This week, there has been lots of discussion about the 15-18 districts that Joe Biden won in 2020 – the ones that currently have GOP representatives – and the role they will play in what does and doesn’t happen in the 118th Congress.
In the comments on Sunday, rikyrah had a suggestion for the Democratic Party:
Set up PR camps in each of those “Biden” districts. Amplify every crazy vote those representatives take for Squeaker. Make them defend their votes to their constituents; make them defend their lunacy. Pound away for the next two years, and don’t let our foot off their necks.
What if we tried to cover that here?
We would need :
- list of the districts won by Biden, who have republican representatives
- names of the republican representatives and the states / districts they represent
- one or two people to document how these reps vote on crazy votes they take for the Squeaker
- one or two people from each of those districts who watch media coverage of these reps in their district
- one or two people who are willing to contact the media in their district to work the refs and get coverage of votes
That looks doable to me, if there’s interest. What say you? Any volunteers?
Open thread.
Update:
District Representative
AZ-01 David Schweikert
AZ-06 Juan Ciscomani
CA-13 John Duarte
CA-22 David Valadao
CA-27 Mike Garcia
CA-40 Young Kim
CA-45 Michelle Steel
NE-02 Don Bacon
NJ-07 Thomas Kean Jr.
NY-01 Nick LaLota
NY-03 George Santos
NY-04 Anthony D’Esposito
NY-17 Michael Lawler
NY-19 Marcus Molinaro
NY-22 Brandon Williams
OR-05 Lori Chavez-DeRemer
PA-01 Brian Fitzpatrick
VA-02 Jen Kiggans
Misreading Merrick Garland
Righteous Hazard
As I am unwinding my dependence on Twitter as an immediacy/advocacy news feed, I am re-invigorating my rss/blog feeds as part of the effort to try to make up. I will be watching this space for exactly this kind of content.
BlueGuitarist
R representatives in Biden districts
AZ-01 David Schweikert
AZ-06 Juan Ciscomani
CA-13 John Duarte
CA-22 David Valadao
CA-27 Mike Garcia
CA-40 Young Kim
CA-45 Michelle Steel
NE-02 Don Bacon
NJ-07 Thomas Kean Jr.
NY-01 Nick LaLota
NY-03 George Santos
NY-04 Anthony D’Esposito
NY-17 Michael Lawler
NY-19 Marcus Molinaro
NY-22 Brandon Williams
OR-05 Lori Chavez-DeRemer
PA-01 Brian Fitzpatrick
VA-02 Jen Kiggans
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: Items 1 and 2. Check and check!
Thank you!
WaterGirl
Hmmm, maybe the lack of response is a resounding no? Hopefully not!
It’s still an open thread.
edited
piratedan
I think this is a worthy pursuit, just saying.
The Ciscomani seat is gettable, I think Schweikert is too, out here in AZ. If those two go along with all of the GOP agenda promoted by Biggs and Gosar (and Lesko), tie them to those extremists, then there’s a good chance those will tumble.
persistentillusion
@WaterGirl: Give it some time. It’s been a slow couple of days, post-wise
ETA: I think it’s a good concept, relatively easy to execute and probably impactful.
Dagaetch
I am…uh…not volunteering for anything, don’t live in any of the districts anyway, but if it helps anyone else, you can sign up to track specific Members votes at https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members. Either an RSS feed or email alerts.
Victor Matheson
That list just shows how badly the Dems in NY screwed up this election. The Dems win 5 of the 6 districts in the state that Biden won and we are talking about Speaker Jefferies (who would not have taken 1,318 votes to get elected speaker…)
WaterGirl
@Victor Matheson: No kidding.
Barbara
VA-02 is basically the area surrounding Norfolk and the more urban parts of the Hampton area — Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, plus the VA parts of the Delmarva Peninsula. The latter are probably sparsely populated compared to Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, which has been a growing area.
Barbara
@Victor Matheson: I keep telling myself to get over it, but it does kind of all go back to the megalomaniac governor Andrew Cuomo who really hated the idea of having to cede power to anyone, including other Democrats.
SoCalKaren
I signed up to track my rep (Young Kim, CA40) to see how MAGA she is. She won against a weak candidate here. Redistricting was brutal here in OC. I don’t expect much; she’s a typical backbencher who will go along with the crowd.
rikyrah
Thanks for this post.
