Justice Democrats' record of losing elections

January 15, 2019

Justice Democrats, a Bernie Sanders’ socialist group is making waves about finding a candidate to run against Democrat Henry Cuellar. From the Texas Tribune:

Justice Democrats, a political committee founded after the 2016 election to reshape the Democratic Party through primary challenges, is working to recruit a challenger to Rep. Henry Cuellar, a seven-term congressman from a strongly Democratic district who’s one of the few anti-abortion-rights voices in the party’s House conference.

Based upon their lack of success in the 2018 elections, Justice Democrats should be the last group to find a candidate to challenge Cuellar, if a challenge is warranted. Out of 80 candidates endorsed by JD, only 7 won. 2 were incumbents in deep blue districts. 1 was unopposed.  4 were all in very blue districts wiping out their general election opponents. It’s not like they were endorsing in tough competitive states like Texas, although those that did, lost. All of them. One raised over a $1 Million and lost 70-30 in the primary.

Some of their candidates were capable of raising large amounts of money and still losing such as James Thomson who lost 59-40 after raising $1.4 Million. Here is a list of all 80 candidates, the results of their election and how much money they raised. It isn’t pretty. 

NOTE: Some are listed with $0 raised. This is due to the data not being available on the FEC site.

Candidate Result Raised
Raúl Grijalva
AZ-03
Won  general 61-39 $700,000
Ro Khanna CA-17 Won  general 72-27 $2,700,000
Ayanna Pressley
MA-07
Won  general unopposed $1,400,000
Rashida Tlaib MI-13 Won  general 84-11 $1,600,000
Ilhan Omar
MN-05
Won  general 78-21 $100,000
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez NY-14 Won  general 78-13 $200,000
PramilaJayapal
WA-07
Won  general 83-17 $2,100,000
Mary Matiella
AZ-02
Lost  primary  $291,000
BriannaWestbrook AZ-08 Lost  primary 60-39 $42,000
Deedra Abboud
AZ-Senate
Lost  primary 79-20 $113,000
Audrey Denney CA-01 Lost  general 56-43 $1,200,000
Roza Calderon
CA-04
Lost  primary   $97,000
Dotty Nygard CA-10 Lost  primary  $66,000
Bryan Caforio CA-25 Lost the primary  $1,200,000
Laura Oatman CA-48 Lost  primary  $244,000
Doug Applegate
CA-49
Lost  primary  $100,000
Ammar Campa-Najjar CA-50 Lost  general 54-45 $400,000
Alison Hartson
CA-Senate
Lost  primary  $400,000
Saira Rao CO-01 Lost  primary 68-31 $565,000
Stephany Rose
Spaulding CO-05
Lost  general 58-38  $366,000
Kerri Evelyn Harris DE-Senate Lost  primary 65-35 $69,000
Chardo Richardson
FL-07
Lost  primary 87-13 $41,000
Sanjay Patel FL-07 Lost  general 60-40 $337,000
Pam Keith
FL-18
Lost  primary 60-40 $558,000
Michael A.Hepburn FL-27 Lost  primary  $38,000
Lisa Ring
GA-01
Lost  general 58-42 $222,000
Kaniela Ing HI-01 Lost  primary  $410,000
Courtney Rowe
IA-01
Lost  primary  $16,000
Pete D’Alessandro IA-03 Lost  primary  $378,000
Marie Newman
IL-03
Lost  primary 51-48 $1,500,000
Sameena Mustafa IL-05 Lost  primary 62-24 $134,000
Anthony Clark
IL-07
Lost  primary 73-26 $91,000
David Gill IL-13 Lost  primary 45-13 $1,300,000
Dan Canon
IN-09
Lost  primary 68-30  $455,000
Brent Welder KS-03 Lost  primary 37-33 $941,000
James Thompson
KS-04
Lost  general 59-40 $1,400,000
Juana Matias MA-03 Lost  primary 21-15 $567,000
Roger Manno
MD-06
Lost  primary  $442,000
Ben Jealous MD-Gov Lost
56-42
$0
Matt Morgan
MI-01
Lost  general 56-43 $1,300,000
Robert Davidson MI-02 Lost  gneral 55-43 $1,200,000
David
Benac Mi-06
Lost  primary 37-21 $90,000
Fayrouz Saad Lost  primary 27-19 $769,000
Abdul
El-Sayed MI-Gov
Lost  primary 52-30 $0
Cori Bush MO-01 Lost  primary 56-39 $150,000
Jamie
Schoolcraft MO-07
Lost  general 66-30 $55,000
John Heenan MT-AL Lost  primary 33-31 $1,100,000
Jenny
Marshall NC-05
Lost  primary 54-45 $140,000
Kara Eastman NE-092 Lost  general 51-49 $0
Tanzie
Youngblood NJ-02
Lost  primary 57-18 $114,000
Peter Jacob NJ-07 Lost  primary 66-19 $141,000
Antoniette
Sedillo Lopez NM-01
Lost  primary 40-20 $100,000
Amy Vilela NV-04 Lost  primary 61-9 $198,000
Michael
Devito NY-11
Lost  primary 63-20 $48,000
Jeff Beals NY-19 Lost  primary 22-12 $378,000
Patrick
Nelson NY-21
Lost  primary 55-9 $71,000
Ian Golden NY-23 Lost  primary 32-13 $177,000
Cynthia
Nixon NY-Gov
Lost  general 81-17 $0
John Russell OH-12 Lost  primary 40-16 $129,000
Greg
Edwards PA-07
Lost  primary 33-25 $451,000
Jess King PA-11 Lost  general 59-41 $1,900,000
Matt
Brown RI-Gov
Lost  primary 57-33 $0
Aaron Regunberg RI-LTGOV Lost  primary 51-48 $0
J.
Darnell Jones TX-02
Lost  primary 52-22 $19,000
Lorie Burch TX-03 Lost  general 54-44 $317,000
Laura
Moser TX-07
Lost  primary 70-30 $1,300,000
Vanessa Adia TX-12 Lost  general 64-33 $208,000
Adrienne
Bell TX-14
Lost  general 59-39 $208,000
Derrick Crowe TX-21 Lost  primary 30-23 $179,000
Mary
Wilson TX-21
Lost  primary 58-42 $112,000
Rick Trevinon TX-23 Lost  primary 66-33 $56,000
Linsey
Fagan TX-26
Lost  general 59-39 $176,000
Darlene McDonald UT-04 Eliminated
at the convention
$49,000
C
Hallquist VT-Gov
Lost  general 55-40 $0
Dorothy Gasque WA-03 Lost  primary 42-5 $88,000
Sara
Smith WA-09
Lost  general 67-32 $0
Randy Bryce WI-01 Lost  general 54-42 $8,600,000
Paula
Jean Swearengin WV-Sn
Lost  primary 69-31 $219,000

Tx Republican Will Hurd: To win, don't be a racist.

January 7, 2019
From The Wall Street Journal

It’s sad that in this time and age Republicans have to tell their colleagues how to win elections as Congressman Will Hurd did in the Wall Street Journal:

“This is how you win suburban women: Actually talk to them. Talk to their kids. Do things to make sure their kids are ready for the future. Don’t be a racist, and don’t be a misogynist.”


To recap: Don’t be a racist because racism is bad. Real bad. And don’t be a misogynist pig because that is bad too. Here are a few other things Hurd should tell his party members on how to win elections:

Don’t send dick pics to your mistress. Ask former Congressman Joe Barton or soon to be former Senator Charles Schwertner of Texas. Both were caught sending dick pics. Barton sent it to his mistress. He was forced to resign. 

Don’t send dick pics to college students. According to Schwertner someone other than himself sent a dick pic to a college student. Schwertner claims it wasn’t his dick. He has since asked Lt Gov Patrick not to assign him to the chairman of his committee. Sounds like he knows something.

Don’t call women the C word. It should go without saying that an elected official should never use the C word especially towards women but when you have to tell grown men to not send dick pics you probably have to tell grown me to act like grown men,

Don’t steal your donors money. Congressman Duncan Hunter was caught and charged with multiple felonies of stealing his donors money. He has since blamed it on his wife. He was re-elected.

Don’t deal in inside trading. Congressman Chris Collins of New York was charged with multiple felonies of insider trading. Sitting on the board of a biotech company based in Australia Collins shared inside information to select individuals before the stock crashed. He was  also re-elected.

Also, get rid of that (R) behind your name. Its as popular as herpes at a hot tub party.



