they’re scared he’ll make it to Congress, push for real tax reform, and cut into their massive profits.

Things aren’t looking so good for corporate America’s lapdog, Congressman Dave Joyce. Joyce is in retreat: just days after Michael Wager went on air calling him out for his votes to shut down the government and cut Social Security and Medicare, Joyce pulled his first ad, and LaTourette’s Defending Main Street Super PAC stepped in to bail him out.

 

If you want to help Michael, a Blue America endorsed candidate, before the Super PAC ads air next week, please click here.

There's A Winnable Seat In Ohio-- If The DCCC Does Its Job

Hard core right-wing GOP voters, particularly in the former Confederate states-- something between a quarter and a third of all voters-- are pretty gung-ho on shutting down the government. Normal voters, on the other hand, just hate it. Last week, when first McConnell and then Paul Ryan let it slip that the Republicans plan to stay quiet about triggering more government shut-downs until after the election-- and then move in for the kill. (And by "kill," of course, they mean you, your family, the American economy and democracy itself.)

Alison Lundergan Grimes responded to McConnell's "slip of the tongue" with the web ad above. But she isn't the only Democrat who recognizes an opportunity. Michael Wager, the only Democrat in Ohio who has a shot to replace a Republican in that state, can benefit from the resuscitation of an issue that had died down. When MoveOn.org had polled OH-14 between Cleveland and the Pennsylvania border, they found most people concerned. 59% of the people in the district said they opposed the government shut down. And on being informed that David Joyce had voted to shut it down, only 44% of respondents said they would vote to reelect him. 47% said they would vote for his Democratic opponent.

That's Michael Wager, the only Democratic challenger in Ohio who has raised over-- or even close to-- a million dollars. But Steve Israel has been urging Democrats and Democratic support groups to contribute to a recruit in an impossibly red district (OH-06-- R+8), where a drastically right-wing, anti-Choice/anti-gay/pro-NRA/pro-fracking recruit of his, Jennifer Garrison, is running a miserable, losing campaign. Israel won't win the OH-06 seat but he could well blow the chance to win the OH-14 seat. But that isn't how Wager is looking at it. He and his grassroots team don't think much about the DCCC. They think about the voters in Ashtabula, Mayfield Heights, Mentor, Chardon, Solon, Middlefield and Painesville instead.

"The dysfunction of the 113th Congress," Wager told us this morning, "is all too evident in their lack of action on so many of our nation’s critical needs, but the truly emblematic failure of this Congress will be the several votes in October 2013 to shutdown the government and put our nation in economic peril. Once again, Republican leaders, like Senator McConnell, talk about advancing extreme and ideologically-driven spending bills, potentially causing another shutdown of the federal government.

"Regrettably, my opponent, Republican Congressman David Joyce, has shown his willingness to vote again (as he did three separate times in October) for these extreme measures, as Republicans push our nation to the economic precipice to wantonly advance their agenda of obstructionism. In November, I will call upon voters in the 14th District to hold David Joyce  accountable for his betrayal of public trust and his lack of truthfulness about his extreme voting record."

You can give Wager a hand here and help Blue America try to plug some holes the DCCC is leaving in his campaign. This is the one Democrat who can win in Ohio. Steve Israel doesn't like backing progressives and he won't allow the DCCC to help Wager win the seat. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown has tried to turn things around for Wager, but Israel is a pig-headed jackass and he absolutely refuses to change his approach. It's a winnable seat and we shouldn't let Joyce waltz back into office.

Ohio Will Never Be A Congressional Battleground Until The House Dems Dump DCCC Chair Steve Israel

Incapable of learning from past mistakes; doomed to endlessly repeat them

Jessica Wehrman's analysis of Ohio's congressional election for the Columbus Dispatch this morning, could have been in almost any newspaper anywhere in America. Beltway conventional wisdom has it that none of the 16 seats are in jeopardy-- and the DCCC isn't competent enough to understand a two-cycle strategy for winning a district-- but the incumbents "have raised a combined $32 million for their re-election bids-- 15 times what their upstart challengers have this election season. You’ve heard the tale of David and Goliath? Try Goliath versus an ant."

The nature of Ohio's gerrymandering sees large numbers of Democrats packed into a few super-safe, unassailable districts while 2 GOP-held districts, OH-10 and OH-14, are the only real swing districts in the state. (The DCCC is essentially ignoring both seats.)

Despite safe seats and novice challengers, lawmakers are padding their campaign accounts with the financial equivalent of a security blanket, raising millions to scare off any future challengers or outside-money groups that might be tempted to weigh in.

“Sixteen seats open, and none of them with a real race,” said Sarah Bryner of the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign-finance research group.

Watchdogs say that despite an era when the public’s approval of Congress is polling at historic lows, tossing incumbents out of office is a nearly impossible task. In Ohio, for example, lawmakers represent districts that have been overwhelmingly drawn safer for them over the past few decades. Add to that mammoth fundraising advantages, and few challengers even bother to run.

“I’m sure this deters good candidates,” said Catherine Turcer of Common Cause Ohio, a liberal-leaning government watchdog group. “Let’s put it this way-- it certainly deters sensible people.”

Of the current congressional challengers, only four had more than $100,000 in the bank as of June 30-- Democrats Fred Kundrata, Jennifer Garrison, Michael Wager and Marek Tyszkiewicz. They are opposing, respectively, Republican Reps. Steve Chabot of Cincinnati, Bill Johnson of Marietta, Dave Joyce of northeastern Ohio and Brad Wenstrup of Cincinnati.