I honestly believe that this is money well spent for the Democratic Party.
Billboards, Ads,
We need to hound these clowns.
Neldob
Wonderful Watergirl! Great idea!
Qrop Non Sequitur
@WaterGirl: I’d volunteer but I’m notoriously bad at extracurriculars. That’s why I usually quietly find a way to help without promising anything and setting an expectation.
Eta: What I may do is bookmark the list and maybe research some sources for anyone who wants to do a writeup. I will do this at any random time for any random person on the list
I have 100 percent D congressional representation in my state so none of those are my Congressfolk.
Renie
I am stuck with George Santos. After having Peter King all those years this is a complete disaster. I haven’t been active locally since running MoveOn in my district the first year Obama ran but I am getting back in to work my ass off to get rid of the fraud Santos. But I hope he is gone by then. NY-CD3
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
Good idea WG, I can help watch Fitzpatrick, but I’m not in his district for contacting media.
Victor Matheson
@Barbara: To be a little fair to Dems, I thought the idea of redistricting the Republicans out of existence in NY was a good one, but you can’t do that unless you are sure the courts are on your side. And thanks to stupidity on the part of Cuomo, they were not.
And therefore instead of getting a map moderately tilted in their favor they got a mildly Republican-friendly map in a deep blue state. Just stupid.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Renie: I’ve been eager for some local perspective: What was your perspective on the Zimmerman campaign? What did they do right and wrong? Same for Santos: Why did people vote for him? What did he campaign on? My impression is turn-out was way down in that district. Were Normies talking about the race at all?
If you have time and don’t mind sharing your opinion.
Karen A
I would be happy to do this. We need to get the word out about the crazy. I live in CA so could focus CA 13 Duarte. Keep us posted on what to do next. I really want to take some action!
Anyway
The new Rules package (that weakens the ability of the Congressional Ethics office) was passed by a vote of 220-213 – just one of the so-called “moderate” Rethugs voted against it.
Qrop Non Sequitur
In other words we have, at most, one moderate Republican in the house. Maybe.
AM in NC
I think this is a great idea. I don’t live in any of those districts, and there are none in my state, but I would be happy to volunteer to try to follow votes and whackadoo statements one of them put out. I won’t see local coverage, though.
Anyway
@rikyrah:
Yes to billboards…
Bobby Thomson
@Dagaetch: Thanks. I am informally tracking three of them.
WaterGirl
I think we could have a couple of people who watch for votes in the House – and report on YES/NO for all 18 of these folks.
Then we just need a way to communicate about it – I can handle setting up that end of things.
Then we need one or two people in each district who are willing to watch for media coverage and another one or two in each district who are willing to contact the media. (could be the same person for both, or not, depending on interests).
WaterGirl
@piratedan: Thank you. I marked those two as potentially gettable.
WaterGirl
@persistentillusion: Thanks for the encouragement!
WaterGirl
@Dagaetch: Looks like hat would be a great resource for the one to two people we need to follow the voting.
WaterGirl
@Victor Matheson: I think there were a few “own goals” for Dems in the House races.
The only bright side of that is that it’s a wake-up call for people/states not to be complacent for 2024.
WaterGirl
@SoCalKaren: Great!
I’m hoping we can find a couple of people to be able to let us know how all 18 vote, when there are votes.
So are you volunteering to watch media coverage for this rep in CA?
Or to be willing to contact media to get coverage for bad votes?
Or both?
Renie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: As you know media has been an impact on how people vote (also tribalism). We had the governor’s race at the same time between Kathy Hochul & Lee Zeldin. We only have one Long Island paper Newsday which is mostly now AP & Reuters reports and a lot of the smaller area papers are gone. CD-3 was part of Queens (NYC) north shore of LI down to mid-central LI. There was one North Shore local paper that reported on some of Santos lies. No other media was interested. Everything you heard, radio, local news was all about the governor race and topics ran thru the GOP megaphone of crime & inflation primarily NYC crime. My husband has a NYC news radio on in the AM and we never heard so much reporting on crime than during that period. (Since the race, hardly anything unless it is a brutal crime. ) Zimmerman’s team did have some research on Santos, but again, how do you get the word out over a large area if the media isn’t interested. The NYC and Nassau County Democrats thought it was an easy win and didn’t help much. When Zeldin started to get up in the polls late in the race then they got nervous and started but I think it was too little too late. I also think Zeldin brought out a lot of GOP voters who just voted straight ticket. Zeldin is a favorite with the trump crowd and we are starting to see more of that faction on Long Island.
