The Blue Dogs Are Trying To Sell Some Especially Heinous Candidates This Cycle-- Aided By The DCCC

Krysten Sinema used to be the worst Democrat in the House-- now it's Kurt Schrader

On Friday the Wall Street Journal covered the Oregon congressional primary pitting conservative Blue Dog incumbent Kurt Schrader against progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner. "Schrader," reported Eliza Collins and Chad Day, "is working to convince voters here that they shouldn’t send someone new to Congress and instead elect him for an eighth term. The [very far right] Democrat-- one of a dwindling number of fiscally conservative members of the party known as Blue Dogs-- is facing pressure from constituents on his left and right who are eager for a political shift. Democrats nationwide are facing resistance, amid weak approval numbers for President Biden and the party as they seek to keep control of Congress. First, Schrader must make it through a May 17 primary where he is being challenged from his left over not doing more to move the Democratic agenda through Congress. Schrader raised concerns about the cost of Democrats’ social-policy and climate package and in committee opposed a bill to allow the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs. He also voted against restrictions on debt collections."

The Journal article, which was very poorly written and very heavily slanted towards a Republican perspective, neglected to mention-- since it isn't something they could possibly consider important-- that Schrader is the only Democrat left in the House who voted against raising the minimum wage. The other Democrats who voted against raising the minimum wage were all defeated in 2020.

This morning I noticed that Center Forward, the shady Blue Dog superPAC which doesn't disclose where they get their money, since almost all of it comes from corporate and Republican-affiliated sources, has only spent money in two races-- Schrader's and fellow fall Democrat's David Scott in Georgia, who is being challenged by progressive former state Senator Vincent Fort.

Generous of Schrader to allocate some caucus funds to someone else's death struggle as well as his own

Aside from their own wretched incumbents, the Blue Dogs have officially endorsed just 3 candidates this cycle, the two worst members of the California legislature-- Rudy Salas and Adam Gray, both in Central Valley districts-- and Ruben Ramirez in an open South Texas district (TX-15) which is being abandoned by reactionary Vicente Gonzalez, who is moving to a safer seat that Filemon Vela is leaving (TX-34). The 3 candidates are from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party and if you like Joe Manchin's and Kyrsten Sinema's style of obstructionism to anything and everything smacking of any kind of progressivism, you'll love Salas, Gray and Ramirez. The thermometer on the left-- a live link-- is for contributing to progressive Democrats who are taking on Blue Dogs this cycle.

So far this cycle, most of the sewer money being spent against progressives and in favor of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party is being directed by AIPAC and the Democratic Majority for Israel, two sleazy outfits that take Republican money and launder it into Democratic primaries. They've been doing the Blue Dogs' work for them. Last month, Politico noted that the Blue Dogs (and New Dems) are being choosy about who they endorse this cycle.

Shrader is the Blue Dog political chair this cycle and he told Sarah Ferris that the reactionary caucus is looking for corrupt conservatives to replace the corrupt conservatives who are retiring. He claimed, falsely-- and unchallenged by Ferris-- that "those seats are not winnable by some of those folks on the further left of the spectrum of our party." Convenient.

Both the Blue Dogs and fellow [corrupt conservative] at the NewDem Action Fund are now working to contain their losses this cycle, throwing their weight behind [corrupt conservatives] in primaries while being far more selective about which races to get involved in from the start.

...Last cycle, the ranks of the Blue Dogs were decimated. Zero out of the nine candidates they endorsed won, while eight of their incumbents lost their reelection battles. New Democrats, which has a larger base of lawmakers, also lost a key chunk of members.

This year could be even worse, some Democrats privately say.

To ward off a complete clobbering of their ranks, many House [conservatives] are partnering more with the the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, led by Rep. Sean Maloney (D-NY). They hope more coordination on recruitment and strategy will help in their fight to hang on during a political cycle that has them at a disadvantage.

[That's nothing new; the New Dems and Blue Dogs have been partnering with the DCCC for nearly 2 decades, something Ferris doesn't seem to be aware of.]

...Schrader said he’s sensed a different tune coming from the DCCC this cycle, particularly when it comes to allowing moderates to run independently, without a party platform or predetermined message.

“My experience with DCCC this cycle compared to 10 years ago is night and day. No litmus tests about what you gotta believe or say, they let you be you. That’s critical,” Schrader said.

“It’s a maturity of the organization,” he added. “I give Sean Patrick some credit.”

Maloney is a very conservative New Dem and turning out to be as bad a chairman as most of his DCCC predecessors-- no political courage at all and ashamed of the progressive values the Democratic Party was built on. He is likely to preside over massive losses for House Democrats this cycle-- blaming Biden's unpopularity and progressives' backing of a popular policy agenda-- as the Blue Dogs shrink to nearly nothing again and the New Dems are drastically weakened. By the way, here's one of the ads Blue America just started running on Facebook and Instagram nationally boosting progressive candidates: