Weekly House Cleaning
A DCCC News Roundup
Donald Trump dominated on Super Tuesday, and with that comes several ramifications, all bad for House Republicans. Just as Donald Trump has dominated conversation around the Republican presidential primary, so too will he gobble up so much oxygen in the general election. It will be impossible for House Republicans to escape his impact. Make no mistake: he will define the narrative for Republicans, particularly House Republicans.
House Republicans were already tied to Donald Trump in the eyes of voters in mid-January. Now they will be unable to escape the fact that:
They will have to take positions on Donald Trump’s candidacy and come clean with voters about whether they endorse him;
They will have to answer to the divisive and hateful statements Trump has made about women, Mexicans, Muslims, people with disabilities, and others;
They will be forced to answer for Trump’s outlandish policy ideas, such as his vision for the border and treatment of immigrants and his reckless national security approaches;
The DCCC took the liberty of helping Speaker Ryan adjust to the new “Party of Trump” era this week by providing him with his very own “Trump Starter Kit.”
House Republicans and Speaker Paul Ryan will also be unable to hide the fact that they were the genesis of many of the forces behind Donald Trump’s rise:
Huffington Post: Nancy Pelosi Isn’t Buying GOP Outrage Over Donald Trump’s KKK Comments
Pelosi and other Democrats have argued this week that Republican lawmakers are responsible for the rise of Trump and the campaign he is running.
“The sanctimony that was displayed in terms of ‘Oh, my gosh, can you believe he said that?’ — it’s stuff that we hear around here all the time,” Pelosi told reporters on Thursday. While Pelosi said she didn’t think Trump is a reflection of Republicans “writ large across the country,” she called him an “accurate reflection of the actions taken or not taken by the House Republicans.”
Pelosi suggested that it was hypocritical of Republicans to distance themselves from Trump while obstructing congressional efforts to combat racism and inequality — for example, by blocking a measure to remove Confederate flags from the Capitol and by refusing to move legislation to renew the Voting Rights Act, which is currently stuck in committee.
New York Times: Paul Ryan Faces Tea Party Forces That He Helped Unleash
Paul D. Ryan and his self-proclaimed “young guns” in the House Republican leadership traversed the country in 2010 harnessing the energy of the Tea Party movement that would sweep them to power that November. But in failing to confront the most divisive forces of the movement, they may have set their party up for its current crisis.
Some of those insurgent winners from that year would eventually turn on the leaders one by one, setting in motion the downfall of Representative Eric Cantor — just as Republicans were attempting to cobble together a modest immigration measure — then blocking the ascent of Representative Kevin McCarthy after they had deposed John A. Boehner as speaker.
Now the Tea Party’s ultimate creation, Donald J. Trump, may be coming for the last young gun unscathed, Mr. Ryan, the speaker of the House.
TPM: Harry Reid Savages Republicans For Making Trump
“Donald Trump is the standard-bearer for the Republican Party,” Reid said from the Senate floor Wednesday. “Republicans created him by spending seven years appealing to some of the darkest forces in America. Now it’s up to the Republicans to try and undo what they have done by denouncing Donald Trump. It’s time for the Republicans to stop the Frankenstein they created.”[…]
“The Republican Party has spent years railing against Latinos and immigrants, trying to incite fear. Congressman Steve King called undocumented immigrants drug dealers. He described their bodies in a very negative, ugly way,” Reid said on the floor. “Now Donald Trump is saying the same thing. Donald Trump is the ultimate fulfillment of the Republican Party’s legacy of obstruction and resentment.”
Washington Post: Trump is the GOP’s Frankenstein monster. Now he’s strong enough to destroy the party.
Let’s be clear: Trump is no fluke. Nor is he hijacking the Republican Party or the conservative movement, if there is such a thing. He is, rather, the party’s creation, its Frankenstein’s monster, brought to life by the party, fed by the party and now made strong enough to destroy its maker.
Was it not the party’s wild obstructionism — the repeated threats to shut down the government over policy and legislative disagreements, the persistent calls for nullification of Supreme Court decisions, the insistence that compromise was betrayal, the internal coups against party leaders who refused to join the general demolition — that taught Republican voters that government, institutions, political traditions, party leadership and even parties themselves were things to be overthrown, evaded, ignored, insulted, laughed at?
