Turning Out The Base-- Or Turning Off The Base

The DCCC's Steve Israel doesn't give base voters a reason to turn out; he gives them reason to stay home on election day

Wednesday, Markos wrote an exceptionally well-thought-out post on Kos, Democrats' Biggest Challenge Is Getting Their Base Voters To Vote. He worries that historically the party's strongest-performing base groups-- African Americans, Latinos, Asians, young voters, and single women-- don't show up for midterms. "[T]he problem with our base turnout," he explains, "isn't necessarily in presidential years, but in the off years in between. That means not just the midterm elections, but all sorts of local and special elections scattered in between those four-year big ones... The holy grail of Democratic electoral performance is to have all those groups match white turnout in mid-term elections. African Americans are the closest to that goal, but still lag, giving Republicans a demographic advantage every election outside of presidential ones... If our people turn out, Democrats win. There are simply more of us than them, and that number is growing by the day. The problem is, our people are the least likely to turn out, and their track record in mid-term elections is woeful. That's why Republican disenfranchisement efforts are so successful-- our core groups are already predisposed to skip out on voting, it doesn't take that much of an extra push to guarantee their non-participation." You can see all the conclusive stats at the link above.

Echoing Markos, no less than Nevada's Republican Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey, who told Hate Talk Radio host Dan Mason: "We have some real opportunities in 2014. This is a great year in an off-presidential election. Seemingly no Democrat on the top of the ticket against Sandoval. No Harry Reid. Probably where we had a million voters turn out in 2012, we'll have like 700,000. A lot of minorities, a lot of younger people will not turn out in a non-presidential. It's a great year for Republicans."

The other night I was at a public forum in Hacienda Heights given by three outstanding progressive congresswomen from L.A., Lucille Royball-Allard. Judy Chu and Janice Hahn. I think I shocked them when I told them about Steve Israel's latest recruit for the DCCC, Ohio's Sarah Palin, Jennifer Garrison. Jennifer Garrison-- not to mention Israel and his strategies-- is the poster child for why so many base voters don't turn out. Israel chased a popular moderate state Senator out of the race, Lou Gentile, so he could deliver the nomination to the corrupt Garrison. He immediately put her on the DCCC Jumpstart list, signaling to big Democratic donors that she's a top priority.

But the signal to base voters is what will keep them away from the polls. Garrison is a shrill homophobic asshole who was elected to the state legislature by gay-baiting the only Republican who had voted against the anti-gay Ohio Defense of Marriage Act. Garrison sent out mailings that read, “If you believe marriage is between one man and one woman, there’s something you should know about Nancy Hollister.” The other side of the card said, “DOMA was enacted precisely to protect Ohioans from having to accept ‘marriages’ or ‘unions’ entered into in other states. Despite the value of DOMA, Nancy Hollister voted against it. Jennifer Garrison believes marriage is between one man and one woman and will fight to protect our values.” She told the Parkersburg (W.Va.) newspapers that "the big difference between Nancy and I is the gay marriage issue. I am against it. She is for it."

In 2006, as a member of Ohio's House Education Committee, Garrison helped to kill an amendment that would have required Ohio schools to protect students from bullying for their sexual orientation or gender identity.

OK, so the LGBT community isn't likely to come out and vote for her next year. What about women, the biggest component of the Democratic base? Garrison is adamantly anti-Choice and when she tried to run for Secretary of State NARAL warned its members and supporters that they had rated her a 0%.

Rep. Garrison showed just how extreme her anti-choice position is when she filled out the 2008 candidate questionnaire for Ohio Right to Life, saying she would:

• support legislation in Ohio to outlaw abortion (with only an exception to save a woman’s life),
• support legislation that would allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception, and
• support state funding for so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" that lie to women about the risks of abortion and never refer patients for abortion or birth control services.

Representative Garrison does not share our values.

Maybe Israel thinks they forgot? Garrison is also an NRA fave, voted against the minimum wage and is an anti-environment fanatic who counts on Big Coal to fund her political aspirations. So what part of the base is going to turn out for her? Steve Israel's part of the base: the Wall Street banksters. Not sure how many of those there are in Marietta, Cambridge, Steubenville, Jackson and the Ohio suburbs of Wheeling and Parkersburg. And do they vote in Democratic primaries? When is Nancy Pelosi going to wake up and show this clown the door?