People For the American Way Launches The Next Up Victory Fund

Progressives like Keith Ellison, Pramila Jayapal and Jamie Raskin-- as well as other Democrats-- joined the folks at PFAW this week at an event introducing the launch of their newest in a series of progressive bench-building initiatives the Next Up Victory Fun. the purpose of the new program is to elect young progressives to state and local offices.

Next Up will support young progressive candidates running for state and local office across the country by providing endorsements and direct contributions, as well as a platform and greater access to the broader progressive community. PFAW has focused on young people as a major part of its work for more than a decade through its c3 affiliate, PFAW Foundation, which runs Young People For (YP4), a training program for college-age activists and the Young Elected Officials Network. PFAW also has an extensive track record in electoral politics, and this program will be an extension of its state and local work.

In particular, Next Up will target critical races in states where Democrats are poised to regain control of state legislatures—including states where legislatures can impact 2020 redistricting—and in helping candidates win races that will allow them to make credible runs for higher office in years to come.

Crisanta Duran is the Speaker of Colorado's House and a member of the Next Up advisory board. She said that "in order to transform our political system, we need to be working on the local and state levels to elect progressive leaders nationwide. If we want strong, progressive candidates to run for Congress and the presidency in five, ten or fifteen years, we need to make sure they’re getting elected to city councils and the statehouse right now. We’re going to fight for change from the bottom up. This work is critical to building power in the progressive movement and I am proud to be a part of its launch."

Michael Keegan, the PFAW president, made the point that "Republicans have methodically taken complete control of 32 legislatures and control every branch of government in 25 states-- half of the entire country, allowing them to ram through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and attacks on the rights of women, workers, LGBTQ people, and others unchecked... The goal of Next Up is to significantly shift the map within the next few election cycles to retake power in the states, win vital Democratic control over the redistricting process, and nurture a crop of progressive officeholders well positioned to win in their districts, statewide, and in future pursuits of federal office."

Despite all the anti-Trump energy, if we take off our blinders we can see that the landscape in the states is still dismal for progressives. I bet you agree with PFAW that that has to change, not the kind of phony DCCC one-cycle-- elect our sheathed instead of the other shithead-change, but a long-term infrastructure building change that PFAW has been doing for 3 decades. Keegan went on to say that "The Next Up Victory Fund is the next step in our deep, long-term investment in youth leadership development. It’s the continuation and expansion of our former Young Elected Progressives program. Our nonpartisan affiliate People For the American Way Foundation has supported young leaders for over a decade, through Young Elected Officials (YEO) Network and Young People For (YP4). PFAW has more than 30 years of expertise and a proven track record of success in helping strong progressive candidates win tight races. This is going to be one of our most important endeavors of the next several election cycles-- including elections taking place this year, in advance of the all-important 2018 midterms."

If you'd like to contribute to their efforts, you can do that here.

Yes, The Democratic Establishment Dragged Us Into Another Loss, But Why It's Not All Gloom And Doom Around Here

A few years ago Blue America's list of endorsed candidates had the biggest success rate of any PAC recruiting and endorsing candidates. We beat NARAL, the Sierra Club, the Human Rights Campaign and the League of Conservation Voters that year-- not to mention the NRA and Club for Growth. I laughed when I read the stats. Blue America isn't about picking candidates who will make the PAC look good. Blue America is about endorsing and working with the candidates-- like unlikely winners Donna Edwards, Alan Grayson and Elizabeth Warren-- who will fight for the legitimate aspirations of working families.

Last year, for example, we worked hard to elect Eloise Reyes to Congress in the Inland Empire. The DCCC had their own candidate, corrupt conservative Pete Aguilar. Aguilar won-- and promptly joined the New Dems and ran up one of the worst voting records of any Democrat in Congress. ProgressivePunch-- whose CEO argued with me wen I told him how terrible Aguilar would be before the election-- gave him an "F" this year and, according to their algorithm, shows his crucial vote score for his one term to be less progressive than all but 10 Democrats, 2 of whom (reactionary Blue Dogs Gwen Graham and Brad Ashford) are leaving Congress in January. Meanwhile, Eloise took stock of her loss, learned the appropriate lessons from it and one week ago absolutely clobbered one of the most corrupt conservative Democrats in the California state legislature, Chevron Cheryl Brown, beating her decisively and spectacularly catapulting herself into a position where she can do a lot of good for the working families she represents (and who Brown ignored).

Reyes' whip-smart campaign manager, David Keith, told us this morning that she "proved you can be outspent by large margins-- in her case from an enormous corporate super PAC running negative communications against her-- by running an efficient grassroots campaign that communicates to voters what in fact electing the challenger (Eloise) will do for them and their families." We count that as a big Blue America win, even though it isn't something you'll read about in the Washington Post or NY Times or hear about on MSNBC.

Eventually, all the progressive groups came around and endorsed state Senator Pramila Jayapal for an open seat in Seattle and we all worked to raise her the money she would need to win a tough primary and then the general election. Blue America was the first to endorse her and encourage her compelling leadership style and emphasize it to other national progressives, some of whom whined about how it was "unfair" to take sides because the other candidates were good too. Last week Pramila made history, as the first America with South Asian roots to win a congressional seat.

When Nanette Barragán, a small town mayor and environmental activist, decided to take on the entire stinking California Democratic Party establishment by challenging their handpicked conservaDem candidate to fill a deep blue seat in one of Los Angeles' poorest congressional districts, Digby, John and I invited her to dinner, got to know her and Blue America became one of the first national PACs to endorse her and help make her case and raise her the money she needed to beat the "impossible" odds she faced in beating the establishment-- impossible odds she overcame to win a jaw-dropping victory last week.

Blue America didn't look for candidates who were likely to win; we looked for candidates who had a reasonable chance to win-- with help-- but who would be likely to be great legislators. We look forward to seeing Ruben Kihuen (NV), Jamie Raskin (MD), Carol Shea-Porter (NH)-- along with Nanette-- and possibly Doug Applegate (ballots in his tight race against arch-villain Darrell Issa are still being counted today) take eventual leadership roles in a House Democratic minority that sorely lacks cohesive and inspiring leaders.

And this was a good year for Blue America in terms of helping build a progressive, activist Democratic bench on the state legislative level. Aside from Eloise, we helped elect Marcia Ranglin-Vassell and Mike Connolly, both of whom beat powerful, entrenched corrupt Democrats to win seats, respectively in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Stanley Chang-- like Eloise, a 2014 Blue America congressional candidate-- came roaring back this year and beat the last remaining Republican in the Hawaii Senate-- and in the reddest district in Hawaii! Justin Bamberg, our Berniecrat candidate in South Carolina, was reelected and Wenona Benally, another 2014 congressional candidate, introduced to us by Raul Grijalva, won a hard-fought Arizona congressional seat last week. And our Berniecrat legislator in Colorado, Joe Salazar, not only won his state House seat but was already leading the Denver mass anti-Trump protests this weekend.

But before we say thanks for helping make this possible with your generous contributions, I want to point to one more victory-- an old one. When Sheldon Adelson suddenly struck in 2014 in the open CA-33 seat, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into a last minute sneak attack, then-candidate Ted Lieu went to Steve Israel at the DCCC for help in responding. Israel flat out refused-- not one dime, not one nickel to answer Adelson's half million dollar SuperPAC. So Blue America did it instead. (That's the L.A. Times ad we ran twice in the final two weeks of the campaign, above.) Ted won, was elected congressional freshman class president, has been one of the most outspoken and successful bipartisan advocates on a series of crucial issues, from cyber-security to peace and climate change, and this weekend was in the news again, standing up against Trump "crazy shit", urging concerned Americans to follow him in becoming a supporter of the ACLU, while other congressional Democrats just cower in fear or plot personal career advancement. Ted Lieu-- one of Blue America's best ever investments!

So, from the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank the mind-boggling generosity of the Blue America members who gave-- and then gave again and again-- and helped progressive champions get into office when they are needed more than ever. And, fyi, right now we're busier than ever recruiting progressive candidates to run for what could be a really good 2018 cycle.

