Ed Markey Won The Senate Seat-- Now Let's Make Sure Carl Sciortino Wins Ed's Old House Seat

Carl and Ed, Massachusetts progressives

Only weak minded and self-deluded Republicans were surprised by Ed Markey's healthy win yesterday in the Massachusetts special election to fill John Kerry's old Senate seat. Markey has been the foremost champion of climate change amelioration of any elected official in the entire federal government. And the Republicans put up some wealthy, crooked, right wing businessman to oppose him. Gomez spent his last days of the campaign blaming his defeat on the Republican Party. "They're wrong on too many issues. I mean, you know, you gotta realize, they gotta realize we’re in the 21st century." That helped Markey run away with a 10 point lead yesterday, despite the last minute flood of money from rich rightists and hatemongers from around the country.

As Alan Grayson, Markey's colleague in the House, put it last weeked, "Who cares about climate change? Ed Markey does." Grayson explained what thay means for the country.

Ed Markey served as the one and only Chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, during its four years of existence. Let me explain to you what an utterly thankless job that is. If you are the Chair of a committee on global warming, you've got Big Oil against you. You've got the electrical utilities against you. You've got the auto manufacturers against you. You've got the pipeline and tanker and drilling companies against you. What kind of person would want all of those headaches, just for a shot at saving Planet Earth?

Ed Markey. That kind of person.

After the Democrats took over the House in 2007, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wanted action on climate change, so she chartered a new House Committee, and put Ed Markey in charge of it. The Republicans named Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) as their Ranking Member. Sensenbrenner has said that the science of climate change is a "global conspiracy." Sensenbrenner has said that labeling carbon dioxide as a pollutant is "propaganda." Mocking concerns over climate change, Sensenbrenner once suggested that we "put catalytic converters on all our noses." Ignoring the havoc that climate change and extreme weather have wrought, Sensenbrenner suggested that climate change might help "crop yields go up." When Nobel Prizewinner Paul Krugman called climate denial "treason against the planet," Sensenbrenner boasted, "I plead guilty as charged."

For almost four years, Markey and Sensenbrenner battled it out, through 80 committee hearings and briefings. Markey gamely publicized clean energy technology, and the risks caused by climate change. Markey pushed forward legislation like H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (which passed the House, and then Republicans filibustered it to death in the Senate). Markey's Committee educated the nation about global warming facts both horrifying (according to the World Health Organization, climate change already causes 150,000 deaths each year) and ironic (by 2030, there will be no glaciers in Glacier National Park). Markey faced down Big Oil, and ignored the steady drumbeat of nonsense and distraction from the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-evil Republican tools and zealots on the Committee.

With enemies like that, Ed Markey needs friends. And deserves them.

When the Republicans took over the House of Representatives after the 2010 election, they shut down Ed Markey's Committee. But Ed Markey remains the leading environmentalist in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Who speaks for the trees? Ed Markey does.

No one thinks Markey's win yesterday means it's time to relax. In fact, the very next thing we need to do is fill Markey's own House seat. It's a deep blue district and a Democrat will certainly win there. While Obama was winning the state of Massachusetts last November with 61% of the vote, he was winning Markey's district (MA-05) with 65%-- while Markey was being reelected with a stunning 77%! There are 24 counties in the district and Markey won every one of them. His "weakest" performance was a healthy 58% win in Southborough. There are a number of Democrats running for the seat, even progressives, but only one, state Rep. Carl Sciortino, is of a leadership caliber worthy of Ed Markey and the kind of people who elected Ed Markey. Grayson is meeting Carl today to give him some advice about how to win his race. And Blue America endorsed him a couple of months ago.

"Ed Markey’s win today," Carl told us last night, "is not just a victory for the people of Massachusetts, but a victory for the progressive movement. As Americans, we are fortunate to have his voice in the Senate-- but it comes at the cost of losing a true progressive leader in the House. There are real differences in the race to replace Senator-Elect Markey and we, as a movement, need to come together and make sure his legacy as a progressive leader in the House continues." Amen! And there's no one running quite like Carl, one of the organizers of the Massachusetts legislature's progressive caucus.

