Blue Dog Kurt Schrader Deserves To Lose His May 20th Primary

More Democrats who act like Republicans? No way!

I was at a political fundraiser for Alan Grayson on Friday evening. Among the speakers besides Grayson were NYC Congressmembers Charlie Rangel, Carolyn Maloney, Eliot Engel and Yvette Clarke as well as progressive candidates Rob Zerban (D-WI) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ). Among other topics, Grayson talked about how Democrats can't win elections by acting like Republicans, something he's expounded on frequently in the past-- like in this classic video-- and something that flies in the face of DCCC conventional wisdom.

Steve Israel, like Rahm before him (two Democrats who do act like Republicans), shoves this conventional wisdom down the throats of confused and clueless freshmen like Ann Kuster (NH), Ami Bera (CA), Scott Peters (CA), Cheri Bustos (IL), Raul Ruiz (CA), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), and Sean Patrick Maloney (NY), all of whom are in danger of losing their seats in November because they followed that advice and alienated their Democratic voting base. They tend to vote more with Boehner and Cantor on crucial rollcalls than with the Democrats. Sean Patrick Maloney, for example, is a Wall Street shill with a ProgressivePunch crucial vote score of 31.58, indicating he voted against the progressive position two times more than he supported it. Sinema's score is essentially the same, 31.94. They don't deserve support from Democratic voters.

Oregon Blue Dog Kurt Schrader has amassed a 60.55 ProgressivePunch score since he was first elected, pretty dismal for a Democrat, although in their endorsement of his reelection this this, The Oregonian applauded his conservatism and berated his progressive primary opponent. "Schrader’s moderation," they write, "appropriate for his district, has earned a primary challenge from the left. Salem resident Anita Brown, making her first run for public office, says Schrader acts too much like a Republican, particularly on fiscal matters. Her grasp of the relevant issues is incomplete, however. During an interview with The Oregonian’s editorial board, surprisingly, Brown was unfamiliar with Schrader’s O-and-C bill, which has been the focus of intense debate. Democrats in the 5th District should stick with Schrader. Congress could use more Democrats who act, at times, like Republicans, just as it could use more Republicans who act, at times, like Democrats." This is exactly the kind of conventional wisdom that hacks like Steve Israel-- not to mention Kurt Schrader-- thrive on.

A few days ago, another, much smaller, local newspaper, the Woodburn Independent, asked Anita Brown to make the case for herself and against Schrader. What she had to say in their straightforward Q-and-A would have made a lot more sense to the folks who were attending the Grayson fundraiser.

Why are you running?

I read that Rep. Schrader voted “no” to raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 with the Republicans on March 15, 2013, and was steadfast with this unless he flip-flops now that we have a primary. If you want people off welfare, food stamps, and if you want women to be self-sufficient, we need to pass this bill. Corporations will adjust salaries, benefiting the entire economy.

What do you think are the three biggest issues facing your district?

1. I will protect your clean air, water and the environment. Rep. Schrader’s “logging interest” tried to sneak an attachment to the farm bill, clear-cut logging of 1.5 million federal acres of Oregon forests but he failed. Rep. Schrader voted “yes” to Toxic Coal Ash HR 2218, voting with Republicans again, we saw what happened to the rivers in North Carolina. 2. I support closing the tax loopholes that allow two-thirds of corporations to pay Nnocorporate income tax. Corporations avoided paying $150 billion last year with off-shore accounts and so on. The states lost $42 billion with tax avoidance. This is money that America really needs after the banks and Wall Street almost brought the U.S. to her knees. Subsidies should be for the good of the people not corporate greed. 3. The Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement or TPP is described as NAFTA on steroids. Americans will be competing with Vietnam’s wages. The TPP allows corporations to sue governments if they differ. As another example, the pharmaceutical industry can sue Third World countries because their citizens’ drugs are too cheap. Rep. Schrader’s pharmaceutical contributions: $61,500 per MapLight-Money and Politics. The TPP is also secret; only the Congress and corporate giants that helped write it are allowed to see the TPP.

What do you think are the three biggest issues facing the Woodburn area?

1. Traffic. Roads need to keep up with population. 2. Small business and family farms are the engines of growth, and I will help them get more affordable rates in financing like the corporations get. Corporate farms seemed to do fine in the farm bill, but the family farms, including organic farms, seem to get last-minute, what I consider, breadcrumbs. 3. Top notch education for all children. Affordable college or vocational schools, and as our students are over their heads in college debt, I would support payback with scheduled payments at 1 percent of their income.

What three things would you like to see accomplished if elected?

1. Social Security is solvent until 2038 per the Congressional Budget Office in 2011. Republicans are not reporting facts. I would support S500 which would keep the Social Security Trust Fund solvent for at least 75 years, asking the wealthiest Americans to contribute their fair share by removing the cap on Social Security contributions. 2. To close corporate tax loopholes that cost America $150 billion and states $42 billion in tax dollars. 3. Get jobs back in America.

Name three reasons why you are the best candidate for the job:

1. I support the Affordable Care Act; all Americans deserve health care. Rep. Schrader’s “Blue Dog” Coalition is supported by the Healthcare and Insurance Lobby, (the most powerful in the U.S.) who do not want “change” as they would do anything to protect their assets. Schrader’s Healthcare Professionals = $96,000, Insurance = $60,161 campaign contributions. In 2009, the “Blue Dogs” (same year Schrader joined) blocked the house from voting for a single payer option in our health care reform exactly as the Tea Party is doing today. 2. Trust. Do you trust Schrader? 3. Brown will vote for you, not corporate interests.

The self-satisfied and self-referential editors of The Oregonian may be chortling that Brown was "unfamiliar with Schrader’s O-and-C bill," but she displays a thousand times more depth of understanding of what ails American voters than they did when they endorsed their Democrat who acts like a Republican.