Building The Progressive Bench, Making It Strong... From Massachusetts To California

We spend an awful lot of time here talking about Trump-- way too much-- and a lot of time talking about Congress. We put too little energy into down-ballot races. But I do need to mention that this week there was a great result in a hard-fought legislative primary race in Massachusetts. Progressive champion Mike Connolly won a Cambridge-based seat against an entrenched incumbent, guaranteeing him a seat in the state House of Representatives next year. As far as I can see, only two incumbents were defeated, Rep. Marcos Devers, Lawrence's longest-serving politician, who was beaten in a 3-way race by 28 year old political newcomer Juana Matias, and Rep. Tim Toomey, and incumbent first elected in 1992, who was beaten by Connolly in the 26th Middlesex District. Connolly pulled in 2042 votes (52%) in Cambridge to Toomey’s 1828. While Somerville cast 704 ballots for Toomey and 884 for Connolly.

Connolly, who had been an Occupy Wall Street (Occupy Boston) activist, was endorsed by Noam Chomsky and by Bernie new organization, Our Revolution. I guess he's Our Revolution's first big win. Connolly ran a purely grassroots, door-to-door campaign, telling The Phoenix, "I basically knock on doors and ask if people are interested in donating no money to my campaign. When they ask why, I tell them that we're trying to set an example by getting money out of politics." His campaign was run by 200 volunteers.

[T]he 32-year-old has dubbed himself "No Money" Mike; though facing an entrenched 20-year incumbent, Tim Toomey, Connolly has taken zero contributions, and promises to never raise a penny if elected. For campaign muscle, Connolly is relying on a grassroots network of activists including some he met at Dewey Square during Occupy Boston. Together they've knocked on every Democratic, undeclared, and Independent door in the district, and on several more than once. Frank Gerratana, a fellow Occupier and intellectual property lawyer who is Connolly's campaign manager, says, "The conditions are great. Cambridge and Somerville are full of people who have more time than they have money."

Both candidates favor raising the minimum wage to $15/hour but Mike opposed casinos and favors marijuana legalization and Toomey was the only Cambridge rep to support expanded gaming and he opposes marijuana legalization, which is on the ballot in November.

Here in California, one of the most important elections in the state is a legislative seat in the San Bernardino area, where our old friend Eloise Reyes is battling it out with corrupt conservaDem Cheryl Brown, one of the worst of the incumbent Democrats in Sacramento. Big oil-- led by Chevron-- has made their jihad against Eloise Reyes a proxy war. Chevron is trying to show progressives that if they attempt to galvanize the will of the people, hell will be launched upon them. Eloise has withstood these attacks-- attacks that have already set California independent expenditure records of $6 million in negative advertising-- by telling the people the truth: that she can't be bought.

As anyone who follows Sacramento politics is well aware, Brown, has been bought and paid for by the charter school industry, Big Oil, and WalMart her entire career. From fancy trips to Maui to gold watch gifts, Cheryl Brown has come to exemplify the worst of modern politics. By electing Eloise, Californians will set as an example for all progressives under attack that money can only go so far. Additionally, electing Eloise will send a truly inspiring message to burgeoning Latino politicians that you don't have to sell out in order to get ahead. Like Hilda Solis before her, Eloise is setting an example that the state's Latino community will be a force to be reckoned with and a power center with the progressive community in newly emerging competitive districts. Please join Blue America in supporting Eloise, as well as Mike Connolly and the other candidates in state elections you'll find by tapping the Blue America thermometer below:

Can An Awakening Environmental Consciousness Turn Back Southwest Florida's Heinous Red Tide?