He reminded me that "in 2004, I was told by my Democratic state representative that 'we’ve done enough for ‘you people,’ when I asked him why he wouldn’t support marriage equality. Then and there, I decided to run against him in the Democratic primary-- and I beat him by 93 votes. When I got to the Massachusetts House, I was told by liberal members that the state wasn’t yet ready for a Transgender Equal Rights bill, but I filed the bill, organized a coalition, and now Massachusetts has protections for its transgender citizens. When the Democratic leadership decided to slash the retirement funds public sector employees had been promised when they signed up for their jobs, I stood up to the Democratic leadership and fought and voted for middle class workers."

Yes, so maybe you can see why Blue America-- and why House progressives-- are so enthusiastic about Carl taking over Markey's seat. I just got off the phone with him and I hope I wrote this down right:

"In Washington, there’s no question we need more strong progressives-- not just working on issues of civil rights, but on issues of economic justice. Never in American history has the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us been so great. Families are working hard, but only just able to afford the bare necessities. I will sign onto the bill to raise the minimum wage and index it to the cost of inflation. I will join the fight to close corporate tax loopholes at the federal level, just as I did in Massachusetts. And as a citizen signer of the Grayson-Takano letter, I will fight to protect Social Security, as well as fight to keep protections for those living in poverty that are so often left out of the public debate. Please help me keep Ed Markey’s seat progressive by supporting my campaign."

Monday, Carl was one of the first Democrats to react to he misguided 5-4 Supreme Court decision against women's health. On the campaign stump for Markey at the time, he told supporters that “I was proud to author and pass the Buffer Zone Bill after witnessing patients and their loved ones force their way through protestors to get to a health clinic. I always respect the right to free speech-- but there is no right to harassment and brutal intimidation, which is exactly what was going on before the bill’s passage. This law is important to ensure women’s access to reproductive health, and this challenge is just another attack from the right in the war on women-- something I will continue to aggressively fight against as a member of Congress.” If that's the kind of congressmember you want to see working in DC, please consider giving him a hand here.



Carl's statement today after the Supreme Court ruling:

“When I first ran for State Representative in 2004, I couldn’t have imagined how much progress we would make on marriage equality in nine short years. We are headed to the day to all couples have the right to marry whoever they love in any state in the country. But we are not there yet. Today is a great step forward for the thousands of couples living in states with marriage equality, and I’m so proud of Massachusetts for being a leader for equal rights. We must keep working until there is true marriage equality in every state.”

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Republican Hatred Of Science (And Reality) Lends Itself To Comedy (As Well As Tragedy)

What a team!

There are several Republican polling firms who stay in business by telling Republicans what they want to hear. Mitt Romney actually believed he was going to win in November. He spent a small fortune on consultants and pollsters and instead of predicting a 332-206 electoral college sweep for President Obama they had persuaded Romney-- who lost the national vote by over 3.5 million-- that he should waste his time interviewing a transition staff and potential cabinet members. He didn't win a single close state and the only state even remotely considered part of the battleground he won was North Carolina, where Obama had been persuaded to give up on-- by reality-based pollsters-- in September. Romney won all the states any Republican would have won-- your Utahs and Wyomings, Mississippis and Texases-- and not a single other state. But a lot of consultants and pollsters got very rich in the process. And not just the clowns at Rasmussen, famous for making up numbers out of the blue.

The right-wing newspaper, the ridiculous Washington Times calls silly right-wing polling firm, McLaughlin & Associates "truly trustworthy" and "the best at scientifically taking the public's pulse and advising those who significantly shape public perception." Huh? They're never right about anything. Their latest poll-- meant to give hope to the dismal Republican candidate in the Massachusetts Senate race, Gabriel Gomez, so that conservative suckers keep writing checks (that enrich pollsters and consultants)-- shows a dead heat: Markey: 45% to Gomez 44%. "Conclusion: With less than 3 weeks to go to Election Day, Gabriel Gomez has the momentum in the race.  Gomez’s high favorable ratings will be a strong asset over Markey’s high unfavorable ratings in this neck-and-neck race."

