Another Republican Congressman Bites The Dust-- Is Ryan Costello The First NRA Parkland Casualty?

Paul Ryan's toxicity would have sunk Ryan Costello

When Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ungerrymandered the state's congressional districts, it looked like curtains for Ryan Costello. His weirdly drawn district (PA-06) went from an R+2 PVI (a swing district that would be very difficult to hold in a wave election) to a more compact district with the same number (PA-06) but very different political boundaries and a D+2 PVI. In 2016 it went very narrowly for Clinton (one point). Under these new boundaries, which now include bright blue Reading, it would have gone to her by 9 points.

Costello served on the Chester County Board of Commissioners before being elected to Congress in 2014 when Republican Jim Gerlach retired. He's considered a mainstream conservative but, coupled with the new district lines, his "A" rating from the NRA and the disdain for Trump and Paul Ryan in his district made his reelection look very sketchy for 2018.

Costello's been whining about the unfairness of the judges who ungerrymandered the state and has encouraged the state legislature of impeach them. Last week he filed the necessary petitions to get on the ballot in November but 3 days later City&State Pennsylvania broke the news that Costello is retiring from Congress, the 39th GOP House member to flee the Trumpified party.

Despite filing petitions on Tuesday to run for another term, four Republican sources said Costello indicated at a recent meeting with state and local GOP officials that he intends to drop out of the race in the weeks before the May Primary. The sources all spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of the meeting.

Costello reportedly met with state party chair Val DiGiorgio, former 6th District Congressman Jim Gerlach and several other top Republicans early Friday. According to sources, he indicated that he intended to seek a job in the private sector rather than face a costly reelection fight.

...Some had speculated that Costello would drop out after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the GOP challenge to the state’s new congressional districts. Many observers say the new Sixth District, in the highly competitive Philadelphia suburbs, is even more favorable for Democratic candidates-- last month, Costello called for the impeachment of the state Supreme Court Justices involved in that decision. A bruising Republican loss in this month’s PA-18 special election also sent shockwaves across the national GOP landscape and is generally seen as an ill omen for upcoming midterms across the country.

If true, Costello’s decision not to run would put suburban Republicans in a tight spot. Despite his apparent vulnerability, local party leadership are short on alternative candidates with strong name recognition.

Recently, county-level Republicans told reporters they were still scouting possible replacement candidates. But as the petition deadline passed, only local lawyer Greg McCauley had filed signatures to run as a Republican.

The DCCC and EMILY's List manufactured a candidate in their factory at 430 S. Capitol St. for the race last year, Chrissy Houlahan, who-- despite running a company that manufactured shoes in a Chinese sweatshop, is a shoe-in for Congress now. This morning, in fact, Roll Call changed their November rating of the PA-06 race from Tilts Democratic to Likely Democratic. 

Remember, the Lake Research poll of 30 swing districts (including PA-06) from last week found that Democrats currently lead by 11 points on the generic ballot for Congress, with Democrats receiving 46% of the vote, Republicans receiving 35%, and 17% undecided. There is a clear enthusiasm gap, with 38% of voters strongly supporting the Democratic candidate but only 27% of voters saying the same for the Republican candidate. Trump is deeply unpopular in these districts, with just 36% of voters rating him as doing an excellent or good job, compared with 64% of voters who give him a just fair or poor rating.

And although Ryan Costello is a complete rubber stamp for Paul Ryan, he got some especially troubling news when his constituents were polled about their feelings for Paul Ryan last December. PA-06 voters-- the old redder PA-06-- were among the most anti-Paul Ryan voters in any district held by a Republican across the country. At the time-- that's about 3 months ago-- Trump's disapproval in the district was 52%. Paul Ryan's disapproval was a startling 70%!

Do You Want Candidates Who Back Single-Payer? The DCCC Recruiters Don't

The other day, Axios asserted that Republicans are getting nervous about Democratic House recruitment, implying-- incorrectly, of course, that the DCCC is recruiting top quality candidates. I bet I'm more nervous about their recruiting than House Republicans are, and for the opposite reason. As it has for every year since Rahm imprinted his corrupt conservativism on the DCCC recruitment process DNA in 2006, the committee is once again discouraging values-driven progressives and rounding up identity politics numbskulls, "ex"-Republicans, rich self-funders and less-than-useless careerists. Who's in charge of this ugly mess?

Glad you asked. Floating above are Pelosi, Hoyer and their grotesquely corrupt, Wall Street-captive heir apparent former New Dem chairman Joe Crowley, the backroom boss of the Queens Democratic Party Machine. All three oppose John Conyers' Medicare for All bill, H.R. 676. There are now 110 Democratic co-sponsors. You know who else opposes it-- or at least refuses to sign on as co-sponsors? The upper echelon of the DCCC. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) who is basically and utterly worthless lump sitting and waiting for an anti-Trump tsunami to make him seem smart won't sign on. Neither will 3 of his 5 Vice-Chairs. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Jared Polis (D-CO) are both co-sponsors, Lieu because he's a true believer and Polis because he was tired of being harrassed by single-payer activists on twitter and on the phone. But Midwest Vice Chair Betty McCollum refused to sign, as did, the painfully tepid Northeast Vice Chair Joe Kennedy and the Southern Vice Chair Don McEachin. The DCCC recruitment committee is headed up by conservative shitbags Denny Heck (New Dem-WA) and Rahm protégée Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL). Others on the recruitment committee include Lois Frankel (FL), Ann Kuster (New Dem-NH), Cedric Richmond (New Dem-LA), Raul Ruiz (CA) and Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL). All of them have refused to sign onto Medicare-For-All.

So it shouldn't surprise you that the shitty candidates they're coming up with are not single-payer advocates either-- despite the fact that most voters are. Leave it to the DCCC to give voters a reason to stay home and not vote! I spoke with one DCCC recruit here in California who didn't appear to know what Medicare-For-All or single payer is. When I tried discussing it with him, he spontaneously changed the subject to two issues he's wildly enthusiastic about: protecting the Second Amendment and extolling the virtues of the death penalty.

Going back to that Axios report, Republicans are supposed to be fearful of the DCCC's Jennifer Wexton, their recruit against Barbara Comstock in Northern Virginia, whose website has no issues-- always the mark of a DCCC shill-- but who was endorsed by the New Dem vice chair Gerry Connolly. There are at least 4 other Democrats running-- Daniel Helmer, Dave Hanson, Julien Monica and Lindsey Davis Stover. I don't know who's best-- if any-- but I know enough about the DCCC to be very wary of Wexton. (Hillary won this district against Señor Trumpanzee 52.2-42.2% but the wretched and unqualified DCCC/EMILY's List recruit lost 52.9-47.1% on the same day.)

And out in the blue 6th district in the Denver suburbs, the DCCC has recruited Jason Crow as their candidate to run against Mike Coffman. He doesn't even live in the district but he's the kind of identity-politics (veteran) conservative the DCCC drools over. Hillary beat Trump 50.2-41.3% but the DCCC recruit lost to Coffman 51.3% to 42.4%. At the suggestion of the DCCC, Crow hired Bustos-crony Alex Ball, who managed the campaign of the worst Blue Dog elected in 2016, Josh Gottheimer, who has been the House Democrat most firmly behind the Paul Ryan agenda. Of course, there is no issues page on his campaign website. The bad news will come later if he manages to get elected. There are at least 3 other candidates in the race, Levi Tillemann (a guy whose campaign picture is him holding a rifle), David Aarestad, and 25-year old Berniecrat Gabriel McArthur. McArthur, whose website is filled with his stands on issues, has pointed out that the DCCC Democrats generally "can't articulate clearly and loudly what the party stands for and shouldn’t assume that criticizing President Trump will be enough to attract voters."

People are suffering, and they don’t simply have time to be played like a game of Ping-Pong,” McArthur says in a video his campaign posted to Facebook. “I’m running for Congress because single-payer health care, tuition-free college, expanding Social Security benefits, a federal job guarantee, preventing further escalation into foreign wars and a minimizing of influence of money in politics are necessary to heal our nation and the state of Colorado.

In PA-06, Hillary edged Trump 48.2% to 47.6% but the "ex"-Republican recruited and then abandoned by the DCCC, Mike Parrish, lost massively to knee-jerk GOP zombie Ryan Costello 57.3% to 42.7%. Parrish is running again and the DCCC and EMILY's List have come up with one of their godawful recruits, Air Force vet Chrissy Houlahan-- no issues page on her campaign website, just a cleverly written take-no-stands "priorities page." A businessman named Bob Dettore is also running.

I don't like the idea of corrupt conservatives devoid of progressive values who, among other things, oppose Medicare-For-All, being in charge of recruiting candidates for the party. Please be sure to check out candidates carefully and always be skeptical of anyone backed by the DCCC or EMILY's List. There are exceptions but when the DCCC and its front groups (like End Citizens United) and EMILY's List get behind someone, chances are it's a rich, self-funding conservative. Be careful. The candidates on the page you'll reach by clicking on the ActBlue thermometer on the right are carefully vetted progressives with their heads on straight. Use the list as a place to start digging for the kind of candidate you want to back.

Is Climate Change Important Enough To You As To Motivate A Voting Decision?

Fake Democrat/real fracking CEO, Mike Parrish

I was on the phone with @ClimateBrad today, looking at scenarios for how climate change amelioration could be addressed in 2017 when Ryan is still Speaker but the Republican majority in the House is significantly diminished. I gathered that he felt the GOP is so inexorably tied to Big Oil and other carbon extraction industries and their financing that, as a political party, their own houses will be underwater before they start coming around on the dangers the country is facing because of man made contributions to climate change. We talked about some individual members who I thought might be most open to change-- some Floridians whose constituents are already suffering the impact, for example-- and he parried that the worst vote a Republican House member could make would be one for a Paul Ryan speakership. Touché!

I decided to follow the money and see what the gas and oil czars were up to contribution-wise this cycle. So far, they've given $22,930,482 to congressional candidates, about 90% of which has gone to Republicans and the rest to conservative Democrats who are happy to sing for their supper. So far only 8 House members have "earned" over $200,000 this cycle from Big Oil:

Nothing really remarkable in the list. The Democrats who have raked in some oily cash are:

• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)- $132,805
• Gene Green (TX)-$90,700
• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)- $88,500
• Marc Veasey (TX)- $58,800
• Cedric Richmond (New Dem-LA)- $50,400
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)- $39,000
• Steny Hoyer (MD)- $38,500
• Rick Larsen (New Dem-WA)- $33,000
• Mike Doyle (PA)- $30,500
• Brad Ashford (Blue Dog-NE)- $29,000

And in terms of non-incumbent Democratic candidates, they've found a small handful worthy of their affections and cash, corrupt conservatives:

• Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL)- $12,600
• Lou Correa (Blue Dog-CA)- $9,500
• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)- $8,910
• Isadore Hall (New Dem-CA)- $6,000
• Lon Johnson (Blue Dog-MI)- $5,900
• Charlie Crist (FL)- $5,400
• Dwight Evans (PA)- $5,400
• Anna Throne-Holst (NY)- $2,700
• Steve Lindbeck (AK)- $2,400
• Steve Santarsiero (PA)- $1,750

I had been warned by Brad that as far as he knew there was just one Democratic candidate running this cycle who was probably worse on Climate issues than his Republican opponent-- Mike Parrish, a former Republican who makes a living as the CEO of a fracking company and is challenging Republican incumbent Ryan Costello in PA-06, portions of Lebanon, Chester, Berks and Montgomery counties in the suburbs and exurbs northwest of Philly. Obama won the district against McCain 53-46% and then lost to Romney 51-48%. It's a classic swing district that the Democrats must win in November if they're going to even get close to winning back the House. But PA-06 is another example-- one of dozens-- where the DCCC completely screwed up the prospects through sheer incompetence. They recruited Parrish, realized he was a terrible candidate and dropped him. A progressive jumped into the race, Lindy Li, but Parrish used a Steve Israel trick to knock her out, tying her up in court with baseless petition signature challenges. Israel was getting all his favorite conservative candidates to deploy this against progressives this cycle-- draining so much money and time from the grassroots campaigns that that the candidates, like Li, would eventually give up.

So now the Democrats are stuck with Parrish, the fracking executive with a long history of contributing to Republican politicians. Corrupt corporate Democrat Ed Rendell is, of course, fully behind him. A diary at Daily Kos in March made the point that Parrish is a phony environmentalist. His claim to calling himself an environmentalist: "he owns a self-proclaimed 'Environmental Services' company. Which services does his company provide? Do they qualify as 'environmental?'"  

The company’s name is Daleco Resources Corporation and the opening line on the company’s site is: “Daleco Resources Corporation is a publicly traded natural resource company with two operating divisions-- minerals and oil and gas. The oil and gas division has interests in 31 producing wells in Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia… The minerals division holds properties located in New Mexico, Texas and Utah as of March 31, 2012.”

Oil production and mineral extraction. In a creative way this might qualify as environmental services. The services provided do impact the environment, so yeah, environmental services… makes sense.  As our beloved former President George W. Bush once said “fool me once (pause) ….shame on you, fool me twice, (pauses, forgets saying)”... which goes on to say “fool me twice shame on me.” It’s lucky for us that we have the internet around so we can find out how environmental our newly-switched Democratic candidate is and we aren’t fooled either once or twice.

What concerns me is that in spite of his republican background and ownership of an oil and gas company, the Chester County Democratic party decided to endorse Mike Parrish anyway. Were they fooled like Bush, or apathetic to Parrish’s background?

The Chester County Democratic Committee’s statement following the choice to endorse the oil man was: “Now that the balloting has finished, it is incumbent upon all Democrats in Chester County to work tirelessly to elect the candidates who will move our Commonwealth forward and fight for our shared principles of freedom, fairness and opportunity,” McGinnis said in a press release. “I look forward to working with our endorsed candidates to secure victory both in the primaries and the general election this fall.”

No, it most certainly is not incumbent on anyone with an environmental conscience to buy into Mike Parrish’s campaign. It is not incumbent on anyone with common sense to spend one day or one dollar getting a two-years-new Democrat (who was Republican in 2014) into office. It is incumbent on anyone with an environmental conscience to reject this error by the Chester County Democratic Committee and demand they revote.