…That incumbents have so much more than their challengers appears to give them a healthy advantage going into November. With few exceptions (such as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who lost his primary to an underfunded political novice this year), money matters because it allows candidates to buy TV ads and spread their message to voters.

“Statistics certainly show that most races are won by the candidate who has more money than the person they’re running against,” said Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, a campaign-fundraising watchdog.

But Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, said it is possible. He beat Democratic incumbent Mary Jo Kilroy in 2010, out-raising her slightly.

“It can be done,” he said. “There are challengers out-raising incumbents all over the country. It just doesn’t happen to be happening in Ohio. … It’s not like incumbency is insurmountable.”

Stivers plans to use his campaign money on TV ads and mail to “tell voters who I am.”

“I feel like part of the contract I make with voters is I’ll communicate with them,” he said.

Without an apparent contest, many Ohio members end up donating to their party. Tiberi gave the NRCC $582,000 this cycle. And Stivers donated $215,000 to the NRCC, but also gave $10,000 to the Boehner for Speaker Fund. Stivers said Boehner challenged Ohio Republicans this year to donate to more vulnerable House Republicans.

The most obvious district for a Democratic takeover is Dayton's 10th CD (R+3), currently represented by Mike Turner, a former Dayton mayor first elected to the House in 2002. Obama narrowly beat McCain there in 2008 and Romney narrowly beat Obama in 2012. Steve Israel has aggressively ignored the district, didn't recruit a candidate at all and isn't backing the local Democrats' primary winner, Bob Klepinger. Klepinger, a first-time candidate with a populist bent, hasn't raised the $5,000 FEC threshold that triggers a finance report. Turner has already spent $592,044 on the race and has another $375,315 cash-on-hand.

The other district the DCCC should be trying to win is OH-14 (R+4), just east of Cleveland, a district Sherrod Brown won last cycle and where Obama narrowly lost both times. Blue America has endorsed Michael Wager and this is certainly the best shot the Democrats have for picking up a seat in Ohio-- or would have, if not for Steve Israel's foot-dragging and sabotage. Wager's progressive politics-- similar to Sherrod Brown's-- is not approved of by Israel, who has decided to put all the DCCC's power behind Ohio's Sarah Palin, right-wing, anti-Choice, anti-gay, pro-NRA, pro-fracking corporate shill Jennifer Garrison instead. He recruited her, facilitated an endorsement from his Blue Dog allies, and has funneled money into her pointless campaign, while urging donors yo not contribute to Wager. Her district, OH-06 is an impossible R+8 conservative bastion where Obama was beaten badly booth times.

Even without any help from the DCCC, Wager has raised nearly a million dollars, while Garrison, who has had Israel, Pelosi and Hoyer all campaigning for her, has raised only $571,064. She's the archetypal Steve Israel candidate and the OH-06 race explains why Pelosi's and Hoyers's disastrous decision to keep Israel on as DCCC chair after he botched the 2012 elections so badly, explains why 2014 is likely to be another catastrophe for the House Democrats.

Two Ohio Democrats With Very Different Views Of Health Care Reform-- Michael Wager And Jennifer Garrison

Yesterday we looked at what happened when a real Democrat, Michael Wager, was confronted with idiotic Republican assertions about health care reform. Conservative Republicans in Ohio and across the country opposed Social Security, opposed Medicare, opposed Medicaid and now oppose the Affordable Care Act, all as a matter of course. It's the nature of who and what they are. Wager, the progressive Democrat running in the northeast corner of the state east of Cleveland, doesn't share that nature. He pushed back, talked about how he thinks the Affordable Care Act doesn't go far enough but is a decent first step and said he would have voted for it.

Steve Israel has basically ignored Wager's race against vulnerable Republican incumbent David Joyce (in an R+4 district Sherrod Brown just won 2 years ago). Instead, he's been terribly excited at the dim prospect of elected extreme right-wing fake Democrat Jennifer Garrison, an anti-Choice/pro-NRA tracking champion who based her political career on virulent homophobia, her trademark issue. Unlike Wager, she has publicly stated she would not welcome a campaign visit from President Obama and, unlike Wager she has claimed she would not have voted for the Affordable Care Act. Just the kind of candidate that makes Steve Israel tingle all over!

A letter to the editor from a Garrison staffer this week serves as a perfect contrast to Wager:

In a letter published over the weekend, the writer was badly misinformed on Congressional candidate Jennifer Garrison's views of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). If he would have done any research at all, he would have found that Garrison has repeatedly stated that she would not have voted for Obamacare. Taken straight from her campaign website, "I was frustrated and angered by the process by which Congress enacted the Affordable Care Act." She would not have supported the ACA because of the cuts to Medicare…

Those are Republican talking points that the NRCC and John Boehner's office hand out to GOP candidates. And, basically, so is this healthcare position Garrison put up on her campaign website:

Like a lot of Americans, I was frustrated and angered by the process by which Congress enacted the Affordable Care Act. There are admirable parts of the law-- covering pre-existing conditions, helping more Ohio families to get health coverage, and raising the age by which children can remain on their parents’ plans. But there are serious concerns, such as rising premiums on small businesses and the treatment of multi-employer plans that negatively impact many labor families. I’ll work to fix the Affordable Care Act so that it works better for people in our part of Ohio.

This is the voice of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party and, in many ways, it's even worse than the voice of the Republican Party, since that voice will not be undermining progressive values and principles inside the party caucus-- and in committees-- the way Garrison's would. Garrison has been recruited by the Blue Dog Coalition-- which helps explain Israel's loyalty to a candidate in an R+8 district with no chance to win-- but even with intense DCCC help, she has only managed to raise $571,064 (which includes a $30,303 check she wrote herself) to Bill Johnson's $1,766,423. (Ironically, the no DCCC help, Wager has raised almost double and has $525,901 cash on hand, compared to Garrison's $230,780. A vaguely competent DCCC chairman would be ignoring Garrison and doubling down on Wager. Hopefully we'll have a competent DCCC chairman in time to clean up Israel's two consecutive disasters by the 2016 election.

Real Democrats Don't Run Away When Right-Wingers Attack-- Meet Ohio's Michael Wager

OH-14, just east of Cleveland, is another swing district that Steve Israel is ignoring. It's a winnable seat and there's an exceptionally good Democratic candidate, Michael Wager, and a weak and vulnerable Republican, David Joyce. Joyce, a backbencher who other Republicans have noted is just a puppet of Boehner and the Republican Beltway Establishment, isn't well known by his constituents, who tell pollsters that are very much open to replacing him with a Democrat.

Yesterday morning Michael Wager was on the radio with Bill Press (above) and when Press asked him, he immediately said he thought the Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction and would have voted for it. Press also asked him if he would invited President Obama and Nancy Pelosi to OH-14 to campaign for him. Since he's a real Democrat, not a Blue Dog, not a new Dem and not some kind of corporate shill from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, he said he would be proud to campaign with either or both.

The NRCC melted down. Someone get Katie Prill some smelling salts, STAT! "Ohio families finally have confirmation that Michael Wager in Congress means more of the liberal Pelosi agenda for them in Northeast Ohio," she shrieked in distress. "It’s still too hard to tell if Wager couldn’t help but let his extreme liberal flag fly or if he just made the biggest mistake of his political life. Either way, Wager has successfully tanked his own campaign."

The NRCC asserted that "Wager, the Democrat running for Congress in Ohio’s 14th District, has just ended his own congressional campaign on the Bill Press radio show." Michael, who Blue America endorsed as a strong progressive candidate isn't backing down-- in fact, quite the contrary. On the show he said was happy to talk about his friendship with Nancy Pelosi and said "She stands for the things I stand for…" The first thing Michael ever told us when we first met him early this year was that the core motivation for his candidacy "is concern about the future of American participatory democracy as a result of protracted and worsening income equality. The oft-discussed issues of gerrymandering, election law abuses and campaign finance laws are certainly challenges to meaningful choice in our elections; however, it is unjustifiable economic inequality that weakens our social cohesion and erodes the American middle class. This is not a necessary consequence of American capitalism. Rather, it is mostly attributable to a federal tax and expenditure policies that favor narrow interests over most Americans."

When we reached him last night to ask him about the Republicans trying too raise money by screaming about the Bill Press interview, he laughed and told us this:

"From its inception, my campaign has advocated for American workers and stood up to right-wing attacks on the American middle class values. I will continue to stand proudly with Democrats and Independents that want economic growth that benefits all Americans, including a livable wage, fair trade and affordable healthcare. Moreover, I will continue to stand up to special interests that purchase influence in Congress and, then, attack those that oppose their dangerous agenda of lower taxes for the wealthiest and deep cuts to vital social programs serving our children, our seniors and our veterans."

He sounds a lot more like Justin Amash did in his now famous victory speech than Boehner Boy David Joyce does.

The DCCC added the race to their Red-to-Blue page but, as far as I can see from public records, they haven't done a thing to help Michael. He's been getting some assistance from Sherrod Brown, who won OH-14 in his 2012 Senate reelection battle. But he could use some Blue America love too. Here's the place.

Elizabeth Warren: "The Time For Free-Loading Is Over"

Just a week ago we warned about how conservatives were eager to prevent progressives to end a tax loophole that allows corporations to do "inversions" that allow them to pay no taxes. Yesterday, the Senate failed to break a Republican filibuster lead by Wisconsin corporate whore Ron Johnson. Breaking the filibuster requires 60 votes and the Democrats only mustered 54, so it failed 54-42, all but one Republican joining the filibuster this time.

Elizabeth Warren was up on the floor of the Senate (as you can see in the video above), denouncing the corporations that are taking advantage of this country. "These companies," she told her fellow senators, "are renouncing their American citizenship, turning their backs on this country, simply to boost their profits. They are taking advantage of all the good things that our government helps provide-- educated workers, roads and bridges, a dependable court system, patent and copyright protections-- and then running out on the bill. If a person did that, we'd call them a freeloader. For a person who doesn't want to pay a fair share, our message is clear: you can renounce your citizenship, but don't come back and expect the rest of us to pick up your tab. But we don't do that for corporations. Corporations can renounce their American citizenship-- and make absolutely clear in legal documents that they're doing so to avoid their US tax obligations-- and not suffer any consequences. In this corner of the tax code, we've gone way past treating corporations like people. In this corner of the tax code, we treat corporations better than people."

Robert Cyran tried explaining to NY Times what exactly had happened a few minutes after the vote.

Inversions are starting to spin out of control. A quest for tax savings has made digestible overseas targets attractive to United States buyers. Hospira’s potential $5 billion deal for a Danone unit highlights a fresh supply, for “spinversions.” The odd combination also reflects the perverse incentives distorting corporate decisions.

Health care companies lead the way trying to move domiciles. In just the past six months, there were $319 billion of announced deals in the sector, a figure that already exceeds the record volume in 2007. Companies with Irish headquarters like Covidien, Elan and Warner Chilcott have already been devoured. Pfizer tried unsuccessfully to do the same with AstraZeneca for nearly $120 billion. Certain post codes now carry premium valuations.

