Republican Multimillionaire Gil Cisneros Is Wrecking The Orange County Democratic Party

Cisneros

CA-39, primarily in northeast Orange County, is viewed as a prime target for Democrats, The longtime incumbent, Ed Royce knew he wouldn’t win and announced his retirement. Although the PVI is “even,” Hillary beat Trump in the district 51.5% to 42.9%%. Unfortunately elements at the DCCC recruited 2 completely incompetent, self-funding multi-millionaires from outside the district, Gil Cisneros (who by December 31 had reported spending $1,352,762 of his lottery winnings) and Mai-Khanh Tran (who had wasted $230,000 of her money on the race). And neither of them is even the biggest of the self-funders trying to buy a congressional seat. Andy Thorburn, also from another district, spent $2,335,900 of his own as of December 31. What percentage of small individual contributions went to each of them and to the normal non-self-funding candidate who was actually born and raised and lives in CA-39?

• Andy Thorburn- 0.57%
• Gil Cisneros- 1.76%
• Mai-Khanh Tran- 12.48%
• Sam Jammal- 27.29%

So what’s “normal?” In Wisconsin, Randy Bryce is taking on Paul Ryan. As of December 31, Ryan had gotten 5.6% of his campaign funds from small individual donors and Randy Bryce had gotten 72.8%. Or let’s look at a neighboring district, CA-45:

• Mimi Waters (R)- 5.41%
• Brian Forde (D)- 4.92%
• Katie Porter (D)- 23.74%
• David Min (New Dem)- 13.37%
• Kia Hamadanchy- 14.31%

I don’t know if the amount a candidate gets from small donors— or the number of small donors— really shows the enthusiasm for a candidate or not. But it sure shows something compared too the self-financers. But let’s go back to CA-39 for a second. Two of the worst self-funders in the state— and the country— this cycle are Andy Thorburn, who has persuaded a large number of progressive groups that he’s a progressive, and Gil Cisneros, the DCCC candidate. They have begun turning on each other… or, more accurately, Cisneros, the ridiculous lottery winner with no support from anyone other that people he’s given money, has been smearing Thorburn, DCCC-style.

Cisneros sent out a very expensive mailer that attempts to shred the other multimillionaire as a tax evader. Cisneros is a lifelong Republican, pretending to be a Democrat, who doesn’t understand that Democratic primary voters are not like Republican primary voters. Democratic primary voters hate attacks between Democrats, even while Republican primary voters love attacks between Republicans. Look what happened in TX-07 when the DCCC went after progressive Laura Moser— it won her a place in the runoff, plus a tidal wave of contributions. But Cisneros plodded on anyway: “We already have a con man in the White House. We don’t need one representing the 39th District. Andy Thorburn’s career is an unbroken chain of tax evasion, financial mismanagement, and misreprersentation.” This is coming from someone who has constantly been caught in outright lies and an unending stream of misrepresentations. Cisneros in more like Trump than any other Democrat running for Congress anywhere in America.

These are the claims he made against Thorburn:

• Thorburn is running for office on his record of being a teacher but his only teaching experience was four decades ago in New Jersey. He is in fact an insurance executive who has bankrupted numerous companies, failed to pay his taxes, and made a fortune that he is now spending to misrepresent himself to voters.
• Thorburn says he’s a successful businessman but in fact he has a history of illegal and unethical business misconduct. He led a company that was forced to pay over 234 thousand dollars for breach of contract to a customer who asserts Thorburn defrauded him. A former business partner asserts Thorburn used fraud and defamation to push him out of their business and says that Thorburn did not pay taxes or use normal account procedures, used offshore bank accounts, and used insurance ratings improperly.
• Thorburn says he supports big government policies but won’t pay his fair share in taxes to fund these policies. He failed to pay his taxes for five years and has faced nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in federal tax liens. Thorburn and two of his businesses filed for bankruptcy. When wealthy men like Thorburn fail to live up to their responsibilities, the burden is shifted to ordinary families who pay their taxes. 

The report itself is 28 pages of the kind of opposition research that Republicans will be able to use to defeat Thorburn if he gets the nomination. This comes right out of the arsenal of sleaze bag DCCC political director Jason Bresler. He had signaled that if Thorburn didn’t get out of the CA-39 race, the DCCC would destroy him. It looks like he did it through his Clem Kadiddlehopper excuse for a candidate.



This is the cached website the DCCC designed for Cisneros to use in his attack against Thorburn. They are such scumbags-- but also stupider than shit and unable to cover their own tracks. This is the site that has been taken down-- "Committee name here" written in the disclaimer box-- instead of anybody's disclaimer. Watch them screw up another race!

Meanwhile Cisneros sued the other candidates for something spurious, the kind of frivolous law suit Republicans use against each other all the time but that Democrats try to avoid. Remember, Cisneros has invested a lot of money in Walmart and oil stocks and is also a slumlord. Like Trump, Cisneros is a funny and ridiculous character, and really dumb. His high-priced consultant-run campaign just put out a new TV ad showing he can read a script that makes him sound almost like a Democrat. Yeah, he’ll "stand up to the NRA" just like real Democrats do. But he owns something like $10 million in iShares, a mutual funds company that invests in the gun industry. That’s Gil! And have you seen the Climate Hawks Vote call for Cisneros to divest from his approximately million dollars worth of oil stocks? But at least his consultants are teaching him to sound like a Democrat.

I reached out to Mac Zilber, who works with Thorburn. His statement was kind of boiler plate considering the DCCC’s role in this Cisneros bullshit: "It comes as no surprise that a Republican like Gil Cisneros is making up lies about a progressive Democrat-- that's what Republicans do. Gil Cisneros is misleading voters to distract from the fact that he invests his lottery millions in gun stocks and tobacco-- that is, when he's not donating that money to Republicans." Zilber also pointed me to a Setting the Record Straight page that exposes the lies Cisneros and the DCCC are spreading about Thorburn. And below is the mailer Thorburn sent to labor union members on Gil, revenge I'm assuming... but who knows? My suggestion... get behind Sam Jammal.

Congresswomen Won't Be Safe With A Drunken Gil Cisneros Wandering Around Capitol Hill

Cisneros keeps threatening to sue everyone; he's just like another Republican: Trump

I've been writing about Gil Cisneros' hopes to buy an Orange County congressional seat he doesn't live in for about a year now-- and I've been talking with DCCC staffers for that long about it as well. Why the hell would they be pushing a conservative "ex"-Republican carpetbagger as incompetent and foolish as Cisneros when there were so many better candidates running in the district? And Cisneros has proven it again.

Melissa Fazli is running for the state Assembly now (AD 55) after having run for DNC vice chair. She has a great reputation among Democratic activists in Orange County and she put out a horrifying press release about Cisneros yesterday, This is it, word for word:

I have seen and heard things that should be yelled from the top of Mount Whitney when it comes to other candidates, especially those running for Congressional District 39. I have heard lies and seen inappropriate behavior. I have spoken privately with others about some of the things that I have witnessed and I have kept quiet until now.

On February 24, 2018 at the San Diego Bayfront Hotel while attending the California Democratic Party Convention, I had an inappropriate encounter with Gil Cisneros, who is running for House of Representatives for Congressional District 39. It was around the 11 pm hour and I had just left Rep. Maxine Waters’ party when I ran into Mr. Cisneros at the elevators. In my opinion, he was intoxicated. I told him how I was running for Assembly 55 and that I was going to hit him up for the maximum contribution for my campaign. He joked “why does everyone come to me for donations?” I responded by saying “well isn’t it obvious?” We chit chatted about Rep. Waters’ party while waiting for the elevator. Then out of the blue he asked me “Should we go back to your room?” I was shocked, but quickly excused it because he was intoxicated. I responded “I don’t think so Gil and I don’t think my two roommates would approve,” while I was laughing. He just smiled and the elevators door opened.

I wouldn’t have given it another thought, if it wasn’t for a phone call I had with him about a week later. I called him to ask for the donation. First he said “why should I? You didn’t vote for me.” He was talking about the pre-endorsement meeting before the convention where the delegates, like myself, get together to vote. I explained to him that a group of us were trying to get Jay Chen the CADEM endorsement in hopes of others to drop out of the crowded race and we were 2 votes shy and so there was no endorsement for CD39. I already knew it wouldn’t deter him or Andy Thorburn from dropping from the race. He then asked me “well what are you going to do for me?” I went into this whole spiel about my ground game hoping to impress him that I would be a very active candidate. Then he interrupted me and in a different tone and slowly said “no Melissa. I mean what are you going to do for me?”

Now this can be interpreted two ways. Either he wants me to be his spy or he wants me to have sex with him. After the encounter at the elevator in San Diego, I thought he wanted to have sex with me in exchange for a $4400 donation. Either way he wanted pay for play; a quick pro quo. I lost my breath for a second and responded “well Gil that’s not how this works.” In the end, he said that he needed to talk to his wife because he was already having problems with people saying he was buying the election and then the call ended. That was the last time I ever spoke to him, but not the last time I would see him.

On April 23rd, I saw him walk in at the Democratic Party of Orange County meeting a little before 7 pm. He looked my way and I immediately felt uncomfortable, so I ended up leaving.

I met Mr. Cisneros for the first time at the Tri-County Democratic Club’s Christmas luncheon in December. Before that I had received a couple of phone calls from him to lobby my vote at the pre-endorsement meeting but I sent them to voicemail. At that time I was getting dozens of calls for my vote as the elected Assembly 55 Delegate and Executive Board Representative to CADEM. Thomas Rivera, Gil’s Deputy Political Director came to my door after the 8 pm hour to also lobby me for my vote. He was the only one to do that and it was kind of creepy.

The first thing I noticed about Mr. Cisneros was he seemed socially awkward. He was constantly on his phone not conversing with the people around him. I’ve seen this exact same behavior in other local venues we’ve attended. I also interviewed him for a couple of minutes for a video I put together of Ed Royce’s retirement celebration at Cha Cha’s restaurant in Brea. He struck me as an outcast in high school who won the lottery and now he wants to hang out with the cool kids in Washington D.C. by showering money on them.

Before I decided to go forward with telling my side of the story, I decided to visit Gil Cisneros’ office in Placentia to let him know and see his response in person on April 30th, however he was not there. His friendly staff told me he was at a high school event and then he was headed to Philadelphia to participate in Michelle Obama’s America’s College Promise event. My first thought was I wished I had Michelle Obama’s cell phone number so I could let her know what happened to me. It also gave me solace in my resolve to come forward. I know there will be sceptics and people who will publically flog me for coming forward, but I thought it was necessary to let people know what kind of man is Gil Cisneros, an unethical creepy man who is using inappropriate and bullying tactics to intimate others in order to win a seat in Congress.

I wonder if Cisneros has ever even heard of the #MeToo movement. I spoke with Melissa on the phone before I wrote this. I asked if she was positive Cisneros was trying to have sex with her. She was positive, unquestionably so. He's so out of touch sitting in his multimillion dollar beachfront mansion in Newport Coast, that he may not even know what it's about. Ben Ray Lujan, Stenchy Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi, Jason Bresler, Kyle Layman, and Dan Sena do know what it means. Do they care? They've endorsed Cisneros and, at least so far, they're sticking with him. Did they even ever vet him-- other than what was in his bank? How disgusting is that? By the way, Republican Russ Wilson spoke up for Cisneros today, defending him by explaining that they've been friends since 2000 "when we worked on the McCain campaign together." Wow... most Democrats I know were working for Al Gore, not John McCain. Cisneros forgot to put his work for John McCain on his resume. But... that's DCCC candidate Gil Cisneros. Pelosi must be so proud! And accused child predator Tony Cárdenas, who-- when he wasn't drugging 16 year old girls and molesting them-- was forcing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC to unite behind Cisneros.

He HATES this photo of himself

That Horrible Horrible Gil Cisneros!

Tuesday evening we ran a post, Gil Cisneros-- Already As Bad As We Predicted and around the same time I was on David Feldman's podcast and Pacifica Network radio show, also talking about Cisneros' decision to join the right-wing coup against Pelosi that is being backed by murky corporate interests and the No Labels cabal financed by Rupert Murdoch and his family, as well as other right-wing billionaires. In passing, I brought up that Cisneros lost in the Orange County and San Bernardino portions of the district but was miraculously saved at the last minute by some suspicious votes that were suddenly reported from Hacienda Heights in Los Angeles County. The reason all the other Democrats running in far less politically hospitable districts were doing so much better than Cisneros included all the ads Paul Ryan's SuperPAC put out about a scandal about Cisneros soliciting a young mother and Democratic Assembly candidate for sex.



At the time, I wrote that Melissa Fazli was "running for the state Assembly (AD 55) after having run for DNC vice chair. She has a great reputation among Democratic activists in Orange County and she put out a horrifying press release about Cisneros." This is the original press release from Fazli:

I have seen and heard things that should be yelled from the top of Mount Whitney when it comes to other candidates, especially those running for Congressional District 39. I have heard lies and seen inappropriate behavior. I have spoken privately with others about some of the things that I have witnessed and I have kept quiet until now.

On February 24, 2018 at the San Diego Bayfront Hotel while attending the California Democratic Party Convention, I had an inappropriate encounter with Gil Cisneros, who is running for House of Representatives for Congressional District 39. It was around the 11 pm hour and I had just left Rep. Maxine Waters’ party when I ran into Mr. Cisneros at the elevators. In my opinion, he was intoxicated. I told him how I was running for Assembly 55 and that I was going to hit him up for the maximum contribution for my campaign. He joked “why does everyone come to me for donations?” I responded by saying “well isn’t it obvious?” We chit chatted about Rep. Waters’ party while waiting for the elevator. Then out of the blue he asked me “Should we go back to your room?” I was shocked, but quickly excused it because he was intoxicated. I responded “I don’t think so Gil and I don’t think my two roommates would approve,” while I was laughing. He just smiled and the elevators door opened.

I wouldn’t have given it another thought, if it wasn’t for a phone call I had with him about a week later. I called him to ask for the donation. First he said “why should I? You didn’t vote for me.” He was talking about the pre-endorsement meeting before the convention where the delegates, like myself, get together to vote. I explained to him that a group of us were trying to get Jay Chen the CADEM endorsement in hopes of others to drop out of the crowded race and we were 2 votes shy and so there was no endorsement for CD39. I already knew it wouldn’t deter him or Andy Thorburn from dropping from the race. He then asked me “well what are you going to do for me?” I went into this whole spiel about my ground game hoping to impress him that I would be a very active candidate. Then he interrupted me and in a different tone and slowly said “no Melissa. I mean what are you going to do for me?”

Now this can be interpreted two ways. Either he wants me to be his spy or he wants me to have sex with him. After the encounter at the elevator in San Diego, I thought he wanted to have sex with me in exchange for a $4400 donation. Either way he wanted pay for play; a quick pro quo. I lost my breath for a second and responded “well Gil that’s not how this works.” In the end, he said that he needed to talk to his wife because he was already having problems with people saying he was buying the election and then the call ended. That was the last time I ever spoke to him, but not the last time I would see him.

On April 23rd, I saw him walk in at the Democratic Party of Orange County meeting a little before 7 pm. He looked my way and I immediately felt uncomfortable, so I ended up leaving.

I met Mr. Cisneros for the first time at the Tri-County Democratic Club’s Christmas luncheon in December. Before that I had received a couple of phone calls from him to lobby my vote at the pre-endorsement meeting but I sent them to voicemail. At that time I was getting dozens of calls for my vote as the elected Assembly 55 Delegate and Executive Board Representative to CADEM. Thomas Rivera, Gil’s Deputy Political Director came to my door after the 8 pm hour to also lobby me for my vote. He was the only one to do that and it was kind of creepy.

The first thing I noticed about Mr. Cisneros was he seemed socially awkward. He was constantly on his phone not conversing with the people around him. I’ve seen this exact same behavior in other local venues we’ve attended. I also interviewed him for a couple of minutes for a video I put together of Ed Royce’s retirement celebration at Cha Cha’s restaurant in Brea. He struck me as an outcast in high school who won the lottery and now he wants to hang out with the cool kids in Washington D.C. by showering money on them.

Before I decided to go forward with telling my side of the story, I decided to visit Gil Cisneros’ office in Placentia to let him know and see his response in person on April 30th, however he was not there. His friendly staff told me he was at a high school event and then he was headed to Philadelphia to participate in Michelle Obama’s America’s College Promise event. My first thought was I wished I had Michelle Obama’s cell phone number so I could let her know what happened to me. It also gave me solace in my resolve to come forward. I know there will be sceptics and people who will publiclaly flog me for coming forward, but I thought it was necessary to let people know what kind of man is Gil Cisneros, an unethical creepy man who is using inappropriate and bullying tactics to intimate others in order to win a seat in Congress.

After the DCCC managed to drag Cisneros over the finish line in the primary, Ryan's SuperPAC turned the whole thing into a major scandal-- 4 TV ads and the 6 mailings littering this post. Here's another one:

You can imagine what kind of intense pressure Fazli came under to withdraw her charges. She agreed to sit down for a meeting with Cisneros to discuss everything. He made her 4 promises in return for agreeing to say her charges were "a misunderstanding." Tuesday evening she told me that she never withdrew the facts of what had happened between her and Cisneros. She just wanted to have all the harassment from the Republicans and the Democrats and everyone else stop. So she moved out of the district and gave Cisneros the OK to call her charges a misunderstanding. He only kept one of his 4 promises to Fazli-- he fired his campaign manager, Orrin Evans.

This week, Fazli was shocked to read about Cisneros joining the coup plotters against Pelosi. And she contests his claim that he campaigned on that. “Like many of the constituents of CD-39," she told me, "I was shocked and awed by Gil Cisneros’ signing an anti-Pelosi letter. He did not campaign on this and most of his voters believed when he was talking about 'new leadership' that it meant flipping the district. They thought he was talking about himself, not the Honorable Nancy Pelosi. I would like to apologize to CD-39 for giving him a second chance."

It Was As Easy For Gil Cisneros To Switch Party ID As It Was For Him To Liposuction His Appearance

Republican Frito-Lay's potato chip taster Gil Cisneros won $266 million in a lottery and decided he should have his own congressional seat. So he switched parties and "became" a Democrat and Nancy Pelosi looked at the only qualification she ever considers for anyone ever running for Congress-- access to cash-- and anointed him a DCCC candidate. She offered him CA-39, a district not remotely like the millionaires' beach town, Newport Coast, he lives in, in his $10 million mansin, in another Orange County district. Since Pelosi took control of the DCCC in 2003, Democrats have lost scores of seats, but you know what they've gained? There are triple the number millionaires in Pelosi's Democratic caucus as there were before she decided that self-funding was the key qualification for a Democratic nomination-- a test that results in candidates like Cisneros, the poster child for 2018 DCCC recruitment.

Cisneros is a lot like Trump. He's incapable of talking without lying. He constantly tells audiences he switched to the Democratic Party many years ago. (He told the L.A. Times. his switch was in 2008.) But the Orange County Register looked up his voting records and saw that he didn't re-register as a Democrat until 2015. He's a liar. When talking in front of progressive activists he claims he supported Bernie during the primary. But during the primary he contributed $250,000 to Hillary and gave nothing at all to Bernie. When called out for lying, he claimed his wife gave the money to Hillary. A further check though shows that his wife gave separately from his wife; she gave to Hillary too.

Meanwhile, Cisneros is running around writing checks to every crooked group and ethics-free elected official who will endorse him; really corrupt and another reason while people are becoming more and more turned off to the Democratic Party. And where will a guy like Cisneros-- with no core values at all-- be when he gets to Congress and starts being pushed by lobbyists?

Cisneros was happy to go on Fox News recently-- where he didn't try his "I was for Bernie: lie. Instead he talked about his potato chip-tasting days adoring Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan? Yep; that's what Pelosi, the increasingly the mad Democratic Party leader, trying to saddle the House caucus with. Peter Doocy:

One of Rep. Ed Royce’s Democratic challengers is Gil Cisneros, a Navy veteran and Mega-Millions lottery winner, who has one other line that stands out on his resume: he used to be a Republican, because he was a fan of former President Ronald Reagan.

“This city on a hill is how he saw the nation, and I kind of saw it the same way,” Cisneros explained. “But he was for things that now, that the Republican Party’s not for. And they’ve changed.”

Sadly, Gil Cisneros will be part of Nancy Pelosi's political epitaph.

Why Is The DCCC Greasing The Way For Gil Cisneros To Buy A Congressional District He Doesn't Live In?

Lottery winner and "ex"-Republican Gil Cisneros wants more than just his $266 million lottery winnings and his $10 million mansion in tony Newport Coast. He wants the word "Congressman" in front of his name. Fancy! But his bought-and-paid-for "friends" at the DCCC told him they already have a candidate in his district (CA-48) and directed him to run in a completely unrelated district-- a solid middle and working class district (CA-39)-- that has no private beaches for $10 million mansions. Worse yet, that's a district with some candidates who are far more competent and qualified than Cisneros. Throughout his plagued campaign, he's played loosely with the truth-- he's lied about how long he's been a "Democrat" (since 2015), where he lives (Newport Coast); hell, he said he voted for Bernie... Doubtful when you consider his six digit contributions to the Hillary Clinton's primary campaign, which are proudly displayed on Hillary's own website and in FEC reports. But of course, he has an explanation for that too.

The "little" things that voters look for-- honesty, integrity, maybe not being a damn liar, knowledge of issues, are completely absent from Gil Cisneros and his consultant-heavy campaign.

It comes as no surprise that when I see the George Lopez Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, tweeting out that they support Gil Cisneros and a link to his donation page-- that this would raise no red flag in Gil world. Again, the George Lopez FOUNDATION, a NONPROFIT, flagrantly violating the law by advocating for worthless, flip-floppy, "ex"-Republican Gil Cisneros, putting at risk their supposed mission to: "Create positive, permanent change for underprivileged children, adults and military families confronting challenges in education and health, as well as increasing community awareness about kidney disease and organ donation."

I would think there would be concern from Gil's team about this, but no-- THEY RETWEETED IT. They probably pushed for it! It doesn't take a huge logical jump to imagine this is the type of influence Gil's unearned "mega millions" can buy. In fact, he had the foundation post the same crap on Facebook and instagram as well. And this guy wants to serve in Congress? And the DCCC thinks he's a good idea as a candidate?

The Fear-Based Politics Of Conservative Democrats Who Sold Themselves To The Voters As Fearless Military Heroes

Look at this photo. Does the word "progressive' come to mind?

It isn't just Cisneros, though, I'm using him as the example, other Dems who ran as brave vets and who have turned into amorphous mounds of quivering jello in the face of Trumpists in their districts include Chrissy Houlahan (PA), Jared Golden (ME), Jason Crow (CO), Max Rose (NY), Mikie Sherrill (NJ), and Elaine Luria (VA).

Judging by his sleazy campaign e-mails, everyone who knew that shady New Dem Gil Cisneros was lying last year when he claimed to be for Medicare-For-All, was correct. Now he's for something he calls "universal health care for all," basically nothing-- just a DCCC buzzphrase dodgy candidates can use to say they back private insurance with subsidies and rate hikes... like Status Quo Joe and Kamala. During the primary-- hoping for support from progressives-- Cisneros used to even pretend he was for Bernie, an absurdity.

Cisneros definitely raised his hand for Medicare for All at the NextGen forum during the primary and had his people out there saying he was for it. All during the primary, this so-called "ex"-conservative Republican always worked to blur the lines between himself and the real Democrats and more progressive candidates running in CA-39-- especially Andy Thorburn and Sam Jammal. He even told the Orange County Register he was for Medicare for All: "Janowicz, Cisneros, Jammal and Thorburn back that approach, although all note that it will take time to make such a transition."