At a time when too many Democrats are already too beholden to the oil industry the last thing we need is to endorse someone who made all of his money in the oil sector.

Mike Parrish was friendly enough, but it’s time for him to go back to the right side of the aisle.  He’s no Democrat, he’s certainly no progressive and we don’t want him here.

Brad is no fan of Costello's but he directed me to a local newspaper indicating that Costello agrees that the U.S. needs to act of climate issues. (This cycle Costello has taken $39,000 from Big Oil, about the average of Pennsylvania congressional Republicans.) This is what he told the Reading Eagle:

Costello is one of 10 Republicans who have signed onto a resolution affirming that human activity contributes to climate change and endorsing action to respond to the threat of Earth's changing climate. The resolution is expected to be unveiled later this week.

The issue is still a controversial one in GOP circles with some Republicans such as Sen. Ted Cruz rejecting the reality of global warming, while others such as former Sen. Rick Santorum arguing that there is nothing the United States can do to reverse the situation.

"We can't just stick our heads in the sand and say there is no problem," he said.

Have Democratic Voters Had Enough Of Corrupt Insiders From The Party's DC Establishment Rigging Primaries?

Today the House Ethics Committee tabled the spurious ethics charges Chuck Schumer cooked up against Alan Grayson to drive him out of Congress and make room for Wall Street's errand boy, pitiful Schumercrat Patrick Murphy. In fact, instead of investigating Grayson, the Ethics Committee has decided to investigate Murphy for directing one of his sleazy staffers to leak confidential information to the media during the Office of Congressional Ethics investigation.

The corrupt Beltway Democratic Party Establishment feels itself under attack and is reacting ruthlessly to protect its power and the source of its spoils. Schumer has been orchestrating attacks against progressive icon Alan Grayson and against former Admiral Joe Sestak to insure the nomination of weak candidates without a point of view who will be willing puppets for himself and his Wall Street allies, respectively, Murphy and Katie McGinty, although neither of these unqualified candidates would be likely to survive a general election.

New polling from Harper came out this morning, showing Sestak continuing to increase his lead over McGinty. Even after the Obama and virtually the entire Democratic establishment endorsed their puppet, Sestak is leading 41% to 31% with Fetterman at 9%. This chart shows how likely Democratic primary voters responded when asked who they will vote for in 3 weeks. Sestak has stronger intensity of support (62% of his voters definitely voting for him, 31% probably) than McGinty (52%/42%).

After Sestak refused to pledge allegiance to Schumer personally-- Joe's old fashioned that way-- Schumer decided he'd rather see Toomey re-elected than allow an independent-minded Sestak get into the Senate. This is from his campaign a few days ago:

In 2010, Washington D.C.’s Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) did something it had never done before: it gave a candidate in a contested primary the $1.4 million it had always reserved for the general election. Nevertheless, Sen. Arlen Specter lost to Joe Sestak.


The day after the primary, Pat Toomey began spending millions of dollars on TV ads against Joe that went unanswered-- unanswered, because the DSCC financing meant to be available for a Democrat in the general election was spent propping up Specter in the primary. Undefended on TV, Joe dropped 18 points in the polls before he raised replacement funds for his own TV ads months later. Dogged, Joe only lost by 2%, but Pat Toomey became PA’s Senator.


On Friday, DSCC took the same dangerous action for the 2nd time in its history-- again, in PA. With Joe now ahead by 17% against a primary opponent who has no more of her own money to spend, DSCC placed $450K into this week’s TV buy against Joe-- the beginning of the full $1.9 million DSCC can do in 2016-- in order to dictate who Pennsylvanians should pick.


Worse, spending the $1.9 million in the primary means it once again won’t be available for the general election-- and this time Pat Toomey has $10 million in ready campaign cash for unanswered TV ads the day after the primary. The DSCC is handing Pat Toomey his election-- once again.


Dem Party leaders in Washington are taking money that should be used to beat Pat Toomey and instead using it to prop up a candidate trailing by 17% in the polls just because the top Dem Senate leaders will not accept Admiral Joe Sestak’s independent thought and people-first approach.

Also in Pennsylvania the progressive candidate who was running against Republican incumbent Ryan Costello in the 6th district, Lindy Li, was forced out of the Democratic primary last week. The DCCC candidate, Mike Parrish, a Republican-turned-quasi-Democrat, was recruited by Steve Israel who showed Parrish how to challenge Li's petitions. After Parrish's challenge, a court invalidated her signatures because the notary public stamped the petitions but neglected to sign them and then conveniently "disappeared" during the court case. Much of the $600,000 Li had raised for the primary was eaten up by the court case, which is exactly what the DCCC teaches their REpublican-lite candidates to do to progressive "interlopers."

Steve Israel may be very happy that his conservative candidate will now be the nominee but the chances of Parrish uniting the Democratic parties in parts of Chester, Berks and Montgomery counties that make up the 6th district is exactly zero. Winner by default: Ryan Costello in a district won against McCain 53-46%.

The establishment pulled their ultimate rabbit out of their hat in Florida, where they got Obama to endorse payday lender fanatics Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Patrick Murphy. Grayson reported a huge upsurge in online contributions from his progressive followers right after Obama endorsed "ex"-Republican Murphy and in yesterday's Huff Po, Amanda Terkel reported the same phenomena for Tim Canova, the progressive law professor challenging Wasserman Schultz, in post entitled Obama’s Endorsement Of Debbie Wasserman Schultz Brings In Serious Money... For Her Challenger.

Canova raised $557,000, powered by small donations. Nearly 15,300 people donated, for an average contribution of $20. Only six donors gave the maximum amount allowed under law, meaning he still has a significant pool of people to tap into for future donations.

...In the four days following Obama’s endorsement, Canova received nearly $100,000, according to his campaign-- almost a quarter of what he raised in the three-month period, even though they never actually fundraised off the endorsement.

Canova said he read Obama’s statement as “pretty boilerplate” and thought it showed that Wasserman Schultz was worried about losing her race.

“It’s what you would expect from a favor being called in. Let’s see if he does much more in the way of campaigning for her,” Canova said, adding that he has been trying to point out to voters key areas where the DNC chair has disagreed with Obama-- such as in her pushback on policies being put forward by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“We’ve gotten her attention. She wouldn’t have been running to the White House to get that sort of statement if she wasn’t worried,” he said... Canova said he had also seen other spikes in donations to his campaign after three other developments: after news broke about Wasserman Schultz’s payday lending legislation, when the DNC reversed the ban on federal lobbyist donations and when the Florida Democratic Party said it would deny Canova access to its voter database (it later reversed that decision).

Let's continue to fight back against the corruption and the establishment dominance of what was formerly "the people's party." We don't need two Republican parties. One is bad enough. You can contribute to Grayson and Canova by tapping on the thermometer below. And if you're feeling flush, remember that Alex Law in South Jersey and Dave McTeague in western Oregon are also fight the good fight to rid the country of corrupt conservative incumbents, respectively, the Norcross Machine's Donald Norcross and chief Blue Dog Kurt Schrader. Congress would be a far better place without Wasserman Schultz, Patrick Murphy, Donald Norcross and Kurt Schrader.

