Congresswomen Won't Be Safe With A Drunken Gil Cisneros Wandering Around Capitol Hill

Cisneros keeps threatening to sue everyone; he's just like another Republican: Trump

I've been writing about Gil Cisneros' hopes to buy an Orange County congressional seat he doesn't live in for about a year now-- and I've been talking with DCCC staffers for that long about it as well. Why the hell would they be pushing a conservative "ex"-Republican carpetbagger as incompetent and foolish as Cisneros when there were so many better candidates running in the district? And Cisneros has proven it again.

Melissa Fazli is running for the state Assembly now (AD 55) after having run for DNC vice chair. She has a great reputation among Democratic activists in Orange County and she put out a horrifying press release about Cisneros yesterday, This is it, word for word:

I have seen and heard things that should be yelled from the top of Mount Whitney when it comes to other candidates, especially those running for Congressional District 39. I have heard lies and seen inappropriate behavior. I have spoken privately with others about some of the things that I have witnessed and I have kept quiet until now.

On February 24, 2018 at the San Diego Bayfront Hotel while attending the California Democratic Party Convention, I had an inappropriate encounter with Gil Cisneros, who is running for House of Representatives for Congressional District 39. It was around the 11 pm hour and I had just left Rep. Maxine Waters’ party when I ran into Mr. Cisneros at the elevators. In my opinion, he was intoxicated. I told him how I was running for Assembly 55 and that I was going to hit him up for the maximum contribution for my campaign. He joked “why does everyone come to me for donations?” I responded by saying “well isn’t it obvious?” We chit chatted about Rep. Waters’ party while waiting for the elevator. Then out of the blue he asked me “Should we go back to your room?” I was shocked, but quickly excused it because he was intoxicated. I responded “I don’t think so Gil and I don’t think my two roommates would approve,” while I was laughing. He just smiled and the elevators door opened.

I wouldn’t have given it another thought, if it wasn’t for a phone call I had with him about a week later. I called him to ask for the donation. First he said “why should I? You didn’t vote for me.” He was talking about the pre-endorsement meeting before the convention where the delegates, like myself, get together to vote. I explained to him that a group of us were trying to get Jay Chen the CADEM endorsement in hopes of others to drop out of the crowded race and we were 2 votes shy and so there was no endorsement for CD39. I already knew it wouldn’t deter him or Andy Thorburn from dropping from the race. He then asked me “well what are you going to do for me?” I went into this whole spiel about my ground game hoping to impress him that I would be a very active candidate. Then he interrupted me and in a different tone and slowly said “no Melissa. I mean what are you going to do for me?”

Now this can be interpreted two ways. Either he wants me to be his spy or he wants me to have sex with him. After the encounter at the elevator in San Diego, I thought he wanted to have sex with me in exchange for a $4400 donation. Either way he wanted pay for play; a quick pro quo. I lost my breath for a second and responded “well Gil that’s not how this works.” In the end, he said that he needed to talk to his wife because he was already having problems with people saying he was buying the election and then the call ended. That was the last time I ever spoke to him, but not the last time I would see him.

On April 23rd, I saw him walk in at the Democratic Party of Orange County meeting a little before 7 pm. He looked my way and I immediately felt uncomfortable, so I ended up leaving.

I met Mr. Cisneros for the first time at the Tri-County Democratic Club’s Christmas luncheon in December. Before that I had received a couple of phone calls from him to lobby my vote at the pre-endorsement meeting but I sent them to voicemail. At that time I was getting dozens of calls for my vote as the elected Assembly 55 Delegate and Executive Board Representative to CADEM. Thomas Rivera, Gil’s Deputy Political Director came to my door after the 8 pm hour to also lobby me for my vote. He was the only one to do that and it was kind of creepy.

The first thing I noticed about Mr. Cisneros was he seemed socially awkward. He was constantly on his phone not conversing with the people around him. I’ve seen this exact same behavior in other local venues we’ve attended. I also interviewed him for a couple of minutes for a video I put together of Ed Royce’s retirement celebration at Cha Cha’s restaurant in Brea. He struck me as an outcast in high school who won the lottery and now he wants to hang out with the cool kids in Washington D.C. by showering money on them.