As the general election campaign was wrapping up, he didn't seem as enthusiastic about it. The Washington Free Beacon certainly noticed. "Gil Cisneros, a Democrat running for Congress in the traditionally conservative enclave of California’s Orange County," wrote Susan Crabtree at the time, "is backing off his support for single-payer style healthcare reforms in the general election after supporting them during the primary race... During an appearance Tuesday with a local radio show hosted by Larry Mantle, Cisneros downplayed his prior support for a single-payer health care system and Medicare for all."

When he spoke with Think Progress he may have thought their readership was liberal so he didn't fully back away. "For right now," he said, "for me being practical, it’s about protecting what we have. Protecting the Affordable Care Act… Not allowing them to take away [protections for] pre-existing conditions... I think as soon as we get there, we protect the Affordable Care Act, you know, put the individual mandate back in, don’t allow them to take away [protections for] pre-existing conditions, and then we can keep progressing and working towards making sure everybody has Medicare for All."

At this point, Cisneros has been on the wrong side of almost every intra-party battle. He's clearly part of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, something that was always predictable. ProgressivePunch rates him a solid "F" so far and, let's face it, he's just nothing but a wasted seat in Congress. With the exception of himself and another arch conservative, Lou Correa, the whole Orange County delegation is supporting impeachment. Even Harley Rouda, another "ex"-Republican masquerading as a Democrat, has come around to now backing impeachment for Trump. It is highly doubtful there is a swing voter in Gil's district-- which went heavy for Hillary-- who would vote for a Republican for Congress just because Cisneros were to support impeachment. More likely that voter swings back over taxes or being unimpressed with him, if they would even consider swinging back while Trump is in office. 

Cisneros' problem is that the NRCC is after him in a big way and instead of standing strong for what he campaigned on and what won him his seat, he seems to be doing absolutely everything he can to turn off the Democratic base with his lame, fear-based politics. Georgia Senate candidate Teresa Tomlinson sounds like she was describing Cisneros when she explained a common problem among Democrats today: "It’s fear that cripples the Democratic Party. Fear of our policies, fear of who we are, and fear of the Republicans. Yes, fear is what has politically cost us in the last many election cycles. One cannot lead if one is afraid. The thing about leadership is that people want their leaders to be brave. They care less about what you think on the issues than whether you have the moxie to fight for them and the strength of conviction to tell them what you really think."

And like I said up top, this isn't just about Cisneros. Brave right-of-center veterans who are using Republican talking points today-- Chrissy Houlahan, Jared Golden, Jason Crow, Max Rose, Mikie Sherrill, and Elaine Luria-- should all think about this before it's too late. No one likes the smell of fear. And speaking of the stink of fear...

DCCC-- Tearing Up The California Democratic Party... With No One To Stop Them

Gil Cisneros-- this is what a DCCC recruit looks like

Alexander Burns decided to tell the story from a primarily DCCC/Washington perspective: Fearing Chaos, National Democrats Plunge Into Midterm Primary Fights. Yes, they fear chaos... but there's more to it than that. He picked CA-39 as the example. But he doesn't know the story and didn't name the main characters in the chaos. Early on the DCCC wanted to get two friendly allies from Dana Rohrabacher's 48th CD along coastal Orange County where they lived and wanted to run. One was very wealthy Vietnamese-American physician Mai Khanh Tran and the other was a very pliable "ex"-Republican who won a couple hundred million dollars in the lottery, Gil Cisneros. Very right-of-center DCCC political operatives, Kyle Layman and Jason Bresler wanted the DCCC candidate against Rohrabacher to be someone else, another wealthy ex-Republican, Harley Rouda, so they persuaded Cisneros and Tran to move their campaigns inland and north to CA-39.

Pelosi and her circle, though, didn't want Rouda as the candidate against Rohrabacher. They wanted someone who looked really good on paper, wealthy medical entrepreneur Hans Keirstead, but who has turned out to be a stiff. Rouda sorted himself out among CA-48 candidates as everyone's second choice after themselves and the one everyone prefers over the DCCC mandated candidate. The DCCC now seems saddled with Keirstead-- plus some guy named Omar Siddiqui calling himself a "Reagan Republican" (in a Democratic primary!) who stuck $764,856 of his own cash into the race. Don't feel sorry for the others though. They're trying to buy a seat for themselves too. As of the March 31 FEC filing deadline:

• Rouda- $1,130,500
• Siddiqui- $764,856
• Keirstead- $430,400

Two candidates in the race, Laura Oatman (the progressive candidate) and Michael Kotick (the millennial candidate) have recently dropped out and endorsed Rouda. The New Dems are backing both Rouda and Keirstead. And another serious Republican, ex-Assemblyman Scott Baugh, has jumped into the contest, with a ton of money from a previous campaign. This contest is a mess-- and because of the DCCC, the mess has spilled all over CA-39. And that brings us to Burns' DCCC perspective, their never ending, failed justification for interference in primaries, not just in Orange County, but around the country.

Burns started with how the DCCC is trying to push former recruit Tran, who is polling very badly, out of the race. She told Burns that she told the DCCC that she was "the only qualified woman, the only immigrant and the only physician in the race. 'I said to them, frankly, let the voters decide,' recalled Ms. Tran."

The national Democratic Party was not chastened: On Wednesday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took sides in that House race and backed Gil Cisneros, a Navy veteran and former Republican.

With their forceful intervention in Orange County, national Democrats have lunged into an impatient new phase of the 2018 primary season-- one in which they are clashing more openly with candidates and local political chieftains in their drive to assemble a slate of recruits for the midterms.

In districts from Southern California to Little Rock, Arkansas, and upstate New York, the party has begun interceding to help the Democrats it sees as best equipped to battle Republicans in the fall.

Really? "As best equipped to battle Republicans in the fall?" That's where the lie starts. Their candidates are always conservatives and never independent-minded agents of change. Even in districts that Bernie won in landslides against Hillary, they always seem to come up with Hillary-hacks-- and call them "the best equipped to battle Republicans in the fall." Funny how that works, when the decision-makers are conservatives themselves, like, among others, Kyle Layman and Jason Bresler. Back to Burns, whose instincts start pointing him in the right direction: "The approach," he figured out, "is laced with peril for a party divided over matters of ideology and political strategy, and increasingly dominated by activists who tend to resent what they see as meddling from Washington. A Democratic effort to undercut a liberal insurgent in a Houston-area congressional primary in March stirred an outcry on the left and may have inadvertently helped drive support to that candidate, Laura Moser, who qualified for the runoff election next month." He doesn't say the DCCC are morons, conservative, assholes or, most important, personally corrupt, but... he calls them "Democratic leaders" and concludes they "have concluded it is worth enduring backlash to help a prized recruit or tame a chaotic primary field."

They are moving most aggressively in California, where the state’s nonpartisan primaries present a unique hazard: State law requires all candidates to compete in the same preliminary election, with the top two finishers advancing to November. In a crowded field, if Democrats spread their votes across too many candidates, two Republicans could come out on top and advance together to the general election.

There are at least four races in California where Democrats fear such a lockout, including the 39th Congressional District, where in addition to Mr. Cisneros and Ms. Tran there are two other Democrats running: Sam Jammal, a youthful former congressional aide, and Andy Thorburn, a wealthy health insurance executive who is backed by allies of Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont. The district is among the most coveted for Democrats nationwide-- a seat left open by the retirement of Representative Ed Royce, a popular Republican, in an area Hillary Clinton won by about 8 percentage points.

National Democrats may also intervene in the Southern California districts held by Representatives Dana Rohrabacher and Jeff Denham, where multiple Republicans and Democrats are running, and in the seat held by Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican who is retiring. Voters receive mail-in ballots starting in early May, making the next few weeks exceptionally important.

House Majority PAC, a heavily financed Democratic group that spends millions in congressional elections, recently polled all four races and has been conducting digital surveys that simulate the complicated California ballot, according to people briefed on the group’s strategy. The super PAC has run ads in California in the past when Democrats have faced disaster in primary season.

Representative Judy Chu, a Los Angeles-area Democrat, said the open primaries had led Democrats to take unusual steps to prevent Republicans from dominating the first round of voting.

“That would stop our goal of taking the House back,” Ms. Chu said. “We have to have a viable candidate, and I think that if it does turn out to be a Democrat versus a Republican, the Democrat will win.”

Ms. Chu said the campaign committee’s endorsement of Mr. Cisneros was a signal to donors and volunteers that it was time to close ranks.

But picking favorites is not easy for Democrats: Until mid-March, Southern California lawmakers were divided in the 39th District race between Mr. Cisneros, who is backed by Representative Linda T. Sánchez, an influential member of the Democratic leadership team, and Jay Chen, another Democrat who was endorsed by Ms. Chu. It was only after Mr. Chen opted against running, with a call for party unity, that Ms. Chu and other Democrats swung behind Mr. Cisneros.

Ms. Sánchez said the glut of Democratic candidates remained concerning across California, and acknowledged having lobbied the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to back Mr. Cisneros. National leaders, Ms. Sánchez said, had “a role to play in terms of trying to talk to nonviable candidates and urging them to be team players.”

Meredith Kelly, a spokeswoman for the committee, said the group was taking action in California because voters “deserve to have a Democrat on the ballot in November.”

“Any decision to get involved in these races is toward that goal and based on intelligence from the ground in California, extensive data and partnerships with as many local allies as possible,” Ms. Kelly said.

Facts Burns might have included at this point: 1- Meredith Kelly is one of the stupidest people in Democratic politics; 2- California's Democratic Party has been so riven with identity politics that it borders on blatant racism; 3- Jay Chen who was the most qualified candidate for November had been in the race a little over a month when the DCCC persuaded him to drop out to help Cisneros; 4- the DCCC is threatening to smear Thorburn and make it impossible for him to win in November unless he drops out; 5- Cisneros has been bribing Democratic congressmembers and organizations to back him; 6- and, of course, the self-funding:

• Andy Thorburn- $2,335,900
• Gil Cisneros- $2,052,762
• Mai-Khanh Tran- $480,000
• Phil Janowicz- $194,900 (pressured out by the DCCC)

In the 39th District, Democrats went beyond prodding underdogs like Ms. Tran, 52, to stand down. Mr. Thorburn said the D.C.C.C. presented him with polling that suggested attacks on his finances and business record would be damaging in the general election-- data Mr. Thorburn dismissed out of hand. He said the committee clearly indicated its preference for Mr. Cisneros.

Mr. Thorburn, 74, is now the most unsettling rival for Mr. Cisneros and national Democrats, pairing a pointed ideological message with a personal fortune to spend on advertising. Deriding Mr. Cisneros as a “wishy-washy” newcomer to the party, Mr. Thorburn said he would strike back hard if the committee were to attack him, as it did Ms. Moser.

“I’m much more of a fighter than the national party,” Mr. Thorburn said, warning: “If they do something like they did in Texas, we would come back guns blazing.”

Mr. Cisneros has won over important state groups, including the muscular California Labor Federation. But his campaign office, at a strip mall in Brea, about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles, showcases his national allies: One wall boasts an enormous sign from the gun-control group Giffords, which supports him, while another displays photographs of Mr. Cisneros with Barack and Michelle Obama.

...Some voters sounded unlikely to take their cues from national parties. Outside a Fullerton coffee shop where Mr. Jammal was greeting voters, Adam De Leon said he was suspicious of the candidates using personal wealth to sway the race. Mr. De Leon, 72, said he favored Mr. Jammal, 36, because of his government experience.

“What does it tell you when people spend millions of dollars to get into a position that pays maybe $140,000 a year?” Mr. De Leon said, somewhat underestimating the $174,000 congressional salary. “It’s all about power and connections.”

The Republican field is in flux, too. Young Kim, a longtime aide to Mr. Royce, is the front-runner but has several candidates challenging her from the right. With Republicans in Washington focused on defending beleaguered incumbents, they have been less intent than Democrats on shaping open primaries.

For Democrats, that project extends beyond California: On the same day the D.C.C.C. endorsed Mr. Cisneros, it also boosted candidates in New York and Arkansas who face contested primaries. In New York, the committee enlisted Juanita Perez Williams, a former candidate for mayor of Syracuse, to challenge Representative John Katko this month, though a lower-profile Democrat was already running with the support of local party leaders.

That kind of big-footing may be trickier in California. Mr. Chen, the Democrat who opted out of the 39th District race, said the party still faces a “precarious situation” there. He said he had decided against running after conducting a poll that showed him neck and neck with Mr. Cisneros and Mr. Thorburn-- but with Democratic voters fragmented enough to create an all-Republican general election.

He predicted none of the remaining Democrats would follow his lead and get out.

“If you’ve never been involved in the party before and you just ran because you want to run, then you don’t really have those considerations,” Mr. Chen said. “They are new to this. They don’t have bridges to burn.”

The ideological battle within the Democratic Party is between the Democratic wing of the party (progressives and populists) and the Republican wing of the party (New Dems and Blue Dogs). The DCCC is part of the Republican wing and working hard to elect uber-corrupt former New Dem head, Joe Crowley, to lead the party after Pelosi and Hoyer are gone. DCCC candidates, like Cisneros, will do whatever they're told. A guy like Jammal has a functioning mind, always a great danger for closed hierarchical systems like the House Democrats. You know what that Blue America ActBlue congressional thermometer is on the right? It leads to a contribution page for candidates who aren't in thrall to the DCCC and who are independent minded. And, one thing for sure-- no Blue Dogs and no New Dems... No candidates from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

Most 2018 DCCC Recruits Are Being Endorsed By The Chamber Of Commerce-- Meet Next Year's Chamber Endorsees

2018 DCCC recruit Jeff Van Drew is honest enough to be running for reelection as a Republican. Other 2018 DCCC recruits are being endorsed by the US Chamber of Commerce. Maybe someone needs to change the DCCC-- drastically

ProgressivePunch has awarded grades of "F" to 108 Democrats in Congress. 35 of them are part of the the most right-wing freshmen class in the history of the modern Democratic Party. Some of them-- like Steny Hoyer and Cheri Bustos-- are among top party leadership. All of them are extremely conservative and would have been considered Republicans before the GOP took a turn towards fascism in Reagan-era politics. Many of them, in fact, were Republicans.

I had to laugh yesterday because one of the "ex"-Republicans, a super-rich, utterly worthless bucket of slime from California, Gil Cisneros-- who was a potato chip taster who won a lottery and bought off the Democratic Party for a House seat-- was extolled as a hero of the revolution by none other than... Elizabeth Warren. Maybe she's getting bad advise, but Cisernos doesn't support anything Warren stands for. (By the way, Progressive Punch rated her record "A.") She wrote yesterday that she often talks "about the big, structural change that I believe is necessary to ensure the sanctity of our democracy, to hold our government accountable to working for the people and not corporations, and to bring bold action on the issues that matter most - like access to affordable health care, protected social safety programs, and attention to local economies." Yep she does work hard for those things. Cisneros works against them.

She wrote that "systemic change relies in part on the action of good public servants-- those who hold themselves accountable to hard working families, those who are committed to fighting for justice. It depends on people like Gil Cisneros." Did someone slip some ayahuasca into her tea? Cisernos didn't earn an "F" because he's a good public servant-- he's not-- or because he holds himself accountable to hard working families-- be doesn't-- and especially not because he's committed to fighting for justice; he isn't.

"That is why," she continued, absurdly and damaging her own brand, "for his righteous fights, for all that he brings to our Congress, for his tireless work on behalf of his constituents and Americans everywhere-- I am proud to endorse my friend Gil Cisneros in his reelection bid for Congress."

Friendships can account for a lot, I guess. Cisneros spent $9,252,762 to buy his seat in 2018. And that doesn't count these contributions:

• $47,300 to the DNC (July 7, 2016)
• $33,400 to the DNC (Sept. 9, 2015)
• $33,400 to the DNC (March 31, 2016)
• $32,4000 to the DNC (Feb. 11, 2014)

Warren wasn't done. "I’m proud to endorse Gil because, to me, he’s the exemplar of the type of fighters we need in Congress: those who offer more than just empty talk and actually lead with their actions. Who keep the promises they’ve made to people who elect them, who don’t sell out to special interests-- and who won’t back down from protecting working families’ right to quality, affordable health care and social safety nets that the President is trying desperately to rip away. Gil listens to his constituents, he stands with hard working Americans, he’s committed to doing right by those in California’s 39th-- and I’m committed to ensuring that Gil is reelected to Congress in November... [A]t this crucial point in the campaign cycle, Gil’s campaign is laser-focused on doing all that they can to spread his message of progress. But the only way that they’ll be able to talk to more voters, hire more staff, and shore up their media operation is with donations today from folks like us."

No shame. Like when she savaged her friend Bernie.

That was a tangent I didn't mean to get into. What I wanted to talk about was the blurring on the lines between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, not a new topic around DWT. Using their lifetime crucial vote scores as the determinant, these are the worst Democrats in the House-- the ones who have voted less than 50% of the time for progressive positions-- along with their district's PVIs:

• Conor Lamb (PA)- 48.06% [R+1]
• Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL)- 47.98% [even PVI]
• Elissa Slotkin (New Dem-MI)- 44.30% [R+4]
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)- 44.30% [R+6]
• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)- 44.27% [D+9]
• Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA)- 42.31% [R+3]
• Abby Finkenauer (IA)- 41.77% [D+1]
• Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)- 40.51% [R+1]
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)- 39.95% [D+9]
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)- 39.10% [R+12]
• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)- 39.01% [R+3]
• Jared Golden (Blue Dog-ME)- 35.44% [R+2]
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)- 29.11% [R+10]
• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)- 29.11% [R+6]
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)- 27.85% [R+13]
• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)- 25.32% [R+6]
• Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)- 24.05% [R+10]

Many of these right-of-center faux-Democrats-- what people call the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- are about to get rewarded for their consistent anti-progressive stands and for preventing the congressional Democratic Party from even taking up issues opposed by corporate America. The Chamber of Commerce, despite furor in the GOP-- is going to back them for reelection. According to Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt, two dozen freshmen Blue Dogs and New Dems are about to get the reelection nod from the U.S. Chamber, although Isenstadt's point is that this is "triggering a revolt within the right-leaning organization and drawing fierce pushback from the group’s powerful GOP donors. The decision represents a sharp departure for the traditionally conservative Chamber, which has spent over $100 million backing Republican candidates during the past decade, and it threatens to further complicate the party’s prospects in the November election while driving a split in the business community." Yeah, yeah... but it's hardly unknown for the U.S. Chamber to back right-wing, anti-progressive Democrats. Like the NRA, they reward the worst scum inside the Democratic Party, despite wing nut special interests flipping out and huffing and puffing. Some of the fake Dems up for Chamber endorsements include Kendra Horn, Elaine Luria, Andy Kim and Joe Cunningham.

Chamber leaders-- including President Suzanne Clark, Chief Executive Officer Tom Donahue and Executive Vice President Neil Bradley-- have been pushing the proposal ahead of a Thursday committee vote to finalize a slate of 2020 endorsements.

But the group’s donors and members are up in arms, with some threatening to pull funding and others openly venting their frustration. Some are raising the prospect that Chamber board members will quit in the weeks to come.

There is particular concern the Democrats in question do not have the pro-business record an endorsement would convey. State Chamber of Oklahoma President Chad Warmington wrote a letter Tuesday to national Chamber leaders fervently opposing the proposal to back Rep. Kendra Horn, perhaps the most vulnerable House Democrat in the country.

Citing the Oklahoma congresswoman’s voting record on energy issues, Warmington wrote, “I question how the U.S. Chamber could endorse a candidate who consistently voted against the largest industry in Oklahoma, employing over 90,000 workers throughout the state. That is hardly a pro-business record. I am also concerned the U.S. Chamber would endorse a congresswoman that voted in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats who are not pro-business nearly 90 percent of the time.”

Warmington added: “I don’t believe an endorsement of Congresswoman Horn is warranted at this time and certainly not justifiable based on the current record of consequential votes impacting Oklahoma businesses.”

...The clash also provides a window into a growing rift in the business community over its place in the Donald Trump-dominated Republican Party, which has at times embraced policies the corporate world opposes. While the Chamber has almost exclusively endorsed Republicans over the past decade, it has collided with the president over everything from tariffs to immigration.

Clark told the Washington Post last year that “if anybody here ever thought of themselves as working for a partisan place, they should stop.”

Thomas Wilson, chairman of the Chamber’s executive committee, said in a statement that "the Chamber’s board has actively and successfully supported more bipartisanship in Washington since 2016 so we can create jobs and economic prosperity,” adding that “our priorities cut across party lines.”

“We are excited about the positive impact our enhanced endorsement criteria is having on creating better solutions for America," Wilson added.

The Chamber’s shift toward Democrats has deeply worried Republican officials, who long regarded the Chamber as a key piece of their campaign infrastructure. And it comes as two other prominent Republican-aligned political organizations, the National Rifle Association and Koch political network, pare back their electoral activity.

The Chamber has typically endorsed a handful of House Democrats each election year, though people familiar with the group say it hasn't endorsed so many at a single time. It rarely gets behind freshmen members, who are especially vulnerable in their first reelection race.

The DCCC has also tended to add the most conservative Democratic candidates to its endorsement list (the much-distrusted red to blue program, once notoriously run by Debbie Wasserman Schultz to benefit her own Republican cronies!) This morning, a progressive Democrat meeting all the supposed criteria for a DCCC endorsement asked me if I could help her figured out why she still wasn't on this list. I laughed and suggested she could join the New Dems or Blue Dogs and Cheri Bustos would have her on the list in 48 hours. Of the 33 mostly right-of-center candidates on the Red-to-Blue list, 25 have also been endorsed by the Blue Dogs and/or New Dems who Bustos has allowed to act as Red-to-Blue gatekeepers this cycle.

The Blue Dogs have found the 8 most Republican-like Democratic candidates to get behind for 2020, none of whom should be considered Democrats when it is time to go to the polls-- unless you want to make sure no progressive legislation ever even reaches the floor:

• Eugene DePasquale (PA-10)
• Gretchen Driskell (MI-07)
• Margaret Good (FL-15)
• Jackie Gordon (NY-02)
• Christine Hale (IN-05)
• Josh Hicks (KY-06)
• Brynne Kennedy (CA-04)
• Sri Kulkarni (TX-22)

The New Dems have endorsed 30 anti-working class candidates so far. Their list is is where the Red-to-Blue list comes from. This is the new crop of neo-liberals. Red-to-Blue endorsees are in red:

• Alyse Galvin (AK-AL)
• Hiral Tipirneni (AZ-06)
• Christy Smith (CA-25)
• Margaret Good (FL-16)
• Carolyn Bourdeaux (GA-07)
• Betsy Dirksen Londrigan (IL-13)
• Christina Hale (IN-05)
• Hillary Scholten (MI-03)
• Dan Freehan (MN-01)
• Deborah Ross (NC-02)
• Kathy Manning (NC-06)
• Pat Timmons Goodson (NC-08)
• Jackie Gordon (NY-02
• Kate Schroder (OH-01)
• Eugene DePasquale (PA-10)
• Wendy Davis (TX-21)
• Sri Kulkarni (TX-22)
• Gina Ortiz Jones (TX-23)
• Carolyn Long (WA-03)
• Sara Jacobs (CA-53) who is running against a progressive Democrat in November, Georgette Gomez (who you can contribute to here)
• Jill Schupp (MO-02)
• Kathleen Williams (MT-AL)
• Amy Kennedy (NJ-02)
• Nancy Goroff (NY-01)
• Desiree Tims (OH-10)
• Hillary O'Connor Mueri (OH-14)
• Christina Finello (PA-01)
• Sima Ladjevardian (TX-02)
• Cameron Webb (VA-05)
• Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) who is running against a progressive Democrat in November, Beth Doglio (who you can contribute to here)