How The DCCC Is Abandoning Pennsylvania Democrats Once Again

How an incompetent DCCC has reshaped the political landscape of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania, one of the most egregiously gerrymandered states in the country, has 18 congressional seats. Even though it's a blue state-- Obama beat McCain 3,192,316 (54.7%) to 2,586,496 (44.3%) and beat Romney 2,907,448 (52.0%) to 2,619,58 (46.8%); Bob Casey beat Tom Smith for the U.S. Senate seat in 2012 53.6% to 44.7% and the most recent statewide race saw Tom Wolf wipe out incumbent Governor Tom Corbett 55-45%-- only 5 congressional seats are held by Democrats now!

In 2006, the congressional delegation reflected the state's partisan split far more accurately: there were 12 Democrats in Congress and 7 Republicans. The incompetence and grotesque corruption of Chris Van Hollen and Steve Israel and their staff guaranteed the portion of Democratic seats in the state would fall from 12 of 19 to 5 of 18. (This has been their impact coast to coast from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.) They like to use gerrymandering as an excuse, but it's a false excuse. The DCCC routinely ignores districts that favor Democrats if the locals have the temerity to nominate a progressive rather than a corrupt DCCC conservative.

This cycle in Pennsylvania-- with it's 13 Republican-seats in what looks to be a huge year, with Bernie or Hillary at the top of the ticket, likely against some crackpot like Herr Trumpf or nut-case Dominionist Ted Cruz and Joe Sestak challenging failed right-wing Senator Pat Toomey, a Wall Street puppet ($6,353,491)-- the DCCC is challenging 3 Republicans. In order of interest, they're looking whomever the GOP nominates to fill Mike Fitzpatrick's seat in Bucks County (almost certainly the NRCC shill, Mike's uptight little brother Brian, who's counting on people mixing him up with his brother), Ryan Costello and Pat Meehan. In PA-08 (Fitzpatrick's seat), they recruited an establishment-favored typical DCCC conservaDem, Steve Santassiero, but backed away when he proved lazy, dumb and unable to raise and money. It looks more likely that the more progressive Shaunghnessy Naughton will win the primary in this seat Obama won against McCain, 53-46%. 

The DCCC recruited a wealthy entrepreneur/pastor, Bill Golderer, as their candidate against Pat Meehan in the Delaware County 'burbs south and west of Philly (PA-07), although there's a real grassroots progressive running, an Elizabeth Warren-type college professor, Mary Ellen Balchunis and she-- rather than he-- has the backing of the local Democratic parties. PA-07 is another instance of the DCCC recruiting their idea of a candidate and foisting him on the locals. 

They recruited a conservative Republican, a party switcher, Mike Parrish, to run in PA-06 (an oddly shaped monstrosity that includes pieces of Chester, Berks and Montgomery counties) but Parrish must have studied in the same how-to-lose school as Santassiero and the DCCC cooled on him as well. A progressive grassroots activist, Lindy Li is also running and she seems to be generating more enthusiasm than the ex-Republican. But those 3 Philly-area districts are the only ones-- of the 13 held by Republicans-- the DCCC is even bothering to contest.

There are no Democratic candidates running against Mike Kelly (PA-03), Bill Shuster (PA-09), Tom Marino (PA-10) or Tim Murphy (PA-18), so no one even building for a future run the way Mary Ellen did against Meehan in 2014 when she got zero help from the DCCC but still managed to bring in nearly 90,000 votes, something she's using as a base of support for her campaign this cycle. It doesn't take a brain surgeon.

But even in the districts where there are Democrats running, like in PA-05, where Kerith Strano Taylor is taking on Glenn Thompson again, the DCCC is ignoring the races, the talent they have in the most abundance. They are also ignoring Josh Burkholder's campaign against Scott Perry (PA-04), Michael Marsicano's campaign against racist/xenophobic freak-show Lou Barletta (PA-11), Steve Larchuk's race against Keith Rothfus (PA-12), the race to replace retiring Joe Pitts (PA-16), where Christina Hartman and Gary Wegman are in a primary-- and where Obama nearly beat McCain 50-49%. But the worst case of DCCC malfeasance is in the Lehigh Valley (PA-15), where Charlie Dent is being challenged by Democrat Rick Daugherty, who did reasonably well against Dent in 2012. Four years before that Obama won the district 52-47%. But the DCCC is uninterested in getting involved.

So while the DCCC gets ready to repeat every mistake they've made in every cycle in recent memory-- recruiting awful candidates that the base doesn't relate to and leaving dozens of seats uncontested-- the NRCC is being far more aggressive and targeting way more House seats, including seats where they know they will lose in November but hope to pick up in 2018-- the kind of long-range thinking imbeciles like Chris Van Hollen, Steve Israel and Ben Ray Lujan are incapable of.

Do you want progressive candidates who can win? Here are 18, only one of whom the DCCC is even supporting at all. If you'd like to help any of them win, please tap the thermometer. Maybe there's even one near you.

UPDATE: Another District In Play?

Pennsylvania's most progressive House Member, Matt Cartwright, just endorsed Christina Hartman in PA-16, which includes Pennsylvania Dutch Country, all of Lancaster and some of blue Reading. Although the district is R+4, Obama won it in 2008 and held Romney to 52% in 2012. If the DCCC were less incompetent and actually got behind Hartman, there's a good chance she would beat likely GOP nominee, state Sen. Lloyd Smucker, an extremist nut who bears a chunk of responsibility for shutting down the state government-- the last thing we need in DC. "With a name like Smucker, he’s got to be a turd" would be a great campaign poster for her... though maybe not in Lancaster County.

Conservative Democrats Use Politics To Make Sure Their Policy Goals Aren't Threatened By Progressives

Once Rahm Emanuel got the power to fire Howard Dean as DNC chair-- the first catastrophic decision of the Obama presidency-- replacing him with 2 consecutive talentless sieves-- first Tim Kaine and then, much worse, Debbie Wasserman Schultz-- and scrapping Dean's 50-state strategy, it was apparent the Republican Party would have a free-hand in scores of districts where they could be challenged over the long term and that Washington would no longer back sensible strategies for winning back congressional seats or state legislatures.

It was an identical realignment from one I saw taking the music industry, where I had been working, into the toilet. Once the record companies abandoned "artist development" and opted for instant gratification, the industry was finished. At my own label, for example, we had worked on artists like Depeche Mode and Barenaked Ladies for many years before breakthrough albums exploded their catalogue and brought the company millions of dollars in profit. The Emanuel/DNC/DCCC/DSCC strategy is to never look past the current cycle and never develop anything. The result has been a net of nearly 70 lost congressional seats and an even more horrific result on the state legislative level.

If Wall Street and the Republican Party wanted to destroy the Democratic Party from within, they could not have found someone better to do it that Rahm Emanuel and the chimpanzees from the Wall Street-funded New Dems-- like Wasserman Schultz-- who have worked to cut the Democratic Party's now tenuous ties with the kind of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt progressivism that has always made Democratic insiders and elites uncomfortable.