This year Santos got 142,017 votes, Zimmerman got 120,060. There are about 530,000 active registered voters in NY CD 3 in 2022. In 2020, the districts were different and Santos ran against Tom Suozzi and lost. In 2020 I was in 2nd CD with Andrew Garbarino.
Hope this answers your questions.
WaterGirl
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
That would be a huge help. Research and writing aren’t necessarily the same skill sets or the same interests.
WaterGirl
@Renie: Are you volunteering to watch for media coverage and / or to contact the media to get them to cover his (surely) terrible votes?
WaterGirl
@Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): I hope to have a couple of people who can watch for votes from all 18 in the House.
Could you watch for local media coverage of Fitzpatrick?
WaterGirl
@Karen A: If someone else watches for the votes of all 18 of these reps, could you watch for local media coverage and contact local media to make sure they are covering the awful votes?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Renie: thanks, that’s the kind of local perspective I think has been missing from this discussion
It’s so easy to not take Zeldin seriously, but then the same is true of trump….
Chris Hayes had on a Newsday reporter who, per Hayes, had done several stories about the suspicious nature of Santos’s financial dealings, but Newsday has a paywall this dummy couldn’t get around.
WaterGirl
@Anyway: Wow, so all the rules were in one package, and they passed the whole thing in one fell swoop?
Only 1 R voting against it? Who was that, do you know? That might be someone to watch.
*I also still think we should watch every single special election like a hawk, and write postcards and raise money for anything with a chance of being winnable.
Which should include all of these purple districts, for sure.
Bobby Thomson
A number of bills have been introduced, the vast lot of them insane. Doggett has been cranking out serious bills, particularly regarding Social Security.
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/browse#sort=-cosponsor_count
cain
@Renie: dude ran before and nobody had any dirt on him until after he got elected? shit.
Gravie
I am in a politically active group of old hippie types and environmentalists in Lori Chavez-Deremer’s district. Many of us worked doggedly for her opponent. I’ve copied the post and will share it with them at our Friday meeting.
Bobby Thomson
@WaterGirl: It was Fernandez, who said upfront he would be voting against.
Gravie
I am in a politically active group of old hippie types and environmentalists in Lori Chavez-Deremer’s district. Many of us worked doggedly to get her opponent elected. I’ve copied the post and will share it with them at our Friday meeting.
Suzanne
@Renie: So that is the district where I was born and lived until I was 9, and my family lived there for decades. SuzMom and I were commiserating about it last night. Sigh.
Renie
@WaterGirl: I’m retired now and am willing to do whatever I can to help. I’ll do everything if you want. If someone else wants to be involved in the district great, I can play with others. LOL But I’m determined to work locally also to get rid of this guy. Just let me know how you want me to proceed.
Though we were unsuccessful, I worked years locally trying to get rid of Peter KIng.
prostratedragon
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If you can turn off their scripts, you should be able to read the article. Maybe disable javascript in your browser if you’re not running a script manager.
Renie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I grew up on Long Island and Newsday was always in our house. Except for living in Bklyn when first married, again started reading it when we moved to LI. Stopped it when they endorsed Peter King. They claim a million subscribers a week but don’t specify if that includes paper & digital. There was a scandal back in 00s that they were inflating circulation numbers by 15%. They use to have a version just for NYC but that closed in the 1990s. Try a private browsing window or clean your cache to see if you can get pass the firewall.
BlueGuitarist
@WaterGirl:
tony gonzalez TX-23
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3806202-rep-tony-gonzales-is-lone-gop-vote-against-house-rules-package/
WaterGirl
@Bobby Thomson: Wow, they are really going to town!
I really hope we can get a couple of people who are willing to track votes for these 18.
WaterGirl
@Bobby Thomson: Interesting. And he’s not one of the 18, so not in a purple district?
Jowriter
@Dagaetch: This is an awesome tool! Lawler (ugh) is my new R congressperson in NY-17. Signed up and ready. I am still fuming that Maloney lost this, and kicking Lawler’s backside for his nefarious activity warms my heart.