The Florida Democratic Party has been pretty moribund in recent years, confining itself in a few small urban ghettos and leaving progressive ideas and values without champions in vast swathes of the state. Southwest Florida is pretty much all red now thanks to Florida Democratic Party neglect and negligence. Monroe county still votes Democratic nationally but most of it is comprised of water and most of the population (99%) lives in the Keys and isn't technically part of southwest Florida. The mainland part of the county that is part of southwest Florida is part of Everglades National Park and has virtually no inhabitants. Just above it is Collier County where registration figures now show Republicans with 50.3%, independents with 23.7% and Democrats in third place with 23.4%. Obama only took 35% of the vote there. Up the coast is Lee County, Charlotte County and Sarasota County, all red bastions. All 5 county commissioners for Charlotte are Republicans. The GOP also dominates Sarasota County; the last time the county went blue in a presidential race was for FDR! Lee County is the population center with Cape Coral and Fort Meyers as the biggest cities. In 2012 Obama only won 41% of the vote. Voter registration numbers in Lee County's 79th House District are approximately 34,000 Republicans, 30,000 Democrats and 27,000 Independents.

Blue America has a candidate running for the 79th state House district, entirely in Lee County, John Scott, and he offers the Democratic Party it's best shot of picking up a red seat in southwest Florida. The district includes Alva, Buckingham, Charleston Park, Fort Myers Shores, Lehigh Acres, Lochmoor Waterway Estates, North Fort Myers, Olga and Palmona Park. 23% of the residents are Latino, and in a year where registration has soared and turnout is expected to be high because of Trumpophobia, this could make the difference. It also doesn’t hurt that John Scott is part Cuban.

There are approximately 7,000 Union households (active and retired) and the Florida AFL-CIO is enthusiastically backing Scott, whose family has a long union legacy and he is an outspoken supporter of unions and workers’ rights. The district was recently re-drawn (slightly more favorable toward Democrats) but has only been around since 2010, the first time the six year incumbent Republican Matt Caldwell won the seat against ConservaDem Cole Peacock. Caldwell has yet to be truly challenged, only having Republican primary opponents in 2012 and 2014, the most recent being Tea Party Candidate Matt Miller, who decided to run this time as an NPA after losing to Caldwell 60-40 in 2014. John Scott is a candidate with whom the predominantly middle and working class people of the district can really identify, especially with the two Republicans splitting the vote.

The most pressing issue is the environment-- and water quality is front and center in this election season. Even local Republicans, who rarely even mention environmental issues, are running “clean water” TV ads and talking tough on water. It’s a metric that can’t be measured but is having a huge impact on many races in the area. You may have seen the national coverage of the South Florida coastal algal blooms that shut down beaches during the 4th of July weekend. Yes, Gov. Rick Scott and incumbent GOP Rep. Matt Caldwell had a major hand in creating the dirty-water policies (along with corrupt Sugar Industry-owned Democrats like Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Patrick Murphy). Caldwell is the local "bag man" for Big Sugar in Lee County and has a horrible track record on environmental issues. An ideological, so-called "constitutional conservative," here is a sampling of Caldwell’s track record:

• Voted to roll back responsible growth management laws, allowing developers and polluters to do more of what they want without regard for environmental impact
• Voted yes on pro-fracking legislation (HB191) in 2016 to legitimize and “regulate” fracking (we all know how that works in other states with corrupt administrations and/or agencies) while taking away the ability of local government to enact their own local fracking ban ordinances and protect its citizens.
• In 2014, a resounding 75% of Florida voters approved Amendment 1, a Constitutional amendment which re-allocated a portion of doc stamp taxes (approx. $800 million per year for 20 years) to be used for environmental projects, most notably for purchasing lands south of Lake Okeechobee to begin real Everglades restoration. Caldwell has voted to misuse those funds for other purposes such as vehicles, insurance and balancing the budget, which should be done from general revenue, in both legislative sessions since Amendment 1 passed.
• Authored the 2016 water bill, which passed the Florida legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, and rolls back polluter controls, removes certain reporting deadlines and makes pollution less enforceable. In other words, it puts polluters on an honor system. What could go wrong?
• Caldwell took an all-expenses paid (by Big Sugar) trip to King Ranch with Governor Scott and other ‘dirty’ GOP state legislators, where they held secret closed door meetings, likely deciding which of the chosen legislators would take what career path while crafting ALEC-style legislation to further help their campaign donors.

Needless to say, Caldwell hasn’t found a special interest polluter he doesn’t like: Big Sugar, Big Ag, Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Pharma and Big Utilities all funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars into his campaign account and PACs. He is probably the best Return On Investment in the State Legislature and passionately does the bidding of those corporations at the expense of everything and everyone else in Florida.

John Scott, a progressive Democrat, and native, lifelong Floridian wants to represent the people of District 79 and all of Florida as a public servant. To be clear, John Scott is NOT related to Rick Scott in any way. We asked him to write a guest post on why the explosive water problems have become so pivotal in south Florida now. Please give it a read and consider contributing to his campaign by tapping on the Blue America state legislative races thermometer on the right.

Water Is The Reason For A Progressive, Democratic Pulse In Lee County
-by John W. Scott

I was born in Hialeah and I've been a Lee County resident since 1979. I’ve had a successful career in the Information Technology field for the past 23 years. My wife Ruth and I live in North Fort Myers with our two rescue dogs and we’re proud to call Southwest Florida our home.

My parents are both longtime educators in the Lee County Public School system and I am a product of public schools and college. My great-grandfather, grandfather and father worked as IBEW Local 349 union electricians. My father served in the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam.

Having grown up here, I’m a passionate advocate for Florida’s amazing and unique environment. I’ve served as group Chair of the Sierra Club Calusa Group, currently serve on the board of Caloosahatchee River Watch and co-founded a small advocacy group called Clean Water Initiative of Florida. I’ve worked tirelessly as a citizen advocating on a wide range of environmental issues:

• I’ve been working for years against the Big Sugar political machine to facilitate the purchase of land south of Lake Okeechobee to begin moving clean, treated fresh water south (as it originally was) instead of sending polluted freshwater discharges east and west, killing the estuaries and eco-systems on both coasts. While Big Sugar may not be the only polluter of our environment, they are the worst polluter of our political system.

• Worked together with other organizations and groups to enact local fracking ban ordinances in the City Of Bonita Springs and Villages of Estero. Directly responsible for a local fracking ban ordinance in the City Of Cape Coral. As a newly elected State House Representative I will introduce legislation calling for a statewide fracking ban.

• Mark Ruffalo endorsed me at a screening of "Dear President Obama" in Sarasota, FL because he appreciated my work as a fracktivist and my willingness to run for office and create the type of change we all seek.

Our rivers, lakes, beaches, oceans and other various waterways, as well as national treasures like the Everglades, are what brings millions of people here each year to visit and some of them stay permanently. During Matt Caldwell’s time in the Florida State House, we’ve seen a steady decline in the condition of our environment and water quality.

The health of our environment is inextricably linked to the health of our economy. Florida’s biggest industry, our 70+ billion per year tourism industry, affects jobs, property values, fishing, and other facets of our economy. One of the few things we must do to ensure it continues to thrive is conserve and protect Florida’s environment and natural resources. Rick Scott and Matt Caldwell have overseen some of the worst environmental policies our state has ever seen.

I am inspired and encouraged by this year’s grassroots uprising but now I need YOUR grassroots support, even if you cannot vote for me. A win in this David vs. Goliath race would send shock waves through the Florida legislature and send a message to Big Sugar that they’re wasting their money running full page ads in newspapers across the state assuring everyone that "family farmers" (read: agribusiness) are "under attack" and that Lake Okeechobee and surrounding water quality is the best it’s ever been. Nobody around here is buying their propaganda and neither should you. If you care about the Everglades or anything else that makes Florida"paradise," and/or you’re tired of corporations and dark money being the only voice that matters, this race should be important to you.

I can win this race because Matt Caldwell is not only vulnerable on the environment but many other issues as well. This race is a microcosm of our national politics and what we’ve seen so far in 2016 with Citizen’s United money versus the will of the people. The people can and will win. Bernie Sanders created an amazing grassroots movement and others, like my friend Tim Canova (who has endorsed me), have successfully followed.

I need your vote and/or support to restore the People’s Voice in Tallahassee after November 8th. Click here to donate to my people powered campaign through Blue America!

To read more about my campaign and candidacy as well as other issues, please visit my website: votejohnscott.com or Facebook or Twitter pages: @votejohnscott

Does All This Talk About The GOP Taking Over The States Mean Something To You? How About Wisconsin?