The Honorable Rashida Tlaib should apologize

January 5, 2019

It really isn’t hard to apologize after calling an elected official a MFer like The Honorable Rashida Tlaib did when referring to the President of the United States. We all, at one point in our life, have had to make sincere apologies for some of our classless actions. We are taught as young children that apologies are expected and demanded when warranted. How many times have our parents said to us “Tell him your sorry”?. Apologizing is something we must do at times and Congresswoman Tlaib should do it at this time. Here is an example of a perfectly good apology:

“Last week I made a very unfortunate comment referring to the President of the United States that I deeply regret. I want to apologize to Speaker Pelosi for causing this distraction to passing our progressive agenda and to my constituents and the members of the Democratic Party for this vulgar language.”

She doesn’t owe an apology to Trump for calling him what he is but she does owe it to the Speaker, the Party, and to those who gave her the title “The Honorable”. Calling an elected official a MFer or calling anyone an MFer is conduct unbecoming of someone with “The Honorable” in front of their title. It is disrespectful. It is vulgar. It is low class. It is a sure fire way to be minimized.

The President is a low class, vulgar, racist, politically ignorant, rotten asshole of a human being who calls people school yard names, and has used horrible language in the past but that does not give us the right to condone one of our own when they do the same. We are not the republican party. We are not Trump. We are suppose to be better.

Running for office and serving is not a game. The Honorable elected officials, at times, must send our kids to war. They pass legislation that means life or death for many. This isn’t a high school name calling session. This is very serious work that requires The Honorable to be honorable. If we condone Tlaib’s dishonorable act of calling elected officials vulgar names then we have lost our right to condemn Louie Gohmert when he calls Speaker Pelosi a stupid b****.

We are better than this.


Texas Sen. Charles Schwertner: That's not my dick. Pic

December 19, 2018

The University of Texas has completed a review of the facts concerning Texas Senator Charles Schwertner sending sexually explicit texts to a student including a dick pic. From the Dallas Morning News:

AUSTIN — The University of Texas completed its investigation on Tuesday into whether State Sen. Charles Schwertner sent sexually explicit messages — including photos of his genitals — to a student, issuing a report that neither fully incriminates nor clears the Georgetown Republican of wrongdoing.


According to Schwertner he shared a device with an anonymous individual and provided this person with the password to his Hushed account that allows for encrypted texts. That individual, not Schwertner, sent the messages. If a dick pic was sent this would be a fairly easy investigation. Line up Schwertner and his anonymous buddy and have them drop their linens.

Unfortunately Schwertner has been uncooperative, will not disclose the individual, and will probably refuse to drop his linens. His wife has declined cooperation also.

The university reported it could not prove Schwertner sent the offensive messages, and a forensic investigation found that they did not come from his phone. However, the messages did come from Schwertner’s Hushed account, a privacy app that allows people to send messages from separate phone numbers, and his LinkedIn account.
The UT investigation also described Schwertner as uncooperative and unwilling to be interviewed or answer questions about whether he had other electronic devices where the messages could have originated.


The Lt Governor, Dan Patrick, was relieved. “I am glad we can put this issue behind us. I urge all Senators to not send dick pics to young, beautiful students in the future via their official Hushed accounts.”
He didn’t really say that but he was thinking it! Watch for a civil suit to follow.

Who is Tony Buzbee?

December 11, 2018
Photo by Click2Houston

You might have heard about Tony Buzbee possibly running for Mayor of Houston. You might also have heard he has offered to mediate between the Houston Fire Fighters and the City of Houston concerning the recent equal pay proposition that passed. This seems to be a major conflict of interest since he is considering a run for Mayor. So who is Tony Buzbee?

Buzbee is a politically ignorant, wealthy, “tell it like it is”, not a politician, lawyer who intends to self finance a run for Mayor of Houston, a political office. Sound familiar? It should. Buzbee is the Donald Trump of Houston. According to the right wing Empower Texas PAC via the righter wing Texas Scorecard:

According to Buzbee, his candidacy is different because he is not a politician and can entirely self-fund his campaign. 

If he doesn’t sound like Donald Trump no one will. There is a lot about Buzbee voters in Houston should be aware of, for instance, he held a yuge fundraiser for Donald Trump. He has donated over $1M including $308,000 to Gregg Abbott, $80,000 to Rick Perry, $35,000 to Trump Victory PAC, and $30,000 to the RNC. He has represented Rick Perry in his felony charge of abuse of power. After Bob Perry passed I believed Buzbee would fill the role of the sugar daddy of the Texas Republican Party. That may still happen.

