Trump Shouldn't Get ALL The Blame For Wrecking Democracy-- Sewer Money Deserves Some Too

Some Notes On Last Night's Primaries

Earlier this morning, we looked at yesterday’s special election in a solid red Nebraska district that moved significantly bluer, almost entirely because of the overturn of Roe. But that was far from the only such example. Although voters in huge stretches of rural western and southern Colorado stuck with crackpot Lauren Boebert— in a deeply red district with a partisan lean that went from R+12 to R+15— the psychopaths didn’t fare as well in the rest of the state.

Let’s start with the Republican primary for Colorado Secretary of State. Most of the media attention went to Trumpist loon, Mike Lindell ally and QAnon cultist Tina Peters— but not most of the votes. You may remember her as the deranged Mesa County clerk and conspiracy monger who is under indictment for 10 felonies and misdemeanors stemming from tampering with her county’s voting machines. Yesterday, the severely mentally damaged Peters came in third and then began screeching that the primary was stolen from her. The winner is Pam Anderson, former Jefferson County clerk, who has campaigned on the fact that there was no evidence of voter fraud in Colorado.

The results that are being contested by sore loser Peters weren’t even close. The voters just absolutely, unambivalently rejected her:

• Pam Anderson- 242,249 (43.2%)

• Mike O’Donnell- 159,798 (28.5%)

• Tina Peters- 158,536 (28.3%)

Anderson will now face popular incumbent Jena Griswold, who is the favorite to win in November. The Republicans also picked a Senate candidate to oppose Mike Bennet and went with the more mainstream Joe O’Dea, a rare pro-Choice Republican candidate, instead of fringy state Rep. Ron Hanks, a Trumpist crackpot opposed to abortion and opposed to exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother— fanatic and hated by normal people. Normal people didn’t vote for him either. Democrats spent close to $3 million boosting Hanks because he was considered unelectable in a general. But he was even unelectable in a Republican primary!

• Joe O’Dea- 310,430 (54.5%)

• Ron Hanks- 258,685(45.5%)

I want to mention one other Colorado primary— the one for the newly created 8th district, which has a slight Republican lean. There were no moderates in that race but the certifiably insane candidate, Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine, lost by a lot. Democrats were hoping she would win the primary— and spending money to boost— because, like Hanks, she could never win a general election. And, like Hanks, she also couldn’t even come in second, let alone win, the primary:

• State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer- 19,403 (40.1%)

• Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann- 11,008 (22.8%)

• Insane Lori Saine- 9,906 (20,5%)

• Self-funder Tyler Allcorn- 8,023 (16.6%)

In Colorado’s 7th district, where New Dem Ed Permutter is retiring, 3 Republicans competed for a chance to take on Democratic state Sen. Brittany Pettersen. The district slipped from a D+15 partisan lean to a much swingier D+6. The GOP establishment favorite, self-funder Tim Reichert spent $590,475 and lost to the other self-funder, Erik Aadland, who “raised” $435,265. The fringe candidate Laurel Imer didn’t raise much money and spent $79,834. Aadland, a far right garden variety conservative Republican, won all 6 counties.

• Erik Aadland- 43,252 (47.9%)

• Tim Reichert- 32,442 (35.9%)

• Laurel Imer- 14,575 (16.1%)

The other state we need to mention is Illinois, where the headline is how right-wing hedge fund oligarch Ken Griffin wasted $50 million on Richard Irvin in the gubernatorial race, only to see his candidate come in third with a pitiful 14.9% of the vote. The winner was far right extremist state Sen. Darren Bailey, who Trump endorsed last weekend when he saw 2 GOP polls showing Bailey would win. Billionaire Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker, who has presidential delusions and is rumored to be ready to appoint Blue Dog garbage can Cheri Bustos to Dick Durbin’s Senate seat if Durbin retires (a strong possibility), spent over $10 million to boost Bailey, labelling him a “MAGA extremist,” on the premise that he would be a weak general election candidate. The actual winner was Neo-Nazi Richard Uihlein, who put $17 million into Bailey’s campaign and now owns himself a gubernatorial candidate. Some random rich guy named Jesse Sullivan was backed by 3 crypto-billionaires who ponied up $11 million for him.

• Darren Bailey- 450,944 (57.7%)

• Jesse Sullivan- 122,350 (15.6%)

• Richard Irvin- 116,433 (14.9%)

• Gary Rabine- 51,379 (6.6%)

• Paul Schimpf- 33,560 (4.3%)

And how could we not mention the 3rd QAnon member of Congress, Mary Miller, who took on McCarthy ally Rodney Davis in the newly designed reddest district in the state. Trump endorsed her and she beat the heavily favored Davis. Davis raised $3,422,637 to Miller’s $1,477,810. Much more money was spent by sleazy GOP SuperPACs, over $12 million, about equally for the 2 candidates. That a includes a million dollar smear against Davis courtesy of Club for Growth.

Republican money has flooded into Democratic primaries— primarily via AIPAC and DMFI— to help destroy progressives and bolster conservatives and Democratic money has flooded into Republican primaries to bolster fascist candidates in the expectation that they will lose in November. The next round of AIPAC and DMFI sewer money is being deployed against Rashida Tlaib and Andy Levin, both incumbents with outstanding records in Michigan, each of whom you can help out here.