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Something jumped out at me in Jane Hamsher’s diary Friday morning about Lynn Woolsey’s treachery on Public Option: the California filing deadline for primary challenges is March 12th. I wondered: how many state primary deadlines will slip by as the House tries to make Bart Stupak happy? In how many states will progressive activists have to wait until 2012 to challenge Democratic incumbents who vote against women’s health rights and for a mandate to buy private health insurance? Are we losing 2010 accountability?
The answer is yes.
Here are the states with filing deadlines that expire between now and Easter, which is April 4th. Passover begins March 26th, and Congress’s Passover/Easter recess is currently rumored to be the House’s new "deadline" for passing the Senate bill. Of course, this would be on the promise of fixes from the Upper Chamber. The thirteen states with expiring primary candidate filing deadlines are:
Arkansas 3/8
Oregon 3/9
Pennsylvania 3/9
California 3/12
Nevada 3/12
Maine 3/15
Montana 3/15
Idaho 3/19
Iowa 3/19
Utah 3/19
South Dakota 3/30
South Carolina 3/30
Missouri 3/30
Moving into April, these seven states have primary filing deadlines before May First:
Tennessee 4/1
Alabama 4/2
Virginia 4/9
North Dakota 4/9
New Jersey 4/12
Georgia 4/30
Florida 4/30
Fully twenty states’ Democrats will lose the opportunity to file challengers to incumbent Democratic House members who vote to restrict women’s rights or require Americans to buy private insurance.
I’m pretty sure the Speaker knows this calendar better than I do: this makes me wonder if the current delays are about insulating incumbent Democrats from possible 2010 primary challengers.
As far as this fall’s election is concerned, where are progressive voters going to go? Without the chance to primary their Congresscritter, Democrats will be stuck supporting the incumbent.
After all, 2012 is a long time away, with lots of opportunities to make local progressives happier with their representative, right?
Right?
h/t: Thanks to FDLer Chris Dietrich for these primary dates!
94 Comments
i bet that is exactly why the calender keeps getting pushed back for hcr
recommended
It certainly seems very convenient for incumbents in safe districts, like Woolsey, for the chance of a primary to slip away. Jane’s diary with Woolsey’s March 12th date — all of California, for that matter — got me to wondering how many more there were.
Also, lotsa BlueDoggies in Pennsylvania, for instance.
Oy, calendar fuckery!
Rec’d
Yea, I think folks had realized this back on Jan. 15th of this year based upon what I read in “FDL Community and Health Care: What’s Important” (http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/01/15/fdl-community-and-health-care-whats-important).
Great post, Teddy! Also, thanks to mzchief for relinking to Jane’s intense chart from Jan. 15. I suppose we should be embarrassed we might have dropped the ball on putting up primary opponents in Pennsylvania & California, but DSCC and DNC and WH dropped a much bigger ball when they lost the MA Senate seat Jan. 19.
It has been less than two months since Jane’s warning. Most of the House members we identified as problems were Blue Dogs, I thought, and most of those are in southern states where prospective challengers still have a few weeks to meet the deadline.
Not sure how the Senate side fits into this. We need a separate chart of Senate seats up for re-election with filing deadlines. We think we already have a winner in Bill Halter (AR), Sestak started his primary challenge to Specter (PA) last year (then turned out to be pro-war in AfPak), DE is a mess since Biden’s son pulled out.
Thanks Teddy.
Your premise assumes that we will be forced to vote for incumbents I say you are wrong!
We will stay home.
And who are you going to blame when that issue raising your property taxes or giving tax incentives for some corporation gets passed? If you want to leave the congressional race box blank, fine, but don’t screw yourself and your neighbors by staying home.
Seconded.
The politicians also pay attention to the “no vote” category, even though it’s not published in the paper or shown on teebee. A visit to the Supervisor of Elections site and using some basic math skills will provide the number of folks who didn’t vote for any candidate in a particular race or issue.
The politicians also pay attention to the “no vote” category, even though it’s not published in the paper or shown on teebee.
Natch. They’re all over that stuff like flies on shit.
But….you ain’t usin’ that “fuzzy math,” are ya?
heh Nah, I use the math I was taught in the late 40s and 50s. I never could get a different answer with New Math. 2 + 2 was still 4.
Which happened with the Brown election, where the message came from many people staying home – however, I always recommend people voting, even if they write in Donald Duck.
I do too but not voting in a primary usually doesn’t have much effect locally since local issues and candidates are on the general ballot. The “no vote” or “Donald Duck” message can be actually stronger in a primary. One can only wonder if the message sunk in with the Dems on that one. Prolly not.
Taxes have to go up. Economic debt forces it to as will the oncoming cuts to all social programs. The jig is up. Great to have everything for nothing, but the bank is knocking on the door and wants paid. This health insurance bailout, written by health insurance lobbyists, will do nothing to address corruption, greed and waste in the healthcare system at all.
What’s that got to do with staying home instead of voting?
Sorry, was replying to that part of your post. Just saying, doesn’t matter who you vote for. The state of the economy dictates taxes ARE going to go up. A. Lot. Social programs will be cut as well. Maybe slowly and secretly at first, but they will. The governments of almost every nation on the globe are bankrupt. They aren’t going to cut the military and they aren’t going to cut their entitlements.
We’re still not on the same page or are you saying that local issues and local elective offices don’t appear on the general election ballot where you live?
First of all Social Security and Medicare are NOT entitlements. We have paid for these plans with our sweat and hard earned wages. We have to stop calling things by their Repub.names. (They’ve done tons of research to find out how to influence people’s opinions by calling things “entitlements”, or whatever and we keep using their lingo. Bad idea.
Second, it’s not, “Should we raise taxes or cut services?” Again, we’ve let them dictate the terms of discussion. During the Bush Admin. people in the middle and lower classes had tons of their taxes, fees, expenses, whatever, raised.
The super wealthy got tax cuts of over a trillion dollars. (What deficit?)
Corporations got more subsidies, tax breaks, loopholes etc.
Education, basic services, infrastructure, mass transit, etc.(anything that serves the middle or lower classes) were all cut.
We need to raise taxes on the CORPORATIONS and the WEALTHY. Period. Reagan made massive cuts to the the tax rates of the super wealthy. We need to re-instate the tax rates on wealthy individuals and corporations.
We also need to replace the worn and frayed “safety net” of services for people in lower income brackets. This is the richest country in the world and
we have thousands if not millions of people that go to bed hungry every night,many of them children. What has happened to this country? We cannot go on this way.
“This health insurance bailout, written by health insurance lobbyists, will do nothing to address corruption, greed and waste in the healthcare system at all.”
It will exacerbate it.
I agree. If we continue voting for democrats who betray us when it is time to govern bcz we are scared of the republicans we deserve what we get. The only way democrats are going to do what we elected them to do, is when they know for sure that we will vote their asses out if they dont do it. I dont have to vote for a dem in a primary to achieve that, I can just sit home on election nite and watch the tar and pitch fork crowd run them out of office. Obama and the dems have showed us whose side they are on and it is not ours, to keep begging them to work for us just because we voted them in office is ridiculous. Obama is not going to try and do anything until 2011 when he sees that he is 15 points behind a generic republican candidate. Until then it is going to be nothing but kiss ass and bend over for him.
Yep, you can stay home and read in the paper the next morning that the onerous bond issue you didn’t know about passed and now you’re gonna be paying more sales tax to pay off the bonds. Smart.
More and more D Party PR flak is going out over how this wrongly titled HCR ( it is AHIP/PhRMA Enrichment Reform ) just has to pass and pass right now and all the AHIP/PhRMA graft/fixes it is going to cement into place can always be changed “later”.
Magic Unicorn meet Sparkle Pony as Barack Obama sells/gets his AHIP/PhRMA Make Them More Wealthy and Further Entrenched Forced Join/Buy Crap For Profit Health Insurance Federal Funding Transfer. Barack Obama claims he will do “more reform” later down the road. Nudge nudge wink wink.
Meanwhile the D Party ( the D standing for Democratic being the gag here folks ) is gaming the system/calendar to derail D Party primary race competition or any real consequences to the D Party for having done a big Kabuki Play since a year ago to get right back to where Barack Obama ( Mr. Yes We Can ) was on doing AHIP/PhRMA desired “reform” a year ago.
The D Party will claim how it did the right thing,the good thing and the thing that will help Americans.
Help this year? Hell no–maybe by 2013 but this AHIP Reform has to be done here in early 2010 so Barack Obama gets his win and AHIP gets a win.
Barack Obama is a fraud.
Shovel the D Party propaganda and blame it on the R Party. Thats the ticket.
Calling BS.