Buzbee is an Aggie and a veteran serving tours in the Persian Gulf and Somalia. Prior to becoming wealthy, Buzbee was a Democrat. He was the chair of the Galveston County Democratic Party and ran as a Democrat for State Representative against Larry Taylor, and lost. He has sprinkled his money across both parties, including judicial candidates, possibly to gain favor from both for his non partisan run for Mayor. That usually doesn’t work.

We have seen what a politically ignorant, wealthy, straight talking, non politician, has done to our Country. We surely do not need another one in the City of Houston.


Spending Campaign Cash: Brand New Congress

November 30, 2018

According to the Federal Election Commission the Brand New Congress PAC spent $773,837 in 2017-2018. As I have said before concerning the record of BNC:

Out of 31 candidates recruited, only 1 won in a deep blue district. Here are the results of Sander’s Brand New Congress campaign:

31 candidates in the Brand New Congress

  • 20 lost in the primaries
  • 11 advanced to the general election
  • 8 were Democrats
  • 2 were Socialists
  • 1 was an Independent
  • 10 lost in the general
  • 1 won in the general (Ocasio -Socialist)

 The majority of the spending was for “Strategic Consulting” to the Brand New Congress LLC for $466,000. $105,000 for “Wages and Salaries”, About $60,000 for an unknown category, and $70,000 for “Payroll fees”, leaving about $50,000 for all other expenditures.

Not much else to say about this. It looks like a jobs program for Sander’s followers. According to Wikipedia:

Brand New Congress is a volunteer-led American political organization that intends to run hundreds of campaigns for United States Congress with candidates of the organization’s choosing[7] by the 2018 midterm elections, regardless of party affiliation.[8] The organization plans to make staffing and fundraising decisions for all its candidates at once.[9]

They had 31 candidates. One won.

Spending Campaign Cash: Justice Democrats

November 26, 2018

Justice Democrats is a Bernie Sanders organization for far left candidates including Alexandria Cortez-Ocasio. As I said before:

Justice Democrats didn’t perform very well. According to Justice Democrats they elected 7 of their endorsed candidates to Congress. 2 were incumbents in deep blue districts. 1 was unopposed.  4 were all in very blue districts wiping out their general election opponents. It’s not like they were endorsing in tough competitive states like Texas, although those they did lost. All of them. One raised over a $1 Million and lost 70-30 in the primary.


Looking at their spending for the last two years, Justice Democrats spent about $2,250,000. $633,000 on wages ranging from $71,000 to $32,000 for ab out 13 employees. $217,000 on Payroll taxes, $270,000 on fundraising, and $88,000 on Credit Card fees.

They also spent $605,000 on “Strategic Consulting” paid to the Brand New Congress, another Bernie Sanders organization. This leaves about $526,000 for overhead expenses, rent, legal fees, etc but nothing was spent for donations to individuals candidates. I’m not quite sure what Justice Democrats accomplished besides raising and spending money but not on individual candidates.

Maybe looking at Brand New Congress spending will give more insight.


Before Republicans start yelling CIVILITY NOW!

November 16, 2018

The Party of Trump is in no position to be running around calling for CIVILITY NOW! CIVILITY NOW!

Over the last three years the Republican Party has embraced, endorsed, and encouraged the behavior of Trump and has mimicked him to attack individuals and groups. Now after a single appearance on Saturday Night Live by one of their new Congressmen they are calling for civility. Really? REALLY? The Republican Party is the last group of people who should be calling for civility from anyone.

This is the party that mocked a disabled American. They have hurled and continue to hurl racist insults towards Latinos, African Americans, and others. They labeled our Muslims Americans as terrorists. They cheered while young brown children were separated from their parents and put into cages. Their women cheered while their leaders referred to them as C***s. They watched silently while their party leaders acted like rotten human beings using unfounded fears to win elections. They lied, over and over and over again on a daily basis. They have embraced every single conspiracy theory with no basis of facts whatsoever. They re-elected candidates who are mired in felony indictments. They mocked mothers who lost their children to gun violence. They trample on the rule of law especially those involved with Russia. And they have tolerated and endorsed those who continue to be lying, racist, law breaking, rotten human beings.