Saturday night when an ABC host asked Bernie if corporate America will love a President Sanders and the candidate responded "No they won't... and Wall Street will like me even less," the Democratic base exploded with approval. The Rahm-Wasserman Schultz Wall Street wing of the party, felt justified in trying to rig the nomination for Hillary, the overwhelming establishment choice.

This dynamic plays out locally, of course, up and down the ballot. Ever since Rahm was head of the DCCC-- and Wasserman Schultz was head of the Red-to-Blue Committee (until she was caught trying to rig 3 Miami Dade congressional elections for her Republican buddies, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers and against the 3 Democratic candidates)-- the DCCC has had a monumentally failed recruitment system that disadvantages progressives and recruits Republican-lite and Republican candidates. People like Rahm, Chris Van Hollen and Steve Israel-- the 3 consecutive worst DCCC chairmen in history-- who do not believe in progressive values and principles, look for corrupt, compromised centrists like themselves and insist that only that kind of candidate can win. The record of the DCCC shows they are entirely wrong but Pelosi and the rest of the House leadership seem incapable of reading the results of elections or of understanding why there are dozens and dozens fewer Democrats in Congress now than there were a decade ago.

Last week the Kaiser Foundation released a poll that showed that most Americans, for example, favor single-payer Medicare for all, a progressive idea that hacks like Israel, Wasserman Schultz and the rest of the New Dems fight against as strongly as Republicans do. 58% of Americans-- not to mention 81% of Democrats-- are in favor, as, of course, is Bernie Sanders, the candidate the Democratic Party establishment is working feverishly to derail.

Again, once Rahm murdered Dean's 50 state strategy, there were obviously going to be no wins to the South outside of urban cores. But even in the northeast, the DCCC has utterly dropped the ball and failed to hold or win seats that should be in Democratinc hands. Lets look at two that are in the news today, NY-22 (Utica, Rome and Binghamton) and PA-06 in the suburbs and exurbs northwest of Philly. Both have relatively mainstream Republican congressmen, Richard Hanna in New York and freshman Ryan Costello in Pennsylvania, Both seats are swing districts that the Democrats must win if they are going to take back the House while writing off huge sections of the country. Obama performed well in both districts, 49-49% ties with McCain and Romney in NY-22 and a 53-46% win against McCain and a 48-51% loss against Romney in PA-06.

Weak DCCC candidates did far worse. After progressive Democrat Maurice Hinchey retired in 2012, the DCCC recruited a weak Hinchey staffer, Dan Lamb, who lost every single county in the district to Hanna-- who won 157,941 (56.4%) to 102,080 (36.4%)-- drastically underperforming Obama, and with the DCCC abandoning the race early and refusing to spend any money on Lamb's behalf. In 2014, the DCCC didn't bother recruiting a candidate and Hanna was reelected without opposition after a bitter primary fight with a teabagger.

With the retirement of long-time incumbent Jim Gerlach in 2014, PA-06 was an open seat, the perfect opportunity for a Democratic win. Instead, the DCCC re-recruited two-time loser Manan Trivedi, another uninspiring, values-free centrist, who had lost to Gerlach in 2010 42.9-57.1% and in 2012 42.9-57.1%. So why would anyone be surprised that Trivedi would lose 43.7-56.3% in 2014, especially with the DCCC spending zero dollars on the race?

Over the weekend, when Hanna announced his retirement, the clueless Beltway trade press reacted by immediately projecting a "tossup" from a "safe Republican" designation. That's because they don't take DCCC incompetence into account. The crazy teabagger who ran against Hanna in 2014, Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney, had already announced she would primary him again-- so she's all in-- but Oswego County GOP Chairman Michael Backus and Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente are also interested in running. The Democrats are looking at Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi who has a superb environmental record but doesn't have a good record on guns and is way more appreciated by the NRA than most Democrats in the state legislature. He was endorsed by NARAL and has a good voting record on Choice and was endorsed by the AFL-CIO and has a good record on unions and workers, although he voted with the Republicans against raising the minimum wage in 2012.

The Pennsylvania district is more problematic. Steve Israel has been adamant about handing the nomination over to another of his "ex" Republicans, Mike Parrish, who has until very recently been contributing thousands of dollars to Republicans like Mitt Romney and Pennsylvania's hated ex-governor, Mike Corbett. But Parrish has been unable to raise any money this cycle-- just $74,517 even with DCCC help-- and Roll Call reported that the DCCC has dumped him as a candidate and is looking for someone else. (In 2014 he raised $150,318 for a quickly aborted primary against Trivedi.) Presumably there will be a time in the future-- apparently after Pelosi retires and we get a viable DCCC-- when the Democratic Party realizes that recruiting Republicans for run as Democrats is a bad idea on every level.

And, yes, yes... Hillary Clinton is better than the Republicans running for the presidency. But is this what you want to see as the Democratic nominee? You can contribute to Bernie's campaign and to the campaigns of congressional candidates who have endorsed Bernie right here on this Blue America ActBlue page. I urge you to watch this video and to share it with your friends:

Progressives Can Win Back Congress-- But Not Through The DCCC

You may have noticed we keep complaining about Nancy Pelosi's selection and retention of Steve Israel as Chairman of the DCCC. The Democrats will never win back the House will Israel as chair. In fact, because of his agreement with the NRCC to not target certain vulnerable incumbents and his loyalty to members of his old Center Aisle Caucus, it is mathematically impossible for the Democrats to ever win back a majority while he's in power. And we're not the only ones who think so. I have spoken to dozens of Members of Congress, candidates and party operatives with horror stories about Israel's personal corruption, venality and incompetence.

The post yesterday on his latest Republican recruit, Mike Parrish, in southeast Pennsylvania, brought forth comments from several former DCCC staffers with inside information on how Israel operates. Some of it was too shocking to publish without rigorous substantiation. But one high level operative wrote up some comments that I figured I could share with DWT readers. I don't want to get this guy in trouble though… so don't send them to Steve Israel or any of his henchmen.

We Have To Get Back In The Majority
by Another Anonymous Operative

I've worked on Congressional campaigns with the DCCC when Rahm Emanuel was its chair in 2006-- when the Democrats picked up 30 seats. And again in 2008, when Chris Van Hollen was its chair and the Dems picked up another 21 seats.

The DCCC that I saw in 2006 and 2008 had a smart strategy of finding the right Democratic candidates that matched their district, and doing everything necessary to get these candidates to run and then give them the resources they needed to win.

Now, several cycles removed from Emanuel and Van Hollen, it seems that the DCCC and its leadership have completely lost their way. They no longer know how to recruit or back the right candidates. It feels like they are using a bastardized version of the '06 and '08 strategies, but like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy, it's almost impossible to tell what the original actually was.

Now, the strategy seems to find the Democrat who's the closest to being a Republican, and fully back them without doing do diligence or the hard work on the ground to find out who is the best candidate to win.

The clearest example of this is PA-6. An otherwise amazing opportunity (the district is R+2 and its Republican member Jim Gerlach, is retiring) is about to be squandered.  The DCCC backed candidate, Michael Parrish was a registered Republican up until a few months ago who supported Romney, McCain, and Pennsylvania's terrible Governor, Tom Corbett. He's not even a "conservative Democrat," he's a Republican.

