Yesterday, the Senate voted on Biden’s renomination of Lauren McFerran to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). It failed 50-49, former Democrats and corporate whores Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin voting with all the Republicans to kill it, in effect giving the Republicans control of the agency that enforces labor law, supervises union elections and remedies unfair labor practices. Everyone in DC is asking how much Big Business paid the two of them off.
Chuck Schumer, who recruited Sinema to run for the Senate and then cleared the field and helped pay for the campaign, knew exactly what she was at the time— the chair of the Blue Dogs with the single worst voting record of any Democrat in the House. He recruited her not despite that but because of that. Feigning innocence and crying crocodile tears, Schumer whined “It is deeply disappointing, a direct attack on working people, and incredibly troubling that this highly qualified nominee— with a proven track record of protecting worker rights— did not have the votes.” It is not without cause that Schumer is known as Wall Street’s senator.
Now speaking about recruitment… yesterday, Michael Scherer reported that House Democrats are starting, which actually means that the New Dems who run the DCCC are looking for the next Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. They’re looking for conservatives and GOP-lie corporate whores to challenge Republicans in districts “that were not contested” this year in Arizona, Michigan, California and Virginia.
Mike Smith, president of House Majority PAC, which wasted tens of millions of dollars on shitty candidates who lost races actual Democrats would have won told Scherer that “The way we are looking at it is we have to start seeding the ground, recruiting the right candidates now, knowing that Democrats could shift the ground with Donald Trump and Republican control in Washington. We are focused on expanding the map and recruiting candidates that have voted Republican but shifted toward Democrats in recent years.”
So there they go again— ignoring the working class while wooing suburban Republicans, a strategy that cost them the House this year. “The list of new targets includes Republican Reps. Bill Huizenga in Michigan’s 4th District in the southwest part of the state, Rob Wittman in Virginia’s 1st District in the Richmond suburbs, Elijah Crane in Arizona’s 2nd District, which includes some Phoenix exurbs, and Kevin Kiley in California’s 3rd District in the northern Sierra Nevada.” I spoke with Jessica Swartz, the candidate who contested Bill Huizenga’s seat. Her heart was in the right place but she put all her energy into being a typical DCCC GOP-lite candidate. She had exactly no chance to win whatsoever and Huizenga beat her 234,489 (55.1%) to 184,641 (43.4%).
I also talked with the progressive working class-oriented candidate, Herb Jones, who tried taking on Wittman. With no help from the DCCC, he had held Wittman to a 56-43% win in 2022 and was hoping to expand that into a win this year. Instead the Democratic establishment got their own sack of crap candidate, Leslie Mehta, who proved herself utterly worthless and wound up with the same results as Jones. The difference— he had only raised $314,866 and she raised about double that, albeit still not enough to earn DCCC support.
Encouraged by consultants, Swartz took herself seriously and raised over a million dollars (making them richer) in the R+5 district that includes blue Kalamazoo County and purple Berrien and Calhoun counties and red Van Buren, Allegan and Ottawa counties. It’s a winnable district but not by the kind of garbage candidate the DCCC will recruit.
The House Majority PAC, reported Scherer “will launch a 2026 Recruitment Fund to find strong Democratic candidates for those seats and at least 25 others, including longtime Democratic targets such as the New York seat held by Michael Lawler, the Arizona seat held by Juan Ciscomani and the Wisconsin seat held by Derrick Van Orden, who all held off well-funded challenges this year.”
Smith plans to stay on as head of the principal Democratic House group funding advertising in 2026, along with Abby Curran Horrell, the group’s executive director.
…House Majority PAC spent more than $255 million in the 2024 cycle to win back the House, while the Congressional Leadership Fund spent $242 million defending Republican control. Both groups are staffed with strategists close to their respective congressional leaders and can raise donations of unlimited amounts.
Smith said the new fund will pay for an extensive effort to find attractive candidates across the country, with an emphasis on people who may not already be in elected politics but have excelled in their chosen fields.
“We are putting money into it in January of the off year and not stopping until election year,” Smith said.
Among the worst candidates the DCCC recruited this cycle were Blue Dogs Rebecca Cooke (WI), Lanon Baccam (IA) and Rudy Salas (CA), corporate whore Peter Barca (WI) plus Republicans pretending to be conservative Democrats John Avlon (NY), Amish Shah (AZ) and Janelle Stelson (PA). They all lost winnable races.
As for Blue America… we’re starting a draft Randy Bryce effort. We’ll let you know more about it— after I talk to Randy. Good news though— he’s the least like Kyrsten Sinema or Joe Manchin or any Democrat I know... and he did force Paul Ryan to retire early.
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