If you can’t primary them, go after them in the November election!
Your local Green Party can be contacted here.
Thanks for the link. I’m planning on voting for green party candidates from now on, unless it’s Nader. So for me the discussion about Democratic primaries is irrelevant. I think Glenn Greenwald was right that the Dems are just playing us for fools.
I am no longer a Democrat.
You might also consider BEING a Green Party candidate as well. Because progressives in this country are transfixed by progressive ideology, there are so few of them actually doing anything about neoliberal rule that the best “revolt” they can manage is the tiny Green Party which exists in this country today.
OT– I highly recommend mfr’s diary reporting on Global Warming and yesterday’s Science Mag report on methane releases from permafrost melting. Good link with lots of good links.
But wait: It’s been snowing in the eastern part of the country. Doesn’t that disprove global warming? I mean, Glenn Beck says it does, and who are you gonna believe, a buncha egghead scientists or Glenn Beck?
Thanks Teddy, good catch.
Aqui. Aqui!
And, yes, I am playing. With words.
Hi Teddy, and all.
Why haven’t primary opponents been getting into these races regardless of how these reps vote on health care? You can always drop out later, can’t you, or is it a question of cost and actually finding a good candidate at to take up the challenge?
Both. Local races are the least expensive, followed by congressional races, followed by senatorial races, with presidential races being the most expensive.
Yep. And, that’s why I’m running for the Boss of Me. And, even that costs too much.
LOL
And, how are you doing this fine morning? I was planning on working in the yard, but it’s a’fixin’ ta rain, so it’s indoor stuff. Like, making stew. And a game of trivial pursuit later with the fam.
Tigers let me sleep in, going so far as to knock the clock off the table. It’ll warm up this afternoon, the weather people say, so I’m just hangin’ and being lazy. Requires absolutely no effort at all on my part.
I just asked my doggies why they make such a mess of the living room. They gave me the Dogs in Headlights look.
Good morning all.
Yeah, I think this isn’t a new issue. It just stuck me, hard, when I saw the March 12th date in Jane’s post telling Lynn Woolsey to step down: lots of primary opportunities are slipping away as the House leadership spends this month pretending to mollify Stupak.
They did manage to get the number of votes back down to 216, though, by showing Eric Massa the full deck of cards to be played against him. Shame, that.
Afternoon, Teddy
Three weeks. An eternity. Bill Young (R, FL-10) decided to run again. State Senator Charlie Justice (D) is running against him. Justice started off a couple weeks ago with an indictment of Young’s actions over the years. Young hasn’t had a real challenger in more years than I can remember and hasn’t had to campaign, and didn’t. This is gonna be interesting. Young has done nothing but announce he’s running again.
I don’t get how a sliding health care vote date in D.C. prevents a progressive from filing to run in a primary. What’s the connection?
Someone please explain. Thx.(I’m not fully caffeinated yet, which could explain why I don’t get it.)
If Congress delays voting on HCR long enough all the filing dates will have passed so most incumbents won’t have challengers in the primaries. That way they can vote to screw everybody on HCR and not have to worry about a primary. Clear as mud? *g*
You explained it much better than I did, thanks.
Hard to describe the process and not be all wonky an’ shit. *g*
maybe the good news of this bad news is …
MORE time to get better candidates?
despite the preponderance of evidence that this whole insurance company pharma sell out was a sell out, some of us (me) with 50 hour week jobs probably kept hoping even into December ?? that the dodds and harkins and cantwells and kerrys and …and …and would finally NOT be pathetic sacks of sell out shit for once in their lives, AND put a stop to stu-pid-pak and liebermans …
yawn. hey, did I clean my belly button lint ??? WTFrack was I talking about?
At least with the bullshit these piece of shit parasites are pulling now, and it is obvious a brilliant strategy to get 2 more years at the trough sucking us drier, it will be a LOT easier to start the 2012 races on Wed. 3 November — 2010.
rmm.
Wall Street may be doing quite well but the economy you and I have to live in sux big time and it’s gonna get worse. There are a lot of folks who are gonna get a reality boot in the ass over the next 2 years. The pols are not going to be able to spin away finance capitalism devouring itself and taking the country with it. Perhaps by 2012 folks will really begin to want a change of policy and ideology rather than a change of faces.
Good way to frame it. Change of policies rather than merely a change of faces.
A blind person may not be able to see the face but s/he can certainly feel what little they have being hoovered out of their pockets.