The Republican Party has no right to be calling for civility now. They have the right to shut up and learn how to be human again. They need to clean their own house, throw out the racists,  mysogynists, liars, cheats, criminals, and rotten human beings and those who tolerate them from their ranks. Then, and only then, can they start yelling CIVILITY NOW! CIVILITY NOW!

Clean your own damn pig sty before asking your neighbors to tidy their house.


Rebooting the Harris County Republican Party

November 13, 2018

The out going Harris County Judge, Ed Emmett, says the Harris County Republican Party needs a reboot after getting a boot shoved so far up their butt their breath will smell like Desenex for the next two years. Emmett waited a bit too long to finally speak up.

I’m sure the HCRP is not interested in very pointed ideas coming from a former Republican but here are some ideas they might want to consider:

  1. Dump Trump. You made a mistake in 2016. Trump has turned your party into a group of racist, lying, cheating, conspiracy theory, rotten assholes. That stench might be hard to wash off but wash you must.
  2. Don’t be racist. It’s sad someone has to tell you not to be a racist. Racism is bad. Really, really, baaaaad. Not only should you not be a racist you should speak out against those who are., immediately and forcefully. Your party tolerates and condones racism. That must stop.
  3. Stop acting like a bag of dicks. Seriously. Why do you have to praise people like Sid Miller the mini trump of the Texas Republican Party. Can’t you at least act as if you have the title “The Honorable” in front of your name?
  4. Don’t call women the C word. Again. Why do we have to tell you this? You are not in Jr. High. Grow up and treat women with respect and call out those who don’t. If you are a republican woman who is condoning this type of behavior maybe a course on self esteem is warranted.
  5. Stop suppressing the vote. Everyone citizen has the right to vote and should have the right to exercise that right. You act like you want to restrict voting by making it harder to register and harder to vote. Stop it.
  6. Dump the NRA. They have become a boat anchor. Americans are tired of being shot. High school kids are rising up for this issue alone. You are on a long term losing path. Even the NRA was silent during this election. They are hurting you. No one is coming for your guns. Start acting like it.
  7. Stop lying. No one is coming for our guns. There isn’t an invasion coming from the south. There is no voter fraud. There is no need for a voter ID. There were no WMDs. Stop lying to your party members.
  8. Stop spending money. What the hell happened to the “Fiscally Conservative” party? Our country under republican rule now has a $1Trillion deficit just so your party could give your donors a huge tax cut.
  9. Embrace health care. No one wants to mortgage their house to pay for treatment for their kids. Your health care plan has failed. 
  10. Stop saying “Conservative”.  And finally, you are not conservative. Stop saying your are. You no longer have conservative or family values. As I have said before:

Conservatives do not mock the disabled.
They don’t create massive out of control deficits.
They don’t make jokes about those dying of cancer.
They don’t violate or ignore the laws of our country.
They don’t tolerate sexual abuse.
They don’t tolerate family violence.
They don’t interrupt people while talking.
They don’t call people names.
They don’t say racist things.
They don’t refer to Native Americans as “Pocahontas”
They don’t make fun of other peoples language.
They don’t call people of color “rapists”.
They don’t call Muslims “terrorists”.
They don’t endorse hate groups, the KKK, or white supremacy.
They don’t disrespect elected officials even those they disagree with.
They don’t lie. Every. Single. Day.
They don’t walk around with loaded assault weapons in public.


Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart removes anti-Semitic website

November 2, 2018

Why do we have to tell elected officials to not be anti-Semitic?

According to the Houston Chronicle:

After the Houston Chronicle posted an article Tuesday in which observers described the Soros attack as a “dog whistle” to anti-Semites, references to Soros disappeared from the site.

Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart was  the subject of a previous post “Why do you have to be a dick about everything?” because of his dog whistle re-election website. This is the second time Stanart has had to be called out. Earlier this week Stanart wasn’t going to enforce the law at an early voting location in Clear Lake by demanding a poll worker to remove his nra hat….until Fox 26 called him out on it. He quickly threw his workers under the bus and required him to either remove the hat or leave.

This behavior has become a habit for republicans. Why do we have to tell republican elected officials not to be racist, not to mock the disabled, not to send dick pics, not to call a woman the C word, not to use the N word, and not to post anti-Semitic material on their re-election website?

It’s as if they don’t want to be an elected official anymore. We can help them on November 6.