In a hilarious series of tweets yesterday, a Daily Kos blogger routed the poor saps at McLaughlin & Associates, emphasizing their record for getting every single prediction wrong:

Real Clear Politics shows has a running average of all the legitimate polling in the race over the last month. The average shows Markey up by just over 10 points-- and in the most recent poll, by New England College, up over Gomez, 52-40%. That's 12 points. None of that seems to matter to Republicans, who continue squandering their donors' money on pollsters who paint them a pretty picture. Why would anyone hire McLaughlin & Associates after their hilarious predictions that Richard Mourdock would win in Indiana or that Republican Barry Hinckley was a mere 7 points behind Rhode Island incumbent Sheldon Whitehouse (who swamped Hinkley 65-35% and won every single county in the state except East Greenwich and Scituate, where it was neck and neck)?

And a new poll out today from WBUR shows Markey ahead 46-39%.

And the gap was yawning-- 26 points-- among those who said “women’s issues” are “very important.” Little wonder the Democrat has made abortion a central issue in the campaign.

Gomez’s standing among women, meanwhile, seems to be slipping. His favorable-unfavorable rating and vote totals among female voters both declined between the May and June WBUR polls.

...Women, who tend to vote in larger numbers than men, have proved a difference-maker in recent competitive Massachusetts elections.

Meanwhile, conservative Republicans don't trust Gomez, who has come across as shady, opportunistic and without core values, and recent surveys show the hard right of the GOP just sitting the race out and not bothering to get involved-- or even vote.

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Being A Leader Is Not The Same As Being Led Around By A Ring In Your Nose

Tuesday at a House Financial Services Committee meeting, Arizona freshman Kyrsten Sinema, who's racked up one of the most reactionary voting records of any Democrat in Congress, might have thought no one was looking when she sold out her own constituents in favor of Wall Street banksters. She backed all the GOP's deregulation proposals and then touted it in the Democratic caucus. She wasn't who I was talking about here... but she certainly could have been.

Adam Pase, the corporate-oriented Executive Director of the corrupt New Dems sent around a "dear colleague" letter Tuesday, shilling an OpEd by John Delaney, an extremely wealthy New Dem from Maryland who thinks-- like Republicans-- that working people need to have the retirement age raised and that the Chained CPI is a swell idea.

The last time Congress played politics with the debt ceiling, in the summer of 2011, we wounded our economy. We sent a message to the markets that we were considering destructive actions, and they listened. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2,000 points, and August 2011 was the worst month for private-sector job creation in the past three years. For the first time ever, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the nation’s credit rating.

Instead of making the same mistake, we should do the hard work required to reach a long-term grand bargain. This means three things: (1) reforming entitlements by adopting a form of “chained CPI” to lower the long-term costs of these programs, adjusting the retirement age for those not engaged in manual labor and raising the cap on Social Security taxes; (2) generating more revenue through a “Buffett rule” approach that makes sure high-earners pay a similar rate to that of the middle class and by closing certain corporate tax loopholes while lowering corporate tax rates; and (3) adjusting discretionary and defense spending to better reflect our country’s priorities, which are vastly different than the indiscriminate cuts imposed by the sequester. With this framework, we can manage our fiscal trajectory in the next 10 years, and beyond, while also investing in our children, caring for the less fortunate and protecting our nation.

And just when the fake progressive New Dem from Phoenix was making Wall Street crooks very, very happy, Ed Markey was taking a courageous and principled stand against the Obama/Boehner scheme to wreck Social Security-- Chained CPI.

It's a complicated-sounding name that boils down to this: Social Security benefits for seniors would be cut. You could think of "CPI" as meaning "Cutting Peoples' Income."

This is a wrong-headed move. Too many seniors -- almost two-thirds, in fact -- rely on Social Security for at least half of their income. Budgeting requires compromise, but we cannot compromise by cutting Social Security.

Democrats won huge victories in 2012. We reelected President Obama. We held the Senate and made gains in the House. We don't need to roll over to the right wing when it comes to budget choices.

There's plenty in the President's budget I agree with. But Chained CPI is just a bad idea. Investing in clean energy, education, and infrastructure should not come with the price tag of going back on America's promise to our seniors.

Tea Party Republicans may have pushed the President into making tough decisions. But that doesn't mean that this budget is right or fair for the most vulnerable among us.

Don't expect heroism from the Kyrsten Sinemas of the word. Careerism... sure, but not heroism or anything remotely resembling courageousness. Steve Israel dictates her votes; he told the "Frontline Democrats" how to vote and there are only 7 of them who have followed his orders "100% of the time," to quote one of them feeble enough to send me a note about it defending a crap record. These are the 7 freshmen with 40% ProgressivePunch scores (same as right-wing sociopath Paul Broun (R-Pit of Hell)-- who have voted as a block 60% of the time against progressive positions on crucial roll calls:

• Dan Maffei (New Dem-NY)
• Bill Foster (New Dem- IL)
• Cheri Bustos (IL)
• Ann Kuster (NH)
• Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY)
• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)
• Kyrsten Sinema (New Dem-AZ)

The only House Members with worse voting records for the current session are

• Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog/New Dem-NC)- 36.84
• Ron Barber (New Dem-AZ)- 35.0
• Bill Owens (New Dem-NY)- 35.0
• Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)- 20.0

And like we watched Sinema doing in her committee today, they do more damage behind the scenes than they do with their actual floor votes. That's why Blue America refused to back Sinema last year and why we'll never back her in the future. We're looking for independent-minded progressives with backbone and good values. Today while she was on the deregulation tip for Wall Street we were blogging with a proven progressive champion from Pennsylvania, state Senator Daylin Leach, his state's Liberal Lion, who's running for an open House seat in northeast Philly/Montgomery County. If you can't go read the entire chat (at the link in the last sentence), take a look at these two questions and answers. The first one was from me:

Will getting an "F" from the NRA hurt you at all in this district-- in either the primary or the general election? Hard to imagine Toomey actually doing the right thing-- at least on background checks. Although I noticed he reverted to form when it came to banning military assault weapons and high capacity clips. Toomey voted against them.

Daylin Leach

First, if it did hurt me, I wouldn't care. This is such a no-brainer issue with stakes so high, that I would happily lose an election before I abandoned my principles on this. That said, the people of Philadelphia know the price we pay for irrational gun policies. The carnage on our streets is something they witness first-hand every day. I can't imagine that there are very many voters out there who really believe that we should NOT KNOW if someone is a violent felon before they are permitted to buy a weapon of mass destruction, or that somebody legitimately needs a 30 round clip.

And the other question came from Lynda Benigno who I don't remember ever seeing at a Blue America chat before:

Daylin, I have noticed on social networking sites Marijuana Legalization is a hot topic. Is that, along with GMO food labeling something you are looking to pursue on the federal level?

Daylin Leach

Lynda, as Sarah Palin would say, You Betcha. Prohibition is a pernicious and cruel policy which is destroying lives and costing us billions each year. And every American has a right to know what they are feeding to their families and decide what is best after being fully informed.

See if you can ever get straight-forward unambiguous answers like that out of someone like Sinema or any DCCC careerist shill. Which is why Sinema and other DCCC careerist shills are never on this page, where you can lend some support to actual Democrats from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, as Howard Dean put it so presciently not all that long ago.

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Massachusetts Senate Primary-- One Week From Today

The special election to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat that was given up on February 1 by John Kerry is June 25th. However, in a state where former governor Mitt Romney only received 37% of the vote last November-- and where every vaguely plausible Republican demurred-- the Democratic primary a week from today (April 30) is probably the place where the race will be won or lost. Blue America has endorsed Ed Markey-- and if you'd like you can contribute directly to his campaign here. So far Markey has raised $4.7 million to his primary opponent, ConservaDem Stephen Lynch's $1.5 million and Republican front-runners Michael Sullivan's $174,000 and Daniel Winslow's $395,000.

Yesterday the state's biggest and most respected newspaper, the Boston Globe endorsed Markey against Lynch. Markey is leading by 10 points in the most recent polling. (The same poll shows Republican Gabriel Gomez, who was endorsed by ex-Gov. William Weld today, leading Michael Sullivan, 33 to 27%, while state Rep. Dan Winslow has 9%.)

[A]fter 37 years of legislative action-- sometimes fruitful, sometimes fruitless, always engaged-- Markey is seeking to move to the Senate. His primary-election rival, fellow US Representative Stephen Lynch, casts Markey as a creature of Washington, beholden to its ways. It’s an understandable argument for Lynch, since many voters are frustrated with the paralysis in the capital, and looking for ways to register their disapproval.

But it’s hard to see what Ed Markey has to do with the partisanship and discord that have turned people against Congress. He’s a happy warrior, eager to join with Republicans on matters of national importance. To reject Markey simply because he knows how to get things done wouldn’t be a blow against congressional dysfunction; it would further it.

Like Markey, Lynch is also a long-serving congressman, albeit for 12 years. But he is, for better or worse, an antiestablishment figure. He doesn’t seek to be part of the congressional leadership, and tends to go his own way on major votes. Like former Senator Scott Brown, Lynch sometimes seems to believe the job of legislator is to wait until others have shown their cards-- until all the hard work of drafting bills is done-- and then vote thumbs up or thumbs down. He famously turned thumbs down on Obamacare, despite passionate entreaties from most of his colleagues in the Massachusetts delegation, President Obama, and Vicki Kennedy.

Lynch’s complaints about some of the details of the act were reasonable, but his decision to oppose it wasn’t; opportunities to reform health care come along every two decades or so, and passing one up would have been disastrous. Of course, Lynch’s career shouldn’t be judged solely by the times he’s bucked the system: In some areas, such as providing congressional oversight of the Afghan war and reforming the postal service, Lynch has been a diligent House member. But he’s chosen, in this campaign, to present himself as a principled outsider taking on the ultimate company man. The alleged company man, however, has delivered more for the people of Massachusetts; the achievement gap between Markey and Lynch is vast.

Markey has been the House’s main architect of federal telecommunications policy, guiding the creation of millions of jobs-- including many in Massachusetts. He’s also a leader in energy policy, and the prime mover of the far-reaching bill to address climate change that passed the House in 2009 but got bottled up in the Senate. He helped create the legislation that enabled President Obama to negotiate a 54.5 mpg fuel-economy standard for the 2025 model year-- one of the greatest accomplishments of Obama’s first term. The list goes on and on.

Of course, some Lynch supporters hope that voters’ eyes will glaze over, and that Markey’s work will morph into images of tedious congressional hearings and floor fights. There have been plenty of those, but Markey hasn’t lost his connection to the values of Massachusetts Democrats. On some values issues, such as abortion rights and gun control, he’s been a more forceful advocate than his rival.

Still, Lynch deserves credit for making the race. He’s brought needed competition to the short special-election campaign. He’s forced Markey to be a better candidate. Most Democratic strategists and power brokers preferred to clear the field for Markey. Lynch stepped forward anyway-- and rightly so. But Markey didn’t get where he’s gotten because of strategists and power brokers. It took hard work, through years of laying groundwork for measures that improved people’s lives... He is the best choice for Bay State Democrats.

Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey will make one of the most effective, motivated and powerful teams any state has in the U.S. Senate, something like the polar opposite of Cornyn and Cruz in Texas.

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