Primary Day In New York-- And Six Other States

Howie drags another unsuspecting congressional candidate, Jon Powers, to a raw food restaurant

There are a seven states with primaries today, although New York's is the only one worth reporting on. A gaggle of greasy Republicans are fighting amongst each other to take on Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes in New Hampshire but Carol and Paul are expected to beat back whichever clown is nominated by the reactionaries. The gubernatorial primary in Delaware takes on some meaning because whoever wins the Democratic nod is likely to be appointing a U.S. Senator after November.

In New York, however, there really are some hot races. In the Staten Island/Brooklyn district (NY-13), the Democratic Establishment has gotten behind pro-war, pro-corporate, conservative shill Michael McMahon from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party while grassroots Democrats back Steve Harrison. According to this morning's CQPolitics "Harrison held Fossella to the lowest take of his congressional career, 57 percent, in 2006 but with the scandal surrounding Fossella and the subsequent chance to pick up the seat, Democrats turned to McMahon for the general election. McMahon reported raising $717,000 and had $413,000 on hand through Aug. 20, according to his pre-primary report, while Harrison raised $201,000 and had $45,000 on hand by the same date. The Republican primary, meanwhile, has turned nasty. Two candidates are competing for the party nomination: former state Rep. Robert Straniere and Staten Island GOP Finance Chair Jamshad Wyne. The district encompasses all of Staten Island and the southern tip of Brooklyn and both county Republican parties have endorsed Straniere. But Wyne has boosted his candidacy with $325,000 in self-loans, which puts him far ahead of Straniere in fundraising. Wyne raised $334,000 and had $203,000 on hand through Aug. 20 while Straniere raised $15,000 and had $12,000 on hand by the same date. The local Conservative Party favors McMahon but the state party overruled their attempt to endorse him. Instead the Conservatives are running their own far right lunatic fringe candidate, depriving the GOP of their line-- and likely to help the Democrat in November.

Up in the suburban/exurban area between Buffalo and Rochester (NY-26) the DCCC insiders and the grassroots are on the same side-- both backing Jon Powers against an extremely nasty and deranged Republican billionaire running as a Democrat, Jack Davis. Davis has spent $3.6 million on his campaign and, according to CQPolitics has no support whatsoever from the Democratic Party and is simply running a "sabotage campaign against Powers... bleeding him dry,” something which may well help Davis' old friends in the GOP come November.

In the Albany district, where Mike McNulty is one of the few Democrats retiring from Congress this year, the field is crowded and the campaign hasn't yielded much heat or light. Soundpolitic over at TheAlbanyProject has the best analysis I've seen and has come to the conclusion that Phil Steck is the best candidate.

There is also an outside chance that Kevin Powell will beat corrupt reactionary Democratic hack Edolphus Towns in Brooklyn. CQPolitics: "It will be Towns’ second tough challenge in a row after winning the 2006 Democratic primary with less than 50 percent of the vote over two little-known Democratic challengers. Towns was criticized by party leadership for failing to vote with the party, including a vote in support of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which passed 217-215 but was unpopular with many top Democrats. Towns is favored to survive the primary; he has raised more than 10 times more money than Powell ($1.2 million to $100,000) and had seven times more cash on hand ($417,000 to $57,000) by Aug. 20."

And speaking of New York, Ed Koch, a posterboy for Democrats who have gone over to the Dark Side, has taken leave of his Republican allies and endorsed Obama. He says Palin is too scary for mainstream Americans to support the McCain-Palin ticket.

I have concluded that the country is safer in the hands of Barack Obama, leader of the Democratic Party and protector of the philosophy of that party. Protecting and defending the U.S. means more than defending us from foreign attacks. It includes defending the public with respect to their civil rights, civil liberties and other needs, e.g., national health insurance, the right of abortion, the continuation of Social Security, gay rights, other rights of privacy, fair progressive taxation and a host of other needs and rights.

If the vice president were ever called on to lead the country, there is no question in my mind that the experience and demonstrated judgment of Joe Biden is superior to that of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is a plucky, exciting candidate, but when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency.