Um… how about this to refute you about things going so far down the drain that they’re unrecoverable …
Since RayGun got elected & started his reign of terror in 1981, when I was 21 and cooking for 4 bucks an hour, I’ve been expecting a Max Max / Blade Runner world here in gawd’s country … and it has not happened yet!
therefore there is hope … that I’ll continue to be wrong !!!
just put on your big bird outfit, and turn that frown upside down, baby!
rmm.
How about missile attacks from drones two miles up in the air? Robotic enuf for ya?
right! me too. and I didn’t even have the excuse of working full time.
We got mesmerized by Senate shenanigans because Senate was roadblock and Baucus was a complete tool and a sellout and Lieberman … and Nelson … and Lincoln … and Landrieu (holy shit, the list goes on forever!).
Meanwhile, we assumed we could count on the promises from House members in the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) to support the public option and kill the Senate bill.
The point being that if the primary filing date slips away, no one can file against an incumbent who supports a bill that strips women of their health rights or that mandates Americans buy insurance without Public Option.
It’s a way to insulate incumbents from any accountability in 2010 for their vote.
Got it. Thx.
A progressive can still file now though, regardless of when the vote might be. But might be less likely too.
Very good post, Teddy.
I think it’s about time FDL had a calendar set up so that everyone can keep track of stuff like this.
The data and programming was put together for such a thing and it was on the site at one point, but I don’t know what happened to it
If Madam Pelosi does not have the votes now, wait till her fellow Progressives and Liberal return from their Easter break. The funny part of this whole fiasco is none of the reforms kick in till 2014 and 2017.
Except for taxing all wage earners in 2011 to pay for this trillion dollar gamble.
I look at it this way. Obama is not going to fight for progressive goals, not even the ones he championed as a candidate. Candidate Obama and President Obama are not the same person. Frankly, it looks like he is willing to allow the GOP to paint him as weak waffler without any push back at all. He has no problem disappointing his base and seems oblivious and unconcerned about loosing us.
It is really too late to recruit strong progressives for Congress if they are not already on the field. 2012 will be hear soon enough, the climate will be worse and it will be easier to catapult these people into office. Let’t use the next years to get really great challengers and build support for them. 2012 will be here sooner than we think.
this is a formula and justification for running primary challenges to Obama in 2012. Are we ready for that? Is now the time to call it?
Got any names for who might challenge Obama in a primary?
I don’t know if we’re ready to make that call.
What chance is there of that happening? Not a chance in hell.
This is why primary challenges are only one way that will have to be employed to rid ourselves of representatives who won’t represent us. Voting third party or Republican will have to be done some places. The important thing is to make the people who did this pay with their jobs. I’m tired of the ridiculous argument that this will make things worse. This Congress and President are doing exactly what the Republicans did. There’s no difference now.
The only thing they’ll comprehend is a loss. I will not vote for any candidate who supports a HCR bill without a public option. I will write in a progressive name, if only to make it clear why I’ve withdrawn my support for the Democratic candidate.
If “progressives” who support a HCR bill without a p.o. are reelected, they will become progressively weaker on real progressive issues. When it comes to work/$/votes, it’s time to just say “No”.
Did anyone watch Moyers Journal last night. He had Wendell Potter and then Dr. Marsha Angell talking about HCR. Potter has come around to endorse Senate Bill without any realistic grounds for it. Angell thinks it’s a sham..and was very convincing. Wither Potter has gone is very troubling? What’s his agenda anyway?
incidentally, here is a re-link to Jane’s fabulous chart from mid-January showing the intense majorities in favor of supporting primary challengers against anyone who voted in favor of the individual mandate or broke their promise to oppose bills lacking a public option. And her link to filing deadlines.
We have the best democracy money can buy. California’s primary filing requirement for U.S. Rep is $1740 or 3000 valid signatures.
For statewide races (Senate, Governor) the trick is often that a certain portion of signatures must be collected in every county or Congressional District. Same trick often used in local elections (mayor, commissioner, school board): minimum number of signatures needed from every precinct or ward. For Congress, can any portion of signatures come from anywhere in the District?
I wish Howard Dean would give up his forlorn hope of ever being accepted by the party establishment and become the leader of the Democratic left. He could give progressives a rallying point and drive the party in the right direction even if he didn’t win.
He’s got my vote!
oh here it is
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/ballot-access-state-by-state/
Just for the record, Heath Shuler (NC-11) has a primary challenger named Aixa Wilson. Nobody knows anything about him, or even if he’s running from the left or the right of Shuler. But he’s a line on the ballot.
this is great. just finding this out is great. shows Shuler’s seat is in play, somehow.
The system, in all aspects, is rigged against change and it is rigged against most districts getting effective primary challenges. But don’t despair, this has never been about primary challenges to sitting Democrats, this is about demonstrating to the Democratic establishment that they can’t win elections without an energized liberal base. My advice to those that want to see positive change in the Democratic Party: In the 2010 elections stay home, stop contributing, stop volunteering and in some cases vote for the opposition like many independents and progressives did in Massachusetts. If we do not drive this home to them now, they will never be convinced that we have anything of importance to say. If progressives ever want to be a force in the American Political system they have to start playing for keeps and they’ve got to be willing to cut the cancerous corporatist growths off of their body politic. POWER TO THE PEOPLE.
It makes me happy to have you say we should not despair. But our work has certainly been at least partly about primary challenges. That’s what we do, what we have always done since at least 2003 for me, and earlier for others.
And, how has it all been working out for you over that span of time? I sympathize with you and and in a more rational political environment your strategy might well work. In a situation where the Democratic Party is almost entirely captured by corporations, the primary strategy does not deliver change quickly enough to be effective. If we continue to play their game, we will continue to find ourselves in the predicament we are in today. If you want to be a player in politics you have to be willing to: (1) demand that your poicies have a seat at the table and (2) follow through with threats to torpedo legislation that does not meet your minimum requirements. But we find that our progressive legislaters are not willing to be players in the game, thay cave every time, just like they are about to with that preposterous Senate HIR bill. In this situation it is up to voters to effect the role of a player. How do you make the Democratic establishment wake up and let you in the door? Hurt them, hurt them bad. That is all they understand and it is all you should understand.
It’s the Full Court Press’s primary premise. But you say:
You seem to rely rather heavily on “willing.” It’s not simply a matter of will. I see many comments like yours, sympathetic ones, but they almost uniformly skip over the step of developing the capacity to exercise the will you call for. So the ultimate message is, “get out of the way, since you don’t have that capacity to do that, and make way for someone who can.” Problem is that those who can, won’t.
I’m willing to start slow, build steadily, and create that capacity rather than waiting for someone else to do so.
You ask how it’s been working out over that timeframe. Since it is not yet 2012, that question can’t really be answered, can it?
This guy Aixa Wilson might be appealing to some at FDL if only for this comment:
The campaign website is here. He has some kind of military service background and said he would have preferred running as “unaffiliated” but would have needed 16,000 signatures by June so he chose to pay the filing fee to run as a Democrat instead.
Then the options left are: stay home, vote third party, or vote republican..they will be my options ..if they are deliberately trying to save incumbants jobs..well..I will chose one of these options!
I know it’s late but, recommended. This thread turned the corner nicely from yesterday evening through this morning until this afternoon!
This is the silliest advise I see repeatedly on this blog.
And then you go on to say “POWER TO THE PEOPLE.”
Which people, keyboard warrior? The right-wing?
Agreed. Staying home is silly. There are too many local issues, plus you want your vote heard even if your guy doesn’t win. So go vote, and if you don’t like those on the ballot for Congress, leave that one blank, or write in your own candidate.
The only thing sillier would be to go vote for the Democrats again. That would really be silly (Doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result).
ALWAYS – NEVER – STOP
ALWAYS Vote.
NEVER Vote for fascist lackeys (99% ? of republicans?)
STOP voting FOR sell outs.
STOP checking off the names of sell outs.
I think a lot of the frustration / irritation / sickness / feed up-ed-ness comes from voting for sell outs in the belief / hope they wouldn’t be sell outs, and checking off the names of sell outs only to get sold out much worse than you could have imagined.
STOP voting FOR sell outs.
STOP checking off the names of sell outs.
Then you will continue to do what you have always done and you will continue to get what you have always gotten. That would be a Democratic establishment that could care less about liberal policies. You can lead a horse to water . . .
Don’t pout, vote!
At this late date those states that take money instead of signatures will be doable. If the incumbent does the right thing the challenger could always drop out.
If we miss primary filing dates in 2010, that doesn’t mean we have to wait for 2012. We can vote for third parties and work to defeat Democratic candidates who act like Republicans or like Obama drones. The next few years will be difficult ones.
