Democratic (Party) Direction

the only interesting race that i voted in is my state senate race between a progressive and a centrist (the dude literally had purple signs lol). the progressive candidate is holding on to a 52-48% lead.

both parties are going to a runoff in my US rep district (formerly lamar smith who, btw, shd eat shit and die). the berniecrat i voted for is in close 3rd, unlikely to catch up.

looking like the D runoff in TX-21 will be between a guy who bragged about voting for reagan and a progressive mathematician/minister who is also a lesbian. i think i might volunteer in this one.

Richard Wolf lost his primary. :(

Jason Westin finished a close third in TX-07 and is out, too bad, I liked that guy

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/7/17090012/texas-primary-women-latinas-winners

Is Emily's List the organization with the best outcome?

Moser was notably *not* backed by Emily's List

https://theintercept.com/2018/02/22/emilys-list-laura-moser-texas-congress/

The Senate wasn't the only body in Congress to vote to weaken Dodd-Frank yesterday. House Republicans passed another bill -- with these 38 Democrats joining them. https://t.co/rt3tzou4fS pic.twitter.com/rNrXyVzqgt

— Jonathan Cohn (@JonathanCohn) March 7, 2018

Moser was notably *not* backed by Emily's List

https://theintercept.com/2018/02/22/emilys-list-laura-moser-texas-congress/

― Simon H., 7. marts 2018 15:50 (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And Moser ended up behind the EL-endorsed candidate.

Yes.

women won big in the dem primary.

time to stop Cuomo w/ Emily Dickinson

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/cynthia-nixon-could-mount-a-primary-challenge-to-cuomo.html

she's a full-on Bernie bro, apparently.

1) These two clips are really worth watching. Looks like Cynthia Nixon has decided to join the revolution. pic.twitter.com/GW3LvzGnxZ

— Shant Mesrobian (@ShantMM) March 7, 2018

I'm pretty sure she would win NYC

I'd trust her with anything after her performance in A Quiet Passion.

go Keith

I just received unanimous consent from my colleagues to assume leadership of former Rep. John Conyers' historic single-payer health care bill. Health care is a human right, and Medicare for All is an idea whose time has come. pic.twitter.com/kcmbvZRtud

— Rep. Keith Ellison (@keithellison) March 7, 2018

teamkeith4life

https://i.imgur.com/VaB0wIf.png

Good for Keith

That’s my congressman! Go, Keith!

https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2018/03/messing-texas

I'll take actors over military goons and spooks any damn day. (Why did I have to resort to the ICFI's news site for this breakdown?)

One quarter of all the Democratic challengers in competitive House districts have military-intelligence, State Department or NSC backgrounds. This is by far the largest subcategory of Democratic candidates. National security operatives (57) outnumber state and local government officials (45), lawyers (34), corporate executives, businessmen and wealthy individuals (30) and other professionals (18) among the candidates for Democratic congressional nominations.

Of the 102 primary elections to choose the Democratic nominees in these competitive districts, 44 involve candidates with a military-intelligence or State Department background, with 11 districts having two such candidates, and one district having three. In the majority of contests, the military-intelligence candidates seem likely to win the Democratic nomination, and, if the Democrats win in the general election, would enter Congress as new members of the House of Representatives.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/07/dems-m07.html

(hoping to find some stats on how this breakdown compares w/ folks currently in office)

That seems off. Chris Lamb has been in the military, but does that mean he is defined by a 'military-intelligence' background?

It's kind of tricky to draw a strict line as to what amount/level of military service "defines" someone, I suppose. There was some grumbling about Lee Carter's Marine service in lefty quarters, as one might imagine.

Doesn't it seem quite likely that it's happening for the quite simple reason that it seems to be working? Jason Kander overperformed a lot in 2016 in a shitty environment, and Chris Lamb might actually flip a seat in deep red Pennsylvania. It's an easy way to signalize understanding with red-state values, without actually having to align with them.

And this is of course also what would really turn the tide in the battle for m4a and class values in general: A track record of it actually winning elections. Instead of shouting about how stupid the DNCC is, that won't really help anywhere in the long run. (even though they really are almost unimaginably stupid, it's kinda mind-blowing how dumb that move against Moser was)

Conor Lamb.

I was wondering why I was having a tough time Googling him.

Doesn't it seem quite likely that it's happening for the quite simple reason that it seems to be working?

That can certainly be *a* reason, though it's not clear to me we actually have the data to back this up yet.

Wait, then who the fuck is Chris Lamb? Oh well.

I liked this interview, btw: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/7/17092410/texas-primary-2018-turnout-evan-smith

damn you go Cynthia Nixon. wish she'd take out that shithead Schumer so we could all get the benefit of an unapologetic lefty dem

well Chuckie aint up for another 4 years

Pareene made the mistake of linking to that WSWS article yesterday then folllowed up with his correction/realization that they are probably including all ex state dept as “CIA”.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/8/17092684/great-slate-fundraising-congressional-campaign

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/7/17089212/dccc-laura-moser-backfire

I know I'm posting a lot of Vox today, but their response to the Texas primary has been really good.

I punk on Yglesias but of the relatively "non-partisan" "centrist" / whatever journos he's one of the less objectionable of late

case in point

I think this is a problem in a nutshell.

You’ve given up on persuasion and are assuming everyone who disagrees with you is irreconcilable.

I’ve read thousands of words from you and genuinely have no idea what you think “PC culture” is or why you think it’s important.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 8, 2018

Anyway, Pelosi needs to go, right?

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/377421-pelosi-no-need-for-guns-daca-in-spending-package

The likeliest candidates to replace Pelosi are (male and) less liberal than she.

Unless you're referring to her seat, and not her leadership position, which, well, good luck with that.

An interesting thing: 30% of Republicans in the House whose districts were won by Clinton are more conservative than average. None of the Dems whose districts were won by Trump are more liberal than average. https://t.co/KKcnbatPeh pic.twitter.com/FeDQ5KKUEq

— Philip Bump (@pbump) March 9, 2018

Retweets are not endorsements

https://www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/national/national-politics/dems-should-worry-about-long-term-direction-not-2018-message

For much of the 2016 campaign, an election between the two most disliked party nominees in history, the focus was on Trump, and he was running behind. But in the final few weeks—after the last debate, the Access Hollywood tapes were made public, and any chance that the real estate magnate could win seemed to evaporate—the spotlight shifted to Hillary Clinton. The election became a referendum on her, and she lost.

How on earth he could tap-tap this on his keyboard without mentioning Comey staggers me.

But if the party that holds the White House, House, and Senate, 33 governorships, and the majority of state legislative chambers and seats is doing almost everything imaginable to self-destruct, why would the opposition party want to do anything other than have a referendum on the party in power? Why wouldn’t Democrats just get out of the way?

This is....definitely a strategy.

yeah it really worked last time

Let's talk about Christina Hartman, the Democratic establishment's newly-annointed candidate in Pennsylvania's 10th district! pic.twitter.com/p4XezSdP9i

— Pinboard (@Pinboard) March 7, 2018

(click through for thread)

Kamala Harris defends ICE's existence #AbolishICE pic.twitter.com/QjzI1Nq3n2

— Brett Banditelli (@banditelli) March 9, 2018

ohhhhh nooooo, take it back Kamala

"Well, somebody's gotta do it."

her aipac speech left a little to be desired too

cnn: do you think there should be rules or laws or a society at all, or a country or a world?
dem: probably there should be that
leftists: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SERIOUS SMH DONE WITH THIS BITCH