Staten Island Primary Pitting Conservative Emanuel-Backed Semi-Democrat Against Progressive Steve Harrison, Heating Up

Chuck Schumer is all about change

The New York State primary is September 9. There aren't many contests we're watching aside from Jon Powers battle against kooky Republican-in-Democratic-clothes, Jack Davis in NY-26, a district stretching from the Buffalo city limits to the Rochester city limits. But there is one more congressional district where the primary is crucial, the Staten Island/Brooklyn district where corrupt Republican Vito Fossella was forced to retire after being caught with two families. I was born in the Brooklyn part of the district and my sister currently lives in the Staten Island part.

In 2006, Brooklyn attorney Steve Harrison challenged Fossella and drew an impressive 43% of the vote. It's the best any Democrat has ever done against Fossella-- and Harrison had no institutional help whatsoever. Fossella spent $1,639,598 on the raise. Harrison spent less than $5,000. Perhaps if brain surgeon Rahm Emanuel had given Harrison a tenth of that $4,556,495 he wasted on Tammy Duckworth in Illinois Steve would have made up the 13,250 vote deficit and won. In any case he seems to have impressed a number of Democrats so much that when he declared he would run against Fossella again, there was a great deal of support. Even NY's senior senator, Chuck Schumer endorsed him, telling his constituents, "I want Stephen Harrison in Washington with me, to fight for the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn. He will not be a rubberstamp, rather he will truly represent his constituents’ interests, on everything from protecting our country to protecting the rights of working families."

But then Fossella got sloppy and got caught and... well, got read out of the GOP. And the race got interesting. Suddenly Democratic Party bosses saw an opportunity to pick up a seat-- and if there was a chance for an actual victory... well the hell with Schumer's happy talk about no rubberstamps. They wanted one-- one who they could count on to not go off and think for himself and work for his constituents' interests instead of the special interests that fund the political racket Inside the Beltway. In steps Emanuel and his team and suddenly Harrison is pushed aside and the inevitable winner is... ultra conservative Staten Island City Councilman, Michael McMahon, the ultimate hack. The Staten Island Conservative Party, which endorses his City Council races, was so impressed with his bellicose pro-war rhetoric that they wanted to endorse him over the Republican. The state party cracked the whip and they didn't.

Monday the NY Times followed the lead of Emanuel, the DCCC and the whole rotten political Insider Establishment and endorsed McMahon. Hillary endorsed McMahon the week before. And somewhere along the way, so did... Schumer. But Harrison-- like John Hall, Carol Shea-Porter, Jerry McNerney, Jon Tester in 2006-- is not buying into the "inevitability" meme the Insiders have sold to the media. He's staying in the race. He's been relying on grassroots organizations-- rather than party bosses-- for endorsements. Both the local and the national Progressive Democrats of America picked him, as did the 504 Democratic Club and the Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC and several Democratic clubs in both Brooklyn and Staten Island. So did Democrats.com and the Democratic Advancement PAC, both of which, like Blue America, work to elect progressives to office. But today Steve's campaign has a major announcement-- an endorsement from the National Organization for Women (NOW). It was an easy endorsement. The conservative McMahon is anti-choice. "NOW PAC is pleased to endorse Steve Harrison for the U.S. House of Representatives from New York," said NOW Political Action Committee Chair Kim Gandy. "We look forward to voters in Staten Island and Brooklyn sending a strong supporter of women's rights to Washington. Steve has the values we need to improve the lives of women and families in this country."

When discussing why NOW didn't follow along with all the other outfits that allow Emanuel to call the shots, Shirley Ranz, chair of the local NOW PAC, said “We were impressed with Steve Harrison’s grasp of and support of our core issues:  constitutional equality for women, reproductive rights, equal economic opportunity, stopping violence against women and ending gender and sexual orientation discrimination.” The NOW endorsement follows an endorsement from Gloria Steinem.

The Secretary of the local NOW chapter explained that “McMahon is a political conservative who opposed choice when his vote counted in NYC Council. We cannot support someone who waivers in his support of our issues to placate his RTL constituency. They have the Republicans for that. Who will speak for women; Steve Harrison!”

Last month a Times story pointed out the stark contrast between the right-wing McMahon from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party and the progressive Harrison. If voters want more of the kinds of corporatist Bush agenda McMahon is the man; for real change, only Harrison fits the bill.

Political labels aside, there are stark differences between the two. Mr. Harrison opposes capital punishment, while Mr. McMahon supports it. The councilman favors nearly all means of addressing the nation’s energy problems, including offshore drilling, something Mr. Harrison opposes. Mr. McMahon supported Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s ultimately unsuccessful congestion pricing plan, while Mr. Harrison opposed it.

