Last Night's Primary Results In Arizona-- Say Bye-By To Quayle's Son

Ben Quayle, last night's biggest loser

“If you know Middle Easterners, a lot of them, they look Mexican or they look, you know, like a lot of people in South America: dark skin, dark hair, brown eyes. And they mix. They mix in. And those people, their only, their only goal in life is to, to cause harm to the United States. So why do we want them here, either legally or illegally?...They have found prayer rugs. They have found copies of the Koran. So that tells you this is not just poor illegals that are trying to come to this country and find work. It's bigger than that."

-Tea Party Republican AZ-03 nominee Gabriela Saucedo Mercer

Arizona had some late primaries yesterday. The most anticipated race was between very wealthy right-wing crackpot Wil Cardon (who spent $6,699,078 on the primary, $6,185,768 from his personal bank account) and right-wing crackpot Jeff Flake (biggest donor this year was Club For Growth- $598,334) to see who would go up against former Bush Surgeon General Richard Carmona (D) for Jon Kyl's open Senate seat. As expected, Flake, a Mormon from Snowflake, won-- but he won way bigger than most people anticipated, just crushing Cardon, 69-21%. Flake had to spend $4,334,556 battling off the annoying Cardon and is left with $1,705,361 (as of August 8). Carmona has $1,754,794 on hand. And neo-Nazi Russell Pierce's political comback was thwarted when he lost the race for a state senate seat (25th district) to Bob Worsley, 56-44%. Hopefully, we won't be hearing from him again.

The House races worth mentioning:

AZ-01- pitted DCCC corporate hack Ann Kirkpatrick against progressive champion Wenona Benally Baldenegro. Undermined by the DCCC and the local Democratic Party, Baldenegro was grievously outspent by Kirkpatrick $626,950 to $101,038. Baldenegro managed to still get 36% of the vote.

AZ-02- ConservaDem Ron Barber, who was elected to full the remainder of Gabby Giffords term a few weeks ago, was given the Democratic nomination, despite having voted with the Republicans to gut a full package of environmental laws... and Eric Holder. He beat state Rep. Matt Heinz, 82-18%, which is what polls suggested. After the votes were counted last night Heinz had a great attitude going forward: “Tonight does not mark the end of my lifelong commitment to public service. I will find ways to continue to stay active in Tucson, and we will return for the 2014 congressional race. We must continue to laying the ground work.”

AZ-03- Corporate interests put up a couple of shills to run against Raúl Grijalva. One, Amanda Aguirre had her campaign directed by a former McCain dirty tricks operative. Raúl beat them both, with two-thirds of the vote. He'll now go up against racist sociopath Gabriela Saucedo Mercer, quoted at the top of this post. When shown the quote Raúl seemed taken aback: "This is reckless hate speech, and I call on everyone who has endorsed Gabriela Mercer to withdraw their support immediately. This is not a he-said/she-said question of interpretation. Her comments are reprehensible and deserve condemnation from every quarter. Anyone who continues to support her campaign should be asked whether they want someone with her views in Congress." Fellow over-the-top racists Jan Brewer and Secretary of State Ken Bennett are sticking with their whack-a-doodle candidate... of course.

AZ-05- In the GOP primary, mainstream conservative, Matt Salmon, beat the far right kook, Kirk Adams, who Sarah Palin has been howling about all week-- 54-46%.

AZ-06- In the incumbent vs incumbent contest pitting Boehner/Cantor kiss ass Ben Quayle against teabagger David Schweikert, the Establishment lost out to the grassroots freak as pathetic ex-pornographer Quayle saw his pretensions of a political career end, 53-47%. Quayle spent $1,537,407 and Schweikert spent $1,289,381. Maybe it was because he was one of the drunk congressmen swimming naked in Lake Tiberias but he had endorsements from almost every GOP hack imaginable-- both McCain and Kyl, Huckabee and cloddish freshmen Sean Duffy (a former soap opera star) and Tim Giffin, a Rove protégé.

AZ-09- In this new blue-leaning district three Democrats faced off, New Dem Andrei Cherny and two progressive state senators, Kyrsten Sinema and David Schapira. Progressives generally supported Schapira but Sinema had a big push from EMILY's List (which put $100,507 into the race) and the Victory Fund. Sinema spent $592,909. Cherny spent $572,889 and Schapira spent $223,826. Each of the progressive candidates topped Cherny, despite the help he got from Bill Clinton. In the end it was Sinema- 42%, Schapira- 31% and Cherny- 27%.

There was also a runoff for the Oklahoma Blue Dog seat (OK-02), which pitted a right-wing Blue Dog, Rob Wallace, against a crazed religious fanatic, Wayne Herriman. Rob Wallace won, 25,073 (57%) to 18,901 (43%) and is likely to be a contender for Dan Boren's record as the most reactionary, pro-GOP Democrat in the House. Let's see how fast "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel puts him on Red-to-Blue.

UPDATE: So, Can Carmona Win The Arizona Senate Seat?

The DSCC sure says they think so. They were out this morning with a memo outlining exactly why:

Now Congressman Flake faces a much stronger foe – a decorated Special Forces combat veteran who was homeless as a child, went to college and medical school on the GI Bill, and became a trauma surgeon, a deputy sheriff and eventually the Surgeon General of the United States. The most recent public poll showed that the race is tied at 38 percent each.

The primary forced Congressman Flake to spend heavily and exposed his long history as a lobbyist turned career politician.

• Carmona now leads Flake in the money race. Flake spent heavily in the primary and has lost what was once a significant cash advantage. Now Carmona holds a slight cash advantage over Flake-- $1.75 million to $1.71 million.

• Flake was badly damaged by Wil Cardon’s personal attacks. Cardon spent over $9 million in the primary, the majority of which was spent on TV ads attacking Jeff Flake for being an insider and career politician. Polls show the attacks worked and drove up Flake’s negatives significantly. While a PPP survey from May showed Flake with a net favorable rating of +6 (33-27), a July PPP survey showed him with a negative net favorable rating of -7 (30-37). The July survey also showed that despite Carmona’s low name ID, the general election contest was tied at 38.

• To win the primary, Flake staked out policy positions far out of the mainstream. Flake’s foolish calls to repeal the 17th amendment and eliminate the Department of Education will be liabilities in the general election. These positions underscore the extreme nature of Jeff Flake’s views which will turn off independent voters.

Moving forward, this election will be about three key issues-– seniors, women, and veterans-– and the choice could not be any clearer.

• Congressman Flake’s positions on Medicare and Social Security will hurt him with seniors. Flake’s anti-Medicare and anti-Social Security views are well documented. Carmona’s internal polling shows that voters overwhelmingly oppose a candidate who “supported privatizing Medicare” by a large margin-– 50-29. The Republican attacks on Medicare and the looming threat they pose are only amplified with Paul Ryan on the ticket. In 2008, exit polling showed voters over the age of 50 made up 45% of the electorate.

• Congressman Flake has an extreme, anti-woman record that will surprise people. Jeff Flake wants to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, allow employers to deny women contraception coverage from their healthcare plans, and opposes a pay equity law that helps ensure employers pay women the same as men for equal work. When voters learn of Flake’s extreme record 49% of voters are “much less” likely to support him.

• Congressman Flake has repeatedly voted against veterans benefits even while America was fighting two wars. Flake voted for budgets that cut billions from health, education and job training for veterans-- and even voted against bonuses for American soldiers. He even voted against the new post-9/11 GI Bill and opposed job training for veterans. A majority of voters polled (52%) say they are “much less” likely to support Flake once they learn he consistently voted to cut veterans’ benefits.

These are devastating vulnerabilities for any candidate. But Congressman Flake does not face any Democratic candidate; he faces an American hero.

Richard Carmona’s life story sets up an extremely favorable matchup with a career politician and former lobbyist like Congressman Flake. With polling already showing the race tied, the dynamics of this toss-up race clearly favor Rich Carmona heading into the general election.

AZ-01-- Wenona Benally Baldenegro Vs... Garbage

Tomorrow is primary day in Arizona. I want to spend a little time talking about the race for the district the Democrats have the clearest shot of turning blue-- AZ-01. One of the largest in America by square miles, this is basically the one district in the state that doesn't have voters from Phoenix of Tucson dominating its politics. In 2008, Republican incumbent Rick Renzi was driven out of Congress in a series of scandals and, in a year that saw the whole country revolted by Republican corruption, a middle of the road Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, beat a far right Republican, Sydney Hay, 155,791 (56%) to 109,924 (40%)-- a higher percentage not just than Obama but by favorite son, John McCain! But she was so disappointing to Democrats and so utterly worthless in Congress that she was immediately defeated by Republican Paul Gosar in 2010, part of the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse-- 112,816 (50%) to 99,233 (44%). Democrats didn't go over and vote for Gosar; they just couldn't bring themselves to vote for a conservative nothing like Kirkpatrick. So along comes 2012 and Steve Israel immediately re-recruits Kirkpatrick to run again in a redistricted-- and far bluer-- AZ-01. In fact, it's so much bluer, that Gosar decamped for AZ-04, a low-info red hellhole, where his reactionary, anti-working family agenda will be better appreciated. And that brings us to tomorrow's primary for the Democratic nomination to represent AZ-01.

There's a really good candidate running, Wenona Baldenegro. But she's very progressive. And she's very independent minded. And she's not interested in playing footsie with corporate lobbyists or Wall Street banksters. She is, in fact, exactly what Steve Israel doesn't want in the House Democratic caucus. So he launched a vicious campaign to undermine her and boost the bland, robotic Kirkpatrick. Israel would rather lose to a Republican than win with a progressive like Wenona. This is an e-mail I got from a friend in Arizona that came from Wenona's campaign. After studying the DCCC intensely since 2005, the e-mail sounds spot on, although I don't think the DCCC's intentions are as much about racism as they are about careerism and corruption-- the only things that motivate hacks like Hoyer, Israel, Wasserman-Schultz and Crowley, the powers there. (Most of the accusations of racism, though are directed towards the Pima County and Arizona state Democratic Party. I have no first-hand knowledge of either but the case below is very persuasive and fits the picture well.)

This essay addresses a civil-rights issue that Mexican Americans and other communities of color have had to deal with for generations: the Democratic Party’s thinking that it owns us and taking our support for granted… applying a double standard to candidates of color… working against our interests even as it demands and expects our support, etc.

The racial-ethnic overtones of the Democratic Party’s attitude are particularly egregious in its actions regarding Wenona Benally Baldenegro’s historic congressional candidacy.

[While the focus here is on the Democratic Party’s actions regarding Wenona Benally Baldenegro, those actions can be generalized to other candidates of color, to other communities.]

Superbly qualified, Wenona is a Harvard-educated attorney who has extensive political and policy development experience and who is energizing constituencies-- Native Americans, youth, Latinos, women, etc.-- essential to the electoral success of the Democratic Party.

The only Native American congressional candidate in the country, Wenona, when elected, will be the first Native American woman in the history of the U.S. to serve in Congress and the first Native American, man or woman, from Arizona elected to Congress.

Yet, the Democratic Party-- at the Pima County, state, and national levels-- which, as a matter of policy and practice is not supposed to support one candidate over another in contested Primaries, is going all out to derail Wenona Benally Baldenegro’s candidacy and to defeat her.

Here’s what’s going on, re: Wenona’s Congressional District 1 candidacy:

Officials and representatives of the Pima County and Arizona Democratic Party are…

1. Falsely representing Wenona’s opponent as an incumbent to justify undermining Wenona’s campaign.

2. Calling Wenona supporters and pressuring them to withdraw their support of Wenona.

3. Sponsoring fundraisers for Wenona’s Primary race opponent.

The Party claims to be opposed, on principle, to the Payday Loan industry and to ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council, the right wing group funded by the Koch brothers), yet it is…

4. Openly and enthusiastically supporting a white candidate-- Wenona’s opponent-- whose campaign is funded by Payday Loan and ALEC lobbyists even as they are…

5. Undermining the campaign of a Native American candidate, Wenona, who (a) has worked against Payday Loan predators and (b) does not accept any corporate or ALEC donations.

The Democratic Party’s anti-Native American/Mexican American campaign goes all the way to the national level, viz.:

1. The national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman, Steve Israel, hosted a fundraiser for Wenona’s opponent, Ann Kirkpatrick.

2. Democratic Party National Committee shill James Carville sent an e-mail imploring us “to help Ann Kirkpatrick” and fight “…the Koch boys who are trying to buy this election…”

Carville’s and the Democratic Party’s hypocrisy is staggering, given that Carville and Kirkpatrick are swimming in the same cesspool as “the Koch boys”-- i.e., Ann Kirkpatrick’s campaign is funded heavily by ALEC lobbyists! [This is discussed more fully below.]

The majority of rank-and-file Democrats are decent and principled people, and in an ideal world, they would be outraged about the Democratic Party’s actions and do something about it. But the Democratic Party is run by an elite clique who purposely keeps the rank-and-file Democrats in the dark about what they’re doing. What the Democratic Party does do is maintain a stable of sycophants, minions and hangers-on who parrot the tired “lesser of evils” line. In their perverted view, Democratic race-ethnic discrimination is qualitatively better than Republican race-ethnic discrimination. Applying these folks’ reasoning retroactively, our community should not have challenged the laws and policies that:

1. Mandated that Mexican American children attend segregated schools with inferior facilities… because, well, they at least got to go to school.

2. Allowed Mexican American children to swim in public pools only one day a week, the day before the pool was cleaned… because, well, they at least got to swim…Etc., etc.

What prompted this essay?

Recent televised comments by the Chair of the Pima County Democratic Party brought to mind the issues discussed here, viz.:

Here’s the verbatim transcript of the July 6, 2012, (PBS program) “Political Roundtable” dialogue between program host Jim Nintzel and Jeff Rogers-- speaking in his official capacity as Chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party:

Start at Minute 21:54:

Jim Nintzel: Uh… Jeff, you mentioned earlier the Primary in this race, CD1 race. You’ve already got complaints from Wendy (sic) Benally Baldenegro that the Democrats aren’t playing fair in this race.

Jeff Rogers: Right. Well, I… I… I think that… that… that when we have an incumbent… uh, something that’s almost like a pseudo incumbent, like Ann Kirkpatrick, the Party has kind of rallied around her… uh… because she just… she just… she’s probably the best chance we have to win that race.

And I really do like Wenona a lot, and I have a lot of respect for her and consider her a rising star, but I just don’t think that this is her year. At some other point in time, I think… uh… she’ll present a wonderful… a wonderful new face to the party, but I just think that Ann Kirkpatrick has huge advantages, and so it’s… it’s hard to deny that, you know, everyone has rallied around Ann and her campaign. End at Minute 22:44

I. What part of “pseudo” do you people not understand? Kirkpatrick is a “pseudo incumbent” and therefore deserves the Party’s support? Jeff Rogers knows full well that the CD-1 seat is an open seat and has no incumbent and that Kirkpatrick is not an elected official and is not an incumbent of anything. “Pseudo” means “false,” “fake,” “not real.” In his zeal to deprive the Native American community a voice in Congress, Rogers turns “pseudo” on its head. [Not to mention that he obviously thinks we’re stupid and don’t know what “pseudo” means.]

II. WE’LL decide when the likes of you can run for office… Patronizingly (visualize Rogers patting Wenona on the head), Rogers asserts that (1) Wenona is a nice person and all, but that he and the Democratic Party have decided that “...this is just not her year” to run, and (2) he and the Democratic Party will determine when it’s her time to run. In essence, Rogers, playing God, is articulating the age-old mantra: We, your betters, will tell you people when you can run for office…in the meantime, be good little boys and girls and hang around the dinner table and there’ll be scraps for you after we eat.

III. So what if Kirkpatrick lost 68,000 votes from one election to another… to us she’s a winner! Rogers asserts that he and the Democratic Party support Kirkpatrick over Wenona because Kirkpatrick “…is the best chance we have to win that race.” But Rogers knows full well that in one of the-- if not THE-- worst and most embarrassing electoral defeats in Arizona history, 68,000 Democrats who voted in 2008 stayed home in 2010 and did not vote rather than vote for Kirkpatrick! (Arizona Daily Sun, 11/7/10)

Keep in mind that there was no organized “Do not vote…” campaign-- 68,000 Democratic voters individually and independently stayed home rather than go vote for Kirkpatrick. Incredibly[!], the Pima County Democratic Party and the Arizona Democratic Party would rather support a white candidate they know in their hearts will lose the CD-1 race rather than support a Native American woman who would most likely win that race.

IV. It’s “Payday Joe” we hate...We love “Payday Ann”…

A. In the last Tucson City Council election, the Pima County Democratic Party took the unprecedented action of not only endorsing one candidate over another in a contested City Council Primary race, it also invested $15,000 in a billboard campaign demonizing the hapless Joe Flores as “Payday Joe.” (As I understand it, either Joe Flores or his children operated a check-cashing and payday loan business.)

Jeff Rogers righteously expressed his and the Democratic Party’s abhorrence of the Payday Loan industry and anyone associated with that industry as justification for this first-ever action by the Pima County Democratic Party.

For sure, the Payday Loan industry is a vulture industry that preys on people’s misfortunes and makes hundreds of millions in profits off of the misfortune of its victims, destroys families, etc.
Methodist Bishop Minerva G. Carcano, Arizona Ecumenical Council president, described Payday lenders as “…thieves stealing from the most vulnerable.” (Tucson Citizen, 10/02/08) Carcano’s comment was made in the context of opposition to the 2008 Payday Loan industry-sponsored Proposition 200 in Arizona that would have allowed Payday lenders to charge 391% interest and to raid borrowers’ bank accounts.

B. But wait… Ann Kirkpatrick, whom Jeff Rogers and the Pima County Democratic Party and the Arizona Democratic Party enthusiastically support, is awash in payday loan money! The Payday Loan industry lobbyists who worked together on the aforementioned Prop 200, i.e., to foist Prop 200 on us, were [Republican] Jonathan Paton, [Democrat] Mario Diaz, and [Republican] Stan Barnes.

Federal Elections Commission (FEC) reports show that Mario E. Diaz, chief lobbyist for the predatory Payday Loan industry in Arizona, has made a series of substantial contributions-- $1,873 here, $2,300 there… I stopped counting at $8,746-- to Ann Kirkpatrick, the candidate Jeff Rogers, the Pima County Democratic Party, and the Arizona Democratic Party are actively supporting.

Mario Diaz, chief lobbyist for the predatory Payday Loan industry, also contributes tens of thousands of dollars to scores of Arizona and Pima County Democratic local, state, and federal candidates and incumbents, and… is a major contributor to the Arizona Democratic Party—$5,000 here, $2,000 there…I stopped counting at $25,810.

And then there’s Stan Barnes. The person consistently described in news reports as the “spokesman for the Payday Lending industry” in Arizona, (Republican) Stan Barnes, also contributed thousands of dollars to Kirkpatrick’s campaign and to the Arizona Democratic Party. [A relevant aside: Ann Kirkpatrick contributor Stan Barnes hosted fundraisers for Russell Pearce during the Recall Pearce campaign, even as Wenona Benally Baldenegro and her campaign staff traveled to Mesa, AZ, to gather Recall Pearce petition signatures, and on Nov. 8, 2011, Wenona and her staff canvassed neighborhoods in Mesa to get out the vote that recalled Russell Pearce.]

In contrast to Kirkpatrick, Wenona has no ties to the predatory Payday Loan industry and has not received contributions from anyone associated with that industry. In fact, Wenona, while working for the non-profit organization Arizona Natives Assets Coalition, was an advocate for people being exploited by Payday Lenders and conducted workshops for working and low-income families regarding how to avoid Payday lenders. Yet, Jeff Rogers and the Pima County Democratic Party and the Arizona Democratic Party are actively opposing Wenona Benally Baldenegro and supporting the candidate subsidized by Payday Loan Lobbyists Mario Diaz and Stan Barnes-- “Payday Ann.”

So, to recap: The Pima County Democratic Party’s and the Arizona Democratic Party’s position is: Association with the Payday Loan industry is vile and indecent EXCEPT if you’re a white Republican who opportunistically changed her registration to Democrat and receives massive contributions from Payday Loan lobbyists… in which case we’ll support you. [Dare we ask: Can we expect the Pima County Democratic Party to pony up $15,000 to put up “Support Payday Ann” billboards in the Pima County portion of CD-1?]

V. Rogers pretends to object to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). He recently reposted (with the comment: “So, what’s going on here?”) on his Facebook page a blog that criticized a Mexican American legislative candidate because a PAC that has ties to an organization associated with ALEC did a mailing in support of the candidate. Fair enough. ALEC is a right-wing organization funded by brothers Charles and David Koch. The Koch brothers and ALEC are the major funders of the Tea Party movement and develop legislation to, among other things, defund Planned Parenthood and disenfranchise minority voters. But wait…

Rogers and the Pima County Democratic Party and the Arizona Democratic Party enthusiastically support Ann Kirkpatrick who has received scores of contributions from ALEC members such as the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) (which makes millions of dollars in profits from the Mexicans “rounded up” by America’s most racist Sheriff, Joe Arpaio), Arizona Public Service (APS), Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, and Schreck, Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, the Salt River Project (SRP), and others.

So, to recap: The Pima County Democratic Party’s and the Arizona Democratic Party’s position is: Having a PAC that has ties to an organization associated with ALEC do a mailing in your support is vile and indecent if you are a Mexican American candidate… BUT if you’re a white Republican who opportunistically changed her registration to Democrat and receives many, many contributions from ALEC members…we’ll support you, especially if you’re running against a Native American lifelong Democrat who has no ties to ALEC.

[There are advantages to having media friends who cover politics: Jeff Rogers’ “Political Roundtables” pal, Jim Nintzel of the Tucson Weekly, also makes hay of the ALEC-associated PAC doing a mailer for a Mexican American candidate (which the candidate knew nothing about and basically disowns) and conveniently ignores the scores of ALEC-associated contributions Rogers’ candidate, Ann Kirkpatrick, has knowingly solicited and accepted.]

VI. Kirkpatrick is our pseudo incumbent who is in the pocket of the Payday Loan industry and depresses Democratic turnout and stands proudly with the Republicans and ALEC… During her single term in Congress (before 68,000 Democrats refused to come out to vote for her for a second term), Ann Kirkpatrick stood with the Republicans and ALEC…

1. Against the Latino community and fought the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against SB 1070, calling it a “sideshow” (on this Kirkpatrick stood proudly with Jan Brewer, Russell Pearce, and Joe Arpaio) and TWICE refused to vote for the DREAM Act.

2. Against unions regarding the Employee Free Choice Act, which speaks to the issue of the rights of workers to unionize.

3. Against Native Americans and unions by supporting the union-busting Rio Tinto corporation that is setting up a non-union mine operation, which will entail the destruction of sacred Apache land.

4. And turned her back on her environmentalist support base (the Sierra Club and others) by supporting the Rio Tinto mine, which, in addition to destroying Apache sacred sites, will do immense environmental damage.

5. And voted to support the tax cuts for the wealthy passed under President Bush.

6. And voted “Nay” on H.R. 1728, the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2009.

7. And voted “Nay” on H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Accountability and Consumer Protection Act.
(Visualize Kirkpatrick’s Payday Loan Lobbyist donors looking over her shoulder to make sure she voted the “right” way on No. 6 and No. 7 above.)

8. And voted “Nay” on HR 1256, the FDA Oversight of Tobacco Products bill.

9. And voted “Nay” on H.R. 3269, the Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act of 2009.

10. And voted “Nay” on H.R. 2847, the Jobs for Main Street Act of 2009.

11. And…well, you get the picture.

And Kirkpatrick’s pattern of voting in lockstep with Republicans and ALEC is not something in the past. Just this month, the (Flagstaff) Arizona Daily Sun ran an article comparing the Democratic and Republican CD-1 candidates’ stands on various issues. Here’s what that article concluded:

“Out of 30 issues, Kirkpatrick wound up agreeing nearly as many times with Republicans Wade and Martin (11 votes each) as she did with Benally Baldenegro (12 votes).” (ArizonaDailySun.com, August 7, 2012)

So, to recap: The Pima County Democratic Party’s and the Arizona Democratic Party’s position is: We oppose Republicans EXCEPT if you’re a white Republican who opportunistically changed her registration to Democrat and votes consistently with Republicans and ALEC and are running against a highly qualified progressive Native American woman who is a lifelong Democrat and who is energizing several key Democratic constituencies…in which case we’ll support you.

IX. That backbone is there, people just need to find it… What the Democratic Party is doing is wrong. The Party’s sycophants, minions, and hangers-on defending the Democratic Party’ actions is wrong. Rank-and-file Democrats who know what’s going on closing their eyes to what’s going on and doing nothing is wrong.

The do-nothings are acting out the script written for them: the Democratic Party and its leadership count on Democrats not standing up to them and forcing them to act in a principled and ethical manner.

For generations the attitude and actions described herein have been visited on the Native American and Mexican American communities.

And for generations we have fought back and have not only survived, we have flourished!

That is because there have always been people in our communities who have refused to be apologists for, enablers of, injustice… people who have had the backbone to stand up and speak out and fight against injustice.

History teaches us that if enough people stop hanging around under the Democratic Party’s dinner table waiting for crumbs to fall our way, things can and do change. Our collective political behavior has to be driven by the irrefutable fact that our communities have paid their dues-- over and over again!-- over the years…we have earned a place at the dinner table.

And if one considers the historical fact that our communities often make the difference between Democrats’ winning and losing elections, our place should be at the head of the table!

What’s easy, and what takes courage… In Arizona, for Democrats it’s easy to criticize Russell Pearce, Jan Brewer, Joe Arpaio, Tom Horne, John Huppenthal and their partners in hate. No courage involved there. (Other states have their counterparts to Pearce, Brewer, Arpaio, et al.) What takes courage…integrity…principles is to confront those who claim to be on our side but who act against our interests…

What takes courage… integrity… principles is to declare that Democratic race-ethnic discrimination IS NOT qualitatively better than Republican race-ethnic discrimination. THAT’S where the backbone comes in! Those amongst us who have a full-grown, or even a budding, backbone need to organize ourselves outside of the Democratic Party apparatus and... GIVE AND WITHHOLD our votes and support on the basis of principle rather than the “Democratic racism is qualitatively better than Republican racism” hoax…viz.:

Support good issues and candidates on the basis of principle rather than opportunism… Oppose candidates who stand with those whose interests are inimical to our community’s interests… Take on openly and publicly the Democratic Party elite who treat our community as if they own us and take our support for granted… who apply a double standard to candidates of color… who work against our interests even as they demand and expect our support, etc.

Even a cursory study of history instructs us that the do-nothings… those who crave the approval of their superiors… those who are satisfied with crumbs rather than a full meal… those who accept race-ethnic discrimination as their due… are not the ones who influence the course of history and are indeed as much the enemy as the perpetrators of discriminatory actions.

A couple of quick questions in closing…

1. If Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez had been part of the do-nothing, sycophant, minion, and hanger-on crowd, would we revere and respect them as we do?

2. This question, to which I have yet to receive a cogent answer, is one I’ve been asking for decades. But I’m an optimist in whom hope springs eternal, so here it is again: If Democratic race-ethnic discrimination is qualitatively better than Republican race-ethnic discrimination-- as the Democratic Party and its sycophants, minions, and hangers-on insist-- and is something we should embrace… Does that mean we have been unjustly and unfairly demonizing the likes of Lester Maddox, George Wallace, Bull O’ Connor, and the KKK of the 1950s-1960s, all of whom were Democrats and operated under the auspices and with the full support of the Democratic Party, and therefore owe these fine Democrats an apology?

Tomorrow is voting day in AZ-01. In case you don't read The Guardian-- and if you're still not fully convinced by the arguments above-- let me recommend a column by Glenn Greenwald that was published yesterday, which warns of the dangers inherent in kissing up to power.

[I]t is very easy to get people to see oppression and tyranny in faraway places, but very difficult to get them to see it in their own lives ("How dare you compare my country to Tyranny X; we're free and they aren't"). In part that is explained by the way in which desire shapes perception. One naturally wants to believe that oppression is only something that happens elsewhere because one then feels good about one's own situation ("I'm free, unlike those poor people in those other places"). Thinking that way also relieves one of the obligation to act: one who believes they are free of oppression will feel no pressure to take a difficult or risky stand against it.

But the more significant factor is that one can easily remain free of even the most intense political oppression simply by placing one's faith and trust in institutions of authority. People who get themselves to be satisfied with the behavior of their institutions of power, or who at least largely acquiesce to the legitimacy of prevailing authority, are almost never subjected to any oppression, even in the worst of tyrannies.

Why would they be? Oppression is designed to compel obedience and submission to authority. Those who voluntarily put themselves in that state-- by believing that their institutions of authority are just and good and should be followed rather than subverted-- render oppression redundant, unnecessary.

Of course people who think and behave this way encounter no oppression. That's their reward for good, submissive behavior. As Rosa Luxemburg put this: "Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." They are left alone by institutions of power because they comport with the desired behavior of complacency and obedience without further compulsion.

But the fact that good, obedient citizens do not themselves perceive oppression does not mean that oppression does not exist. Whether a society is free is determined not by the treatment of its complacent, acquiescent citizens-- such people are always unmolested by authority-- but rather by the treatment of its dissidents and its marginalized minorities.

In the US, those are the people who are detained at airports and have their laptops and notebooks seized with no warrants because of the films they make or the political activism they engage in; or who are subjected to mass, invasive state surveillance despite no evidence of wrongdoing; or who are prosecuted and imprisoned for decades-- or even executed without due process-- for expressing political and religious views deemed dangerous by the government.

People who resist the natural human tendency to follow, venerate and obey prevailing authority typically have a much different view about how oppressive a society is than those who submit to those impulses. The most valuable experiences for determining how free a society is are the experiences of society's most threatening dissidents, not its content and compliant citizens. It was those who marched against Mubarak who were detained, beaten, tortured and killed, not those who acquiesced to or supported the regime. That is the universal pattern of authoritarian oppression.

The temptation to submit to authority examined by Compliance bolsters an authoritarian culture by transforming its leading institutions into servants of power rather than checks on it. But worse, it conceals the presence of oppression by ensuring that most citizens, choosing to follow, trust and obey authority, do not personally experience oppression and thus do not believe-- refuse to believe-- that it really exists.

Now, if you live in AZ-01, go out and do the right thing... for humankind.

Last Set Of Congressional Primaries-- Next Tuesday In Arizona

In less than a week Arizonans will go to the polls and the parties will pick their candidates for the general election. The most crucial primary is in AZ-03, where Big Business is running a lifelong Republican-- a fake Democrat-- in the hope of defeating Raúl Grijalva. Blue America is supporting Raúl and we have an ActBlue page dedicated to helping him win reelection-- first in next Tuesday's primary and then in the November general election.

There are three other races we're watching closely. In AZ-01, corporate shill Ann Kirkpatrick, who was defeated as part of the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse of 2010, is running for her old seat as is progressive champion Wenona Baldenegro. When Kirkpatrick first ran in 2008 for the sprawling open seat that takes up most of the state she took 56%-- 155,791 votes (as opposed to 109,924 for her GOP opponent). She won 6 of the district's 8 counties with the biggest, Yavapai, being a virtual tie-- 45,014 for her and 45,487 for her opponent). Last cycle, her confusing voting record-- she stuck with the Republicans whenever it mattered most-- depressed Democratic turnout and the results were astonishing. Paul Gosar won even more GOP votes than the previous GOP candidate-- 112,816 but over 50,000 of Kirkpatrick's initial supporters evaporated. She only managed to get 99,233 votes, a pathetic result of a pathetic 2 years in Congress. She only won 3 counties of the 8-- and was trounced by Gosar 47,449- 27,179 in Yavapai. The Democratic activists and the base hate her. The DCCC, of course, is pushing Kirkpatrick and she's raised $1,439,151. So far Kirkpatrick has spent $626,950 in the primary. Baldenegro has raised just under $100,000. It's another David vs Goliath race-- with the DCCC and shady corporate interests backing Goliath... as usual.

And then there's the complicated, messy primary in the new 9th CD, pitting 3 people who I know and like, moderate Democrat Andrei Cherny, the DC Establishment face (an Arizona ex-state Democratic Party chair and a former Clinton White House aide; former state Senator Kyrsten Sinema, usually considered to have the best shot (but the choice of untrustworthy Beltway organizations like EMILY's List and the Victory Fund); and progressive champion and state Senate Minority Leader David Schapira, who's been endorsed by DFA, Raúl Grijalva and, oddly, failed conservative ex-Congressman Harry Mitchell.

And then there's the race in the new AZ-02, basically a slightly bluer version of Gabby Gifford's old 8th district seat. Up top you can watch the TV forum with ConservaDem Ron Barber and Blue America-endorsed Matt Heinz. It was as close as Barber would get to a debate. But if you watch closely, aside from seeing him lose his shit when he's confronted about backing a Tea Party bill to gut a package of crucial environmental laws (his first substantive vote in Congress), you see how crafty he is about never answering any questions in a way that gives away how he really stands on anything. The man is a repulsive weasel-- perfect for Steve Israel and Joe Crowley, which explains why they're backing him so heavily. Even after being asked twice if he'd back legislation to restrict high capacity gun magazines, like the one used to wound both Gabby Giffords and himself, he showed his true cowardly, weasely nature by repeatedly ducking the question. He says we "need to talk to law enforcement to find out what they believe are the right answers to these problems and then with their advice and the advice of our community move forward and take whatever action is appropriate." But law enforcement has been begging Congress for years to get assault weapons and high capacity magazines off the streets. Barber is a not just a coward; he's a liar. And then he went on obfuscating with the typical NRA post-tragedy line: "But this is not the time in the emotion of these three shootings, of the two most recent shootings, to engage in this kind of political debate. I think we have to respect the people who were shot and were killed and we have to have a longer and more serious discussion with the people who know about this issue in depth and law enforcement is one of those groups and then we can get to some answers that are important." Hard to imagine anyone who considers themselves a Democrat could vote for this walking pile of turd.

Coverage in the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson's biggest newspaper, didn't refer to Barber as a walking pile of turd... but it would be difficult to read their account without walking away with that impression. They emphasized Matt Heinz's more germane response to the same question:

Mental-health services need to be beefed up, but it's also time to have a serious dialogue about high-capacity magazines, said Heinz, a Tucson doctor and state representative. This discussion would be a way to honor the memories of the victims of the mass shootings.

"I'm not saying there needs necessarily to be a ban, but that should be on the table," said Heinz, pointing out that many of the mass shooters have used high-capacity magazines.

Heinz acknowledged it's impossible to stop all disturbed people from going on rampages, but he argued that having fewer bullets may reduce the number of people killed. Having fewer bullets in each magazine would have lessened the bloodshed in the Tucson shooting, he said.

"If he had to stop for five or 10 seconds and fumble around, and reload, and get tackled at that point, 20 fewer bullets would have left his gun," Heinz said.

