The House is in play in 2018 and incredible Democratic challengers are stepping up to run across the largest offensive battlefield in a decade.
DCCC Shouldn't Endorse Primary Candidates
November 17, 2017

The DCCC claims to be neutral in primaries but always puts its fingers on the scale for corrupt conservatives from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, Blue Dogs and New Dems, never for progressives. The DCCC favors wealthy self-funders and "ex"-Republicans. They recruit them and back them and help them disadvantage candidates from working class backgrounds.

Is the DCCC anti-union? They probably don't even realize it, but, of course they are. Let's take a look at a DCCC press release masquerading as reporting in yesterday's Roll Call: DCCC Names First 11 Candidates In 'Red To Blue' Program."

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is naming 11 candidates Wednesday to the first round of its Red to Blue program, which highlights strong Democratic recruits.

The list of 11 candidates, obtained first by Roll Call, includes recruits running in 10 competitive GOP-held seats and in one open seat Democrats are hoping to keep blue.

Washington Rep. Denny Heck, the chair of recruitment, and Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark, the vice chair of recruitment, will co-chair this cycle's Red to Blue program.

Being named to Red to Blue opens doors for candidates who can tout their inclusion on the list to donors. Candidates also benefit from guidance and staff resources from the DCCC, which has been in contact with all Democratic House candidates who have been willing to collaborate and communicate with the committee this year.

The DCCC evaluates candidates’ fundraising, grassroots engagement, local support, ties to the community and campaign infrastructure when deciding who makes the cut for Red to Blue.

This cycle’s first round is earlier than last cycle’s when the first 16 candidates were named in early February of the on-year. Additional rounds of Red to Blue candidates for 2018 will be rolled out more frequently and in more targeted batches than in previous election cycles.

“The House is in play in 2018 and incredible Democratic challengers are stepping up to run across the largest offensive battlefield in a decade,” DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján said in a statement. The DCCC expanded its target list last week, for a total of 91 GOP-held seats.

“These candidates have their own unique experiences rooted in these districts, but what they all have in common are records of service to their communities and our country,” Luján added.

The DCCC on Wednesday is also naming certain districts to two additional lists-- Majority Makers and True Blue.

Then they named the 11 crap candidates along with how much money they ended the third quarter with. They didn't bother to mention that most of the candidate are from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, either Blue Dog or New Dem recruits-- or in several cases-- both. Another couple are EMILY's List recruits.

• New Dem Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-02)- $269,000
• Jason Crow (CO-06)- $393,000
• Abby Finkenauer (IA-01)- $169,000
• Blue Dog Brendan Kelly (IL-12)- $305,000
• Blue Dog Paul Davis (KS-02)- $344,000
• New Dem Elissa Slotkin (MI-08)- $377,000
• New Dem Angie Craig (MN-02)- wealthy self-funder
• Blue Dog Dan McCready (NC-09)- $700,000
• Susie Lee (NV-03)- multimillionaire self-funder
• Blue Dog Anthony Brindisi (NY-22)- $399,000
• Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06)- $662,000

Kirkpatrick is a loser and a carpetbagger from up north who the DCCC is trying to shove down the throats of southern Arizonans. She has shown in the past that she can get swept into office in a wave election-- but her GOP voting record always guarantees she's defeated in midterms when Democrats refuse to come out and vote for her. She's an NRA poster child (literally) and an all-around conservative Democrat.

The DCCC is always touting fundraising as an indication of viability but two other candidates, Matt Heinz and Mary Matiella are also raising the kind of money that proves viability. We reached Mary yesterday and she told us that ""The DCCC is right about AZ-02 being a great pickup opportunity but they're wrong if they think an establishment/corporate Dem is the way to win. Southern Arizonans are a fiercely independent bunch and ultimately it's the voters, not the establishment who will decide who best represents their values." A week ago she said something similar, namely that "Polls show that voters want an authentic, relatable candidate-- someone who understands them. The DCCC wants a candidate who can raise funds. This disconnect in candidate vetting disenfranchises the voter."

Growing up, I believed in the American Dream. Today, I'm proud to have lived it. But the American Dream is being threatened every day by Trump and his allies. We saw a horrifying example just yesterday with Trump's decision to end DACA. I decided to run for Congress, because we deserve a better representative than Martha McSally. But I don't want you to just take my word for it. I want you to know that I'll be the right voice for this community -- that's why our campaign is releasing a short video today about me and my beliefs. Watch our video -- and then will you please share it with your friends to help spread our message?

Posted by Matiella for Congress on Wednesday, September 6, 2017

There's a similar dynamic in Colorado's 6th district, where the progressive candidate, Levi Tillemann is also raising 6 figures and inspiring grassroots woke Democrats while the aggressively UNWOKE DCCC is pushing a the same kind of candidate they see when they look in the mirror, someone who represents rich people.

Wealthy Vegas socialite-- the candidate of the casino magnates-- Susie Lee ran a terrible campaign against Ruben Kihuen last cycle. This time she moved to the open seat on the other side of town, having as little in common with the people there as she did in the 2016 campaign. That's when she spent around a million and a half dollars and got just 6,407 votes, coming in third against two grassroots candidates. But Pelosi just cannot resist those multimillionaire candidates. There are more multimillionaires claiming to be Democrats in Congress than ever before. who would have ever guessed that would be Nancy Pelosi's legacy!

We reached out to Jeff Erdmann, the non-multimillionaire in the Minnesota race where the DCCC is trying to tip the scales for Angie Craig, the candidate supported by Big Pharma lobbyists. "In a time where all the polls tell us that people think the Democratic party is for the ultra-rich," Jeff told us, "it’s disappointing that the DCCC would back an ultra-rich candidate who lobbied to suspend the medical device tax as the medical device company Medtronic was sending its headquarters overseas. This is especially troubling as they are backing a corporate elite in a primary against a teacher who’s lived in the district and south-eastern Minnesota his entire life and is running to lift up the community. It seems as if the Democratic leadership has yet to learn it’s lessons from 2016. We the people need to rise up and take back the party and that starts with supporting candidates that are working class."

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon