Are DCCC Staffers Blowing It In California?

Gil Cisneros, the DCCC's 2018 mascot... and people wonder why California is looking dodgy

Six of the very best members of Congress-- plus many more-- declared their candidacies on the back on fantastic records as state legislators: Ted Lieu (CA), Pramila Jayapal (WA), Barbara Lee (CA), Jamie Raskin (MD), Mark Pocan (WI), Keith Ellison (MN). Some of the worst Democrats in Congress were grotesquely bad state legislators, like Joe Crowley (NY), Darren Soto (FL), Lou Correa (CA), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL). Today the Democrats are enthusiastically running the single worst member of the New Jersey state senate, Jeff Van Drew, and one of New York state's worst legislators, Anthony Brindisi, for Congress. On the other hand, Alan Grayson was arguably the most successful member of Congress-- in as much as he passed the most legislation in a Republican dominated Congress-- and had never been a legislator at all. Nor had outstanding current members like Ro Khanna (CA) and Nanette Barragán (CA). Nor outstanding current candidates like Randy Bryce (WI), Kara Eastman (NE), Alexandria Ocasio (NY), Levi Tillemann (CO), Doug Applegate (CA), Katie Porter (CA), Sam Jammal (CA).

Applegate, Porter and Jammal are all running in Orange County and yesterday political pundit Ron Brownstein, writing for The Atlantic, asserted that California Democrats are in trouble because the party has no bench, no "network of credible local elected officials." Another Correa or Juan Vargas, who totally sucked in Sacramento and now totally suck in DC? Is that what he thinks California Democrats need now? How about more crap like reactionary Blue Dog Jim Costa? He served in the state Assembly from 1978 'til 1994 and then in the state Senate from 1994 'til 2002 and is now one of the Democrats who votes most frequently with the GOP.

Particularly in Orange County, the epicenter of the competition for House seats in the state, Democrats are confronting what could be called a “resume gap.” While Republicans are fielding an array of candidates who are current or former elected officials, Democrats are relying entirely on first-time contenders who entered their races without any elected experience, existing political networks, or name identification in their districts. That’s making it tougher for any of the Democratic candidates to consolidate support within their party.

Applegate, Porter and Jammal are outstanding candidates with outstanding resumes that were built, respectively, in the military, in academia, and in both the private sector and in the executive branch. Thanks God none of their experience came as corporate lawyers who spent their lives climbing the political career ladder-- which spits out some of Congress' worst members. The best of the California congressional candidates, up and down the state, can be found by tapping the ActBlue thermometer on the right. The DCCC doesn't support any of them. Perhaps that's what Brownstein should be investigating and writing about, since DCCC meddling-- by incompetent staffers by Kyle Layman and Jason Bresler, in CA-39 and CA-48 is what has put those two seats in jeopardy. Instead Brownstein got it completely ass-backwards, asserting that the DCCC is to blame for not intervening more forcefully to winnow the fields." Not much about how the DCCC recruited the worst bunch of garbage candidates on the face of the earth, led by a clownish Republican lottery winner-- pretending to be a Democrat-- who pays off everyone he's told to pay off.

Democrats fear they could fail to crack the top two slots-- and thus be excluded from the general election-- in as many as three House seats now held by Republicans that Hillary Clinton carried in the 2016 presidential race. That would be a bitter disappointment to Democrats, who began the year brimming with optimism about their prospects against seven California House Republicans in seats that Clinton won, and more cautiously hopeful about their chances in three other districts that preferred Donald Trump. Compounding their frustration is the news that Republicans recently fell into third place in terms of total registered voters in California, far behind Democrats. They now also narrowly trail Independent voters, who don’t choose a party.

The Democratic risk next week is concentrated in Orange County, the huge, sun-splashed suburban region south of Los Angeles. Long a hotbed of hard-core conservatism, Orange County has grown more competitive in national elections under the same twin forces that have reshaped the politics of affluent suburbs elsewhere: growing racial diversity (whites are projected to fall below 40 percent of the county’s population by 2020) and improved Democratic performance among college-educated whites. Clinton in 2016 became the first Democrat to carry the OC since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.

...[T]he party is relying almost entirely on wealthy political neophytes who are mostly self-funding their campaigns. In the Royce seat, the leading Democrats are a business executive born in New Jersey (Andy Thornburn) and a lottery winner and philanthropist (Gil Cisneros, whom the DCCC has endorsed). In the Rohrabacher seat, Democrats are choosing primarily between entrepreneurs Harley Rouda (who’s also backed by the DCCC) and Hans Keirstead. And in the Issa seat, there’s investor Paul Kerr; nonprofit executive Sara Jacobs; and the sole major contenders not funding their own efforts: environmental lawyer Mike Levin and a retired Marine, Doug Applegate, who also ran in 2016.

Brownstein neglected to mention Omar Siddiqui who lives in CA-39 but is running in CA-48, and who self-funded $764,856 into his campaign. Brownstein also forgot to mention that the completely inept DCCC clownishly recruited two self-funders to run in that district, both uninspiring New Dems:

• Harley Rouda- $1,130,500
• Hans Keirstead- $730,400

And two in CA-39, neither from the district:

• Gil Cisneros- $3,552,762
• Mai-Khanh Tran- $730,000

Cisneros has the distinct of being the worst DCCC recruit of the cycle, who is busy threatening to sue The Intercept and the Washington Post and... Samantha Bee?!? The clip she made showing what a imbecile he is was taken down and so was this tweet:

Cisneros is as big a fool as Trump-- same kind of mentality too-- threatening to sue anyone who covers him in a way he doesn't like! Hard to imagine the DCCC hooking up their 2018 fate (and ours) to this incompetent! I sure hope Pelosi cleans house there before November... but, alas, I'm nearly certain she won't.