Heinz, who's found voters in the district most concerned about Barber's support for GOP plans to gut environmental legislation explained the differences between the two to his supporters and the media right after the forum ended.

“My opponent wrongfully alleges that I did not read the Arizona Desert Wilderness Act of 1990. He also erroneously claims that the Act clearly includes an exemption for border patrol and border security operations.

“Since casting his vote for H.R. 2578, a bill that included provisions to waive conservation and environmental protections, it is clear that my opponent continues to misunderstands what he voted to waive. I encourage my opponent and his staff to read Title III, section 301, clause (g) of Mo Udall’s Act. The Act does not allow for a blanket exemption, otherwise it would not have been included in the Tea Party backed bill that he voted for.

“I agree with Barber’s statement: ‘when you go into a body like the Congress, you don’t get to vote maybe. You get to vote yes or no.' He voted no on an amendment that would have struck the 100 mile exemption from the bill, but yet he still calls 100 miles excessive. He says he advocates for a reduction of the exemption to 25 miles, but he failed to introduce an amendment that reflected his supposed opposition.

“My opponent’s inexperience is disconcerting. An experienced legislator knows how to stand up for Arizona’s beautiful Sonora Desert while enhancing border security. Interagency cooperation must be supported, not ignored. Top managers for border security and land management agencies testified interagency cooperation works and that exemption from environmental regulations does not enhance border security.

“It has been my opponent’s political strategy to ignore the primary election so he can avoid public accountability. It is a shame that this candidate forum occurred late in the cycle because so many concerns and questions continue to go unanswered. If my opponent is selected to run in the general election, I hope he can better defend his record.”

Defining The Political Struggle Of Our Time

Yesterday we took a look at the congressional campaigns that pit progressive Wayne Powell against reactionary Eric Cantor, progressive Ken Aden against reactionary Steve Womack, and progressive Wenona Baldenegro against conservative Ann Kirkpatrick. The less and less relevant Democrat/Republican nomenclature is barely worth mentioning. There are three progressives dedicated to the interests of working families, all of whom are independent-minded Democrats, and there are two reactionaries (both Republicans) and a conservative (a completely corrupt Establishment Democrat) dedicated to the interests of Wall Street and other venal corporate interests.

The Republican part of this equation is simple as pie. There are no good Republicans, no honest Republicans, no patriotic Republicans, no Republicans even worth considering against the most horrible of Democrats-- and there are plenty of them in Congress, at this point at least half. The Democratic half is more complicated and more troubling. Too many Democrats-- Ann Kirkpatrick is just one-- have just given in to the cash corruption that defines DC politics... and they're crowding out real Democrats. Because the cash allows them to establish themselves as power players, you find third rate minds like Joe Crowley, Steve Israel, Steny Hoyer, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Allyson Schwartz in leadership positions-- although most of them are utterly devoid of any leadership capacity beyond aggregating bribes and passing them out to other Members in return for personal loyalties. That's what makes DC politics go round and round.

We saw the breathtaking number of corrupt lobbyists flocking to join Steny Hoyer in supporting Kirkpatrick against a candidate of and for the people of Arizona's first CD. Why do you think so many lobbyists are so desperate to get a weak loser like Ann Kirkpatrick back into Congress? Think about it. Or read what cutting edge populist economist David Korten had to say about this kind of politics in his brilliant book, Agenda For A New Economy. Here he is articulating a vision for a democratic America that isn't there to serve the special interests of a few super-wealthy families and corporations:

The life-serving market system we want and the life-destructive capitalist system we have feature very different structures and operate by very different rules. A healthy market system in designed to facilitate the beneficial self-organizing exchange of goods and services in response to people's self-defined needs. The capitalist system, by contrast, is designed to concentrate economic power to support the expropriation of wealth for the exclusive private benefit of the system's most powerful players.

The rules formulated and enforced by government ultimately favor one or the other of these competing systems. The tension between them defines the political struggle of our time. Government makes the rules that determine the economy's structure and priorities. Its choices commonly favor Wall Street capitalism over Main Street markets, because Wall Street controls the money and the media that drive Washington politics. The public rarely hears about options supportive of a healthy Main Street market system, and such options do not find their way into the platforms of the major political parties.

These Wall Street interests already have the GOP serving them. Working American families need a political party as well. That used to be the Democratic Party. Now it's just a fraction of the Democratic Party. That's why it's so, so important to support progressives like Raul Grijalva and the candidates he's backing... like Wenona Baldenegro, like Ken Aden and like Wayne Powell.

The Same People Who Backed Corrupt Conservative Tim Holden Are Also Behind Ann Kirkpatrick In Arizona

Raul & Wenona, 2 champions of working families

Breaking yet another promise to stay neutral in active primaries, the DCCC came lumbering into AZ-1 this week, in favor of conservative loser Ann Kirkpatrick who lost her seat in 2010 because Democrats stayed away from the polls, sickened by her tendency to vote with the GOP on crucial roll calls. This time the district is much more Democratic-leaning... so much so that incumbent Paul Gosar, the teabagger who beat Kirkpatrick fled west to a friendlier, redder district. The reason the district is friendlier territory for Democrats now is because blood red-- and all white-- Yavapai County has been separated from it. The first congressional district is now 40% Democrat, 30%, Republican, and 30% Independent. Demographically, it is 22% Native American, and 19% Latino. AZ-1 has
the highest percentage of Native Americans of district in the country, by a wide margin. Funny how some DCCC hack called a white progressive the other day and whined that he shouldn't run because there are so many Latinos in his district but in this case, when Native Americans have their own candidate in the most Native America district in he country, the DCCC is sabotaging her race.

Wenona Baldenegro has galvanized the Native American and Latino communities of the district, as well as the all-important progressive bastion of Flagstaff, who are rallying around her strong environmental positions and her message of standing up for the middle-class and the 99%. In 2010, as we've been trying to explain for two years, the people of AZ-1 DID NOT come out to vote for Ann Kirkpatrick. From the biggest newspaper in the district:

Don't credit a tea party-driven Republican surge for electing Paul Gosar in the First Congressional District.

Instead, blame Democrats and independents for staying home in record numbers, costing U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Flagstaff, her seat... Kirkpatrick's tally in 2010 fell off by a whopping 68,000 votes, or 44 percent.

...Informal surveys late in the campaign confirmed an indifference by Democrats to Kirkpatrick, in part because she had broken with the Obama White House on key issues such as carbon cap and trade and Wall Street regulation.

The DCCC doesn't get this... or doesn't want to. They don't want an independent-minded progressive like Wenona Baldenegro, a close ally of Raul Grijalva, in Congress. Alarm bells rings for corporate conservatives like Hoyer and Israel and Wasser,man Schultz, whose power derives from their ability to aggregate bribes, when they hear something like this from Wenona: "I'm honored that both co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Grijalva and Rep. Ellison, have endorsed my campaign. The CPC has done an incredible job of holding the line for the working families of America, at a time of unprecedented attacks. And they need help. I am ready to get in there and stand with them to fight for working families, protect Medicare and Social Security, and protect our environment to ensure clean air and water for future generations." Hoyer and his clique want a weak, easily corruptible conservative like Kikpatrick who will stay loyal to Hoyer and the conservative faction in control of the DCCC. Wenona has the support on the ground to win. Below we'll compare who is endorsing Wenona and who-- aside from Hoyer and sleazy "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel-- is endorsing Kirkpatrick.

Kirkpatrick is very cozy with ALEC, the payday-loan industry, and Corrective Corporation of America (CCA). CCA is the giant of the private prison industry that profits from laws such as SB1070. Here are the lobbyists, that we know of, who have donated to Kirkpatrick, and who they are affiliated with.

Martin Shultz - Former Chief Lobbyist for Arizona Public Service (APS). APS is a member-in-good-standing of ALEC. Shultz is also a lobbyist for Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, and Schreck, which co-chairs the shady ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force. Shultz, Senior Policy Director in BHFS's Phoenix office and a member of the BHFS Government Relations group, is BHFS' representative on the ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force, as of 2011. (Shultz is also listed as VP of Government Affairs at Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, also an ALEC member). He maxed out to John McCain, when he ran for President.

Victor Flores-- Current lobbyist for APS; former lobbyist for Salt River Project (SRP), also an ALEC member. Has given $3000 to Kirkpatrick, over the course of her Congressional career.

Mario Diaz-- Over the course of her career, Kirkpatrick has accepted $8600 from Mario Diaz, Arizona's number one lobbyist for the payday-loan industry. 

Dennis DeConcini-- This guy is a real piece-of-work. He is a former crooked Democratic U.S. Senator from Arizona who has made quite the career as a lobbyist, after he retired. As a member of the Senate, he was part of the "Keating Five," along with McCain, which was a huge banking and political contribution scandal in the '80s. Forced to retire, DeConcini became a lobbyist for, among others, Corrective Corporation of America (CCA), where he now sits on the Board of Directors. CCA, in conjunction with ALEC, wrote SB1070 with Russell Pearce and others, in order to profit from the incarceration of immigrants. The private prison industry is now a multi-billion dollar industry, and DeConcini makes $175,000 just to sit on their board. He then turns around and donates that money to candidates like Kirkpatrick. To add insult to injury, DeConcini endorsed and made robocalls for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, maybe the most corrupt, racist sheriff in America.

Now compare that crew of sleazebag lobbyists (and that was just the tip of a very toxic iceberg-- along with the corrupt hacks at the DCCC-- to who has endorsed Wenona:

United Steelworkers of America
IAMAW (Machinists Union)
AFSCME #449 (Pima County)

Raul Grijalva - U.S. Congressman (AZ-7)
Linda Sanchez - U.S. Congresswoman (CA-39)
Keith Ellison - U.S. Congressman (MN-5)
Joe Baca - U.S. Congressman (CA-43)

Johnny Naize - Speaker of the Council, Navajo Nation
Dennis Welsh - Councilmember and Treasurer, Colorado River Indian Tribes
Ben Nuvamsa - Former Chairman, Hopi Tribe
Dr. Octaviana Trujillo - Former Chairwoman, Pascua Yaqui Tribe; first woman to serve as Chairperson of Pascua Yaqui Tribe
Herminia Frias - Former Chairwoman, Pascua Yaqui Tribe

San Carlos Apache Tribe
Colorado River Indian Tribes
Pascua Yaqui Tribe
Tohono O'odham Nation
Tulalip Tribes of Washington
San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians
Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians

Sierra Club Arizona
Progressive Democrats of America

Steve Gallardo - AZ State Senator (LD13)
Bruce Wheeler - AZ State Representative (LD28)
Catherine Miranda - AZ State Representative (LD16)
Sally Ann Gonzales - AZ State Representative (LD27); first American Indian woman to serve in the Arizona State Legislature
Dr. Macario Saldate - AZ State Representative (LD27)
Martin Quezada - AZ State Representative (LD13)

Jonathan Nez - Navajo County Board of Supervisors (District 1)

Andy Bessler - Sierra Club
Cecilia Cruz - Co-founder, Pima County/Tucson Women's Commission
Shonto Begay - Navajo artist/civil rights leader
Randy Parraz - Former AFL-CIO Director for Arizona
Dr. Frances Riemer - Professor, NAU Women's and Gender Studies
Alfredo Gutierrez - Former Arizona Senate Democratic Leader
Daniel R. Ortega - Civil rights leader; National Board Chairman of the NCLR
John Loredo - Former Arizona House of Representatives Democratic Leader
Ken Smith - Former Senior Vice-Chair, Arizona Democratic Party
Howard Shanker - Former Arizona CD-1 candidate, environmental attorney
Barbara Smith - Former Chairwoman, White Mountain Democrats
Salomon R. Baldenegro - Former Dean/Professor, University of Arizona; Southwest U.S. civil rights icon

If Kirkpatrick is elected to Congress she will owe half the lobbyists on K Street-- the last thing working people and consumers in Arizona should want. Wenona is a far better choice and if you can spare even a small amount, you can contribute to her campaign on a special Blue America page we set up to send a message to the DC Democrats.

The DCCC-- Not A Friend Of Working Families... Not By A Longshot

The DCCC added a shitload of shit to their Red-to-Blue program today-- a greenlight for big donors and idiots who take their financial walking orders from pimped-up hustlers and con artists like Steve Israel, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Steny Hoyer, Joseph Crowley and Allyson Schwartz. The list is a nightmare, not only for all the good progressives it leaves off-- like Rob Zerban, who exceeded the gargantuan goals the DCCC gave him to get on it, only to be left off anyway, Chris Donovan, the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives, and David Gill, who beat their corrupt Machine in Illinois only to be left in the cold while the DCCC endorsed corrupt conservative hacks like Tammy Duckworth, Cheri Bustos, Bill Foster and Brad Schneider, all of whom won the same night-- but also because they once again broke their own pledge not to endorse in active primaries. But they did-- and they always picked the corrupt conservative.

Great example of their ultimate lameness-- Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-1) was defeated in 2010 because she was one of the worst, most useless Members of Congress and Democrats didn't turn out to vote for her and let a teabagger get in. In 2008 when she first won election, for an open seat she got 155,791 votes (56%) against the Republican's 109,924, tying him in the biggest county and winning in 6 of the remaining 7. After one term of voting like a Republican, Democrats stayed home in droves and in 2010 all she managed was 99,233 votes (44%) against 112,816 for the Republican. This time she lost by a landslide in Yavapai, the biggest county, and of the remaining 7 only won 3. A far better choice would be strong, independent progressive, Wenona Baldenegro, but the DCCC decided to not leave anything to chance-- or the Democrats in the area-- and moved this week to bolster the pathetic candidacy of sure loser, Kirkpatrick. The progressive in the race, Wenona, told me publicly what dozens of candidates are telling me off the record-- that Steve Israel and his cronies are a bunch of flat-out liars.

"Across the country, the self-appointed kingmakers in Washington are trying to tell the American people who should represent them in Congress. We will not let them anoint candidates for us; the people will decide who they want to represent them. I am truly humbled by the immense support that I have received from the people of my district, and I am proud to be running a grassroots campaign that is not in the pocket of corporate money and ALEC lobbyists. I will continue my campaign to give the people of Arizona the type of representation that they deserve, and to be the first Native American woman to ever serve in the U.S. Congress."

Please consider sending the DCCC thugs a message here... today.
Since taking over the DCCC with his band of cutthroats, "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel has turned over a hefty chunk of recruiting to the most hated part of the Democratic Party, the anti-Choice, anti-gay, anti-working family Blue Dogs. So far this year the Blue Dogs have endorsed 8 pasty-faced bigots (aside from their hideous gaggle of incumbents): Leonard Bembry (FL-2, DCC "Emerging Race"), Clark Hall (AR-1, DCCC "Emerging Race"), Nick Lampson (TX-14, "Red to Blue"), Brendan Mullen (IN-2, "Red to Blue), Hayden Rogers (NC-11, DCCC's "Emerging Races"), ALEC leader Ted Vick (SC-7, "Emerging Race District"), Rob Wallace (OK-2, DCCC Emerging Race), Charlie Wilson (OH-6, "Red to Blue"). Yes, every single Blue Dog has been embraced by the DCCC, even though many of them-- best example being NC-11 where Cecil Bothwell is going to hand Israel's corporate shill his ass on a platter on May 8-- have active primaries against progressives, where the DCCC has given their worthless word that they would remain neutral and let them play out.

Almost none of their picks are progressives-- Miklosi, Kuster and Takano being the exceptions-- and one is an actual Mitt Romney supporting Republican gussied up to look like a semi-Democrat, Patrick Murphy. My favorite DCCC story so far this year is how badly Wasserman Schultz and Israel fucked up the "#1 sure-thing district," FL-26, seat of breathtakingly corrupt freshman David Rivera. We've been over that a couple times before, but they've been recruiting the worst set of candidates imaginable-- so bad that they eventually are forced into unrecruiting them. And this week they found another one, Gloria Romero Roses, some typical unions-suck/taxes-are-too-high entitled rich asshole from Broward County. They managed to infuriate every Democratic official in Miami-Dade-- and every labor union by not even consulting them and shoving her right onto their "Emerging Races" list. And they did this, completely aware that the immensely popular (and populist) Joe Garcia is jumping in next week!

I bet Miami-Dade Democratic Party chair Richard Lydecker isn't going to take it lying down either. The DCCC thinks they have Miami-Dade all sewn up because of Debbie. Debbie's a joke and just another out-of-touch DC hack who works for the Fanjul brothers. It wouldn't surprise me if she's sabotaging Democratic chances in FL-26 on behalf of the Fanjuls, who want desperately to keep a pliable crook like Rivera in place. Meanwhile, Debbie and Israel and Crowley have a full scale rebellion on their hands from labor. Roses was illegally targeting and firing SEIU members when she was in HR... and it's payback time. Watch Wasserman Schultz lose Florida for Obama with her clueless shenanigans!

When Democrat Gloria Romero Roses runs for Congress this fall, her biggest opponent may not be incumbent Republican Rep. David Rivera, but her own résumé.

For nearly three years, Roses worked for a Hollywood-based condo management company that fought a nasty battle against one of the Democratic Party’s biggest contributors: the Service Employees International Union.

Roses headed the employee relations department and later became director of communications and community relations for The Continental Group, which manages condo properties across South Florida. Beginning in 2004, a local SEIU chapter tried unsuccessfully to unionize Continental’s condo workers, mostly in Miami Beach. The union accused the company of interfering with the union effort... From the union’s end, hard feelings remain toward the company and its directors, including Roses and her husband, Tom, who at the time headed the company’s property management division.

...Eric Brakken, director of the SEIU Local 32BJ, said he is troubled by Roses’ congressional run.