On the Iraq war, Mr. Harrison has demanded an immediate withdrawal of American troops, while Mr. McMahon said he supported “a responsible redeployment of our troops in Iraq.”

Mr. Harrison described his opponent as a Johnny-come-lately who entered the race only after Mr. Fossella announced that he would not run for re-election. “I’ve been doing this for the better part of two years,” Mr. Harrison added.

“We have some real differences between us,” Mr. Harrison said in an interview on Friday. “We have a real grass-roots campaign going on and he has support mainly from party officials. He has more money. But most of it came from PACs in Washington.”

Despite Mr. Harrison’s strong showing in 2006, virtually all of the Democratic establishment has endorsed Mr. McMahon, from local officials to Senator Charles E. Schumer and the Democratic members of Congress from New York City. And Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, broke with a longstanding tradition of not taking sides in a primary and also endorsed Mr. McMahon.

"Longstanding tradition?" Emanuel controls the Democratic congressional caucus' media efforts. You can imagine him getting away with that with some hick in bumfuck. But Jonathan P. Hicks bought it for the NY Times. Congratulations Mr. Hick, you win a free subscription to DownWithTyranny.

TWO INTERESTING PRIMARIES IN NYC-- STATEN ISLAND AND BEDFORD STUYVESANT

Ever since the inebriated only NYC GOP congressman, Vito Fossella, from Staten Island, was pulled over in Virginia and started painfully unraveling his very sordid life in public-- yes, he's the pro-family values Republican with two families, one back home (the official one) and one in Virginia (closer to the office)-- it has looked likely that New York Democrats might turn a 4th red seat blue in November. With Eric Massa, Jon Powers and Dan Maffei all ready to join next year's freshman class, suddenly Steve Harrison was looking like a contender. Just this morning, in fact, Congressional Quarterly changed it's rating from No Clear Favorite to Democrat Favored.

John Boehner, who forced Fossella to declare he wouldn't run again, tried inserting his own candidate but he was turned down-- 4 times. The GOP got stuck with a political nonentity, Frank Powers, a self-funder with an influential wife... and a son, also named Frank Powers, who said he would run against him-- and then the senior Powers died on June 22. With the primary coming up Sept. 9, GOP leaders have all but given up trying to find a consensus candidate. The Brooklyn Republican Boss, Ed Eaton, is backing another rich, retired investment banker Paul Atanasio, but Staten Island Republicans, who have more say-so in the selection, aren't getting on board, partially because Atanasio lives in Brooklyn and not State Island but also because he isn't even a registered Republican, but a member of the Conservative Party.

Brooklyn political consultant Gerry O’Brien, who works with clients from both major parties, said Republicans’ recruiting problems all but assured Democrats would win the 13th District in November.

“It’s flabbergasting. That’s the only word I can think of. It is as if they seem intent on serving this seat up to Democrats on a silver platter with chocolate mints around the edge,” O’Brien said.

Not so fast, though. The Democrats have their own battle for the nomination going on. It isn't between Brooklyn and Staten Island parties though. Both have endorsed conservative Democratic insider City Councilman Michael McMahon. In fact, he's so conservative that he went to the Conservative Party and asked for their endorsement-- and nearly got it! But even though Harrison had been endorsed by Chuck Schumer early on and even though Harrison had come closer to beating Fossella in 2006 than any other challenger had previously, the insidious DCCC declared McMahon their preferred candidate.

Democrats had put the 13th District on their prospective target list after the 2006 election, when underfunded candidate Stephen Harrison held Fossella to 57 percent, the lowest vote share of his congressional career. They wasted no time in ramping up their takeover effort after Fossella, then still a heavy favorite to win re-election, saw his House career disintegrated by scandal.

The national party quickly coalesced behind McMahon, even though Harrison, a lawyer, has entered the September Democratic primary and argues he earned the shot by taking on the reputedly unbeatable Fossella last time. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it has reserved $2.1 million in New York City television time for the race and has added McMahon to its “Red to Blue” programs for candidates running competitive bids for Republican-held seats.