Rubio called Scott Walker last week and made a hard push to pry an endorsement out of him. What Rubio wants is Walker's right-wing donors, like Chicago Cubs owners Joe and Marlene Ricketts who gave Walker’s Unintimidated PAC $4,900,000, and vicious anti-union billionaire-witch Diane Hendricks who gave the PAC $5,000,000 and Jay Jensen, who gave $500,000 to the PAC, Stan Hubbard, who gave the PAC $50,000, Jon Hammes and Ted Kellner, owners of the Bucks, who contributed, respectively, $150,000 and $50,000 to the PAC... to name a few. Walker's SuperPAC hoovered up around $20,000,000-- on top of the $7,354,151 his campaign committee raised-- before he dropped out. And money-- much of which was transactional, tit-for-tit money, is pretty much all Walker has to offer. His popularity even in Wisconsin has tanked. The last two polls showed him unpopular with Wisconsin voters, a Marquette Law School poll in late September with a 37% approval and a Wisconsin Survey poll by Wisconsin Public Radio showing that 60% of Wisconsin voters disapprove of the job he's doing. And things are looking like they could get considerably worse for Governor Walker.

In the wee hours Saturday his Republicans in the state Senate adopted extremely unpopular campaign finance and ethics laws, skulking in and passing them between midnight and 2:30 am! Walker and his allies are trying to transform-- in the most ugly partisan way-- the way Wisconsin, long a bastion of "good government reform," conducts elections and investigates illegal campaign activity. Once the Republican Assembly meets and reconciles some slight differences with the Senate, Wisconsin will be on track to have neutered anti-public-corruption laws and to have lifted restrictions on dark money pouring into state elections.

The Center for Public Integrity ranked every state for it's government's performance on transparency and accountability, even before the new Wisconsin rules were passed. The state under Walker rated a D, in 20th place among the states. The new legislation, once implemented, will move Wisconsin into the ranks of the states with F-- and make put it in the same low grouping as failures like Michigan, Kansas, Louisiana and Texas.

One Democrat who is not curling up in a ball and giving up is state Senator Chris Larson, who has been standing up to Walker and his henchmen in the state Senate and exposing Koch-funded ALEC operations in the state. Yesterday, after Walker's allies in the state Senate passed their odious bills Chris lathes constituents know that the GOP goal was "to politicize the Government Accountability Board and allow an avalanche of special interest money to flow to political parties; burying Wisconsin’s principles and values under a mountain of dark money."

Families across Wisconsin are facing another sleepless night, consumed with worries that their jobs may be the next ones to be shipped out of the state, that they are not going to be able to pay their mortgages next month because of their stagnant paychecks, and that their children aren’t getting the education they deserve because their schools are intentionally underfunded by state leaders that have given up on them. At the same time, Republicans controlling our state are hastily passing bills that do nothing to help end their sleepless nights.

At a time when our state has the fastest shrinking middle class in the nation; where the economic recovery still hasn't reached our neighbors who need it most, and where our education has been severely underfunded at every level, the priority of Wisconsin leaders should be on tackling these problems head-on. Unfortunately, instead of fixing the job crisis in our state that is truly worthy of an extraordinary session, the Republicans in power chose to force through bills that shred the fabric of Wisconsin’s nationally recognized model of good, clean government.

It is unconscionable that Republicans would want to further suppress the voice of Wisconsinites by allowing the wealthiest 1% and special interest influences to poison our political system. It defies logic to replace a diligent and respected group of nonpartisan judges with a partisan group who will be focused on political gain rather than faithfully enforcing state law and regulating ethical standards in public office. Passing these bills is a betrayal of our longstanding Wisconsin values and retreats back to a failed system that was plagued with corruption and scandal. It’s like giving the fox the key to the hen house along with a recipe for chicken soup.

As the dark cloud of corruption that looms over our current administration continues to grow bigger and get darker, Wisconsin ought to be shedding light on this culture of corruption and collusion, rather than making it harder for public transparency and scrutiny.