Before I decided to go forward with telling my side of the story, I decided to visit Gil Cisneros’ office in Placentia to let him know and see his response in person on April 30th, however he was not there. His friendly staff told me he was at a high school event and then he was headed to Philadelphia to participate in Michelle Obama’s America’s College Promise event. My first thought was I wished I had Michelle Obama’s cell phone number so I could let her know what happened to me. It also gave me solace in my resolve to come forward. I know there will be sceptics and people who will publically flog me for coming forward, but I thought it was necessary to let people know what kind of man is Gil Cisneros, an unethical creepy man who is using inappropriate and bullying tactics to intimate others in order to win a seat in Congress.

I wonder if Cisneros has ever even heard of the #MeToo movement. I spoke with Melissa on the phone before I wrote this. I asked if she was positive Cisneros was trying to have sex with her. She was positive, unquestionably so. He's so out of touch sitting in his multimillion dollar beachfront mansion in Newport Coast, that he may not even know what it's about. Ben Ray Lujan, Stenchy Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi, Jason Bresler, Kyle Layman, and Dan Sena do know what it means. Do they care? They've endorsed Cisneros and, at least so far, they're sticking with him. Did they even ever vet him-- other than what was in his bank? How disgusting is that? By the way, Republican Russ Wilson spoke up for Cisneros today, defending him by explaining that they've been friends since 2000 "when we worked on the McCain campaign together." Wow... most Democrats I know were working for Al Gore, not John McCain. Cisneros forgot to put his work for John McCain on his resume. But... that's DCCC candidate Gil Cisneros. Pelosi must be so proud! And accused child predator Tony Cárdenas, who-- when he wasn't drugging 16 year old girls and molesting them-- was forcing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC to unite behind Cisneros.

He HATES this photo of himself

Will The Payday Lender Bribery Scandal End Scott Garrett's And Farmer Fincher's Miserable Political Careers?

Wall Street shill Scott Garrett represents Lodi, home of the Bada Bing strip club from The Sopranos

Last week we talked about a new payday lender scandal breaking in Washington because of bribes that were taken by something like a dozen slimy Members of Congress. Campaign contributions were delivered and legislative favors were given return. "A dozen lawmakers received campaign contributions from payday lenders at around the same time they were introducing bills and writing letters benefiting the high-cost cash-advance industry."

Happily, local newspapers in the districts of the criminal-congressmen have begun picking up on the story. One of the most corrupt men ever to stalk the halls of Congress looking to sell his ass, Wall Street whore Scott Garrett (R-NJ), was one of the first to feel the wrath of the local media in Bergen County:

Garrett is one of 11 House members cited in an ethics complaint filed Monday by a watchdog group that accuses lawmakers of taking actions to protect the payday loan industry around the time they received campaign contributions.

The complaint by the Campaign for Accountability asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate Garrett and 10 others, including two Democrats. Most are members of the House Financial Services Committee, on which Garrett is a subcommittee chairman.

The group’s complaint requests an investigation into whether the House members “violated House rules and criminal law,” but there is no guarantee any investigation will be conducted or that any official decision about the complaint’s merits will become public.

The complaint against Garrett focuses on $3,500 in contributions he received between March 2011 and August 2013, a time when his campaign account raised nearly $2.6 million, according to an analysis by The Record of records filed with the Federal Election Commission. In both years, the contributions were made within weeks of an official act Garrett took that would have protected payday lenders from government scrutiny, the watchdog group charges.

“Those contributions seem to be directly tied to actions that he took and that, from our perspective, is really the key here,” said Ann Weismann, executive director of the Center for Accountability. “I understand members accept contributions from industry all the time and there’s nothing per se illegal about that. It is illegal if you accept contributions and it is in exchange for exercising your official authority or taking an official act.”

...The complaint notes that the indictment in April of Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from Paramus, accused him of bribery for allegedly performing official acts around the time his codefendant, Salomon Melgen, made contributions to a political committee supporting Menendez’s 2012 re-election.

The ethics complaint against Garrett says he signed on as a cosponsor of a bill that the Campaign for Accountability says would have limited the CFPB’s oversight of the payday loan industry on March 16, 2011. On March 31, 2011, he received a $1,000 contribution from payday lending executive Ian MacKechnie of Amscot Financial.

The bill, which was not enacted, would have replaced the management of the bureau, currently by a presidentially appointed director, with a five-member commission made up of a vice chairman of the Federal Reserve and four appointees requiring Senate confirmation.

Payday lenders offer small loans that borrowers agree to repay within a short period of time, such as from their next paycheck. The lenders have been criticized for trapping people who are least able to pay into a cycle of ever-rising debt because people who cannot repay are offered bigger loans with higher fees.