So what does this mean? It means that the DCCC will spend millions of dollars to lose this seat (it's in the Philadelphia media market, so it will be expensive). The Democratic base in the district will feel disenfranchised, and there will be no infrastructure remaining to take on the likely Republican winner next cycle.

We need to figure out a way to go back to the good old days, because this cycle of backing Republicans who run as Democrats and will never win is unsustainable, and we HAVE to get back in the majority.

Remember when the Democratic Party used to run candidates against Independent Bernie Sanders? They've stopped doing that now but Bernie's congressional races featured three-way contests between himself and then candidates from the 2 corrupt Beltway parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. There are several races shaping up like that for this cycle and at least two of them will be winnable for independent-minded progressives free of the stink of the DCCC-- independents who are more Democratic than the Democrats. One is in CA-33, where Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Calabasas, South Bay voters have an opportunity to elect the most independent-minded progressive since Bernie Sanders was in the House (Marianne Williamson, running for the now-open Henry Waxman seat) and a Green candidate about to declare a campaign against unfaithful conservative Democrat, Kyrsten Sinema in AZ-09 (Tempe, Scottsdale, Mesa, Chandler). Expect to hear more on these two races-- a lot more.

Nancy Pelosi To Hold Fundraiser For Pennsylvania Republican

The DCCC wants you to contribute money to this wealthy lifelong Republican

PA-06 is a swing district in southeast Pennsylvania, primarily Chester County, with significant pieces of Berks, Montgomery and Lebanon counties. The Republican state legislature skewered it towards the GOP in 2010 by taking out blue-blue Coatesville and putting in some red-leaning parts of the Upper Main Line. It went from being a D+2 district to an R+2 district. Romney scraped by in 2012, 174,415 (51%) to 166,0030 (48%) while Obama beat McCain more convincingly in the district in 2008 187,056 (53%) to 161,943 (46%). Last year, incumbent Republican Rep. Jim Gerlach won all 4 counties and an overall 57-43% victory over Manan Trivedi. Gerlach spent $2,108,953 on the race and Trivedi spent $1,331,021. The DCCC didn't give Trivedi a dime of assistance. But a few weeks ago, Gerlach announced he would be retiring.

The DCCC immediately recruited Mike Parrish, a Republican who switched his party registration from Republican to Democrat, Steve Israel's favorite kind of "Democrat." And Parrish is very conservative candidate with a typical Steve Israel mystery meat website that doesn't list any stands on issues. A Malvern businessman, Parrish has contributed thousands of dollars to the Pennsylvania Republican Party, to Governor Corbett, to John McCain and to Mitt Romney. He's never contributed any money to any Democrats. Why should he have? He's always been a Republican.

This Thursday, February 6th, Nancy Pelosi will be at the Racquet Club of Philadelphia raising money from loyal Democrats for Parrish.

There is perhaps no one, not even President Obama, who is more beloved by Democrats and despised by Republicans than Nancy Pelosi. Yet all recognize that one of her most impressive traits is her ability to raise vasts amounts of money.

“Mike doesn’t have a crystal ball and can’t see into the future.  But if such a hypothetical decision came before him-- he would vote his district and vote the way his constituents told him to vote-- just like he would on everything that came before him as a member of Congress,” Parrish’s campaign manager Jocelyn Steinberg said. “Right now Mike is focused on talking to voters throughout the district and listening to their ideas, concerns, suggestions on how to create jobs and boosts PA’s economy.”

NRCC spokesperson Ian Prior isn't happy about Parrish jumping the fence and running as a "Democrat" and made that clear in a statement: “Apparently Michael Parrish’s political soul is for sale. Just a year after claiming to be a conservative and donating thousands to Republican candidates like Mitt Romney, John McCain and Tom Corbett, Parrish is now gladly selling out to Nancy Pelosi and her liberal, job killing agenda.”

Joshua Grossman, the genius behind ProgressivePunch, looked closely at Mike Parrish's convenient switch to the Democratic Party. He told me that Parrish is a "Panamanian flag of convenience on an ocean-going tanker." This is the kind of garbage candidate Steve Israel has recruited all over the country. Most of the DCCC candidates-- with just a very few exceptions-- are dreadful conservatives who have one thing in common: not an inkling of what it means to be independent-minded. DCCC-endorsed candidates are predominantly political zombies who are expected to do exactly what intensely corporate whores Steve Israel, Steny Hoyer and Joe Crowley tell them to do. It's heartbreaking to see Pelosi going along for the ride and raising money from Democrats who admire, trust and respect her. I hate to say it, but it's time for her to either fire Israel or follow her two top lieutenants, George Miller and Henry Waxman, into retirement. 

Wondering Who The Republican Party's Next Todd Akin Will Be? There Are So Many To Choose From

Get used to seeing pictures of New Jersey teabagger Steve Lonegan yelling

Steve Stockman's deranged "John Cornyn-is-a-liberal" campaign really is something to behold. Stockman, a former vagrant strung out out on and dealing a wide varietis drugs, is making a lot of ambient noise on twitter and producing amusing infographics like these:

In December, when he announced he would be abandoning his House seat to primary Cornyn, he asserted that "Liberal John Cornyn wakes up every morning and works to make the Senate a more liberal place. That’s why I am running for the United States Senate. I have a 100% pro-gun, pro-life, conservative voting record in Congress." One top staffer for a conservative Republican in the House told me that Stockman is widely viewed as "crackpot… He's toxic… No one wants to get anywhere bear him. He's probably the least effective member of our caucus… It must have been a very frustrating year for him. None of our members pay the crazy things he's always saying any attention at all. And attention is what this poor man is craving… I don't think even the most extreme groups like Club for Growth and FreedomWorks will back him. I wouldn't be too worried if I were Big John."

But with polls showing Cornyn crushing the hyperbolic Stockman-- 50-6% according to Republican Party polling outfit Wilson Perkins Allen Research-- Cornyn's strategy is to just pretty much ignore Stockman and hope he burns himself out-- or ODs.

The NRCC wishes they could ignore some of the crackpot fringe characters the Tea Party is putting up to run in important seats aound the country. Over the weekend, The Hill's Cameron Joseph reported on the GOP's primary problem. And some of these races are not the long shots the Texas Senate primary is. He's warning of more than one potential "Todd Akin problem" for the Republicans.

After a rash of recent retirements by entrenched incumbents, Republicans are unexpectedly defending a number of seats in tossup or GOP-leaning districts. And to the national party’s chagrin, many of those controversial candidates are already running or planning to-- and if they emerge as the nominee, it could endanger the GOP’s hold on the critical seats.

Crowded, expensive primaries that produce flawed candidates are nothing new for Republicans. But the epidemic has been most problematic on the Senate side, where gaffe-prone candidates like Akin in Missouri, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware cost them winnable seats the last two cycles. Now, it’s threatening to bleed into congressional races, too.

“The House landscape is littered with land-mine candidates in certain seats and districts,” said Cook Political Report House Editor David Wasserman. “That doesn't mean the nomination of those candidates will doom Republican chances in those district, but it'd force Republicans to spend more money and effort than they'd like to and give Democrats hope in some of the districts they need to win.”

