The DCCC Is Tying Republican Incumbents To Trump Even After They've Disowned Him

The above ad from the DCCC just started running in TX-23, the immense South Texas congressional district (almost a quarter of the state in size!) that stretches from Socorro and the outskirts of southwest El Paso, along the Rio Grande border with Chihuahua and Coahuila through Guadalupe, Big Bend, Del Rio, the big smuggling center in Eagle Pass, and up into the western and southern suburbs of San Antonio. Those Bexar County suburbs are the Republican part of the swing district-- won narrowly by Obama in 2008 and narrowly by Romney in 2012. In 2012, Ted Cruz also won the district-- which is 71% Latino-- but so did corrupt conservative Blue Dog Pete Gallego. Gallego was one of the worst members of Congress for his 2-year stint-- voting with the GOP on core issues far more frequently than with the Democrats. So in 2014, Democrats just refused to even bother to come out to vote for him and he lost to ex-CIA agent Will Hurd 57,459 (50%) to 55,037 (48%). His 2012 vote total (96,477) utterly collapsing.

Gallego, operative, dog buscuits

By the summer of 2013, DWT had already rated Gallego among the 10 worst freshmen Democrats-- along with garbage members like Sean Patrick Maloney (NY), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Patrick Murphy (FL), Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ), Cheri Bustos (IL), Dan Maffei (NY), Joe Garcia (FL)... all Blue Dogs and New Dems from the craven Republican wing of the Democratic Party). That first term, Gallego voted with the Republicans to weaken regulations on Wall Street, with the Republicans on domestic spying (CISPA), with the Republicans to freeze the pay of federal employees, for Ryan's austerity budgets, with the Republicans on several bills written by oil and gas lobbyists and with the GOP to oppose Obama's plans to shut down Guantánamo-- not once, but twice. What an inspiration!

The last time I checked-- this week-- the DCCC had already spent $2,651,421 on his race, the second-largest amount on any congressional candidate. He's been endorsed by both the Blue Dogs and the New Dems, so exactly the kind of corrupt, Wall Street-friendly conservative the DCCC favors. As of the June 30 filing deadline Gallego had raised $1,273,280. Last week alone, Pelosi's House Majority PAC spent (wasted) $906,196 on his race-- tragic, as she continues to refuse money to progressives like Mary Ellen Balchunis (PA), Tom Wakely (TX), DuWayne Gregory (NY), Carol Shea-Porter (NH), Paul Clements (MI), Mary Hoeft (WI), Alina Valdes (FL), while severely underfunding Zephyr Teachout, who is up against a virtual avalanche of dirty money from GOP hedge fund billionaires and Paul Ryan (over $4 million) with the DCCC kicking in just over $600,000, nothing like the massive $2,651,421 for the Republican-voting Gallego. (Please tap on the thermometer on the right to help the progressive candidates who won their primaries in winnable districts but who the DCCC refuses to assist at all.)

As you can see from the DCCC ad, they have nothing positive to say about Gallego-- what could they say... that he's a bankster amigo or an opponent of everything Democrats expect from a congressman?-- and instead just attack his opponent for not denouncing Trump clearly enough. The DCCC has a similar ad they rolled out yesterday on behalf of New Dem Terri Bonoff (MN), who they've already spent $1,808,005 on. This one attacks Erik Paulsen who didn't disavow Trump until after the "grab-her-by-the-pussy" tape came out.

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NEW DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES IN MINNESOTA, ILLINOIS, AND... SOUTH CAROLINA

3 blind mice: going the way of the dodo?

A shower of riches for the Democrats today. Last week we talked about how crooked Republican Jerry Weller (IL-11) had announced he was calling it quits and thereby avoids being dragged away in disgrace and indicted while still a congressman. He was elected from a classic swing district (Bush took 50% in 2000 and 53% in 2004; Weller beat a weak, underfunded opponent in 2006 with 55%) and without the benefit of incumbency, the Republicans are likely to chalk up another congressional loss in 2008. All the Democrats need is a strong candidate. Today they got one. With the urging of Nancy Pelosi over the weekend, Illinois Senate Majority Leader Debby Halvorson just confirmed that she’s running for the seat.

A few days before that, as the Republican cavalcade of quitters revved up, we also talked about the departure of fake-moderate Jim Ramstad in a moderate suburban district of the Twin Cities. Bush had taken MN-03 with 50% in 2000 and 51% in 2004. Last year Ramstad, more popular than his extremist party in the moderate district, took 65% against a weak opponent. This year whichever kook the Republicans try to slip into his seat, won't have a weak opponent. Well-liked and respected Democratic state Senator Terri Bonoff will officially toss her hat into the ring in 2 weeks. She's won twice in the district and will be favored to thrash the loony Republican likely to run, Erik Paulsen, a former state rep. with a reputation as a hard-right crackpot completely out of step with the district. Chalk up another win for the (sometimes) good guys.

And now we get to South Carolina. Lindsey Graham's plan of resigning to take a position in the McCain cabinet is on hold and with McCain unlikely to even have the airfare to get to the Republican Nominating Convention, Lindsey is mending fences with the GOP base in his own state, a base that has started hating him for not being extremist and xenophobic enough for their taste. In fact Lindsey has been really reviled in South Carolina after referring to anti-immigrant activists as "Know Nothings." Graham was hissed and boo-ed at his own state party's convention.

And now even Republicans joke about him being a closet queen, something more and more people in South Carolina, rather than just in DC, are becoming aware of. His hypocrisy is starting to worry people who are already predisposed towards distrusting and disliking him.

The problem was never finding an opponent to run against him, it was finding a Democratic opponent. Right wing Republicans are eager to take him on-- and if multimillionaire Republican crook Tom Ravenel hadn't been caught dealing cocaine he would have taken Lindsey on. But a Democrat? Not easy in one of the most backward, religionist, racist states in the Union (that they once tried to bust up). Anyway, the good news is that Joe Erwin, former head of the state Democratic Party, and a man greatly admired throughout the state, is probably going to run against Lindsey. Erwin is a true moderate, not a reactionary who calls himself a moderate. He's entrepreneurial, believes in equality and can appeal to the better side of folks who are starting to get a little tired of the bigots and haters always coming to them with their demagoguery.