Garrett also signed an Aug. 22, 2013 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FDIC Chair Martin J. Gruenberg opposing a program called “Operation Choke Point,” which was designed to prevent “payday lenders and other unscrupulous Internet-based companies from gaining access to the banking system through intermediaries,” the complaint said. On Oct. 4, 2013 Garrett received a $2,500 contribution from the political action committee of payday lender QC Holdings Inc.

Garrett got the smallest total amount of contributions of anyone in the ethics complaint. Amounts received by others ranged from $5,000 to $68,200... Possible violations listed in the ethics complaint include bribery, honest services fraud, acceptance of an illegal gratuity, and conduct not reflecting creditably on the House. Any member of the public can request an investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics, and the watchdog group’s allegation has no legal authority.

You remember Tennessee hypocrite Stephen "Farmer Fincher" Fincher from a different type of scandal a couple of years ago which saw him taking millions of dollars in taxpayer money, while leading an effort to cut food stamps for families living in poverty. (It didn't make any impression on the voters in grotesquely gerrymandered TN-08-- Memphis' white suburbs north to Jackson, Dyersburg and Union City-- who reelected Fincher last year with 70.8% of the votes cast.) This week both the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Knoxville News focused on Farmer Fincher's newest bribery scandal. His constituents in the Memphis 'burbs were reading that "payday loans taken out by their constituents helped fund big paydays for members of Congress who used their positions to advocate on behalf of this unscrupulous industry... The allegations against Fincher, a Frog Jump Republican who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, involve $13,500 in contributions from the payday lending industry or its executives."

The execrable bribe-taking Farmer Fincher (R-TN)

According to the complaint:

• On July 19, 2012, Fincher signed on as co-sponsor of a bill that would have negated actions to safeguard consumers from the risks of products offered by the payday lending industry. Ten days earlier, he received $5,000 in campaign contributions from payday lending executives Dennis and Kimberly Gardner of the Equity Management Group. Five days after co-sponsoring the bill, Fincher received a $2,500 campaign contribution from payday executive William Allan Jones of Jones Management.

• On June 3, 2013, less than a month after Fincher co-sponsored a similar bill, he received a $1,000 campaign contribution from a payday lending industry political-action committee, the American Financial Services Association PAC.

• On Aug. 22, 2013, Fincher signed a congressional letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder and Martin J. Gruenberg, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., complaining about the Justice Department's "Operation Choke Point," which was designed to "prevent payday lenders and other unscrupulous Internet-based companies from gaining access to the banking system through intermediaries." About three weeks earlier, Fincher had received a $5,000 campaign contribution from the Cash America International Inc. PAC, a payday lending industry PAC.

Fincher's office declined to comment.

And there's a Florida Democrat with a shady record as a bribe-taking judge, Alcee Hastings, who must be uncomfortable with the local coverage he's been getting.

Congressional ethics investigators will review allegations that South Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings and 10 other House members took bribes by accepting campaign contributions from the payday lending industry shortly before or after taking official actions in support of the industry.

...Here’s what Hastings, a 23-year House member whose district includes much of Broward and parts of Palm Beach and Hendry counties, is accused of in the letter:

• May 21, 2013. Hastings co-sponsored HR 1566, legislation that Allied Progress said would “undermine oversight of payday lenders by allowing them to bypass the regulatory authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and stronger state laws.” On March 27, 2013, he received a $2,500 campaign contribution from payday lending executive Ian MacKechnie of Amscot Financial. MacKechnie contributed another $500 to Hasting’s campaign on June 28, following Hasting’s support for HR 1566. In all, Hastings and five other congressmen who supported the measure, or similar legislation, received a total of more than $72,000 in contributions from industry executives or PACs, the letter says.

• July 10, 2014. Hastings co-sponsored HR 4986, a bill aimed at ending Operation Choke Point, a Department of Justice initiative investigating banks and their connections to payday lenders, payment processors and others at higher risk for fraud and money laundering. Three weeks earlier, Hastings accepted a $2,500 contribution from Cash America International Inc. PAC, a payday lending industry PAC. Industry PACs sent another $26,000 to the campaigns of four other congressmen.

The other crooked congressmen involved in the scandal include Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY), Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) Pete Sessions (R-TX), Steve Stivers (R-OH) and Kevin Yoder R-KS).