WaterGirl
@Renie: That’s great! I’ve got you down to watch media coverage and contact the media to make sure they are covering the votes.
thank you.
Renie
@cain: In 2020 he ran in a district I wasn’t in so I didn’t know anything about him. He ran against Tom Suozzi, who had been Nassau County Supervisor and was a pretty sure bet. I don’t know if back then they really checked into him. Suozzi got 208,412 votes, Santos got 161,907 votes. The precentages ran almost exactly the same as the BIden/Trump race
WaterGirl
@Jowriter: Are you signing up for Lawler in NY-17?
To watch local media for coverage and contact local media to make sure they are covering the awful votes?
Jowriter
@Jowriter: Happy to let you know here when and how Lawler (NY-17) votes. Will see what I can do about local media–I’m always letter writing to my local paper.
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@WaterGirl: Yes, I follow several local PA news sites. I will keep an eye out.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
Alabama 6th – I’ve got Gary Palmer. Yuk.
I miss Terri Sewell in the 7th.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Renie:
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The North Shore Leader. a local Long Island newspaper, published an article about George Santos’ net worth https://www.theleaderonline.com/single-post/santos-filings-now-claim-net-worth-of-11-million before Newsday, but no other news outlet picked up on it.
The North Shore Leader doesn’t have an impressive website and it does not include dates for its articles, but now that Santos is on the radar of the national media they may devote more of their resources to covering him.
Here’s another article from their website
https://www.theleaderonline.com/single-post/the-leader-told-you-so-us-rep-elect-george-santos-is-a-fraud-and-wanted-criminal
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
One thing we need to be ready to hammer all rethugs on is the fact that the USSC overturned Roe on the basis that there is NO Right to Privacy in the US Constitution, in their opinion.
Cheri
GovTrack.us tracks their votes and sends them right to your email. You need to specify the congressperson though. My rep is Schweikert in AZ1. Helpful tool. Great suggestion
Leslie
I’m in Mike Garcia’s district. If someone else is willing to follow the local coverage, I can do media contacts.
Renie
@WaterGirl: The local media is all over Santos now plus the national media. How do you want us to do this? You just want us to do this on our own or is there going to be some procedure for us to ‘report’ in?
C Stars
Also not in any of these districts, but this is a really smart suggestion. Please keep us updated–I would like to contribute to a fundraiser at some point to pay for billboards or whatever it takes.
WaterGirl
@Leslie: That’s great! thank you
WaterGirl
@Renie: Once I see that we have several / most / all of these 18 covered, I’ll work out a way for us to all communicate.
WaterGirl
I will keep checking back in for a day or two for more responses and (hopefully!) more volunteers.
CaseyL
I think this is an excellent idea!
I’m not in a position to do any of the heavy listing, but am in a position to contribute for billboards.
Vec
I’d love to help for NJ-7, but that district has always been a conservative stronghold between the trumpers and the chamber of commerce types and I’m not sure of the good it would do. Malinowski, as great as he was, was sadly, an anomaly and the redistricting made it worse.
Renie
@Vec: My daughter was a summer intern for Tom at the State Dept and she thought he was a great guy. Was so sad to see Kean replace him.
Louise B.
I live near Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s district, and would be willing to volunteer for watching her votes and the media coverage (but not media contact – that’s not my jam). I watched that race with interest, and think the seat can definitely be won in 2024 by a Democrat if the party picks its candidate with care.
JAFD
Looked for maps of NJ 7th – Kean’s district. Best I found from first page of Google search are
https://www.njredistrictingcommission.org/adoption2022map.asp
https://nj1015.com/what-district-are-you-in-now-a-guide-to-new-nj-congressional-map/
The NJ-7th crosses the state, from the Delaware to the Arthur Kill shore in Linden. Don’t know the population of the municipalities, where the votes are, but does include some beautiful countryside in Warren and Hunterdon counties (bring money) including Trump’s golf club at Bedminster.
Anyway, RealSoonNow I plan to write a review of the rebuilt Tops Diner. Said to be one of the best in New Jersey (and, thus, the world), a half-hour walk therefrom can take you into four congressional districts.
ceece
CA 13 and CA 22 are both in the Central Valley and have incredibly low voter turnout numbers. Even though our ballots have been mailed directly to each registered voter for the last 2 years, the turnout is in the 32-40% range of eligible voters.