There’s a clever new twist on the situation, though. Big companies can spin off a suitably sized division in a favorable jurisdiction, and if an American company acquires it using shares, the acquirer can advantageously change its address. When Pennsylvania-based Mylan acquired a division of Abbott Laboratories, for example, it suddenly became Dutch for tax purposes.

Buying Danone’s medical nutrition business would accomplish something similar for $9 billion Hospira. Other European companies are also getting the idea they might fetch top dollar for unwanted divisions. Consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser said this week that it plans to separate its pharmaceutical division. GlaxoSmithKline is also studying disposals. Even United States conglomerates could do the same by spinning off unwanted divisions to investors and then having them merge with overseas businesses.

The trouble is that tax motives are increasingly trumping strategic logic. Hospira itself was spun off from Abbott a decade ago, leaving Abbott with a sizable and profitable medical nutrition business. While there might be competition concerns, Abbott is nevertheless a far more natural home for Danone’s competing operation than is Hospira, which specializes in drugs that are injected. To justify these otherwise implausible sorts of deals will require a whole different kind of spin.

Michael Wager is the Blue America-endorsed candidate running in the most winnable Republican-held seat in Ohio, OH-14, a swing district just east of Cleveland where clueless backbencher David Joyce is spending gigantically-- $1,190,471 already-- to hold the seat. But Joyce isn't saying anything to the working families of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Lake, Portage, Summit and Trumbull counties, all of which were won in 2012 by Sherrod Brown. (The only county in the district won by Republican Josh Mandel was Geauga). This morning Wager explained why this is a real issue for people in northeast Ohio:

As some of the largest, most profitable American companies have "moved" their tax residence to off-shore tax havens to avoid paying their fair share under U.S. tax law, the Congress has failed again to address this corporate tax abuse and close the loopholes. Don’t expect too much of an outcry from Republicans; they’re too busy accepting millions in PAC contributions from the very companies engaged in this  tax dodge. For example, Ohio-based Eaton Corporation moved its tax residence to Ireland, but my  opponent, Congressman David Joyce, has failed to speak out on behalf of American taxpayers. Why?  Well, perhaps it’s because he’s the single largest recipient of PAC contributions from Eaton’s PAC as well as generous contributions from its CEO.

It’s time to amend our rigged and deformed tax code and put an end to tax avoidance by the corporations. Today’s filibuster by Senate Republicans is disgraceful.

Open Secrets shows that Eaton CEO Alexander Cutler has spent 6 pages worth of his own cash on making sure Republicans don't close any corporate loopholes that will disadvantage Eaton after his decision to leave Ohio and move to Ireland. He's given thousands and thousands of dollars to Joyce but also to Republican candidates and committees all over America, including ole filibustering' Rob Portman. And the Eaton corporate PAC gives large sums to candidates and incumbents as well. So far the biggest recipient of their largesse this cycle has been… David Joyce ($4,600).

Matt Lynch-- He's Too Extreme For Ohio

Tuesday is election day in Ohio. Yes, this Tuesday. And one of the most important races for progressives is in the extreme northeast corner of the state between Cleveland and the Pennsylvania border, CD-14. The Blue America candidate there is Michael Wager and he's up against two Republicans. Republican David Joyce is the incumbent. He's a mainstream conservative fighting for survival against a bizarre far right extremist, state Rep. Matt Lynch. Polling shows that Wager has an excellent shot to beat Joyce, although it would be pretty close. Joyce is a tool for Big Business and has been heavily backed for the U.S. Chamber and can expect a flood of dark money from the Kochs if he wins the primary.

But that's a big "if." Lynch is making tremendous headway with base voters likely to turn out on Tuesday. Groups like FreedomWorks who are funding Lynch don't think Joyce is extreme enough for their Hate Talk Radio-induced political psychosis. If Lynch beats Joyce, Wager, who has no primary opponent Tuesday, will win the general election by double digits. Hence, the TV ad above that Wager has been running all weak in heavy rotation. Look at it closely and I'm sure you'll recognize the strategic goal.

Lynch represents a more extreme and dangerous brand of right-wing politics and policy than Joyce, who has, basically, been a zombie for Boehner since his first day in Congress 17 months ago. Lynch talks in platitudes about the Constitution and “Faith, Family, Freedom” but Republicans understand his coded messages to mean he's unabashedly opposed to:

•         Affordable Care Act
•         Increased Minimum Wage
•         Immigration Reform, including any path to citizenship
•         SNAP, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security
•         Marriage Equality
•         Any access to abortion, supporting  “life begins at conception” laws
•         Any limitation on gun ownership

While it has been the conventional wisdom inside the Beltway that Joyce will prevail, it is not necessarily so. Lynch is endorsed by Tea Party Patriots, FreedomWorks, the Ohio Right to Life Society and the National Association of Gun Owners, among others. He hasn’t raised much money, but he has had broad grassroot support. As a result, the incumbent and his PAC supporters, including the U.S. Chamber, have already spent approximately $800,000 (and still counting) on TV, radio and direct mail. In addition, the Joyce campaign funded an expensive poll in March, but no word on any of the results. Now, does this sound like a confident incumbent?

Michael, supported by a broad spectrum of Democratic officeholders and constituencies (including U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, former Governor Ted Strickland, NARAL, AFSCME, SEIU, UAW and CWA) continues to raise at an unprecedented level for an Ohio congressional challenger. Through March 31st, he has raised over $850,000, with over 80% from individuals. You can contribute to his campaign here.