Republicans are quick to bend over backwards for themselves and their billionaire buddies. However, they won’t lift a finger for the families in Wisconsin that continue to struggle due to Governor Walker and Republican boss’s misguided haste to make Wisconsin ‘Open for Corruption.'

As we announced before, Chris is running for Milwaukee County Executive, a position currently held by the conservative son of a billionaire, Chris Abele, ostensibly a "Democrat" who has, for example maxed out to Republicans like Assemblyman Joe Sanfelippo, who is the main author trying to defund Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin and Supervisor Deanna Alexander, Abele's spokesperson on the board, who spends her time gratuitously antagonizing #blacklivesmatter activists and is currently best known for her lurid, sexist nickname for Hillary Clinton.

Abele has been working with reactionary Republican lawmakers in the state legislature to subvert the democratically elected Milwaukee school board, which has given him the power to fire teachers, close schools and open charter schools in their place. This piece of legislation would have only moved forward if the County Executive had been willing to use these powers, and Chris Abele stood up and said he would. He also cooperated with the Republicans in the legislature to strip oversight from the democratically elected Milwaukee County board over county land sales and first used this power to sell prime downtown real estate to the Milwaukee Bucks billionaire owners/Scott Walker financiers for $1. (No, I did not forget any additional digits-- one buck for the owner of the Bucks.) And, in an effort to secure public financing for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena, Abele put $80 million of Milwaukee County taxpayer money on the table, and wanted to help pay for it in part by allowing Scott Walker’s state government to collect outstanding property taxes from residents who can’t afford to pay their bills.

Larson was first elected by defeating conservative Democrat and Scott Walker ally Jeff Plale. The big money was with incumbent Plale, but Chris beat him by knocking on doors and having thousands of conversations with his neighbors. We got to know Chris during his first term in office when he was leader the "Wisconsin Senate 14" the courageous senators who fled Wisconsin to stop Walker’s disastrous "budget repair bill." Chris is campaigning on ending the takeover and privatization of Milwaukee Public Schools and for an array of progressive quality of life issues important to working families. 

"I want to take back the county for the middle class. We have a county executive who campaigned one way and governed another way very quickly. In the past five years he broke promises and broke away from who he was. He’s changed. I think he’s out of touch and he’s grown more out of touch over the last five years.  I think it’s important to have a county executive who is going to be a steward for the county for the long term and actually care for the parks and restore them to greatness and expand transit so that people have access to jobs that’s affordable, and also to usher in a long-term vision that’s balanced. A county executive has to actually listen to people and be responsive to their needs. That’s why the first pledge I made out of the gate was to do a public listening session in each municipality in each year we’re in office, a la Russ Feingold."

This week we're asking Blue America donors to chip in to help elect Chris Larson Milwaukee County Executive, the second most important executive position in the state. When Wisconsin sees the end of Scott Walker in 2018, the last thing anyone needs is Scott Walker-lite in the guise of a "Democrat" like Chris Abele.

This polling data was just released moments ago. Once again, it shows Wisconsin Republicans in terrible shape in the minds of voters:

The Progressive Majority-- Building A Bench, Nurturing A Farm Team

Gloria Totten is president of Progressive Majority, a group that works to elect progressives to state and local office. The GOP has completely outgunned the Beltway Democrats in this arena, and without the steady efforts Totten and her group have been exerting to recruit and train progressive candidates, the Democrats would be in even worse shape bench-wise than they already are.

Most people don't contribute to political campaigns. And most of the ones who do give to presidential candidates. Some give to Senate candidates. It becomes really slim pickings after that. Blue America works mostly in congressional races, but Progressive Majority has been busy building up a farm team in states and localities. Totten penned an OpEd for Campaign for America's Future explaining the crucial nature of their work.

This has not been a positive year in state legislatures, and there’s a good chance that, for progressives, this may be the worst session in decades.

