Why Does The FBI Still Refuse To Release Their Investigation Of David Joyce's Cocaine Abuse?

Andrew Rayburn (r) bought some sports teams, a jet and a crooked congressman (l)

Some people say Ohio Congressman David Joyce has kicked his cocaine addiction and is no longer a substance abuser. But not everyone who knows Joyce agrees. Joyce became so obsessed with 2 Live Crew when he was on a jihad against their music that started... living the life. He's become a notorious corporate whore in Washington and everyone on K Street-- which is salivating at the prospect that Republican congressional gains next week will bring them more David Joyces-- knows he'll roll over if the price is right.

But Joyce doesn't just take bribes Inside the Beltway. It's no secret in northeast Ohio that Joyce has been right up Chagrin Falls multimillionaire Andrew Rayburn's ass. Rayburn, who owns his own jet and is a part owner of the Cavs, takes Joyce to games at his expense-- which Joyce doesn't report-- and paid for a very fancy 4-day trip for Joyce and his family to go down to Anguilla-- a tax shelter and den of iniquity for rich crooks-- for Rayburn's daughter's wedding. Joyce filed an inadequate report on the trip and purposely covered up the "contributions," a clear ethics violation-- and probably a criminal one as well, especially if cocaine was involved in the festivities.

Aside from whatever illegal "contributions" Rayburn has given Joyce in the way of unreported or partially-reported gifts, he has contributed thousands of dollars to Joyce's shady political career and helped strong-arm other business associates on Joyce's behalf. In fact Rayburn spends a great deal of money on right-wing political candidates-- but Joyce is his biggest "investment." Rayburn owned Flexalloy all through the eighties and nineties and then sold it and started Big Game Capital in August, 2000, a private investment firm. The FBI is still sitting on their investigation of Joyce's cocaine use and adamantly refuses to release FOIA requests for the report. The latest polling shows Joyce, who was not challenged by the DCCC at Steve Israel's orders, despite poor reelect numbers, will probably be reelected Tuesday. Thanks for another grotesquely corrupt GOP coke head in Congress, Steve Israel!

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.

House Republicans Have Another Problem-- Rampant Cocaine Abuse

Northeast Ohio's very own 2 Live Crew

Yesterday, according to Fox DC Bureau Chief Chad Pergram, Boehner was whining about how the House Republican conference is filled with "knuckleheads." He didn't name any and everyone-- including everyone here at DWT just assumed he was talking about the Members that don't get bought off by corruption, guys like Justin Amash and Walter Jones, who Boehner hates for their refusal to allow him to bioss them around. No one suspected he might be talking about the House Republicans' massive drug problem. The GOP conference is riddled with coke addicts, meth freaks and pill poppers. Now, I don't know if David Joyce is a still an alcoholic and a coke hound and it's unclear if he was one of Trey Radel's customers before Radel (R-FL) was busted as a coke distributor and forced to resign from Congress. But the FBI does know-- and won't spill the beans. They just sit on it-- in case they ever need any special leverage over Congressman Joyce (R-OH).

OK, here's the background. Most people think Joyce got turned down for a cush job as Northern Ohio's Federal Prosecutor because he's a sexist pig who was always being "inappropriate" with female employees, especially when he was drunk, which was frequently. But the sexism and his own little war against women isn't what caused Bush to kill the nomination. In 2001 two heavy-weight Ohio senators, Mike DeWine ® and George Voinovich ® recommended Joyce for the job and Bush nominated him. By mid-May Joyce was ready to move into his new gig-- “As a career prosecutor, I see it as a challenge that I look forward to. My job now is to make sure that people are treated fairly and that justice is done, and that’s what I hope to bring to the federal system.” But by the end of the year Bush withdrew the nomination. In fact, Bush tried saying that technically he had never even made the nomination. That was after 6 months of FBI vetting and scrutiny and a eye-popping report they gave Attorney General John Ashcroft who was appalled at what he saw. By December the Plain Dealer was reporting that "the Bush administration decided not to nominate Joyce as the U.S. attorney for Northern Ohio due to questions that came up about his past during an FBI background check." But the Plain Dealer didn't seem especially curious to find out what exactly was in that FBI background check, assuming, like everyone else, it had something to do with Joyce's inability to act like a gentleman when he was around women, especially women he could lord it over on some level. But they were wrong.

Joyce said he would "fight for" the job but by May, 2002, he suddenly ended the fight, telling the Plain Dealer "You just get sick of it. It’s been a year, and enough’s enough. I’m honored that I was considered for this job, but it’s time for me to let somebody else have this opportunity." A few years later, when rumors about his cocaine abuse started circulating in Ohio, he was still bitter but started presenting the story in a new light. He said he didn't get the job because he was "out-politicked." He said that Gregory White, who eventually got the job, had the backing of then Governor Bob Taft. "I can’t change what happened. I didn’t do anything wrong,” Joyce told the media. "I got beat at a game I didn’t understand all that well." He got "out-politicked?" WIth Mike DeWine and George Voinovich on his team? No one really believed that.

In 2005, Cleveland Scene Magazine reported that Joyce’s nomination for U.S. Attorney failed because defense attorneys accused him of withholding evidence during a murder case.

Joyce was cleared of accusations but the article reported that the White House did not want to risk nominating Joyce. More nonsense about something the Bush Administration didn't care a whit about. The cocaine rumors never went away entirely and "everybody" knows he gets high-- everybody, that is, except the voters in OH-14.

When Joyce was Geauga County Prosecutor, Steve LaTourette was Prosecutor in neighboring Lake County and the two of them became fast friends and political allies. The 2 of them worked on banning the multiplatinum 2 Live Crew album, As Nasty as They Wanna Be from local record stores. (They failed.) LaTourette went on to serve 9 terms in Congress from the area and when he decided to make a fortune as a lobbyist, he managed to secure his old seat for Joyce and voters weren't allowed to see the FBI report on Joyce's outrageous behavior. They still haven't been.

Funny that Joyce had such antipathy towards 2 Live Crew for their lifestyle instead of inviting them to his legendary Friday night poker games where white people did their version of exactly what he tried persecuting the 2 Live Crew guys for:

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.

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.