The district is the last truly competitive Congressional District in Ohio; Nate Silver identifies it as one of only 35 remaining swing districts in the US.   Sherrod Brown has carried this district (as currently configured) in 2006 and 2012. Michael can do the same in 2014 against a weak incumbent-- or, dare we say-- a Tea Party extremist.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, Across The State...

Tomorrow is also primary-day in OH-08, of course, Boehner's district. Patrick Howley of the Daily Caller reports that Boehner isn't exactly skating to renomination. Steve Israel has once again sabotaged Democrats hoping to run against him, so the only contest Boehner faces is tomorrow's primary. His support, according to a GOP polling firm, is 49%. "Boehner," he reports, "picked up 49 percent support in his re-election bid and registered a 30 percent 'unfavorable' rating in the poll, which surveyed Republican voters in Ohio’s eighth congressional district that have voted in all four of the last Republican primaries in the state."

Boehner faces tea party challenger J.D. Winteregg in Tuesday’s Republican primary, in which approximately 85,000 voters are expected to head to the polls. Winteregg, who has been endorsed by the Tea Party Leadership Fund, was recently fired from his job as an adjunct professor at Ohio’s Cedarville University for running a viral commercial parody accusing Boehner of “Electile Dysfunction."

Winteregg joined Boehner’s 2010 Democratic opponent Justin Coussoule in an exclusive club: Boehner’s last two serious district challengers were both fired from their Ohio jobs during their campaigns.

Though more than $300,000 has been spent on Winteregg’s behalf in the campaign, Boehner has drastically outraised the tea party candidate and is inundating district voters with mailings and paid door-knocks ahead of Tuesday’s primary.

Oligarchy-- It's Never Too Late For Americans To Recapture Democracy

Martin Gilens at Princeton and Benjamin Page at Northwestern just published an academic paper everyone interested in the struggle for equality in America should consider reading, Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites Interest Groups, and Average Citizens. It pretty much proves what you probably already sensed: the plutocrats rule the country and the United States of America is better defined as an oligarchy than a democracy.

Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics – which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic Elite Domination, and two types of interest group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism-- offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented.

A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. This paper reports on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues.

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.

Who governs? Who really rules? To what extent is the broad body of U.S. citizens sovereign, semi-sovereign, or largely powerless? These questions have animated much important work in the study of American politics.

While this body of research is rich and variegated, it can loosely be divided into four families of theories: Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic Elite Domination, and two types of interest group pluralism-- Majoritarian Pluralism, in which the interests of all citizens are more or less equally represented, and Biased Pluralism, in which corporations, business associations, and professional groups predominate) Each of these perspectives makes different predictions about the independent influence upon U.S. policy making of four sets of actors: the Average Citizen or “median voter,” Economic Elites, and Mass-based or Business-oriented Interest Groups or industries.

Each of these theoretical traditions has given rise to a large body of literature. Each is supported by a great deal of empirical evidence-- some of it quantitative, some historical, some observational-- concerning the importance of various sets of actors (or, all too often, a single set of actors) in U.S. policy making. This literature has made important contributions to our understanding of how American politics works and has helped illuminate how democratic or undemocratic (in various senses) our policy making process actually is. Until very recently, however, it has been impossible to test the differing predictions of these theories against each other within a single statistical model that permits one to analyze the independent effects of each set of actors upon policy outcomes.

Here-- in a tentative and preliminary way-- we offer such test, bringing a unique data set to bear on the problem. Our measures are far from perfect, but we hope that this first step will help inspire further research into what we see as some of the most fundamental questions about American politics.

The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence. Our results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.

Yesterday was Tax Day, as you no doubt know. Progressive candidates from one end of the country to the other made a point of demanding a more equitable tax system that guarantees everyone pays their fair share, a policy the plutocrats and their allies sheer at. In Maine, Shenna Bellows is running for the seat held by corporate handmaiden Susan Collins. "Here in Maine," she told us yesterday morning, "it’s pothole season. The roads are in terrible shape because of lack of investment in infrastructure. The public university system is facing devastating cuts. Maine small businesses and families are paying what they owe so that our economy can grow and our citizens can have the services they need. It's time for the country's largest corporations and wealthiest individuals to pay their fair share of taxes. It’s time for tax policy that places principle over politics and treats everyone fairly. We can only build a strong America if everyone has a fair chance to succeed. And if everyone’s going to have a fair chance, then the largest corporations and wealthiest individuals in this country must pay their fair share."

Straight across America, the independent progressive running for the seat Henry Waxman gave up, Marianne Williamson, was thinking a lot like Shenna. This is from a statement she sent to her CA-33 followers:

Today is the deadline for filing our tax returns.  In doing so, millions of Americans across the country are contributing to the infrastructure and well-being of our nation. And most Americans are happy to pay their fair share for our bridges and highways, schools and roads, brave firefighters and emergency workers who stand at the ready,  teachers and storm drain workers, forest rangers who keep our water supplies safe, and the overseeing of our beautiful State and National Parks.

But our tax system contains one of America's dirty little secrets, as well. Many corporations dodge their taxes, sending their profits offshore or finding loopholes to avoid their obligations. Too many corporations-- banks, big oil, big pharma, the list goes on-- shirk their civic responsibility to our country. Some, even after avoiding paying taxes, grab government subsidies that rob our public treasury. Why should taxpayers pay billions in subsidies to Big Oil, while they are already making trillions in profit?

Today, on Tax Day 2014, let us join to end the climate of greed and pillage by which billionaires and huge corporations are able to buy political influence and use it to lower their own tax rates at the expense of the American people. My campaign is refusing all special interest, corporate PAC and Lobbyist money, and any candidate decrying the undue influence of money on the one hand while accepting special interest money with the other is simply perpetuating a system of political double-talk. The movement for fairness starts on June 3rd at your voting booth. I hope you will join me in non-violent resistance to a system of economic injustice by which our tax system is used as a give-away to America's richest citizens. Such unfairness is ethically wrong, it is undemocratic, it is unsustainable-- and I will do what I can to stop it.

Also in California, albeit in a drastically different kind of district than Marianne's, Eloise Reyes is running against a worthless corporate shill and Chamber of Commerce hack, Pete Aguilar, for an open seat in the Inland Empire. Yesterday morning Eloise addressed a forum of national progressives discussing the Ryan budget which she pointed out is "not a fiscally conservative proposal. It’s a shell game. He masquerades as a fiscal conservative proposing spending cuts to programs that actually help people climb out of poverty and move into the middle class and he replaces them with huge tax cuts for billionaires, oil companies and big corporations.Those are not our priorities."

When I win this election I will represent San Bernardino CA. San Bernardino is the second largest city in the US to declare bankruptcy.

San Bernardino can be great again. If families here are to climb out of poverty, if San Bernardino is to make it back to the great city it once was then we have to invest in jobs and education and keep Medicare strong for our seniors.

The Ryan budget cuts $125 billion from the Pell Grant program. Pell Grants and student loans are an investment in our future. They provide the hand up that will help middle class and low income kids here in San Bernardino County attend college and put themselves in a better position for the future.

The Ryan Budget ends Medicare as we know it. And that will affect San Bernardino County seniors, especially female seniors. Female seniors make up an overwhelming majority of Medicare beneficiaries. And statistics show that older women on average are poorer than older men and I am sure that is true here in San Bernardino County. If Mr. Ryan’s budget ever became law we would see seniors right here in San Bernardino County slip deeper into poverty.

When I am elected to Congress I will support progressive budgets that ask the wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share so we put people to work building and repairing schools, roads and bridges. I’ll support budgets that invest in education, that keep our promises and commitments to veterans and budgets that strengthen Social Security and Medicare.

A strong middle class has always been the backbone of a robust US economy. It’s always been that way. That’s where we should be investing… in programs that strengthen our middle class. When we do that we broaden our tax base and everyone wins. The Ryan Budget does not do that.

Blue America-backed Michael Wager, the progressive running for Congress against Big Business shill David Joyce in the very northeast corner of Ohio, is running on a platform almost solely dedicated to pushing back against the plutocrats on behalf of working families. This morning, he announced they are pushing back against him: "Just days after Congressman David Joyce voted to give millionaires a tax break and pay for it by cutting Medicare and raising taxes on the middle class, another SuperPAC is stepping up to say thank you for Joyce's handouts to the wealthy and special interests. We just got word that the right-wing U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending over $200,000 supporting Congressman Joyce and they’re going on the air tomorrow to try and buy this race."

The Kochs, the conglomerate of multimillionaire and billionaire Rove contributors, the slimy Adelsons, the U.S. Chamber… these are the forces of evil arrayed against America's working families. Real and profound evil which means to enslave us all. Never too late to fight back.

Crazy Right-Wing Tax Scofflaw Matt Lynch Is Running For Congress In Ohio

If you go over Ohio state Rep. Matt Lynch's record, you might be moved to ask, "how the hell did an extremist and fanatic like that get elected to office anywhere. Well, that would be a good question, since Lynch was appointed to his seat, a seat that Richard Hollington, Matt Dolan, Tim Grendell all resigned from in the last couple of years, Hollington twice. And now Lynch wants to abandon the Geauga County legislative seat as well, to run against Republican Congressman David Joyce in the May 6 primary. Geauga is, by far, the reddest county in OH-14. In 2012, the big GOP margin in Geauga (60-38%) gave Romney is narrow district-wide win over Obama. And Geauga was the only county in OH-14 that Josh Mandel took over Sherrod Brown. Joyce's hefty 69-26% win over Democrat Dale Blanchard in Geauga was the basis of his district-wide 54-39% win on the same day. Lynch, one of the most radical right members of the Ohio legislature, is a notorious tax scofflaw and a paranoid religious nut; several of his colleagues swear he is mentally unbalanced.

Lynch's website says moderate forces were targeting him for defeat in the Statehouse. Sarah LaTourette, the daughter of Joyce's mentor and congressional predecessor, Steve LaTourette, filed paperwork to seek Lynch's seat in Columbus.

"It should be no surprise that I am a target," his  website says. "After all, I was one of only 6 Republicans who voted against the Ohio State Budget that raised your taxes and increased spending by 8 billion dollars!! And I was one of only 5 legislators that filed the lawsuit to try to stop Obamacare Medicaid Expansion in Ohio. Even my support of the unborn and the 'Heartbeat Bill' is seen by some as radical."

In an early taste of the upcoming 14th District political brawl, Joyce's campaign released a statement critical of Lynch's voting record and his past history of late tax payments.

"Matt Lynch has a history of repeatedly not paying his own taxes, voting against a $2.7 billion tax cut for Ohioans, and against a balanced budget," said a statement from Joyce campaign manager Kevin Benacci. "We’ll contrast that any day of the week to Dave’s record of getting Washington on a budget for the first time in 4 years, and voting to repeal Obamacare every chance he's had."

Lynch has been endorsed by all the extremist groups on the fringes of the far right, from Freedom Works, and the local Tea Party groups to the National Association of Gun Owners and the Ohio Right to Life Society. His campaign is fueled by hate, ignorance and self-righteousness and crackpot statements like this: "Dave Joyce, supported by the anti-conservative Main Street Partners led by Steve LaTourette, unleashed a smear campaign against me this week."

This is a very bitter primary, as civil wars tend to be. When announcing their endorsement of Lynch over Joyce, Adam Brandon of FreedomWorks called Joyce a "bought-and-paid-for politician backed by the lobbying class and Republican establishment."

Steve Israel has been especially tone deaf to opportunities offered by Republican resignations and intra-party warfare. Fortunately, Ohio Democrats ignored him and pushed forward with a strong candidate for OH-14, Michael Wager, former chairman of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority. Wishing he could just concentrate of the anti-Choice, anti-gay hate monger he recruited in a nearby district, Israel and his pathetic DCCC ignored Wager until about a month ago when they finally, grudgingly, put him on one of the fake lists, Emerging something-or-other. Wager is a forthright progressive, far from the mystery meat ideal Israel is looking for. He's a proud FDR Democrat and he's running on income inequality, an issue Israel is petrified of. Blue America endorsed him and you can contribute to his campaign here. This is what he told us about his motivations for running last February:

The core motivation for my candidacy is concern about the future of American participatory democracy as a result of protracted and worsening income equality. The oft-discussed issues of gerrymandering, election law abuses and campaign finance laws are certainly challenges to meaningful choice in our elections; however, it is unjustifiable economic inequality that weakens our social cohesion and erodes the American middle class. This is not a necessary consequence of American capitalism. Rather, it is mostly attributable to a federal tax and expenditure policies that favor narrow interests over most Americans.

Consider this. As our nation continues a slow recovery from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, millions of American workers are unemployed or under-employed and wages have been stagnant for decades. Yet, the 113th Congress has not passed a jobs bill and fails to act on an increase in federal minimum wage. Instead, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed the "Ryan Budget," which, included no employment initiatives and relief for low wage earners but, among its parade of horribles, would have voucherized Medicare, raised its eligibility to age 67, and made massive cuts to vital social programs.

There is no simple or single solution to addressing America’s employment and wage issues. There are, however, several governmental actions that can commence real recovery for all American. Here are two:

• Infrastructure Investment. To remedy our deteriorating infrastructure, I call upon Congress to pass a national infrastructure investment program to repair or replace roads, bridges, ports, water and wastewater systems and electricity transmission. Investment in these job-creating projects is one of the most effective way to stimulate our economy and, at the same time, meet critical domestic demands and national security needs.

Infrastructure investments put people to work, stimulate consumer spending and increase local sales and income tax revenues. With an estimated investment of $120 billion (to meet critical demand), we would create over 2.5 million jobs.

• Raise the Federal Minimum Wage. In his State of the Union address, the President indicated that, by Executive Order, he would raise federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour for direct federal employees and employees of federal contractors. This is long-overdue. Federal minimum wage has not been increased since 2009. While the President’s action brings some relief to 16,000 federal workers and up to 200,000 more employed by federal contractors, what about another 30 million workers that earn 150% of minimum wage or less? They must wait for Congress to act.

Some in Congress, including Speaker John Boehner and my opponent, freshman Republican David Joyce, claim that increases in minimum wage are "job killers." They are fundamentally inaccurate. While an increase in minimum wage may lead some isolated cases of job loss, most economists concur that increased wages for the lowest wage earners spur consumer spending and growth. A January 2014 Brookings Institution analysis calls this the "ripple effect" of increasing minimum wage.

These same opponents to a wage increase claim that low wage earners are "teenagers" and don’t an increase. This is just plain wrong. First, less than 3% of American workers are actually paid minimum wage, but over 30 million workers earn 150% of minimum wage or less. Only 12% are teenagers.

Opposition to an increased minimum wage is not based on data or logic. It’s the result of lobbyists for largest employers of low wage earners waging a campaign based on their narrow interests, falsehoods and bad economics. Democrats have introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act. I call upon House leaders to take up this bill and begin to restore our minimum wage levels to a livable wage.

Michael plans to beat David Joyce in November. If he winds up running against Matt Lynch, it would in all likelihood be a landslide Democratic victory. Again you can help Michael's campaign here. Israel hasn't put this district on his Red-to-Blue list, but it's far more likely to go from red to blue than many of the districts he did put on there.

How Did The Democrats Allow Ohio To Turn Into Such An Electoral Hellhole?

Over the weekend, Marilou Johanek took apart the Ohio Republicans' elaborate excuses for strangling voters' access to the polls and concluded that it's just plain old voter suppression.

If we rule out cost-cutting, uniformity, and fraud as legitimate excuses to restrict the voting process in Ohio, what other explanations make sense? Why else would Republican lawmakers pass bills, signed into law by Republican Gov. John Kasich, that erect voting hurdles for Ohioans?

Why curtail early voting, regulate the mailing of absentee-ballot applications, and make provisional ballots harder to count? Why add to voting changes-- as Secretary Husted did-- by slashing evening and Sunday hours for early in-person voting?

He tried that in 2012, but a federal judge saw through his ruse. Ohio is a key swing state in presidential elections.

If Republicans could change the rules and limit access to a select bloc of voters, the outcome might change on Election Day. Sunday voting just ahead of the general election is widely popular with many black churches in urban centers.