“We have deep concerns about her candidacy,” said Brakken, who directed the campaign to unionize Continental workers. “She’s going to have to come and explain to a lot of workers who have been through the same experience as Continental workers went through why she’s the best choice.”

Roses said she has already called several unions to introduce herself. “I’m making those overtures so that I can talk to them-- absolutely,” she said.

The SEIU tried to unionize Continental condo workers such as janitors, housekeepers, pool cleaners, valets and front-desk concierges. Brakken, who has never met Roses, said Continental mounted a serious anti-union effort, holding work-site meetings with managers who spoke against unionization and issuing written communications that made it clear the company opposed a union.

Roses said she was not involved in any of those tactics. [She's lying.]

The National Labor Relations Board found that the company wrongfully terminated one employee for his union activities. In its investigation, the board found Continental distributed “anti-union literature”-- including a bulletin to managers saying the company was “100% against a Union getting in here”-- and violated labor rules by photographing workers holding a mock election to reinstate a colleague.

“They clearly heard the message,” Brakken said of the workers. “Continental ran a pretty sophisticated campaign to stop their employees from forming a union.”

Roses and her husband, Brakken added, “were clearly central to that.”

One well connected Miami Democratic leader laughed at the cluelessness of the DCCC. "They went for Gloria who? From Broward that no one knows except the unions because of her past trying to bust them and is supposedly a business woman but somehow doesn't even have a website for her business as Roll Call and Politico pointed out. Ugh! I will support Joe. So will everyone else."

Tonight Democrats in Pennsylvania told Hoyer and Israel and Wasserman Schultz to go take a flying leap as they defeated their hackish corrupt Blue Dog, Tim Holden, and replaced him with progressive Matt Cartwright. With 447 of 449 precincts reporting, Cartwright beat Hoyer's corrupt Blue Dog 33,102 (57%) to 24,871 (43%). Holden lost all the big population centers. Cartwright ran up solid majorities in Lackawanna (78%). Luzerne (71%), Northampton (55%) and Monroe (64%). Grassroots Democrats in other states should take up the banner. Don't trust anyone endorsed by the DCCC. Check them out carefully first. Most will be worthless shills like the majority of the people on the Red-to-Blue List of Shame.

What's An Occupy Movement Candidate?

This week, Mother Jones found 10 candidates running for Congress as supporters of the Occupy or 99% Movement. Most of them are Blue America candidates-- Alan Grayson, Ilya Sheyman, Elizabeth Warren, Norman Solomon, Eric Griego, and Tammy Baldwin, who we are daily urging people to support on our ActBlue House page or our ActBlue Senate page. But there are a four on their list we haven't gotten to yet:

Hakeem Jeffries (New York): "Income inequality is worse now that it has been since prior to the Great Depression," the state assemblyman said during a passionate speech at an Occupy rally in Brooklyn this fall. In January, Jeffries announced that he'd run for Congress in New York's Tenth Congressional District against 15-term incumbent Ed Towns, who'd angered labor unions when he cast the deciding vote in 2005 for the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Since then, Jeffries has picked up endorsements in the Brooklyn district from prominent unions such as the Communications Workers of America.

Prospects: Fair. Jeffries' success could hinge on stopping the Tenth District from being redrawn to exclude his state assembly district, where he's popular.

Lori Saldaña (California): "Lori Saldaña has leapt headlong into the Occupy movement," writes the San Diego Union-Tribune. While that may be a bit of an overstatement, the Democratic former assemblywoman certainly caters to the cause with her campaign slogan: "Fighting for America's middle class." In January, she joined a rally organized by Occupy the Courts in protest of Supreme Court rulings that give corporations the rights of people.

Prospects: Good. A recent poll ranks her as the frontrunner in the primary and just six points behind incumbent Republican Rep. Brian Bilbray. But an independent who may enter the fray could strip away some of her supporters.

Wenona Benally Baldenegro (Arizona): Two years after Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick lost her Arizona congressional seat to tea party Republican Paul Gosar, she's campaigning to retake it. But she could lose in the primary to Baldenegro, who blames her for alienating supporters with votes against the pro-union Employee Free Choice Act and for job-killing foreign trade bills. A Harvard Law grad who'd be the nation's first Native American congresswoman if elected, Baldenegro has renounced campaign donations from corporate lobbyists and supports taxing the rich and public financing for elections. In late October, she joined six other progressive House candidates-- including Griego, Sheyman, and Saldaña-- to hand-deliver House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) 35,000 signatures from people who "stand with the 99 percent."

Prospects: Fair. Though Kirkpatrick sports name recognition and support from the Democratic establishment, Baldenegro has the endorsement of progressive Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz). More important, the district's boundaries were redrawn last year to include Navajo strongholds that will back her.

Hansen Clarke (Michigan): Sponsoring legislation to forgive student debt has made the Detroit Congressman a hero to thousands of college kids involved with Occupy. During the movement's March 1 "Occupy Education" protests in Washington, DC, activists relayed a statement from Clarke using the famous people's mic: "Young people in America should be able to pursue higher education to achieve their dreams without worrying that this decision will devastate their financial futures."

Prospects: Good. Though he's running against another incumbent Congressman in a consolidated district, Clarke has an early cash advantage and growing list of union endorsements.

We started covering Wenona back in May and she and Hakeem Jeffries are on the Blue America page we use to send a message to the corrupt Democratic power structure in DC. Ever check that page out? Here's part of the description, which was written in the last cycle but still applies today:

Many of us have been disappointed in the Democratic Party (again) this year-- but electing conservatives in the form of Republicans or Blue Dog Democrats is NOT the answer. People with memories that go back beyond last November, though, probably remember just what 8 years of George W. Bush and a Republican Congress meant for our country. And, stretching out from there a bit, some progressives even remember what happened when we split our votes between Al Gore and Ralph Nader. There is a way to send a message to the Inside the Beltway Democratic Establishment. It's called primaries-- and it works better than blindly empowering crazed, angry, racist teabaggers. When Adam Nagourney, Cokie Roberts or Glenn Beck promote Democratic atomization, they're not pumping for progressive values, as Digby pointed out in the post that inspired this Blue America page. She asks how liberals can exert what power we have and have the results be interpreted the way we want them to be-- as a repudiation of corporatism and conservative governance, not as a repudiation of Democratic governance?

There is a fairly compelling theory in political science that says that after political parties come into power, fulfill some pieces of their agenda, get fat and bloated and are finally removed from office, they then tend to deny the reality of their loss and blame it on everything but themselves until they lose enough elections that they finally realize that their ideology has failed. The current GOP is not there yet by a long shot. They are still in the process of doubling down on their radical agenda at a time when the economy is still in ruins, the effects of globalization are being fully felt, the planet is in peril and about to reach a tipping point, and a radical fundamentalist movement is trying to blow people up. I don't think the world can take any more of the right's prescriptions for these problems right now: Lindsay Graham is considered too liberal and neo-Hooverism is their economic program. Yes, the Democrats are corrupt and inept. But the other side is batshit insane.

However, that doesn't mean that there's nothing we can do but wring our hands about how the system is broken and fret ourselves into inertia. The other way to send messages to the Democratic party is through the unsatisfying and often thankless process of primary challenges. Nobody can have any problem understanding that message, not even Adam Nagourney.

It's hard to find challengers and it's no wonder. It's expensive, time consuming and after all your hard work you will probably lose. It takes real commitment and a desire to not only win a seat in Congress but do it by way of unseating an incumbent of your own party with whom you disagree, an act which is guaranteed to make you an odd man out among the party hierarchy. But if you win, it can send shockwaves through the system.

And guess what? We are in another favorable year for primary challenges in recent memory. The insane teabaggers aren't going to allow any rational Republicans to run and the anti-incumbent fever is going to be as high as it's been since 1994. The Democratic base has an energetic activist faction, the netroots can raise money and there is a burning desire to show the party establishment that they cannot take liberals for granted. It's a perfect environment for successful primary challenges.

Back to the Mother Jones article for a moment. There's a postscript from the author, Josh Harkinson: "Many people have contacted me with the names of other Occupy-friendly candidates. If you have suggestions for other races to check out, leave them in the comments or send them to @JoshHarkinson on Twitter, where I've been RTing them." I doubt there's a more Occupy Movement candidate anywhere than George Martinez in Brooklyn, although I'm not certain if he's made his run official yet.