Wisconsin imposed “right-to-work.” Nevada suspended prevailing wage rules for school construction projects. South Dakota lowered the minimum wage by a dollar an hour for workers under age 18. Many states are slashing funds for public education and social services. Several are legalizing the carrying of guns on college campuses or abolishing the 80-year-old requirement of a permit to carry a concealed firearm. Utah brought back firing squads as a means of execution. Even the Indiana “religious liberty” battle didn’t have a happy ending: the law they passed is not a good one, it’s just less bad.

The reason for the states’ lunge to the right is clear-- the GOP gained more than 300 state legislative seats in the 2014 elections. Republicans now control 69 of the 99 state legislative bodies in the U.S. (if we include Nebraska, where lawmakers are technically nonpartisan but effectively Republican), while Democrats control only 30. That’s the most legislative chambers Republicans have ever held.

Put another way, there are now 25 states where both the legislative and executive branches are entirely controlled by Republicans, if we include Nebraska and Alaska (where the governor ran as an independent but is effectively a Republican). In contrast, there are only seven states with a Democratic legislature and governor: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In four additional states (Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey), Democrats control the legislature but progress is stymied by a GOP governor.

It should be obvious that progressives desperately need to engineer a strong comeback in 2016. It’s not just that 150 million Americans living in GOP states are subject to regressive rule. The longer the right wing holds power, the more “gamechanger” policies they enact-- like voter ID and union busting-- designed to rig the electoral game for the long term. Even more important, it’s nearly impossible to take back the congressional redistricting process in 2021-22 unless we start winning state legislative seats in 2016. Progressives need to put in place strong incumbents who can withstand a difficult 2018 election cycle. It would be sheer folly to wait until 2020 to try to win back legislative chambers for reapportionment.

The old saying goes, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” In state politics, progressives have some very strong links indeed. Over the years, our movement has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in terrific policy research, excellent polling, and a lot of hardworking grassroots organizations and activists. But because of one glaring weak link, conservative majorities block good policies and enact bad ones. Progressive investments at the state level are stymied by a distinct lack of focus on winning elections there.

The good news is that our movement could do very well in 2016. We could conceivably move legislatures from split to Democratic control in seven states: Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, and Washington. And we could possibly move legislatures from Republican to split control in eight others: Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin (although half of these are longshots).

Fortunately, 2016 presents Democratic legislative candidates with a wealth of advantages:

• A lot of the seats won by the GOP are naturally blue—it’s easier to take them back;

• Turnout in 2016 will create a much more Democratic-friendly electorate;

• Conservatives’ extremism in 2015-16 can be used against them; and

• The national narrative should provide a much better environment for our candidates than the 2014 narrative-- especially if we do the work to promote a smart, state-level progressive agenda for our candidates to run on.

Can progressives recast our weak link in the coming 18 months? Absolutely, and the path to victory is straightforward. As for campaign mechanics, we need to contest every key legislative district; recruit the strongest progressive prospects to run; provide thorough training and political support to candidates and campaign managers; and funnel direct contributions to the races that count most. Given our losses in recent cycles, this is no small undertaking, but it can be done.

In addition, we need to use the rest of 2015 to design and organize around a compelling state policy agenda that energizes our base, pulls swing voters our way, and wedges the right wing. I’m talking about a real agenda—not a laundry list of policy ideas or a “narrative.” We’ve got to drive a set of robust policies in multiple states and localities that, together, illustrates an overall theme and shows explicitly that we’re on the voters’ side and conservatives are not. And we can’t wait until the summer or fall of 2016 to promote that agenda-- we need to push our policies hard in the 2016 legislative sessions, forcing the right to publicly alienate the middle.

Strong progressives tend to have their own priorities: economic equality or environmental protection or criminal justice or social justice for women, African Americans, immigrants or LGBT people. And we tend to work in silos, with some groups doing electoral work or civic engagement or voter registration and others developing policy or networking elected officials or organizing advocacy campaigns. Now, no matter our policy or political priorities, progressives need to link up in every way possible to drive toward one goal-- winning the states back for the American people. The alternative is political disaster.

As for non-federal races this year, Blue America has endorsed progressive Democrat Jim Kenney for mayor of Philadelphia, the only candidate with the guts to stand firm against the pernicious and well-funded charter school onslaught. You can contribute to his campaign here.