Happy Friday, because it’s not every day you can neatly wrap Eminem, Mitt Romney and Donald Trump together with a nice bow:
Politico: GOP crackup has Democrats in stitches
“To paraphrase Eminem, I think this is what it’s like when a tornado meets a volcano,” said Kelly Ward, executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “The spinning disaster that is the Republican establishment has met the fire-spewing Donald, and the Republican Party is promptly melting down upon impact.”
FRESH FACES
Kim Myers – NY-22: A new candidate announced in New York’s competitive 22nd congressional district. Kim Myers is a former small, independent business owner and is currently a Broome County Legislator. She was the only woman serving in the county legislature when elected. Why is she running for Congress? The Binghamton Sun & Press-Bulletin has the details.
THE DIRT FROM THE DISTRICTS
EVERYWHERE: Just yesterday, the NRCC decided to try to pretend the internet doesn’t exist again when it comes to Donald Trump’s impact on House races. In an interview with POLITICO, NRCC Executive Director Rob Simms punted on a question about Donald Trump’s drag on House Republicans’ reelection prospects, by saying that he does not have “any data to support or contradict any speculation” on the impact. Here’s the thing though, we know they have that data (we read all about it, also in POLITICO). House Republicans might not like what their own polling says, but pretending it doesn’t exist won’t make it go away…
CO-06 / IL-10: We’re still waiting, Mr. Speaker: Speaker Ryan got a lot of attention for his comments denouncing Donald Trump for failing to adequately disavow David Duke and the KKK. He talked a big game about how Republicans “must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry.” We feel like that’s a pretty #basic thing to do.
Also, we’re still waiting to see if Ryan’s willing to apply that same standard to his own caucus and condemn Reps. Mike Coffman and Bob Dold, who last year proudly attended the conference of Act! For America, which has been described as the “nation’s leading anti-Muslim hate group.”
NH-01/NJ-05: Short on Friends: Bloomberg reports that Tea Party leader Rep. Jeb Hensarling is throwing “private book club” fundraisers for two scandal-ridden Congressman, New Hampshire’s Frank Guinta and New Jersey’s Scott Garrett. Apparently they are receiving such embarrassing headlines that they are running out of donor friends. We suggested a reading list for the next book club event – see here.
FL-7: Congressman John Mica again showed himself to be completely out of touch with reality. Mica continued his decade long quest to move the Federal Trade Commission’s headquarters so its employees have a “better view” near The White House. Despite FTC Commissioners’ resistance to his move, Congressman Mica wasted this week attempting to persuade this colleagues otherwise. Meanwhile the people of Florida’s 7th District are waiting for their Congressman to come back to reality and start working to improve the lives of families in Central Florida.
VA-10: Congresswoman Barbara Comstock’s campaign stooped to a new low this weekend, when she campaigned with former Virginia Governor and Senator George Allen. George Allen infamously hurled a racial slur at an Indian American campaign staffer during his failed reelection campaign. The Indian American community is the fastest growing minority group in Northern Virginia, yet Congressman Comstock publicly embraced a man who represents the ugliest elements of the Republican Party.
Comstock & George Allen
PA-7: The news that Berks County Republicans endorsed Stan Casacio over Congressman Pat Meehan is just the latest development underscoring Congressman Meehan’s increasing vulnerability. With the Republican establishment in Southeast Pennsylvania beginning to reject Meehan and the likelihood of Donald Trump becoming the Republican Presidential nominee, Congressman Meehan’s electoral security is dwindling . Even Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a respected elections analysis and ratings website, recently moved PA-7 into a competitive category, after Democratic candidate Bill Golderer gained national media attention for his high performing campaign.
PA-8: Politico Bomb Alert: News breaks today that Brian Fitzpatrick has potentially violated the Hatch Act, by allowing this brother Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick to make campaign calls on his behalf, while he was still employed by the FBI. Just three weeks after moving from California to Pennsylvania , Brian Fitzpatrick managed to garner significant support from local GOP groups, confounding many who had just learned of his intent. Now we may know how he did it. Despite publicly stating that his brother discouraged his run, Politico reported that Rep. Fitzpatrick has been ginning up support for his brother Brian for many months. Brian, who worked in the public corruption unit of the FBI, should be pretty well aware of Hatch Act laws. Now the people of Pennsylvania need answers.
TX-23: Super Tuesday finalized the general election ballot for Texas’ 23rd Congressional district. There were 54,563 votes cast in the Republican presidential primary within TX-23 but only 48,870 votes in Rep. Hurd’s race. Despite the fact that Rep. Hurd’s race was directly below the presidential race on the ballot – 5,693 voters cast votes for the presidential race opted out of supporting Congressman Will Hurd. Former Democratic Congressman Pete Gallego received 6,026 more votes from Democrats than Rep. Hurd received from Republican voters. This an many other dynamics, including anticipated presidential year turnout, Hurd’s irresponsible decisions, and the “Trump effect” point to a daunting electoral path for Rep. Hurd in November
MI-07: Michigan Congressman Tim Walberg is facing biting criticism from folks back home over his heartless comments on the Flint water crisis – that it shows that “government can’t protect us against everything” and that people should just “look out for themselves.” Michiganders agree: this was completely unacceptable commentary from a Member of Congress.
MN-02: Jason Lewis, one of the 5 Republican candidates in MN-02, has had to defend remarks he’s made recently, comparing same-sex marriage to slavery and claiming that all women care about is their diaphrams. Maybe it’s remarks like this that continue to “disappoint” retiring Congressman John Kline?
MN-08: Multi-millionaire Stewart Mills III once again proved how out-of-touch he is with the district that already rejected him once when he told the Star Tribune that there “isn’t a lot of enthusiasm” for trade policies that could affect thousands of Iron Range mining jobs. That was the same day Fleet Farm announced they were selling out 8th district workers to the highest bidder – a Walmart CEO. Take the silver spoon out of your mouth and try again, Stewart!
CO-06: Rep. Mike Coffman refused to say whether or not he would support Trump as the Republican nominee.
NE-02: The Nebraska filing deadline passed and Republicans are now stuck with two underperforming candidates.
NV-03: Establishment favorite and political insider Michael Roberson must be shaking in his boots as it becomes more and more clear that Nevada Republican primary voters will want nothing to do with him.
CA-10: Rep. Jeff Denham has bought into the Trump turnout model – the one that could jeopardize down-ballot Republicans like Denham. The odd endorsement could be because The Denham’s anti-immigrant rhetoric isn’t all that different from The Donald’s.
CA-52: Lobbyist Denise Gitsham returned to her old Washington DC stomping grounds Thursday, joining likes of Wayne LaPierre and Ken “transvaginal ultrasounds” Cuccinelli to speak at the far right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
CA-52: Rep. Scott Peters was praised by students at UCSD for his new student loan proposal that would cap interest on student loans to four percent. The proposal is just one of part of Peters’ comprehensive education plan.
CA-31: Rep. Pete Aguilar, once a Pell Grant recipient himself, connected Inland Empire students to critical student loan resources.
CO-06: Rep. Mike Coffman refused to say whether or not he would support Trump as the Republican nominee. But he did get hammered by Latino leaders in Colorado for using the anti-immigrant rhetoric that has caused Trump’s candidacy. Coffman was also taken to task for his lack of transparency and refusal to speak with reporters:
“Coffman, whose background is in the military, is known for running a tight communications operation that stays on script and refuses to answer questions that don’t directly further his campaign’s cause. Refusing to answer journalists’ tough questions has buffered him from some criticism but opened him up to accusations of a lack of transparency, the kind Democrats are now capitalizing on.”
MI-01 – Democratic candidate Lon Johnson has been calling for the shutdown of the aging Line 5 pipeline (pending independent inspection) for months, and now is teaming up with a Republican mayor to address the disturbing economic effects an oil spill might have on the Great Lakes. Communities around the U.P. and Northern Michigan are rallying around what Lon calls “a ticking time bomb” – and Lon is spearheading these bipartisan efforts to hold an inattentive government accountable.
The post DCCC Weekly House Cleaning appeared first on DCCC.