I didn't write to Josh, but I do want to remind readers of this blog about two Occupy candidates who Blue America endorsed for Congress who are very strongly backing the Occupy Movement. Ken Aden is running against corporate shill Steve Womack in northwest Arkansas. "I am a staunch and proud supporter of the Occupy Wall Street Movement," he told us last May. "In fact, I helped folks here in Arkansas start an Occupy chapter in the Northern part of our state. This is a true grassroots movement made up of young people, veterans, students, and folks from across the middle class just like me who are sick and tired of irresponsible corporations buying politicians of both parties while many in the government stand idly by and give corporate America the keys to the proverbial candy store. It's truly nauseating to know that so many politicians can be so easily bought, and not even loose an ounce of sleep over the fact that they are destroying everything which we hold dear. I  firmly believe that more people need to become involved, and stand up for what is right! Corporate greed is the new pandemic in this country. The ratio of CEO pay to that of the average worker is a prime example of the kind of reckless behavior that corporations in this country are exercising on a daily basis. Just look at how many politicians Koch Industries has bought over the last ten years alone. As the next congressman from Arkansas I would support an amendment to destroy the destructive influence of Citizens United. The last time I checked, corporations are NOT and will never be real people."

And the very first candidate Blue America endorsed this cycle was an independent-minded Orlando-area activist, Nick Ruiz, who has been motivated and animated by the exact same values and objectives that animate and motivate the 99% Movement. I asked him for his perspective on the whole idea of 99% candidates. Worth reading:

"For electoral politics, what the Occupy movement reflects is that the average citizen's feeling of being 'outside' of Washington, DC's insider games, has reached the threshold of what will be tolerated by most people. Citizens know they have to fight to get it back again. Democracy, representation, mutual prosperity. It's what the American Revolution represented for so many Americans living in the 18th century.

"For many decades now, too many people have experienced that their interests were not being adequately represented by their Representatives. It has reached the point where they are ready to do something about it. History and more importantly, progress was made in the 1930s, when a whole lot of people, and personalities, like FDR-- made it happen. And progress happened again, in the 1960s, with a mass of supporters and people like MLK and others. It is set to happen again beginning in 2012.

"And once again, we have the same problems they did, with the same lackluster Democratic response from the top. The Democratic Party infrastructure is not ready for us. And the Republicans, of course, want to crush equality of opportunity and representation, in every form. And so we the people, are again-- consciously competing for representation. Competing with the status quo bureaucracy, and the candidates they favor, who are working to ensure that power remains in the unfair hands of those that would enrich them with titles and business favors.

"But this is our United States of America. It belongs to all us. Not just those that have most of the capital and the power that comes with that capital. And we demand a representative seat and a table where truly democratic policy and law-making take place for the benefit of all Americans."

Not your standard garden variety DCCC kind of candidate, huh? You can help Nick win his House race against whichever corporate shill the GOP puts up against him, by contributing here. Let me leave you with George Martinez' Occupy song and video-- and ask you if you think freshly minted Michigan "Democrat" Joe Schwarz will be singing it in the shower?

Can Arizona Democrats Take Back The First District From Deranged Wingnut Paul Gosar? Depends Who They Nominate-- Meet Wenona Benally Baldenegro

More than half the reactionary Blue Dog caucus was defeated in November-- unable to attract Republican and right-leaning independents they had tried so hard to please, while completely demotivating the Democratic base. And it wasn't just Blue Dogs; a whole contingent of conservative Democrats who habitually voted with the Blue Dogs (and the Republicans) against core Democratic policy was also defeated. You would think Insider Democrats and the DCCC would have learned a lesson not to run these kinds of characters. But not only did they learn nothing they are actually re-recruiting the exact same losers in the hope they could be swept back into office in an anti-Republican wave election. One who we looked at all through the last congressional cycle was Arizona's uber-mediocre congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick who won in 2008 with 155,791 votes (56%)-- winning all but Yavapai and Graham Counties (and Yavapai in a tight 45,014- 45,487 cliff hanger) and lost the seat two years later with 99,233 votes (44%) and losing Gila, Navajo, and Pinal counties she had previously won, while being routed in Yavapai 47,449- 27,179. The DCCC should have lost her phone number. Instead they talked her into running again. She was one of the least effective members of Congress anywhere and consistently voted against her own party, even siding with banksters against homeowners in one of the hardest hit mortgage markets in America. She was one of only 3 Democrats who voted against HR 1728, which was aimed at overhauling mortgage lending practices and curbing predatory lending practices. At the time, we mentioned that "whenever it comes to a choice between working families and her big corporate donors, Kirkpatrick crosses the aisle and votes with the GOP in favor of the corporate special interests that have devastated the country's-- and her constituents'-- finances. Washington observers consider her to be one of the most dimwitted and ineffective members of Congress and a complete waste of a seat. The only positive thing we've ever heard about her from anyone was that she dresses neatly every day and that she's not a crook like her predecessor, Rick Renzi-- although she does tend to vote almost exactly like him."

The House leadership never asked her to compromise her "independence" and always let her vote with the GOP whenever she liked-- which was almost always, at least when it came to contentious, substantive legislation. And then everybody made a big mistake-- forcing Kirkpatrick to vote for a $108 billion bailout for European bankers. It was a vote many observers of Arizona politics at the time said would cost her her seat. Not only did Arizona progressives, like Raul Grijalva oppose the bill, even the state's most conservative Republicans-- John Shadegg, Trent Franks and Jeff Flake-- voted against it. But Rahm Emanuel insisted and a weak and clueless Kirkpatrick gave way-- and it helped mark her for defeat a year later. A month later we suggested she was the Blanche Lincoln of the House, with one of the 10 worst party unity scores of any Democrat in Congress-- 70% of them being defeated in November. Her constituents started floating the idea of a primary challenge.

Three months ago, when Kirpatrick first started floating her trial balloon for a rematch, we wrote that Democrats would be better off finding a real Democrat to oppose Paul Gosar. And now, it looks like they have: Wenona Benally Baldenegro is running for the seat as well-- and grassroots Democrats in Arizona are backing her. A member of the Navajo Nation who grew up on the reservation, she graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State and went on to Harvard Law and later to Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Take a look at a post she did a couple months ago after attending a lecture by Cornel West at the University of Arizona. It paints a picture of a real progressive leader, exactly the kind of Democrat we want to see running against teabaggers like Gosar and corporate shills like Kirkpatrick. You can donate to her campaign here. Her press release announcing endorsements from some of the most impressive Democrats in the first CD, paints the same picture:

We are very excited to announce that in her exploratory run for U.S. House of Representatives, Arizona Congressional District 1, Wenona Benally Baldenegro has secured the endorsement of Arizona State Senator Steve Gallardo. From his position representing LD13 in the Arizona State Senate, Sen. Gallardo has been a shining light for Arizona in the fight against Russell Pearce and the extremist Republican agenda that has taken over our State Legislature and is crippling the State of Arizona.

As a Congresswoman, Wenona will proudly stand by the values and principles that define the Democratic Party, and she will fight passionately for the working families of Arizona. She is firmly committed to protecting Medicare and Medicaid, and she will work tirelessly to end the Bush tax cuts to corporations and to the wealthiest Americans. She strongly supports small businesses and she will work hard for job creation and economic development. At the same time, she is deeply invested in protecting public health and our environment. Finally, she is committed to the Democratic values of equal opportunities and justice for all, including passage of the DREAM Act, repealing DOMA, and enacting immigration reform.

Wenona is a lifelong Democrat who has paid her political dues. She has worked on numerous campaigns, from Presidential campaigns to local school board campaigns. In 2008, she served as a Tribal Advisor to the Obama Presidential campaign, and last year, she served as co-chair, along with Congressman Raul Grijalva, on the Vince Rabago for Attorney General campaign. She will energize the people of CD1, including young voters, tribal communities, and Latino communities, to come out to vote in numbers that will help Democrats recapture CD1. Wenona also is very encouraged by the prospect that her candidacy will get out the vote, in numbers that help will put an Arizona Democrat into the U.S. Senate and help President Obama win his re-election campaign.

In her words, “This is a critical time for Arizona and the nation. The Republicans in Congress are attempting to balance the federal budget on the backs of the middle-class, working-class, and the elderly. Furthermore, the Republican-controlled State Legislature is balancing our state budget at the expense of our county and city governments. More than ever, rural Arizona needs a Congressional representative who will stand up for the middle-class and working poor, and who will vigorously fight for programs and services that are essential to the stability of our State and the country.”

Wenona’s candidacy is historic, in that she seeks to be the first American Indian woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, and the first American Indian from Arizona. “It is time for a new vision for Arizona and for the rest of the country. We need leaders who will stand up for the working-class and who will restore our image as proud Arizonans.”

In addition to Sen. Gallardo’s endorsement, Wenona has already received the following endorsements of her Congressional campaign:

Johnny Naize – Speaker of the Council, Navajo Nation

Macario Saldate – Bilingual education pioneer, Arizona House of Representatives, LD27

Joshua Lavar Butler – Council Member, Navajo Nation

Cecilia Cruz – Founding member, Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission

Luis A. Gonzales – Former Arizona State Senator

Antonio Bracamonte – Dean of Student Services, Maricopa County Community College District

Antonio Bustamante – Union/Civil Rights attorney, Los Abogados

Salomón R. Baldenegro – Former Professor/Asst. Dean of Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs, University of Arizona

You can contribute to Wenona's campaign through ActBlue.