As Democrats have gleefully welcomed newfound opportunities in swing districts due to recent retirements from Reps. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.), Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.), Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Tom Latham (R-Iowa) and Rep. Bill Young’s (R-Fla.) death, they’ve salivated at some of the candidates who have already announced.

…Here are a few of the pivotal races giving Republicans heartburn:

New Jersey’s 3rd District-- Retiring Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.)

The former NFL lineman’s decision to retire has opened up a seat President Obama carried in both 2008 and 2012. Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan (R), a Tea Party-affiliated former Senate candidate, is running and starts the race with early advantages in organization and name identification.

Lonegan made a number of controversial comments during the special election last year against now-Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorsed him at a large rally in the state, and he embraced a number of conservative social stances.

Republicans are hopeful another strong candidate can emerge, but fear Lonegan will be hard to beat in a primary and would be all but unelectable in the general election.

“The Lonegan thing is not helpful, for sure,” said one national GOP strategist.

Meanwhile, Democrats are all too happy to welcome Lonegan back into politics, as they hope to regain the seat they lost in 2010.

“In a perfect world, he runs every year for something,” laughed one state operative.

Virginia’s 10th District-- Retiring Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.)

Controversial state Sen. Dick Black (R) announced his bid for Wolf’s slightly GOP-leaning Northern Virginia House seat earlier this week. Black, a staunch social conservative, has compared abortion clinics to Auschwitz and handed out plastic fetuses ahead of a legislative vote on abortion.

In fact, national Republicans say they might not even spend money on the district if Black is the nominee.

“He's like a ticking time bomb,” said one GOP strategist.

Many establishment Republicans are hopeful Virginia Del. Barbara Comstock (R) can unite the GOP field win the nomination, and she’s received early endorsements from both wings of the party-- conservative talk radio host Mark Levin and former presidential nominee Mitt Romney are both backing her.

But the biggest variable will be how the nomination ends up being decided. Local Republicans will meet on January 23 to decide whether to choose an open primary or a closed party convention, which are usually dominated by very conservative activists. A half-dozen other Republicans are seriously weighing bids for the seat, so no matter what type of nominating process the GOP chooses, there is a high level of uncertainty over who will emerge from the crowded field.

Iowa’s 3rd District-- Retiring Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa)

Numerous candidates are lining up to run for Latham’s seat, which Obama won twice.

A crowded field primary field could hurt the GOP, especially since candidates need to win 35 percent of the vote to clinch the nomination. If no candidate reaches that mark, a local convention of typically-conservative delegates will select the nominee. And such a scenario is Republicans heartburn.

“If there end up being five of these guys running, I'm concerned about it going to a convention,” said former Iowa Republican Party Political Director Craig Robinson.

Republicans also worry about Robert Cramer (R), who has close ties with the state’s powerful religious conservative activists and is likely to run. Cramer is a member of the Family Leader, a group of vocal socially conservative activists in the state, and his appointment to a state board was blocked by Democrats because of his views.

Pennsylvania’s 6th District-- Retiring Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.)

The suburban and exurban district outside of Philadelphia's district leans slightly Republican-- Mitt Romney won it by a narrow margin in 2012, though President Obama carried it in 2008-- and is likely to be competitive now that Gerlach is retiring.

No one yet to launch a bid for Gerlach’s seat after his announcement last Monday, but local observers say former gubernatorial and Senate candidate Sam Rohrer (R) is likely to throw his hat in the ring.

Rohrer has deep ties with both the Tea Party and religious conservatives and would be formidable in a primary, but too conservative for the swing district.

“He gives us heartburn,” said GOP strategist.

A number of more establishment Republicans are looking at running, but they could split the more centrist primary vote and give Rohrer a boost if he runs.

“This is a ripe district for an establishment-versus-Tea Party primary,” said Keegan Gibson of the Pennsylvania political website PoliticsPA.

It's a mark of how extreme the GOP has become that they're hoping a sociopath like Barbara Comstock is the solution to someone they deem as too far right! In case you've forgotten her, let me remind you of what then-Republican operative David Brock had to say about her in Blinded By The Right. Page 208-9:

One night in the winter of 1995, as the scandal over the firings of workers in the White house travel office reached a crescendo on the Hill I received a late night telephone call from one of Ted's colleagues on an investigative committee, Barbara Comstock. Around the committee, the two Barbaras [Comstock and Olsen] were known as "the Barbarellas," a reference to the 1968 movie starring Jane Fonda as a space-age vixen whose cosmic adventures take her to bizarre planets via rocket ships. Late night calls from Barbara Comstock were not unusual. She often telephoned with the latest tidbit she had dig up in the thousands of pages of administration records she pored through frantically, as if she were looking for a winning lottery ticket she had somehow mislaid. A plain woman with tousled reddish brown hair, she once dropped by my house to watch the rerun of a dreadfully dull Whitewater hearing she had sat through all day. Comstock sat on the edge of her chair shaking, screaming over and over again, "Liars!" As Comstock's leads failed to pan out and she was unable to catch anyone in a lie, the Republican aide confided that the Clinton scandals were driving her to distraction, to the unfortunate point that she was ignoring the needs of her own family. A very smart lawyer by training and the main breadwinner for her charismatic, happy-go-lucky husband and kids, Comstock remarked that maybe she couldn't get Hillary's sins off her brain "because Hillary reminds me of me. I am Hillary." In this admission a vivid illustration of a much wider "Hillary" phenomenon can be seen. Comstock knew nothing about Hillary Clinton. Comstock's "Hillary" was imaginary, a construction composed entirely of the negative points in her own life.

Comstock invited me to go along on an expedition to the Washington home of senior White House aide David Watkins, the central figure in the travel scandal Olson and Comstock were probing. A short time later, Republican lawyers Comstock, Olson, and other congressional investigators, including David Bossie, and Whitewater investigator Christopher Bartomolucci, pulled up outside my house in an SUV. Though I wasn't sure what the group hoped to accomplish-- they were visibly frustrated with their inability so far to incriminate Watkins-- I went along for the ride. Olson explained that Congressman Sonny Bono had cleared us into the private, gated community where both Bono and Watkins lived, in the northwest section of Georgetown. When we arrived at our destination, Olsen giddily leapt from the truck, trespassed onto Watkins's property, and hopped down a steep cliff that abutted his home. Barbara peered into Watkins's window where she observed him-- watching television. No crime there.

Still, better than "the ticking time-bomb," Dick Black. Jesus! And The Hill completely missed the bloody primary battle already gearing up to replace Buck McKeon as he crosses over to K Street. CA-25-- Antelope Valley, Santa Clarita Valley and Simi Valley-- are seeing the seams of the GOP split apart as McKeon's handpicked successor, carpetbagger Tony Strickland, being challenged by the single most right-wing member of the California state legislature, extremist whack job Steve Knight. Afraid to face Democrat Lee Rogers again, McKeon hopes Strickland can hold the Los Angeles area seat for the GOP, despite demographic shifts away from what Republicans need to hold districts. And Knight has built his political career on hatred against and bigotry towards Hispanic voters who have come into their own right in his own backyard.

California's 25th District-- Retiring Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA)

Steve Israel is blind to this key race but Knight's voting record would be considered ultra-conservative even for a backward district in Alabama or Mississippi. In suburban L.A., it's just bizarre and a throwback to another century. Widely considered a shill for the NRA and an automaton for the most extreme right-wing proposals that ever come up in Sacramento, Knight was one of only 11 senators who voted against increasing the minimum wage and, despite representing a district with a huge Hispanic population, he was one of only 8 senators who voted against drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants. When the Governor decided to expand Medicaid in line with the Affordable Care Act, only 7 die-hard right-wingers opposed it, Knight being one of them, of course. He was also one of only 8 senators to fully back unregulated fracking in California earthquake zones. He is vehemently anti-Choice and anti-gay and voted against every piece of legislation promoting equality that has ever come before him. For example, last May he was one of only 9 senators to vote against a bipartisan bill that prohibits tax-exempt status for organizations that discriminate against the LGBT community and he was also one one of only seven sociopaths who opposed an anti-bullying bill that passed the Senate with huge bipartisan support. One legislator told me that Knight isn't a bad guy on a personal level but that he's "an inflexible ideologue… probably the single least effective member of the state legislature… Sure, Strickland is no prize but Knight makes even him look almost good!" Key word: "almost."

Democratic Congressional Opportunities In Southeast Pennsylvania-- IF Steve Israel Doesn't Blow It Again

Do these protesters need to show up at Steve Israel's house?

The suburbs north of Philadelphia look promising for Democrats this year. First and foremost, Wall Street-owned New Dem Allyson Schwartz (PA-13) is leaving Congress and is likely to be replaced by the state legislature's liberal lion, Montgomery County Senator Daylin Leach. Conservative Democrats have their own ridiculous candidates, a corrupt Clinton mother-in-law whose only compelling reason for running seems to be to institute chained CPI and reduce benefits to seniors (Hoyer's candidate), and Philly-boss backed anti-Choice hack Brendan Boyle. But that's a primary and a potential pick-up for progressives, but a red-to-blue seat.

Steve Israel has failed miserably to recruit winning candidates against vulnerable Republican incumbents but Democrats had great news yesterday when Jim Gerlach announced he wouldn't be running for reelection in PA-06 (after 6 terms). The district, which has a PVI of R+2 after partisan redistricting that made it slightly safer for a Republican to hold, contains parts of 4 counties: Chester, Berks, Montgomery and Lebanon. Montgomery and Chester are friendliest to Democrats and it wouldn't be a stretch to take back that seat with the right candidate. Look at this PPP survey showing how vulnerable Gerlach was. The DCCC ignored it:

Now it looks like either Bob Casey's brother, Chris Casey, or current gubernatorial candidate Katie McGinty, may want to jump into the open-seat race. This is a great pick-up opportunity and No doubt Israel is scrambling to find a corrupt conservative to run.

East of PA-06 and sharing a around the Green Lane Reservoir and Schwenksville, we have another vulnerable Republican-held seat, PA-08, Mike Fitzpatrick's seat, that extends east through Doylestown and down into Bensalem and Levittown. Basically, though, excluding a small piece of Montgomery County, this is the Bucks County district. This one has an R+1 PVI and was recently held by Blue Dog Patrick Murphy. The DCCC ran out and recruited another of their untrustworthy empty suits, ex-CIA agent, Kevin Strouse. This district could be won but Steve Israel is likely to muck it up in his relentless jihad against grassroots candidates. As we pointed out last September, Strouse is a pro-fracking candidate and, like most voters in Bucks County, Shaughnessy Naughton, is a scientist and an anti-fracking candidate. Environmentalists abhor Strouse, of course, and have largely been endorsing Naughton, who Israel has been bad-mouthing to Democratic donors. For example, Michael Mann, author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars and a Distinguished Professor at Penn State, gave Naughton the kind of fulsome backing scientists have been awarding her:

I don’t normally do this, but our country is at a crossroads and, in my view, science is under attack.

Our scientific community has been generally loath to delve into the political realm. Meanwhile we have elected officials that are science deniers; they cut funding for scientific research and seek to politicize basic facts.

I’ve seen this firsthand. In 2005, the Attorney General of Virginia opened a civil investigation against me because he didn’t agree with my scientific findings on climate change, threatening academic freedom for the sake of promoting anti-science bias.

But there is a bright spot. I recently met Shaughnessy Naughton, a chemist and businesswoman from Southeastern Pennsylvania who is running for Congress on a pro-science platform.  She understands the scientific evidence behind pressing issues like the environment and healthcare, and she promises to fight to invest in scientific research funding to promote discovery, help grow our economy, and create jobs.  And, she understands the importance of making sure that we have strong STEM education, from elementary school all the way up.

Unfortunately, some traditional campaign donors don’t understand why it is so important to restore and grow the budgets of the NIH, NSF, and other sources of federal funding for scientific research.

But, as scientists, we do. We know the difference science can make in shaping a positive future for our country, and for that reason I believe we have an obligation to support a candidate like Shaughnessy who shares our commitment to fact-driven decision making…Take a look at her science policy plan here.

Just as a report from the AP was released warning on the dangers of fracking to drinking water, Strouse reiterated his pro-fracking agenda. Earlier today, Naughton drew a firm line between her own science-based position and Strouse's corrupt vision for an end to the fracking moratorium in Bucks County. She again told voters that she wants to "permanently ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on the Delaware River Basin."

She cited the newly released AP review of drilling-related complaints [linked above], which found that “Pennsylvania received 398 complaints in 2013 alleging that oil or natural gas drilling polluted or otherwise affected private water wells, compared with 499 in 2012. The Pennsylvania complaints can include allegations of short-term diminished water flow, as well as pollution from stray gas or other substances. More than 100 cases of pollution were confirmed over the past five years.”

What’s more, a new study undertaken by researchers from Princeton, Columbia, and MIT showed that in Pennsylvania the proximity to fracking sites increased the likelihood of low birth weight by more than half and doubled the chance of a low Apgar score. [Bloomberg 1/4/14]

“I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again, we need a permanent ban on fracking along the Delaware River Basin,” said Naughton, referring to the Delaware River, which runs along Bucks County. “We’re talking about potentially contaminating the source of drinking water for fifteen million people. On top of that we should be thinking about the impact on the local tourism economy. Who is going to want to stay at an inn on the historic Delaware River if it’s polluted? We’re talking about a $877.3 million industry that supports more than 11,600 jobs. This isn’t complicated. It’s common sense."

For some odd reason, the DCCC is sticking with a male CIA agent who backs fracking. Go figure!


UPDATE: Naughton Isn't Letting This Rest

This morning Shaughnessy Naughton sent out a press release demanding that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the administration of Governor Tom Corbett provide more transparency on fracking-related water contamination in Pennsylvania, and, in particular, the Delaware River Basin.

“It’s shocking to me that the one entity in the state that’s supposed to protect our environment is fighting efforts to learn about the impact of fracking,” said Naughton. “I’m calling on the DEP and the Corbett Administration to improve their transparency. We do not know enough about the effects of fracking, and the new information we are getting does not look good. We need more information, not less. The residents of Pennsylvania deserve better from their state government.”

By contrast, Naughton’s opponent in the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania’s Eighth Congressional District, Kevin Strouse, told Midweek Wire, “I support natural gas drilling.”