McMahon has the backing from the Democratic Establishment. Harrison, on the other hand, is on the right side of all the important issues. It should be an interesting primary battle. The Republicans' dilemma is worse. Hot dog vendor Robert Straniere, who is detested by the Republican power-structure, has tossed his hat into the ring. Staten Island longtime GOP political boss, Guy Molinari, "described Mr. Straniere’s chances of being supported by the Republican leadership as 'impossible.' He said that Mr. Straniere 'would not be at all acceptable to the Republican Party. I would speculate that 98 percent of the Republican County Committee would say, "No dice." They would rather vote for a Democrat than for Straniere.'” Especially a right-of-center Democrat like McMahon.

But picking between a Democrat who is likely to vote with the Republicans on key issues next year and one who is underfunded and would have more trouble picking up disgruntled Republican voters, isn't the only problem NYC Democrats are facing. There is a serious challenge in another part of Brooklyn, a very different part of Brooklyn. Yesterday's NY Times focused on the insurgent primary against shady Bedford Stuyvesant/Ft Greene incumbent Edolphus Towns, a corporate shill for Big Pharma and telecoms and one of the notorious CAFTA-15. He's another Al Wynn in terms of voting for The Man both on the bankruptcy bill that has devastated his own constituents and on the estate tax, which is basically fine for people who have hundreds of millions of dollars but not too good for inner city working and middle class families. The Times story doesn't mention any of Towns' many flaws-- a corporate-oriented Democrat in one of the-- if not the-- most Democratic districts in the U.S. (PVI is an astounding D+41.) Instead the Times focuses on Towns' ill-advised support for Hillary Clinton over Obama, something he shared with virtually every other Democratic elected official in New York City.

Brooklyn’s 10th Congressional District, home to more African-Americans than any other in New York, gave Senator Barack Obama his highest margin of victory in the state. But the district’s longtime congressman, Edolphus Towns, did not share his constituency’s preference for Mr. Obama. Now some of those voters are pushing to oust him.

“His decision not to back Obama shows he is out of touch with his constituents,” said N. Chandler, a former city corrections officer who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant and who had supported Mr. Towns in the past. “And I think the people of this district are ready for a change.”

...An emerging young black political class is seeking to assert the neighborhood’s power against what it sees as an older establishment, based in Harlem, that has long exercised disproportionate influence in New York. The younger Democratic activists link... Mr. Towns, the son of a North Carolina sharecropper and a 25-year veteran in Congress, to that structure.

Mr. Towns cannot afford to take the challenge lightly. Two years ago, he won with less than 50 percent of the vote in a three-way race. The man who is running against him now, Kevin Powell, is a community organizer who has the backing of celebrities like the comedian Dave Chappelle, who is scheduled to headline a fund-raiser for Mr. Powell. [He was on the first season of MTV's The Real World back in 1992, "the brooding, angst-ridden young black man with the hi-top fade" and then went on to be a star journalist for Vibe Magazine.]

Jordan Thomas, who led the organization Brooklyn for Barack, and Arthur Leopold, a fund-raiser for the Obama campaign, are backing Mr. Powell, as are several Democratic clubs, including the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, in part because of members’ disappointment after Mr. Towns backed Mrs. Clinton.

The Times does its readers a disservice to imply that the whole reason for the battle is because of Towns' support for Hillary in the primary. As City Limits explains, there are plenty of reasons for dissatisfaction with Towns in Brooklyn. And plenty of reasons for enthusiasm for Powell.

If elected, he would become the first and the most identifiable member of the hip-hop generation ever to serve in the U.S. Congress. On national issues, both Powell and Towns oppose the war in Iraq and support a single-payer healthcare system. But while campaigning on Memorial Day, Powell told practically every resident he encountered about the catalyst for his candidacy: The incumbent’s "absent and ineffective advocacy" on a host of local needs. "What we need in Congress from this district, as we enter a new presidential administration and a new decade, is active leadership that deals with the concerns of regular working-class people," he says.

...[C]ritics charge that Towns has become increasingly disconnected in recent years from the constituents he has represented since 1983, citing everything from his apparent failure to follow through on a once-promised effort to help enact a federal empowerment zone for the borough, to his endorsement of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton during the Democratic presidential primary in a district that heavily favors Obama. "Two years ago, there was already a great deal of dissatisfaction" with Towns, says former Assemblyman Green, who now teaches education policy at Medgar Evers College and plans to withhold his endorsement until the petition signing process concludes July 10. "I don’t think that he’s made up any ground toward improving his relations with the overall community."

A SOLUTION FOR STATEN ISLAND REPUBLICANS: NOMINATE CITY COUNCILMAN MICHAEL McMAHON

“I want Stephen Harrison in Washington with me, to fight for the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn,” said Senator Charles Schumer during an October 31 press conference. “He will not be a rubberstamp, rather he will truly represent his constituents’ interests, on everything from protecting our country to protecting the rights of working families." Van Hollen is opting for a rubber stamp-- courtesy of NY13 Blog

After three disastrous-- and expensive-- defeats in solidly Republican congressional districts in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi, Tom Cole and John Boehner put their heads together and came up with a new way of nominating Republican candidates. It isn't all that new; in fact it's exactly what Stalin, Mao, and Kim Il-Sung used to chose their candidates for "elective" office. Because Boehner decided Republican primary voters couldn't be trusted to nominate winning candidates, he and other Party leaders would pick them instead. (Ironically, the DCCC's Chris Van Hollen, once viewed as a post-Rahm Emanuel reformer, quickly adopted the same techniques, at least in areas where he arrogantly thought Democrats would be too stupid to understand his sleazy actions: Arizona first CD, Alaska's only CD and NY-13, the Staten Island/Brooklyn district.)

And irony on irony, NY-13 is just where Boehner decided to try out his own Stalinist approach to nominating. After the Republican incumbent was arrested for drunk driving and found to have two wives and two families, Boehner forced him to agree to not seek re-election. Instead, Boehner offered the Republican nomination to Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan. Donovan and 3 or 4 other plausible candidates told Boehner it was looking like a bad year to be running as a Republican and that they'd have to pass. Then a Republican hot dog vendor said he would run and the whole local party went crazy. They quickly picked some millionaire self-funder, Francis Powers, who they knew would probably lose but who would at least pay for his own loss. Besides, his wife is the Treaurer of the Staten Island GOP. But the whole thing was complicated when the estranged son, also named as Francis Powers, declared he would run. Powers is in a punk rock band.

Meanwhile, Van Hollen, fresh from making an ass out of himself by endorsing a clueless insider nitwit in Arizona, jumped into the Staten Island mess and declared that the Democratic nominee would be conservative City Councilman Michael McMahon and decidedly not the progressive grassroots candidate Steve Harrison. In 2006 Harrison came closer to winning the district than any previous Democrat and it looked like this was the year he could win the seat for Democrats. As you see above, Schumer had already publicly endorsed him and declared he wouldn't be a "rubber stamp," which is very much what Michael McMahon will be and, in fact, is what attracted Party insiders to him.

A third irony in all this is that Van Hollen is actually something of a progressive himself having split from party bosses Hoyer and Emanuel on the war funding bill last Thursday and on the overriding of the Constitution to give their and Bush's big campaign contributors retroactive immunity for criminal activities on Friday. And, more to the point, when Van Hollen ran for Congress himself, the Insiders lined up against him and were pushing for his primary opponent. Van Hollen vowed-- with wiggle room-- to not run the DCCC like that anymore. Lately, he's opted for the wiggle room.

Anyway-- and this is nothing to laugh about so please do not-- Francis Powers (not the punk rocker, the other one) died Saturday and the NY Times, in an early edition (since removed) seemed to implicate Van Hollen.

Mr. Powers had been selected to run in the November election to succeed Mr. Fossella, who has held the seat since 1997 but who decided not to run for re-election after a personal scandal emerged. Mr. Fossella is the only Republican representing New York City in Congress.

National Democratic leaders have made it clear that they view winning the seat, which has been in Republican hands for 28 years, as a priority. Earlier this month, Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, visited New York to say his party would do "whatever is necessary to win this campaign."

The Times has now withdrawn that paragraph and is claiming that "Powers, who was 67, died in his sleep of natural causes, family members said. His death came less than a month after he became the Republican candidate after other potential candidates decided not to run."

We don't want to dwell on Mr. Powers death and we really do have a solution for the Staten Island Republicans. Why not just endorse, like their fellow Stalinists, McMahon? He had already gone to the Conservative Party seeking their nomination-- and impressing them with his pro-war stand-- so it isn't really that big of a stretch. That way, even if McMahon loses to the real Democrat in the primary, Steve Harrison, they will still have a shot to get another reactionary into the seat.

