The TPP And Terri Sewell, The Only Democrat Elected To Federal Office In Alabama

Sometimes Democrats aren't even the lesser of two evils

Thanksgiving reminder. On June 12, the House passed H.R. 1314, a bill to allow the TPP to move forward without congressional scrutiny. Pushed strenuously by Paul Ryan, it passed in a close vote, 219-211, 54 Republicans joined the 157 Democrats who opposed it. The list below is of the fake-Democrats who joined Ryan and the GOP majority to push this trade legislation through the House:

• Brad Ashford (Blue Dog-NE)- R+4
• Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)- even PVI
• Don Beyer (New Dem-VA)- D+16
• Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)- D+22
• Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR)- D+7
• Gerry Connolly (New Dem-VA)- D+10
• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)- D+5
• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)- D+7
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)- D+7
• Susan Davis (New Dem-CA)- D+10
• John Delaney (New Dem-MD)- D+4
• Suzan DelBene (New Dem-WA)- D+4
• Sam Farr (D-CA)- D+21
• Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)- D+5
• Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX)- D+5
• Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)- D+27
• Derek Kilmer (New Dem-WA)- D+5
• Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)- D+5
• Rick Larsen (New Dem-WA)- D+8
• Greg Meeks (New Dem-NY)- D+35
• Beto O'Rourke (New Dem-TX)- D+12
• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)- D+2
• Jared Polis (New Dem-CO)- D+8
• Mike Quigley (New Dem-IL) D+16
• Kathleen Rice (New Dem-NY)- D+3
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)- even PVI
• Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL)- D+20
• Debbie Wasserman Schultz (New Dem-FL)- D+9

Often, an excuse is floated that a Democrat has no choice but to vote against working families and with Wall Street and the Republicans because their district is so red and they would be defeated if they didn't badly. For that reason I've included the PVI of each of the offending congressmembers' district. In Terri Sewell's D+20 district for example, the chances of her being defeated by a Republican are non-existent. Ditto for Debbie Wasserman Schultz in her D+9 district, not to mention overtly corrupt Greg Meeks' D+35 district. Matter of fact, only one of these bad Dems represents a red district and only 2 others are even in competitive districts.

In fact, speaking to Sewell and her perfectly safe seat and horrible Republican-lite voting record, Andrew Perez, in his article for International Business Times a few days ago about Wall Street Democrats who are working to block consumer protection legislation in return for legalized bribes, has Sewell right up there with the most corrupt Democrats in the House, Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL), Kyrsten Sinema (New Dem-AZ), Jim Himes (New Dem-CT) and David Scott (New Dem-GA).

Sewell, who has raised over $1 million from the financial industry, joined Sinema in co-sponsoring the bill to eliminate protections for borrowers with mobile-home loans. Like Sinema, she also voted in favor of the Wall Street grab-bag bill combining language from nearly a dozen pieces of legislation to deregulate the financial industry and roll back Dodd-Frank. In 2012, Sewell signed on to a letter requesting the Federal Reserve amend the so-called Volcker Rule in Dodd-Frank, which would prohibit banks from making speculative trades with their own money.

Sewell, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, has taken more in legalized bribes from the Financial Sector this year than any other congressmember from Alabama. She's already scooped up $151,500 and second-most-corrupt Alabamian, Republican Martha Roby, hasn't even gotten half that, "just" $60,800. Since first entering Congress in 2011, Sewell has taken $1,067,970 from the Finance Sector alone. Last year she had no general election opponent and only token primary opposition; the last time a Republican challenged her, she beat him 232,520 (76%) to 85,106 (27%). So why sell out to Wall Street for all that money? Even with no opponent last year, she reported spending $1,468,013-- after taking in a shocking $899,949 from pro-business PACs. Something doesn't smell right.