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Writer's pictureHowie Klein

Standing Between The DCCC & A Blue Wave: Grotesquely Bad Candidate Quality In New York & California

The DCCC Has One Thing Going For It: Republicans Are Worse


10 lost House sets between them

In New York State, 2020 saw Biden beat Trump 60.9% to 37.7%— not as good as Obama’s 63.3- 35.2% win over Mitt Romney— but still selective of New York’s status as a state with a D+10 PVI. Two years later, Chuck Schumer, NY’s not very beloved senior senator, was elected with 56.8% of the vote. He generally did worse everywhere but he actually lost 5 counties that Biden won: Nassau, Broome, Saratoga, Clinton and Essex. On the same miserable day for Democrats, the state’s dreadful unelected governor, conservative Kathy Hochul, was at the top of the ticket. She did even worse than Schumer, 53.2% of the vote, with over 300,000 fewer votes. She even lost 3 counties that Schumer won: Rensselaer, Dutchess and Rockland.


Her dreadful performance contributed to 5 congressional seats that were held by Democrats— Robert Zimmerman and Laura Gillen in Nassau County, Sean Patrick Maloney (partially in Rockland and Dutchess counties) and Josh Riley (partially in Broome County). The Democrats also blew their chance to retake the open seat in the Syracuse area, where Francis Conole, a shitty conservative much like Hochul (as were Zimmerman, Gillen, Maloney and, to a lesser extent, Riley) was beaten by MAGA lunatic Brandon Williams. 


There’s a consensus that Hochul’s speech was the worst prime time speech of the whole convention— total dud from a disliked dud of a governor.


Candidate quality in New York was dreadful in 2022— uninspiring Republican-lite corporate garbage candidates, as if it was actually designed to turn off progressive voters. Gillen and Riley are running again and the Syracuse district has a candidate just as bad, if not worse, than Conole, right-of-center state Sen. John Mannion. Possibly the worst fake-Democrat running anywhere in America, John Avlon, is running for the Suffolk County seat (Nick LaLota's) targeted by the DCCC.


Pelosi, reported Sarah Ferris, “believes the path to retaking the House runs through New York. The former speaker said she is intently focused on battleground seats in New York, and in fact spoke to her successor, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as recently as earlier Thursday morning about the fight there. She has also informed at least one New York Republican— whose name she did not mention— that she plans to beat him this year, and, relatedly, turned down his invitation to a recent event for an Italian American group. ‘I had other plans for dinner, like a hot dog at home,’ Pelosi said to raucous applause in the room. She added: ‘I have told him on a number of occasions to prepare for defeat.’” [That would be Molinaro, D’Esposito or LaLota.]


Two years ago, New York was a key reason Democrats lost the House. The party lost roughly a half-dozen competitive races, including then-campaign Chair Sean Patrick Maloney's ouster in the Hudson Valley. Pelosi blamed at least some of the party's problems on incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, who won in 2022 by a closer-than-expected margin that has been blamed for dragging down other Democrats downballot.
Pelosi, while no longer officially at the leadership table, said she has been deeply engaged in the fight to win back the House. That was particularly true several weeks ago, when Democrats, including Pelosi, privately feared they could be forced even deeper into the House minority.
“It’s a horrible thought— should there have been a situation where we didn’t win the White House and the Republicans had the House— it would've been a horrible thing,” Pelosi said.
… “What’s going to be hard is just keep everybody focused on winning the election, because there’s so much euphoria. But there’s nothing automatic here,” Pelosi said.
Then she ticked off some of her political mantras: “Resting is rusting. No wasted time. And no regrets the day after the election,” she said, with a warning: “This is all close.”


Pelosi didn’t mention her own state, California, which has the same electoral situation as New York. In 2022, dismal candidate quality, dreadful DCCC decisions about where to invest funds and a disliked, shitty Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, running for reelection, led to the loss of 5 seats the Democrats should have won:


  • CA-13 (Duarte vs Gray)- D+4

  • CA-22 (Valadao vs Salas)- D+5

  • CA-27 (Garcia vs Smith)- D+4

  • CA-40 (Kim vs Mahmood)- R+2

  • CA-45 (Steel vs Chen)- D+2


Gray and Salas, easily the two worst California congressional candidates, and possible as bad as New York's Avlon, are running again in the districts that rejected them in 2022. Want to help flip Congress blue and elect progressives rather than the Republican-lite corporate shills the DCCC hs gotten behind again? The candidates on this Flip Congress page can all use some financial support, only one of whom, Sue Altman, will see any help from Pelosi or the DCCC.

14 Comments


Guest
Aug 25

The only way to get rid of the corporate Democrats is to vote Republican and then start over. Justice Democrats strategy is well-intentioned but a failure. AOC is selling out before her 35th birthday.

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Guest
Aug 25
Replying to

Just an fyi: that wasn't me. I would NEVER suggest to EVER vote for a nazi. That's even dumber than voting for democraps.

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Guest
Aug 25

Again, candidate quality as measured by what?

The only standard your party cares about is how corruptible a candidate is. Measured by that yardstick, your DCCC gives you OUTFUCKINGSTANDING candidates. And since you all don't care, you keep voting for them.


you want good? quit voting for shitty. that's exactly how democracy is supposed to work.

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Guest
Aug 25
Replying to

I do. And on occasion he does bother to mention an independent. But his raison d'etre is still to promote and promulgate democraps as a party. And as the results since 1968 prove, that won't ever produce any results. Your party is totally captured by the money and it proves it every time it accidentally gets a majority.


And, worse, it also proves its cowardice. Trump and many others should be in prison. Roe should have been codified decades ago. Climate should be an actual issue. And we should be holding all support to israel over their genocide. Among many other failures, refusals and betrayals of their stated principles.


If you really want what you say you want, CLEARLY you'll…

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AIPAC and other republicon money help pick our candidates. As long as we have unlimited corporate contributions and, more important, people believe the ads they see, we're stuck.

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Guest
Aug 25
Replying to

Read about the Whigs. Sometimes a plurality of voters have to realize that we need something better... and go and create it. It really helps to have a Lincoln... Bernie coulda been the guy... but he proved to only be a free-roaming vapor with no substance.

So keep voting for either evil nazi shit or corrupt pussy shit (because those are the 2 big parties) and guess what you'll always get. And quit bitching about what you get.


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ptoomey
Aug 24

The DCCC's approach largely reflects the party approach as a whole. That has arguably been the case since Rahmbo ran the DCCC in 2006. The DSCC takes a similar approach.


We are going to war with the army we have, not with the army that we want.

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Guest
Aug 25
Replying to

Your DxCC approach is PRECISELY your party approach. The party IS the DxCC. You are not. But you affirm the DxCC every time you blithely affirm the crappola they give you.


so... raise the army you want! If you 80 million cared, that's what you'd do!!!

Thomas Neubauer said in a recent column: "when you win and do nothing, you lose".

You've been going to war unarmed for decades. And you don't seem to care since you keep electing the pussies who raise the white flag whenever the nazis do something.

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