IN CASE YOU'RE SICK OF HEARING WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE DCCC FROM ME, LET'S GIVE SOMEONE ELSE A TURN: MEET STEVE HARRISON

Yesterday the DCCC released the third round of their Red to Blue candidates and there were some really excellent choices like Joe Garcia (FL-25), Martin Heinrich (NM-01), Bob Lord (AZ-03), and Glenn Nye (VA-02). There were also some natural choices, people who have finished their primaries and are now candidates who have met the ever-shifting and mysterious, ill-defined DCCC benchmarks. But then there are also some extremely bad-faith decisions. Earlier in the month we tried elucidating some of the DCCC's thought process as best we could, using AZ-01 as an example. It's a good example since the race pits a clueless insider shill, Ann Kirkpatrick, against a grassroots progressive, Howard Shanker. Needless to say the DCCC came down on the side of the clueless insider shill. The spirit of Rahm Emanuel lives on.

Today's list also includes an endorsement of hard core DLC poster boy Ethan Berkowitz against grassroots progressive Diane Benson. Blue America hasn't endorsed in that race yet but we've been looking into it and Benson is a far better candidate to go up against Don Young-- unless the DCCC thinks Alaskans will feel comfortable with Berkowitz because he and Young have so much in common.

But the race we're here to look at today is the only in NY-13, the Staten Island/Brooklyn district being abandoned by the recently infamous Vito Fossella. A few days ago I heard from reliable sources that the grassroots candidate, Steve Harrison, was dropping out and that the DCCC had endorsed Michael McMahon. I had been following the race from afar and I smelled a rat immediately. The DCCC often will tell donors and Democratic interest groups and the media that there is no primary when they want to rally everyone around their own anointee. It just took me a few phone calls to find out that my instincts were correct and that, again, the spirit of Rahm was alive and kicking. Harrison hadn't only not quit the race, he had challenged McMahon to 5 debates. The part about the DCCC endorsing him, though... that was true.

And what creeped me out about it was that McMahon had solicited the Conservative Party's endorsement. They liked him because of his pro-war stance and some other issues dear to the hearts of right-wing kooks. (I hear that since being informed that the Conservative Party has passed on him in favor of the Republican, McMahon is now claiming to be against the war. Glad he made up his mind.) We asked Steve Harrison to explain why the DCCC would endorse in a hotly contested primary, even though they claim that they don't do that.

The problem with the DCCC is that it’s set up like a corporate special interest but with the ability to make unlimited, multi-million dollar contributions to candidates of its choice. This puts it in a unique position not only to influence voters but also to coerce Democratic candidates to support the DCCC’s agenda. That agenda seems to be preservation of the Democratic power structure in Washington rather than the interests of the voters.

To a degree this problem was self-checked by the DCCC’s supposed policy of neither endorsing nor funding in a primary. This allowed the candidates to run and the people of a district to democratically choose their candidate without the DCCC’s “outsider” influence. Theoretically, the DCCC’s funding decisions in the general election would then be made based on its evaluation of a candidate’s post-primary electability, not his or her ideology, which would have been chosen by the district voters.

The DCCC now seems to have cast off any pretense of neutrality during primaries, going so far as to seek out, endorse and help fund candidates of their choosing, for their purposes. This raises the
specter of DCCC endorsees running negative ads against decent, loyal Democratic opponents. This is an anti-democratic approach to democracy and it violates the core values of fairness and justice held dear by our party.

For all practical purposes the DCCC is purchasing blocks of congressional seats for the benefit of Washington insiders rather than promoting the election of diversified Democrats individually responsive to the needs of their unique districts.

I see this at work in my own district where die-hard elected progressives have inexplicably fallen in line behind a DCCC endorsed blue-dog Democrat rather than a credible progressive. The dynamics of
this race are such that any Democratic nominee is likely to be elected. So why not let the people of the district decide the nominee? Is it because the blue dog is perceived as a compliant political insider willing to “go along to get along” in Washington?

I believe this shows the need for passage of a Clean Elections Law to take the money out of politics. It makes no difference if the money is coming from an oil company, an oil company PAC, a political party or a party PAC. Large dollars will always tend to have a corrupting influence on even the best of candidates. We must remove that influence freeing our elected officials to represent their constituents independently.

You can find out more about Steve, who came closer to beating Fossella in 2006 than any other Democrat ever had, and his anti-boss, grassroots campaign at his website.