CA link to 2022 voter turnout by county here
I don’t know if more information about the new Reps will be effective, I think a more comprehensive approach of voter education like with Four Directions or the other local groups we supported in 2022 is necessary.
I canvassed in this area in 2018 with Swing Left, and it was tough going.
WaterGirl
@Vec:
If that’s the case, then NJ-07 may not belong on this list. I thought these were all purple district people. BlueGuitarist, is NJ-07 a district that Biden won?
BlueGuitarist
@WaterGirl:
NJ-07 Biden 51-Trump 47.4
however while Cory Booker carried the state 57-41
Booker only carried NJ-07 49.2 – 49.0
Rs carried NJ-07 for governor by ~ 11 points in both 2017 and 2021
US house 2022 incumbent D Tom Malinowski narrowly lost re-election to Tom Kean, Jr. son of former governor and R leader in state senate.
wealthiest CD in NJ, one of the wealthiest in the country.
Vec
@Renie: I was lucky to meet him a few times! Same!
FelonyGovt
@Leslie: I was really upset that we lost this district again. Only district wholly in LA County with an R rep. I would hope we’d get someone other than Christy Smith to run next time. For whatever reason, she just doesn’t seem to inspire people.
This is a great idea. I’m in Ted Lieu’s district, lucky me, but I do keep an eye on some of the other Southern CA districts (not volunteering right now, but maybe down the road).
Vec
@WaterGirl: Biden won the district 54.2 to 44.3 in 2020, but according to data from daily kos, with the redistricting he would have only won 51.1 to 47.3. (30 thousand extra people from an even more conservative area in Sussex county) We have a lot of former young people and families who moved here during the pandemic, but the old timers are still hanging on!
Geminid
@BlueGuitarist: I read that Malinowski had some stock trades that were thought to be damaging, and that Democratic redistricters pursued a “cut our losses” strategy, helping neighboring district Democrats to his detriment. Malinowski complained about this when the new map came out.
mvr
I heckle Don Bacon on twitter when he (or probably one of his minions who tweets for him) says stupid stuff (often) and might be willing to track what he votes for. But I don’t watch TV and only have on NPR in the car. I also don’t actually live in his District, since he represents mostly Omaha and I live in Lincoln. I’m also generally overcommitted w work and also some volunteer stuff. So someone else would be better about the contacting media thing.
WaterGirl
Tired tonight, so I will come back tomorrow and read the comments and reply to anyone who might be volunteering!
BlueGuitarist
@Geminid:
yep, Malinowski hurt himself with stock shenanigans, and redistricting hurt him (NJ redistricting is complicated)
Can’t find it now, but iirc Malinowski made some unusually gracious comments about redistricting.
as with other defeated Ds: $6 Million in negative ads is a lot
Geminid
@BlueGuitarist: Malinowski did pretty well under the circumstances.
He might do even better if he goes for a rematch. A Presidential year electorate should be more favorable. Plus, this radical Republican House Caucus could prove toxic for purple district Republicans like Kean.
Russ
Lurked here for a decade and have never before posted. My Rep is Pat Ryan but I live less than 2 miles from Mark Molinaro’s district (NY-19). I’d be happy to help.
MomSense
Fuck yeah! I am happy to write talking points/letters to the editor that people in those districts can use as they like.
StringOnAStick
@Gravie: I live in her district too and we are relatively new here. I would like to get connected with a local D group; WaterGirl has my email address and I hereby give him permission to give it to you.
Gravie
@StringOnAStick: Hey, nice to hear from you. Would love to have your address — lots of good activities for activism here.
Nora
I live in NY-17, and will also be glad to keep an eye on Lawler and follow the local coverage (local here meaning Westchester County and the NYC papers; I don’t have television so can’t talk about the tv coverage).
WaterGirl
I took a quick peek this morning and I’m excited to see the responses. I have quite a bit of work to do for my clients today, but I will get back to this as soon as I am done. thank you!
Friendly Neighborhood Economist
I’m in Molinaro’s district, sigh. I can keep an eye on the local media and stuff. Probably someone else would be better at communicating with them.
SuzieC
@CaseyL: Same.