Sarah Palin will be crying some hockey mom tears this morning, because her handpicked and heavily dog whistled true conservative fellow grizzly mama, Sarah Steelman, got beat last night in the Missouri Senate primary.
And DailyKos All-Star Darcy Burner kept up her defeated streak by losing the Congressional primary in Washington State’s 1st district, which is an open seat that’s been redistricted into a leans Democratic district. When she fell behind in the polls, Darcy broke a campaign pledge not to attack other Democrats by sending out a mailing likening her opponent, Susan DelBene, to Mitt Romney and accusing DelBene of election law crime that apparently had no basis in fact. I’m sure she’ll tell us all why that was consistent with progressive values during her keynote at the 2013 Netroots Nation.
What happened in your local primaries?
EconWatcher
So Senator McCaskill got the opponent she wanted. Maybe Senator Reid can give her some pointers on how to defeat a fundie nutjob, in a state where being a fundie nutjob is not necessarily a liability. Would be nice to hold on to this seat.
Baud
Sad to hear about Darcy’s behavior. I never had anything against her personally; just thought she couldn’t pull it off. Glad she lost in the primary rather than the general.
[email protected]
Steelman’s defeat was a devastating blow to politically ambitious GMILFS everywhere.
tofubo
in my local, i didn’t spend a dime and got 26% of the vote
if i didn’t spend two dimes, i couldda got 52% and won
oh whell…
Schlemizel
Ya know, I wish we could all piss on more liberal web sites here. Its so useful. Heaven forefend we all don’t follow the one true path(TM) of BJ in ways that we all love so much. Since there is never a disagreement about how we all think things are going here.
Chyron HR
@Schlemizel:
It’s really cute when the True Progressives act like their ideological purity is actually them making a stand AGAINST ideological purity.
Not especially convincing, but cute.
Shawn in ShowMe
Sarah Steelman is as close as you can get to a RINO in Missouri. Palin chose to endorse Steelman because she didn’t think a true conservative nutjob could win (ironic it, ain’t it?). Even McCaskill has been running ads that paint Akin as “too conservative” to bolster Akin’s primary chances among the faithful. While still an underdog, she polls better against him than the other two candidates.
Now that Akin is officially the candidate, we’ll see if there are enough independents, moderates and women who care about their reproductive rights in Missouri to keep Akin from taking the seat. It would help if Akin had personal baggage but he’s a garden variety wingnut, not Sharron Angle.
Marc
@4: I think the point is that you do want your candidates to be able to actually win elections, and continuing to push ones who can’t do so is actually not a wise strategy.
Dork
DKos, EmoProg capital of the interwoobz. Can we agree that they’ve outgrown their rep?
Cassidy
@Chyron HR: It’s not cute anymore.
Punchy
“Darcy Burner” sounds like a great name for a NASCAR driver or camping stove.
EconWatcher
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Don’t know much about Missouri, except that Obama isn’t doing at all well there. Do you think McCaskill can pull it off?
Punchy
@EconWatcher: I live in the KCMO metro area, so I’ll chime in: No way in hell she can win. Mizzou has gone full, unadulterated wingtard. I think the KS stink is infecting states around it.
dr. bloor
In the spirit of Calvin and Hobbes, and consistent with the anti-incumbent mood around the nation, Junior Bloor has decided not to return me to the office of Dad this year.
I’m thinking of buying a cat suit and volunteering myself for a BJ bleg.
John Cole
Actually, attacking Democrats IS entirely consistent with progressive values. Our progressive betters started attacking Obama before he was even inaugurated.
Donut
@Schlemizel:
The point is pretty obviously not about who is a better liberal or whose blog is representative of anything – the fucking point is how many elections does Burner have to lose before she fucking gives it it the fuck up?
But you go ahead and feel your butthurt if it makes you feel better.
The Ancient Randonneur
Aw shucks, New Hampshire’s Right Wing Mouthpiece (AKA the Union Leader) is all butt hurt about Harry Reid calling out Willard on the tax issue. Jesus! I just had my breakfast and I’m about to OD on the schadenfreude.
Shawn in ShowMe
Just a few examples of what we’re dealing with in Todd Akin:
Abortion – “Yes, I would support a constitutional amendment.”
Government Reform – Akin supports getting rid of the Departments of Energy, Education and Commerce. Good grief.
Federal Student Loans – He’s agin’ it. “America has got the equivalent of the stage three cancer of socialism because the federal government is tampering in all kinds of stuff it has no business tampering in.”
mistermix
@John Cole: That reminds me, I forgot to mention that one of those stories mentions that Darcy called Obama a “Republican” on Twitter last year. I guess that’s how you get around the pledge not to attack fellow Democrats – re-label them as Republicans.
Cassidy
@mistermix: Wow. The commentariat at FDL must have had a collective orgasm. Maybe that’s what knocked out my cable instead of the weather. Fuckin’ Firebaggers! I didn’t get to see last nights beach volleyball game.
Shawn in ShowMe
@EconWatcher:
Akin has about a 3 pont lead over McCaskill in recent polls. I expect that lead will diminish as Claire highlights his more unpalatable positions in her TV ads. She’s clearly the more likable candidate but the culture war being waged by the right is hot and heavy here. By culture war I mean, “Any friend of the Kenyan Usurper must pay for her defiance.”
Scott S.
@Schlemizel:
Heaven forefend we all don’t follow the one true path™ of BJ in ways that we all love so much.
Coming from a Firebagger, this is a bit rich.
Just Some Fuckhead
I remember when you guys could pull minimum 300 comments with one of these passive aggressive swipes at your own side. The times, dey is a changin’!
The Red Pen
@EconWatcher:
He was certainly the craziest in the field. Unfortunately, he’s a Republican and that’s not a liability for him. McCaskill is also not particularly bright (I want her to win, but I have to be honest here).
I’ll do what I can to support her win, but Nate Silver’s projection is for Republicans to take Missouri this year. Akin is a total POS, though, so let’s hope Claire can make that clear to voters.
different-church-lady
Sweet jesu… is there nobody DK embraces as a hero who isn’t a nutbag?
@Just Some Fuckhead:
It’s August. Everyone’s on the Cape.
Besides, it’s better than the actively aggressive swipes the peanut gallery at DK usually engages in.
Rusty
Although I agree with mistermix that Darcy might not be all that great a candidate, I do hope she stays involved and finds some niche to continue to serve progressive causes.
ruemara
@Rusty: Why? She has no track record of winning in her state, amoungst what should be her base. Perhaps her most effective role is to switch to being a republican and using her talents as effectively for their side.
Marc
So glad I didn’t give any cash to Burner this time around. Coffee is for closers indeed. Balloon Juice has now graduated from brightening my day to saving me money–and freeing it up for candidates who can win.
(not the Marc @8, btw)
Augie
I’m sorry, but it hasn’t quite been pointed out yet – What the hell is Darcy Burner’s unforgivable sin again? No honest to God. What the fuck is it? That she called Obama a Republican a year ago? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen worse criticisms of the President on this site recently (and deservedly so).
It’s a Democratic FAILING that we can’t elect our most progressive candidates in blue states. Republicans are wildly successful at doing this and their utter and complete success explains 80% of the rightward drift in this country over the last 20 years (that and voter realignment). I’m not sure why we feel the need to celebrate the loss of one of our own. If I’ve seen any candidate criticize Republicans as intensely as the best bloggers on Balloon Juice, it’s Darcy Burner. But, but, but, she criticized another Democrat? During a campaign!!!! Get the fainting couch!
The fact that she lost again is a greater indictment of us liberals than it is of Darcy Burner. We swear that barnstorming and pitchfork waving will win the day, and then, when someone has the courage to grab the pitchfork, we abandon them and celebrate their demise. I don’t get it.
Disco
Gotta say I’m liking the swipe at Daily Kos. The place approaches the maddening echo chamber of Free Republic at times. It’s obviously not as ridiculous as that, but say one doubtful thing about any of their All-Star candidates (Elizabeth Warren is this year’s All-Star in case you haven’t seen her mug on 9,000 of their posts) and it’s off with your head.
In fact, the biggest difference between DK and FR is that you don’t hear about Freepers crying after losing elections. Every time a Dem loses, somebody on DK admits to crying.
Davis X. Machina
This is not strictly true. Obama had to be inaugurated, that goes without saying, to show that the country has changed. Up until then you probably could have saved Obama, though.
But then, he should have resigned on the spot.
Because power corrupts, and the greater the power the greater the corruption. The only way to avoid corruption is to refuse complicity. And just think of the message such an act would have sent…
That would have let Biden become President, but that’s ok. o.k. because he’s a lifer politician, he has no soul. An up-front tool of the banksters, instead of a stealthy one — at least that’s honest.
Joel
I blame Susan Delbene’s awesome ads.
Mnemosyne
@Augie:
She is very bad at running for office, and yet insists on continuing to do so.
Frankly, we would all be much better off if she would be willing to work as a staffer for someone who is good at running for office, because she does have some good policy ideas. But, like it or not, in order to win an election, you need to be able to connect with the voters, and Burner has now proven three times that she can’t do it even in progressive/liberal districts. Time for her to take a policy or staff position somewhere and let someone who can do the job try their hand at running.
John Cole
@Augie:
She’s a terrible candidate and a terrible campaigner who keeps losing. At least this time she lost the primary so won’t blow the Democrats chances in the general.
Mind you, most of us here agree with damned near everything she stands for and believes, but she is just a terrible candidate. Mistermix discussed this at length here.
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne:
To be fair, two of those were in nominally blue districts against a sitting incumbent. Had it been an open seat, or even against somebody who didn’t have a Lifetime Network movie about them shown every other day, there’s a good chance she would have won.
DelBene sort of pissed me off with her commercials (“the one Democrat you can trust!”), but she had money and organization and she is going to win in November. If Burner had won it would still be a toss up.
The Moar You Know
Markos’ magic touch continues unabated.
ShadeTail
@Augie:
Kindly spare us your melodramatic bullshit. Nobody here has been hating on Burner. Either you know that full well and choose to ignore that in order to be a concern troll, or you idiotically haven’t been paying attention.
The only problem with Burner is that she is an ineffective candidate who very obviously doesn’t know how to run in an election. Acknowledging that fact isn’t the same as hating her. Rather, it is the necessary first step to either getting her to improve her game, or getting a better candidate.
burnspbesq
@Augie:
She loses elections that no Democrat should be able to lose.
burnspbesq
@Augie:
She loses elections that no Democrat should be able to lose.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Augie: Luckily, if history is any judge, two things will happen:
1. She’ll keep trying
2. The next time, she’ll do even better
She’s tenacious. This isn’t over.
Let the naysayers talk their shit. It doesn’t change the above.
Slownomad
@Augie: I’m in the 1st District. I voted for Suzan DelBene. Plain and simple, she has the best chance of keeping my district blue. Darcy could NOT pull it off. I didn’t give my vote to DelBene over Darcy because of anything said on the Net among Democrats. I didn’t give her my vote because she could only have a decent chance of winning within the confines of Seattle. The 1st is now comprised of the Eastside suburbs of Seattle and a great swath of relatively rural red country all the way up to the Canadian border. She won’t win those northern counties, but she’ll pull more votes from there than Darcy would have and she’s rock-solid in the Techie Eastside and even in pretty good with the Medina crowd. Plus she has the money and the backing to get the job done. For me, personally, it’s far more important not to have a teabagger for my Congressman than it is to give Darcy a shot at a new job again. She can always come back to PMing at Microsoft.
Geoduck
A little further south in WA state, I’m happy in my new Congressional district, which has cut us folks in the Soviet of Olympia free from the knuckledraggers in the backwoods further south. They can now elect GOP backbenchers like Jaime Herrera Beutler to their hearts content.
Real American
@Augie:
As other folks have said, Burner’s a loser. She lost both her previous bids for WA-08, even though the district is Democratic-leaning with a PVI of D+3. Plus, both of her failed bids were during years that were extremely favorable to Democrats (2006 and 2008). That was a seat that Democrats should have won a long time ago.
This time around Burner ran in WA-01, which is an open seat and an even-more Democratic seat. And yet, she couldn’t even make it through the primary. So I think it’s time for all of us to acknowledge that Darcy Burner is not a good candidate, should be putting her skills to use somewhere else, and should definitely stop sucking time, effort and money away from candidates who could actually win.
Real American
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
Actually, Burner has been trying and she’s been doing worse–she lost in 2006, she lost again in 2008 by a wider margin, and this time around she didn’t even survive the primary.
How many times does she have to lose before she gets the hang of it? Or can we just all recognize that some people aren’t cut out for electoral politics?
Look, I want there to be more progressives in Congress, but I don’t think it makes sense to keep backing someone who loses race after race. Again, some people just aren’t cut out for this–after three failed bids, it’s time to find new candidates to champion.
Slownomad
I wish people would stop saying that the 1st District is more blue than the 8th in WA. The 8th has never yet had a Democrat in the history of that district. Now it never will since it’s moved into even redder territory. And the 1st as it used to be WAS very Democratic. Now, with the addition of Whatcom, Skagit, and Snohomish counties it’s probably the most purple district in the US, let alone Washington State. It is not a blue district anymore. I wish it was. It’s now divided between the relatively blue, high population, techie eastside suburbs of King County and the very red, rural, agrarian northern counties. A Democrat winning in this district is not a given anymore.
David Koch
My goodness, such language!
David Koch
I never got the whole Darcy Burner is God thing.
Was it just group think?
Dean, Edwards had charisma. You can see why they attracted such a dedicated following. So too Elizabeth Warren.
But I’ve seen Darcy speak multiple times (after all, this was her 3rd congressional run), and while she’s a nice person, you can’t tell me she has anything close to Dean’s ability to get people outta their chairs.
And yet, if you went on GOS it was endless Darcymania.
It’s like Adam Sandler. He seems like a nice guy, but he doesn’t have a tenth of the ability of Colbert, and yet every summer a group think forms and people run to see his atrocious movies.
barry
“Loses races no democrat should be able to lose”?
“Leans blue district”??
You people are confused. WA-8 was drawn in ’82 to be a safe republican district. It has never elected a Democrat. Darcy did us all a service running a material, critical Left campaign against Reichert. I’m not going to argue about “she can’t win”. The truth is she hasn’t won. But the past two times she ran she was a heavy underdog in a safe Republican district and she came painfully close, while energizing Democrats in the Eastside. That’s a good thing.
David Koch
@Augie:
Who abandoned her?
She had the entire blogosphere behind her. She was the keynote speaker two months ago at Netroots Nation. Dailykos ran endless front page articles on her. Markos did numerous fund raisers. You can’t judge the blogosphere based on the heretics on Balloon Juice.
The blogosphere just isn’t the base. It may be one day. But until then it’s a mistake to get ones hopes up thinking wild enthusiasm on blogs translates into primary votes.
Davis X. Machina
@barry: How does a safe Republican district have a +3 Dem PVI?
David Koch
@barry:
If it’s so red, then how did Black Metrosexual Abe Lincoln win it by 7 pts?
barry
@Davis X. Machina: Hi
Davis,
It’s because it has many, many people who vote Democratic on the Presidential line and then vote for the bland, grey-faced Republican on the Representative line of the ballot. The district is full of suburban republicans who reject the social-conservative substance of the party, but will still vote for Repubs for congress. You don’t have to take my word for it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington's_8th_congressional_district
Rusty
To back up what John, Mistermix, and others are saying, Darcy has missed on some very basics of being a good candidate and learning from her mistakes. I volunteered for Darcy in 2006, while holding down a full time job. I phonebanked in the evenings twice, and doorbelled on the weekends, twice. I never saw her during those 4 times I was at campaign HQ. But she was a rockstar then, so I forgave her.
But then, she never called back. There was no reach out to see if there were some lessons learned from the loss, amongst her volunteers. Even today, she’s gotta have my name and number (neither of which have changed) on 4 separate sign up lists, not to mention in some computer, and I have not received a call. Candidates for school board, small town councils, state legislatures, would kill to have one more volunteer to help out on their next campaign. They would kill for phonebanking sign in lists.
Darcy takes the little things for granted. She jumped straight from private industry to a US Congressional race. Had she started at some smaller position, she might be a better candidate today as she would have learned the tougher lessons.