Worshippers organize “souls to the polls” caravans after religious services. But if expanding access to the ballot box allows an influx of left-leaning voters to defeat right-leaning candidates, what’s the GOP to do?

Concoct a myth as cover for voter suppression. That’s what.

Neatly gerrymandered by Republicans, Democrats hold only 4 of Ohio's 16 congressional seats. Last time voters were at the polls electing 12 Republican congressmen and only 4 Democratic congressmen, 2,827,710 (51%) voted for Obama and 2,,661,433 (48%) voted for Romney. In fact, on that same day, Ohio's very progressive U.S. senator, Sherrod Brown-- far more progressive than Obama or any of the congressional incumbents or the congressional candidates-- beat standard issue Republican hack Josh Mandel 51-45%. There are the PVI's of the 16 Ohio House seats. Nice how the districts were drawn to include just enough Republicans to win as many seats as possible, while throwing as many Democrats as feasible into as few districts as possible:

• OH-01- R+6 (Steve Chabot)
• OH-02- R+8 (Brad Wenstrup)
• OH-03- D+17 (Joyce Beatty)
• OH-04- R+9 (Jim Jordan)
• OH-05- R+7 (Bob Latta)
• OH-06- R+8 (Bill Johnson)
• OH-07- R+6 (Bob Gibbs)
• OH-08- R+15 (John Boehner)
• OH-09- D+15 (Marcy Kaptur)
• OH-10- R+3 (Mike Turner)
• OH-11- D+30 (Marcia Fudge)
• OH-12- R+8 (Pat Tiberi)
• OH-13- D+11 (Tim Ryan)
• OH-14- R+4 (David Joyce)
• OH-15- R+6 (Steve Stivers)
• OH-16- R+6 (Jim Renacci)

The average Democratic district has a PVI of D+18.25 (plenty of Democrats to spare) and the average GOP district has a PVI of R+7.16 (safe but, other than Boehner's seat, not impregnable). There are two Republican seats that could be seen as vaguely vulnerable, Turner's and Joyce's. Obama won-- albeit narrowly-- Turner's district in 2008 and did better there in 2012 than in any other Republican-held seat (48%). Joyce's district wasn't bad for Obama either. McCain beat him 50-49% and Romney 51-48%, the second best showing in an Ohio red district.

Steve Israel's DCCC isn't interested in either seat. They didn't bother recruiting anyone to run in either. Both districts have grassroots candidates running. Turner's opponent is Robert Klepinger who hasn't even raised the $5,000 that would trigger as FEC report. And Joyce's opponent is Michael Wager, as credible as candidate as the Democrats could hope for. Sherrod Brown and former Governor Ted Strickland are behind him and have pushed the DCCC to back him. Wager, a strong and committed progressive who has been endorsed by Blue America, has raised over $400,000 and as of December 31 had $347,645 cash on hand. Israel has dragged his feet on Wager and, under increasing pressure from other Democrats wondering whose side Israel is playing for, finally put him on the Emerging Races list, one short of Red to Blue, the list that Israel uses to signal big donors that the DCCC is serious about a candidate. This month Jan Schakowsky will be in northeastern Ohio campaigning with Wager… while Israel fumes that she could be campaigning with his favored Ohio candidate, Jennifer Garrison, the only Ohioan who made it onto his Jumpstart list.

Garrison is probably the worst recruit this cycle and is so far to the right that she barely qualifies as a Democrat at all-- other than inside-the-Beltway. And why should a principled progressive like Schakowsky stump for Garrison? Garrison is against everything that Schakowsky has fought for her whole life. An anti-Choice fanatic and deranged and virulent homophobe, Garrison has been recruited by the Blue Dogs and devotes herself to political corruption and an anti-environment agenda. A Steve Israel dream candidate! He's throwing away realistic opportunities in OH-10 and OH-14 to pursue his demented and pointless Garrison fantasy. OH-06, where she's running, is an R+8 district and Obama only managed 45% against McCain and 43% against Romney.

In covering the selection of Garrison and Wager for the Emerging Races list, the Tribune Chronicle doesn't mention it was a demotion for Garrison and a promotion for Wager. They do mention, though, that Garrison has a primary opponent the DCCC is ignoring, progressive activist Greg Howard (also endorsed by Blue America).

Two candidates part of Red to Blue emerging races. Congressional candidates in the 14th District, Michael Wager and in the 6th District, Jennifer Garrison, are on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's list of "emerging races," according to a DCCC news release last week, to be campaigns that "are on track and working hard to put seats in play."

The listing puts the two on track to be included in the DCCC's Red to Blue Program, which highlights the top Democratic campaigns in the United States and offers the candidates "financial, communications, grassroots and strategic support."

Wager of Moreland Hills, the former chairman of the Cleveland Port Authority, is challenging Dave Joyce, a Russell Township Republican, who is after his second full term in the 14th District in November. Neither have primary election challengers.

In the 6th District, Garrison, a former state representative from Marietta, must first get around Democrat Gregory D. Howard of Albany in May's primary election to challenge Republican Bill Johnson, after his third term.

DCCC chairman Steve Israel said Wager is committed to growing the middle class, bettering the economy and creating jobs and that he is working hard "to put this seat in play so he can fight to lift middle class incomes and will work together to find solutions for Ohio families."

Israel had this to say about Garrison: She has put this seat into play "because she is a common-sense leader who will take a responsible approach to creating jobs and providing educational opportunity."

Mike Turner has a swing district but Steve Israel gives him reelection immunity