Wednesday hangover
by digby
It was a bad night for the good guys, no doubt about it. Progressive super Tuesday was a flop.
I'm not going to do a postmortem on Wisconsin. There are enough gasbags doing that already. But I'll just say a few words about the congressional primaries. For the most part we lost because several candidates split the progressive vote.
Here in California we are still awaiting the final vote count of provisionals and absentees in the Norman Solomon race, but it's a long shot.(He's behind by about 1400 votes at the moment.) Unfortunately, because of our jungle primary system, it's probable that three candidates ended up splitting the progressive vote allowing an establishment Dem and a Republican to make it into the top two.
Similarly, two candidates split the progressive vote in Montana leaving the establishment Dem with a plurality win. And in New Mexico Eric Griego lost to a moderate backed heavily by Emily's List. (The good news is that the corrupt, establishment choice Marty Chavez lost as well --- a small sign of sanity in a sea of bad news.)
The progressive Democratic vote, which is substantial, is being diluted by too many candidates, some of whom are abusing the brand. The result is that the small amount of non-corrupt, progressive money we have is being spread too thinly and the slick establishment candidate with corporate, Party or personal funds slips past the goal line, even if the district clearly prefers a stronger progressive message overall.
There is a silver lining. When these establishment Dems look at those numbers, they know that their constituents are more liberal than they are. Congresswoman Janice Hahn's record, for instance, was far more progressive in her first term than anyone expected, largely as a result of the progressives who turned out for her opponents. And the message overall is clearly affected when you have a bunch of progressives in a Dem primary race, tilting the whole campaign further left than it otherwise would be.
It's thin gruel, I know. Progressives just don't have the organization or the money to narrow the field before the primary, and I'm not sure it fits with our principles even we did. People have a right to run. This is a democracy.
But money is scarce and unfortunately, and it's more important than ever these days. The Party is relying on self-funders or people with access to the 1%, which leaves out most middle and working class people, thus making the whole system even more tilted to the interests of the wealthy. And so the cycle begins again. We need to figure out a way to deal with this.
It's still possible that Norman Solomon will pull it out so I don't want to write him off. Also, powerful GOP incumbent Buck McKeon made a surprisingly poor showing in CA-25 and will face off against progressive Lee Rogers in the fall. And Blue America does have some other wins this year -- outside the box candidates like Cartwright, Gill, O'Rourke won their primaries. But there's no way to spin yesterday. It was a big disappointment.
But what can you do? Well, you do this:
Darcy's polling way ahead of the other Democrats in her race, including the self-funding establishment choice. Here's hoping she'll be an exception that proves the rule this year.
Update: And by the way, David Atkins won his race, so huzzah for the Hullabaloo contingent.
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