Suzan DelBene Is Rahm Emanuel Without The Potty Mouth & Tutu
There are some excellent candidates running for Congress this cycle but most of them aren’t in competitive districts. For example, Lateefah Simon’s district is so blue that Biden beat Trump there 89.3% to 8.6% and Sarah McBride’s district saw Biden crush Trump 58.8% to 39.8%. Lateefah and Sarah are going to be excellent members of Congress but neither needs any help from the DCCC. On the other extreme, there are excellent candidates running in prohibitively red districts, like Rock Aboujaoude who is opposing Gus Bilirakis in a district Trump won 63.9% to 35.1%. Rock is campaigning more to spread the progressive message and to help turnout Democratic voters for Kamala than to actually make it into Congtress this cycle— and he’s only 27 and has plenty of time.
But the point is, candidates in very blue or very red districts are not in the DCCC’s field of vision. Aside from incumbents, their money and support is going to candidates who can flip close districts. At least that’s the theory. As I’ve noted before, I’ve never seen a weaker roster of congressional candidates than the one the New Dem-controlled DCCC has in their Red-To-Blue program this year. Of the 33 candidates they picked for the program, almost all are either New Dems or Blue Dogs… in other words, corporate whores. There are a few decent standard issue Democrats who may wind up being OK in the House but there is exactly ONE proven progressive champion— Sue Altman… and the DCCC is sabotaging her campaign, as they always do to progressives. The DCCC has contributed $400 to her race and the House Majority PAC has given nothing. (Yes, $400, no extra zeroes I forgot, just $400.) Here's a a list of all the non-incumbent candidates who have gotten real support from the DCCC and HMP so far this cycle, along with the district’s PVI (Incumbents are bolded and districts Biden won are colored blue):
CA-13 (Adam Gray v John Duarte, D+4)- $8,438,300
MI-07 (Curtis Hertel v Tom Barrett, R+2)- $7,236,419
AZ-01 (Amish Shah v Dave Schweikert, R+2)- $6,667,706
OR-05 (Janelle Bynum v Lori Chavez-DeRemer, D+2)- $6,622,022
CA-22 (Rudy Salas v Dave Valadao, D+5)- $6,406,380
NY-04 (Laura Gillen v Anthony D’Esposito, D+5)- $6,084,051
NY-19 (Josh Riley v Marc Molinaro, even)- $5,281,161
CA-27 (George Whitesides v Mike Garcia, D+4)- $4,785,203
AZ-06 (Kirsten Engel v Juan Ciscomani, R+3)- $4,552,045
MI-10 (Cal Marlinga v John James, R+3)- $4,068452
MI-08 (Kirsten Rivet v Paul Junge, R+1)- $3,641,962
IA-01 (Christina Bohannan v Mariannette Miller-Meeks R+3)- $2,627,018
NY-17 (Mondaire Jones v Mike Lawler, D+3)- $2,452,709
NE-02 (Tony Vargas v Don Bacon, even)- $2,132,080
CA-45 (Derek Tran v Michelle Steel, D+2)- $2,061,417
CA-41 (Will Rollins v Ken Calvert, R+3)- $2,021,232
VA-02 ( Missy Smasal v Jen Kiggans, R+2)- $1,980,915
MT-01 (Monica Tranel v Ryan Zinke, R+6)- $1,909,784
IA-03 (Lanon Baccam v Zach Nunn, R+3)- $1,885,035
VA-07 (Eugene Vindman v Derrick Anderson, D+1)- $1,695,252
PA-10 (Janelle Stelson v Scott Perry, R+5)- $1,453,989
NY-22 (John Mannion v Brandon Williams, D+1)- $1,388,900
WI-03 (Rebecca Cooke v Derrick Van Orden, R+4)- $1,116,783
NJ-07 (Sue Altman v Tom Kean Jr, R+1)- $400
There are still 2 weeks before the election and the DCCC and House Majority PAC both have plenty of money to spend. They could spend some of it on Sue… but it’s doubtful they’d spend the millions to match what the Republicans are spending attack her. Normally what they do at this point in the cycle is double down on the big bets they’ve already made.
But no one admits they've noticed how the DCCC is trying to screw over Sue, or ever says a peep about it being because all the decision-makers at the DCCC, led by New Dem Suzan DelBene, are a bunch of worthless corporate ConservaDems who hate progressives and anything that smacks of progressive. Yesterday, the New Jersey Globe reported on the story but focussed on former Congressman Tom Malinowski’s rather naive ideas about what’s happening.
He thinks the DCCC and HMP are “making the same ‘standard mistake’ by not supporting Sue Altman with outside spending in her tight congressional race.” OK, they re but he thinks the “standard mistake” is… New Jersey or something, rather than their progressivephbobia. “I think they made their standard mistake of not coming in earlier,” Malinowski said. “I think they’re looking at the same polling that we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks. And my hope, based not just not purely in wishful thinking, is that they will come in for the last two weeks.” Yeah… hope.
You can't depend on the goodly hearted
The goodly hearted made lamp-shades and soap
When asked why the groups haven’t learned from what he called their “standard mistake,” Malniowski said, “Maybe it’s human nature to keep making the same mistake again and again.”
The DCCC and HMP, which have spent $85 million dedicated to winning a Democratic majority in the House, have yet to spend a single cent in the highly competitive 7th district. Kean, by contrast, has received millions in support from the GOP-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund and has even received an infusion from Elon Musk.
Malinowski knows how it feels to be on the other side of an outside spending onslaught. In his 2022 loss to Kean, Republican PACs outspent their Democratic counterparts $6.3 million to $2.2 million. He lost that race by less than 9,000 votes, and Republicans narrowly won a House majority.
The former congressman said he thinks a handful of factors have caused the hesitancy in funding, saying the 7th is the “orphan” of regional districts.
“One disadvantage this district has always had is that it’s the New York media market,” he said. “It’s super expensive, but it’s not New York, so it doesn’t have the same patronage as some of the New York races or the California races.”
Still, he said Democrats, who are awash in money, shouldn’t be afraid of spending in the district. He pointed to a recent Monmouth University poll that showed Altman within 2 points of Kean, arguing that Republicans haven’t had much time to define Altman’s image as a candidate.
“She had to earn it,” Malinowski said of Altman. “She had to prove herself. I think she has. The data supports that. These groups need to, for the sake of the party, they need to do their job.”
Altman, for her part, has outraised Kean throughout the year, helping to close the gap.
“He’s got his own money, even though we’ve outraised him,” she said.
“We will see what happens in the subsequent weeks,” Altman told reporters. “But I think there is a very strong case to be made at, you know, hopefully, some other outside spending will come in.”
The former leader of New Jersey’s Working Families Party said much of the attention has gone to New York and California, but that she’s “looking forward” to seeing what comes of the next several weeks.
“I think there’s been a lot of chatter online,” Altman said. “There’s been a lot of chatter with different journalists about the importance of this district. And I think there’s a lot of attention in New York and California. That is always the case.”
But until money comes in from national Democrats, Malinowski knows how it feels.
“They were very sorry for the mistake they made the last time,” he said. “I know. They told me.”
I hope you’ll join Blue America in supporting Sue Altman’s run for a very winnable House seat. The New Dems and their incompetent DCCC may want to see her lose to Kean but wouldn’t it be tragic if the Democrats missed winning a majority by one seat? Would anyone have the good sense to pillory DelBene? If the progressive in Congress had a bit of sense, they would stop paying their dues to the DCCC and tell DelBene to kiss their asses.
Here's a list of all of the people who are surprised: - -