Silver Lining Department: Ohio Democrat Party Chairman Chris Redfern Slinks Off Into The Night

Last Tuesday was pretty ugly for Democrats almost everywhere. But it was worse in Ohio. Republican Gov. John Kasich, who was once considered a one-term sitting duck, won a landslide victory, 1,922,436 (63.8%) to 989,201 (32.9%). Ohio has 88 counties; Kasich won 86, all but Athens and Monroe. Obama had won Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) with 69% and Sherrod Brown won it with the same margin. Obama and Brown both won Lucas County (Toledo) with 64%. Both won Franklin County (Columbus), with 60%. Similar results for Summit County (Akron), 57% each. Both even won Hamilton County (Cincinnati), Obama with 52% and Brown with 53%. Kasich won them all. Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine was reelected with 61.66% of the vote. Secretary of State John Husted beat progressive fave Nina Turner 60.04 to 35.32%. Republicans also took the state Auditor and state Treasurer jobs-- a Republican sweep of all the statewide offices. Taking a cue from the DCCC, the Ohio Democratic Party didn't seriously a single House seat. It was a wipeout for the state party.

We've written about Chris Redfern here before. He's been to the Ohio Democratic Party what Steve Israel's been to the DCCC or Debbie Wasserman Schultz to the DNC-- a cancer on the organization he was entrusted to lead. But instead of screwing working people for only a few years like Israel and Schultz, this piece of shit hick from the sticks has spent nine years running the Ohio Democratic Party into the ground, destroying it's infrastructure, picking uninspiring loser New Democrats and Blue Dogs over real progressives who could win, running Ohio's most talented elected officials out of office and enriching himself and his Republican corporate lobbyist wife.

Let's take a look at how this corrupt, imbecile of a "clown who helped ruin the state Democratic Party," this "pipsqueak from a county [Ed Note: Catawba Island, pop. 3,157 in in Ottawa County] with 12 people and a highway" as former Ohio State Senate President and Democratic Party Chair Harry Mishel referred to Redfern, rose to power:

Fast-forward to December 2005, when Democrats gathered in Columbus to select a new party chairman. With the backing of [then Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ted] Strickland, Malone and other labor leaders, the job went to State Rep. Chris Redfern-- but not before their thugs in the room hurled some vile insults in the direction of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin, two powerful black women who opposed Redfern’s election.

Tubbs Jones always believed there was a significant amount of racism in the room that night.

Once in power, Redfern's one criteria for recruiting Democrats to run for statewide office was their loyalty to him. Not their beliefs or ability to win. During his tenure, save one race he had nothing to do with, the Ohio Democratic Party lost every single race for the State Supreme Court, which is elected in that state. He undercut progressive Paul Hackett's primary run for the U.S. Senate in 2006, one of the reasons the principled and charismatic Hackett walked away from politics. Interviewed over the past few days, the netroots and grassroots supported Hackett called Redfern "unethical" and said he was made aware Redfern suppressed his campaign by refusing to hand out his campaign literature. He did the same to progressive Attorney General candidate Subodh Chandra. Chandra that same year, and he spoke on the record about it in a just released documentary: 

In John Wellington Ennis' documentary "Pay 2 Play," Chandra alleges Redfern went so far as to destroy about $10,000 worth of the candidate's campaign literature, intended for distribution to constituents at political events.

The 90-minute documentary uses the board game "Monopoly" to illustrate politics in the Buckeye State. It briefly touches on Chandra's 2006 campaign and notes how he faced opposition within the Democratic Party, namely because of his unconventional name.

Chandra, now a practicing attorney in Cleveland, said he's unsure why he quickly became one of Redfern's political enemies, but it was quite clear to him Redfern had an ax to grind.

"Chris Redfern is one of the most mean-spirited and small-minded people that I have ever met in over 30 years of political involvement," Chandra said in an interview with the Register. "He would actively and gratuitously hurt people he perceived to be his enemies for no apparent rational reason. And that drove many Democrats who are interested in public service for the right reasons from being involved in the party."

Redfern's alleged strategy in dealing with Chandra's political aspirations: Stop handing out his literature.

People such as former Northwest Ohio coordinator Steve Chaffin were ordered to stop spreading Chandra's messages, according to both Chaffin and Chandra.

"(Democrats) were excited about (Chandra's) campaign," Chaffin said. "He seemed to appeal to a lot of young people. Shortly after, Redfern decided he was going to decide who the candidates were going to be. He told me and others we were not to pass out any literature from (Chandra)."

Chandra ultimately lost in a primary to Marc Dann, who won the general election but eventually resigned in 2008 over a sex scandal.

That's right, Redfern's candidate who he illegally submarined Chandra to support was none other than Marc Dann, who after taking over as Attorney General didn't make it for very long before he resigned in disgrace after he and his top lieutenants sexually harassed just about every woman in his office. When then-Treasurer Rich Cordray (current head of the Consumer Protection Bureau in Washington) moved from the Treasurer's office to the Attorney General's office, Redfern had unheralded Columbus City Councilman Kevin Boyce appointed. Boyce engaged in classic pay to play politics and was in so far over his head that he handed the running of the state's finances over to his deputy treasurer, who is currently sitting in prison in Lahore, Pakistan, after jumping bail in Ohio for a kickback-scheme conviction (he also was a deputy under Rahm in Chicago, of course!). Boyce also refused to raise money and campaign in 2010, and was trounced by another pipsqueak, Josh Mandel.

Redern, always the corporate whore, also anointed terrible New Democrat Leigh Fisher as the party's U.S. Senate candidate that same year by blocking progressive Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner from running a successful primary campaign by threatening he funders. Fisher lost by 20 points to current Senator Rob Portman. He then supported Ohio's Sarah Palin, the odious, homophobic, anti-choice, gun loving, pro-coal, Jennifer Garrison, for this seat, even though key Democratic groups warned him they would never support her. (We've often talked about her at DWT, because the just as stupid and corrupt Steve Israel recruited her so she could once again get destroyed (38.6%), this time running for a House seat in Ohio this year).

This election cycle, for the final coup de gras, Redfern supported Ed Fitzgerald for governor, blocking the potential campaigns for governor of Rich Cordray and Jennifer Brunner, two progressives who could have won. Fitzgerald, like Boyce, refused to raise money and then it came out that he had had no driver's license for 10 years, while he of course kept driving. He was trounced by 30 points, dragging the entire ticket down with him, and costing the party more state house seats.

So it was only right that Redfern, comically, ended his chairmanship by resigning in the dead of night, after losing his state house seat in an Obama district to a novice Tea Partier who is being investigated for burglary. His lobbyist wife lost her race for the Ohio Board of Education. Redfern then resigned after saying he wouldn't, shut down his social media accounts and made a run for it.

The list above if only a partial look into how this power hungry, petty, vindictive, corrupt little man, of well-below average intelligence and with the professional demeanor of Louie Gohmert, finally met his Waterloo, after destroying the Ohio Democratic Party. If they are to rebuild in this important swing state, it must be an open process. And one where progressives are given the chance to rise to the top. One such example is David Pepper, who recently was one of those dragged down by Fitzgerald in his run for Attorney General. There are also others. All should be vetted and voted upon by the party. No more Chris Redferns, the people of Ohio can't afford it!

 


UPDATE: Tim Russo On Redfern

Tim doesn't believe the silver spike has been driven thru Redfern's heart yet. "Redfern's core competence," he wrote, "is stitching up primaries. The reasons so many Democrats are angry with Redfern, and want him gone, are found in the rivers of blood Redfern leaves behind after shoving candidates down Democrats' throats, all over the state, in any primary Redfern can get his filthy paws on."

Word is that ODP Chairman Chris Redfern has taken leave to Florida to continue spending the paycheck he's hanging onto for dear life while he holds Ohio Democrats hostage until he actually vamooses. Redfern is making noises to various lapdog reporters that (a) he wants a role in Hillary Clinton's campaign (LOL) and (b) he wants to stay on at ODP as a consultant when a new chair is picked (LOLOL), and (c) he doesn't regret stitching up the umpteenth primary of his career for Ed FitzGerald, who he calls the best candidate he's seen since Dick Celeste (ROFLMAOLOLOL), despite knowing full well Fitz was Public Offical 14 as early as 2010. Delusional, as usual.

Next Batch Of Key Primaries-- A Week From Today

L.A.'s dirtiest politician, Wendy Greuel, learned her political skills while she was still openly admitting she was a Republican. Vicious, negative campaigning is all she's ever known

A week from today there are important primaries in Iowa-- where progressive champion Pat Murphy is leading comfortably in his crowded House race-- in New Jersey and in California (as well as in some other states without significant Democratic contests). Here is California-- the land of the idiotic jungle primary-- there are 3 crucial races.

Will enough Democrats turn out in CA-25 so that Democrat Lee Rogers winds up in the final two rather than both Republicans, corrupt Establishment hack Tony Strickland and crazed teabagger Steve Knight? The most recent polling shows Rogers narrowly ahead of both Strickland and Knight but turnout next Tuesday is all that matters, not how people respond to theoretical questions from a pollster. Presumably, Strickland's gun mania on top of the mass murders in his old district, has mainstream and independent voters thinking long and hard if that's the kind of candidate they want representing them in Congress.

And due south, on the other side of L.A., CA-31 has a classic example of the two wings of the Democratic Party facing off against each other. Backed by the DCCC, the corrupt New Dems, Wall Street shysters and the local transpartisan Chamber of Commerce types, we have last cycle's pathetic loser, Pete Aguilar, from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. He's working day and night to smear Eloise Gomez Reyes, a labor lawyer from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, who has been endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus and by progressive leaders like Xavier Becerra, Hilda Solis, Alan Grayson, Raul Grijalva, Janice Hahn, Lucille Roybal-Allard, as well as by the SEIU and the National Organization of Women (NOW) and the San Bernardino Sun. The most predatory Wall Street interests are spending hand over fist to cover the district with ugly, negative messages about Eloise, a selfless and inspirational figure, on behalf of Aguilar, who has served them well as a frontman in the past and who they want to see in Washington.

Although this is a D+5 district-- the bluest district in America (by far) with a Republican incumbent-- the Aguilar/Israel brain trust lost it in 2012 and are on the road to seeing if they can lose it again in 2014. The latest polling shows a Republican in the top position, another Republican with a humongous war chest hovering for the second spot, and Aguilar, Reyes and the pathetic Joe Baca all bunched up together. If Eloise wins the primary a week from today, she'll be the next congresswoman from CA-31. If Aguilar wins the primary, Wall Street gets another sure vote-- either his or a Republican's. It doesn't matter to them.

The third California district with an important primary is CA-33, where Henry Waxman is retiring. Blue America has done a first-ever dual endorsement for the official Democratic Party candidate, progressive state Senator Ted Lieu, and the inspiration independent in the race-- think Bernie Sanders-- Marianne Williamson. There are 18 candidates, although some have withdrawn (Brent Roske, endorsing Marianne on the way out), and Ted and Marianne are far from the only good ones. I've been tremendously impressed by Barbara Mulvaney, for example, who, like Ted and Marianne, would single-handedly raise the calibre of Congress if elected. The 3 open Republicans in the race are dreadful, but just as bad is the "former" Republican who switched her party registration after the Reagan elections and after she realized Los Angeles political expediency demanded it. That, of course, is Valley carpetbagger Wendy Greuel, the worst candidate of all. Nearly as bad, is the other suspect Democrat in the race, proud-- and foolish-- centrist Matt Miller, eager to cut granny's Social Security and Medicare benefits. He's the candidate of the DC/Wall Street bureaucracy. Lawrence Summers endorsed him. Maybe he plans to role one out from Harold Ford, Jr. this week.

Even though Ted Lieu is the official Democratic Party candidate, Greuel is the Dark Money candidate and she's got the big army of sleazy consultants and dirty players. Daily Breeze airport and airlines reporter Brian Sumers referred to her as "the closest thing to a favorite in the crowded field," although that isn't borne out by polling, which shows her with nearly insurmountable negatives, due primarily to the vicious, hateful race she ran against Eric Garcetti last year.

Please consider GOTV contributions today for Dave Cole and Bonnie Watson Coleman in New Jersey, Pat Murphy in Iowa, and Lee Rogers, Eloise Reyes and Ted Lieu in California.

Pay 2 Play is a stark and revealing new John Ennis film about American politics. Please watch the trailer below. You may recognize American culture heroes in the movie, like Robert Reich, Thom Hartmann, Noam Chomsky, John Nichols, Van Jones and Marianne Williamson. It's the kind of movie you'd expect to find a thought-leader like Marianne Williamson. Wendy Greuel? Ahh… no. Even though she was a bean counter at a film studio, there's never been a spark of creative energy coming from her direction. How about Tony Strickland or Pete Aguilar? Well, maybe… if the filmmakers wanted to give a counterpoint to their powerful critique that politicians reward their donors with even larger sums from the public treasury-- through contracts, jobs, tax cuts, and deregulation. Or a couple of examples.