There’s no indication that this Administration will restore our rights under the Constitution, or end the Great Recession through direct job creation, rather than just waiting for the real economy to hit bottom and for the private sector to decide to spend again. As we know, the financial system, health care, credit card, consumer protection, and cap-and-trade reforms are thoroughly penetrated and undermined by the respective industry lobbies the President and the Democrats are so friendly with. Meanwhile, both Wars are dragging on and eating our people and out treasure.
We have to recognize that this Administration is another enemy of the American people, and we have to do what we can to work for its defeat to: primary Democrats who support it; vote against blue dogs and Obama supporters whenever we get the chance even in general elections, and, in select situations, vote third party, or even vote Republican, if that’s our only chance getting rid of Democrats who won’t vote like Democrats, then we need to be ready to do that.
My sentiments as well, Lgid. The Democratic party must be delivered the biggest lump of turd in their sandwich that can possibly be delivered. If the ones that are left after November still can’t see that their choice is doing the bidding of the corporations one last time or to start doing the people’s work and put themselves in a position of political strength, then they will become extinct. For the rest of us:”the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”
Some people have wondered why the Full Court Press is focusing on the 2012 elections. Answer: because it is late to get much radical traction for 2010. As letsgetitdone states above, “There’s no indication that this Administration will restore our rights under the Constitution, or end the Great Recession through direct job creation.”
And I agree there are things to be done now. But we also hve to get off the treadmill of reacting too late to the latest atrocity and never hitting the decks full speed and fully prepared.
I’ve been wondering lately if federal congressional elections are really the most efficacious route to making waves in our political configuration. Have we considered state AG races, in states that have them? Those are the people we’re going to need as boots on the ground fighting back against all the bullshit that Congress passes.
Most efficacious? I don’t know. Let me give the merits of running in 435 congressional primaries.
A congressional primary is accessible to ordinary citizens with relatively small signature or filing fee requirements. On average (states vary a lot):
$1,358 filing fee or
693 signatures
The impact is national, and has strength by virtue of that, while state AG races are more obscure. Full Court Press would gain additional impact by the spread, even without winning a particular race. In additional, by going after a wide range of primaries, it indicts the entire the entire Democratic Party, while the “target the worst” approach feeds into a paradigm where the problem resides in the individual villains of the week.
This is not to discourage anyone from taking on an AG race.
You’re right, of course, Jeff. But if 2012 is the date of the real contest, 2010 is an opportunity for testing, training and building movements to provide the foundation for political change. Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and most of the rest of the Democrats in Congress have done us one favor; they have taught us, perhaps irrevocably, that today’s Democratic Party are the Party of the People no longer; and that there is no major people’s Party in America.
This means there is a political opening, a huge and very traditional gap in the American political space that is begging to be filled. Let us fill it with a new Party of the People! And let us put Obama and most of these feckless and faithless Democrats out of office and into the Corporate lobbying jobs that suit them so well.
I actually agree in principle. Problem is, so many of the filing deadlines have passed, and the time it takes to find a candidate with a small operation, get a ballot access campaign working and getting on the ballot will mean that too many of the rest will have done so also.
By mid-2011, we will have a larger presence, done more of the legal/technical preparation, and a larger group of activists in place.
Incidentally, Jerry Brown, running for Gov of CA is already wobbling on whether he would or would not veto a single payer bill handed to him by the CA legislature. Does he think voters in CA will suppport another waffling, b.s. artist in the mode of Obama? Schwarzeneggar twice vetoed the single payer bill, and so now comes Dem. Brown dancing around the issue. I just wrote his office, that unless he pledges to support and sign a single payer bill, that he’s lost my vote. I hope others will do the same and flood his e mailbox. Given Anthem’s 39% premium hike, Brown would be foolish to play it safe
in the gray middle.
I can name 3 colas better than the two leading brands but they are only a niche market that would sell huge amounts of they carried the cola brands that people take seriously. Primaries are relatively easy to win with a strong message and the ability to get it in front of the primary voters.
Especially if you run unopposed. Otherwise it gets a little harder.
This seems like a stupid thing for the democrats to do, once again. If they vote against what they have pledged and we have pledged to vote against them for violating their pledge, we won’t have anyone on the democratic ticket to vote for. I am afraid there are enough democrats out that that will vote for anyone with a D and Rahm and Obama know that.