The hunt for Blue Dogs: the progressive strategy

Hunt for Blue Dogs

by digby

There is a supposed truism among many progressives that the only thing the Democrats understand is pain and until they are soundly defeated they will not learn that they must listen to us. I agree that the worst Democrats must be defeated --- but it truly matters who defeats them. And that's because the lesson they learn from being defeated by conservatives is that they lost because they weren't conservative enough. Indeed, they run as hard and fast as they can to the right the next time. It is, after all, more rewarding for them anyway, in any number of ways.

Howie has a post up today with all the big news about how the Blue Dogs and New Dems are reconstituting themselves as a power base in the wake of the 2010 Tea Party tsunami that nearly destroyed them. Let's just say they didn't exactly decide to become less beholden to corporate America or more ideologically progressive.

Conservative Dems are working hard-- hand in hand with the DCCC-- to come back to life after 2010;s Blue Dog Apocalypse. It was also an apocalypse of sorts for the New Dems who lost many of their members, most noteworthy being the Chamber of Commerce's #1 shill inside the Democratic caucus, Melissa Bean, a huge Schneider booster. But corporate whore extraordinaire Steny Hoyer and "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel and corrupt New Dem chieftain Joe Crowley are doing their best to undermine progressive candidates this cycle and push the same brand of hideous, anti-family corporatists who led the Democratic Party to ruin in 2010. Some people never learn-- or they learn the wrong lesson. They are funneling money into conservative candidates, telling big donors to not contribute to progressives, and beating up on progressives in one-on-one meetings. A Blue Dog endorsement has become tantamount-- or a prelude-- to a DCCC endorsement under Israel. He called himself "Rahm without the potty mouth" when he was first installed in his DCCC job; he's far worse and far more insidious. And, as much as I can't stand Rahm, at least he's smart in a tactical, street smart way. Israel is a boob who is leading the House Democrats to defeat with his dangerous ideological mania.

Tuesday, Open Secrets focused on how smartly Blue Dog funding has been climbing under these circumstances.
Read his whole post for the bad news.

I do agree that these Democrats must lose. But I don't think that losing to Republicans will ever change the culture or practice in the congress, which grows ever rightward with each cycle. I believe to do that, it's vitally important that we strengthen the Progressive bloc in the House by electing the best progressive leaders we can in deep blue districts and beating corrupt Blue Dog and New Dems in primaries.

There are some very exciting progressive movement leaders running in this cycle. You can see them all here. As for the deep blue leadership requirement, I'd say that we have two exceptional candidates in Norman Solomon and Alan Grayson, both of whom are in newly drawn, heavily Democratic districts. Grayson, so far, has not drawn a challenger and so will almost certainly be back in congress next January. Solomon, however, is running for his deep blue California seat against several other Dems, none of whom are progressive leaders who will challenge the status quo or push the edge of the envelope as he will.

He needs our support --- he is exactly the kind of representative we need in congress, one who is able to lead the progressives from the safety of a very liberal district. Seriously folks, we need this one badly and there is no good reason he should not be able to win it as an upfront progressive.

Another great prospect is Matt Cartwright in Pennsylvania who is seeking the Holy Grail of progressive electoral politics --- he's running in a newly drawn Democratic district primary to defeat and egregious Blue Dog, Tim Holden. If he does, he will be a hard charging champion for civil liberties --- it's been the cause of his life. I think we could use a few more of those in the congress, don't you? (And it would beautiful to see Steny's favorite Blue Dog go down ...)

As in most cycles, barring retirements, progressives will need to win open primaries in order to change the current dynamics within the Democratic Party. Aside from Solomon, who I believe should win in one of the most liberal districts in the country (and which by rights the Party should not oppose since even progressives have a right to some representation in the congress) there are other primaries coming up with strong progressives running against more conservative Democrats for open seats. Darcy Burner in Washington state comes to mind. If Darcy were to win it, we would have a representative in congress who has thought through exactly how to change the caucus from within -- and invaluable resource and one well worth fighting for. I have no doubt that she would be a strong leader for the movement.

There are plenty of opportunities this year to pick off some Republicans too, so I don't want to dissuade you from supporting progressives who are waging strong battles all over the country. (Believe me, nothing can better persuade the Democrats that they need to move left than having progressives beat Republicans.) This is the redistricting year which is often the only chance to dislodge incumbents and we have some excellent prospects. All of the Blue America candidates who are running against incumbents of both parties have the best chance to unseat them they'll have for the next ten years.

All the Blue America candidates are good progressives with a fighting chance to win. If you live in their districts or even in the area, I urge you to volunteer. Nothing compares to local support. If you don't live there, you can donate to their campaigns and help to build the progressive infrastructure that will benefit us even beyond this cycle.

Mostly, though, you can keep the faith. This is a long term project and it's going to be two steps forward one step back, I'm sorry to say. But keeping the commitment is half the battle.

Here is the list of all Blue America 12 candidates.


Update: Ilya Sheyman's loss is disappointing but we'll all learn from the experience. And it's important to keep one thing in mind: He was, in his own words, running in "the most Democratic seat in the whole country currently held by a Republican." That's an opportunity, to be sure. But there are good reasons why a very young, progressive candidate would have an uphill battle to win a primary even in a redrawn district with that profile. Not impossible, of course. But probably tougher than anyone wanted to admit.

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