Democrats trying to unseat each other

[lpetrich]

Moroccan-Born Ihssane Leckey Runs for US Congress on Justice Platform -- for MA-04, the seat that Joe Kennedy III is vacating

... Moroccan immigrant Ihssane Leckey is campaigning for US Congress as an active leader in the fight for social justice.

“People are demanding change to a system run by rich white men for too long,” Leckey said in a recent campaign video. “I’m Ihssane Leckey, Donald Trump’s worst nightmare — a fearless woman of color, ready to end corporate greed.”

...
According to Leckey’s campaign website, her political platform is rooted in empowering working people, immigrant communities, communities of color, and others “who have been shut out of the political process.” She stresses that she is “running to create a government and an economy that guarantees justice and dignity for all.”

Advocating for universal family care, a green new deal, and medicare for all, the Moroccan-American candidate is actively involved in ending racial and economic injustices. She also places focus on investing in community development while initiating police reform efforts.

As well, Leckey is fighting to reduce gun violence, end mass incarceration, and promote Indigenous rights, gender equality, and disability justice.

She is endorsed by Ilhan Omar, among others.

... She vowed to reject all cash from lobbyists, fossil fuel and pharma donations, corporate PAC money, police union funds, and big-developer money.

“I took on Wall Street and refuse to accept a dollar from corporate PACS and lobbyists,” said Leckey.

...
The former Wall Street regulator came to the US from Morocco at the age of 20, paying her way through college with a string of minimum wage jobs.

 

[lpetrich]

In the Race for Joe Kennedy’s Successor, an Anti-Kennedy Emerges - The American Prospect

So far, the race is a nine-candidate free-for-all, with a crowded middle lane of suburban moderates vying for the seat, and one progressive firebrand, Ihssane Leckey, standing apart. Leckey, a Moroccan immigrant and former Wall Street regulator, may just be able to use her progressive politics and foregrounding of racial equity to power past the array of empty suits. It would be fitting, as she represents the diametric opposite of the Kennedy dynasty.

Crowded middle lane of suburban moderates? Seems like a recipe for vote splitting. Thus helping IL win. The article then mentioned some of the dubious progressivism of some of the candidates.

In a field of Joe Kennedy doppelgangers replete with Ivy League degrees, progressive packaging, and a documented thirst for power, Ihssane Leckey sits closer to Elizabeth Warren or AOC than anyone else in the race. The only woman of color in the running, Leckey has plastered social media of late with calls for police reform, unequivocally advocated for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal, and made consistent appearances at Boston’s Black Lives Matter protests.

She is supported by Ilhan Omar, Brand New Congress, Matriarch PAC, and Our Revolution (Bernie Sanders supporters)

Leckey first came to the United States at age 20, leaving her working-class family and the farm she grew up on in Morocco to pay her way through college in the U.S. with a long string of minimum-wage jobs.

She started out at Manhattan Community College before transferring to the University of Massachusetts Boston and went on to gain acceptance to Boston University. After graduating into the carnage of the 2008 financial crisis, Leckey landed a job as a Wall Street regulator at the Federal Reserve, scrutinizing big-bank offenders like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs and enforcing Dodd-Frank regulations—a bill named after former MA-04 representative Barney Frank.

“I’ve been made to feel like an outsider my whole life,” Ihssane told the Prospect. “I grew up as the daughter of a public-school teacher and a farmer on another continent. When I first came here, I started to learn that the color of your skin, the name that you have, the college you went to—it gives you different opportunities.”

Then some more about how her well-placed and highly-educated competitors are likely to split the district's vote among themselves.

In the southern half of the district, described by Massachusetts politicos as “Joe Kennedy’s checkup” (he was said to visit only once a year), Leckey could snatch the lead, with her appeals to working-class constituents feeling the weight of four terms of congressional neglect further aggravated by the economic fallout of COVID-19.

“It comes down to how we look at the lived experiences and track records of my opponents and whether that qualifies them to serve the most vulnerable,” Leckey says. “As an immigrant who struggled through poverty in the richest country in the world, this fight for social, racial, and environmental justice—it’s personal.”

 

[lpetrich]

Nine Democrats for 4th District try to distinguish themselves in debate - News - MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA - Framingham, MA

The debate split the nine candidates into two groups. Five of the nine -- Alan Khazei, Chris Zannetos, Dave Cavell, Becky Grossman and Ihssane Leckey -- debated in the first hour, while Mermell, Auchincloss, Sigel and Natalia Linos debated in the second hour.

...
All nine agreed on most issues. Each sought to point out that he or she was the candidate who would actually accomplish them, from social justice reform, to environmental protections, to affordable higher education and more money for public education, to economic equality, to voting Trump out of the White House.

Candidates in crowded race to succeed Rep. Joe Kennedy struggle to stand out

The largely similar positions of the candidates pushed some to launch thinly veiled attacks against each other. While the candidates didn’t directly address other contenders during the web event, some traded subtle barbs over each other’s involvement in the Jewish community.

So here are some of the remaining races to watch, at least on the Democratic side:

• Ilhan Omar vs. Antone Melton-Meaux, MN-01
• Jen Perelman vs. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, FL-23
• Alex Morse vs. Richard Neal, MA-01
• Ihssane Leckey vs. lots of others, MA-04
• Ed Markey vs. Joe Kennedy III, MA-SEN
• Jessica Scarane vs. Chris Coons, DE-SEN

 

[lpetrich]

Why Cori Bush Succeeded - The American Prospect

So how did Clay manage to squander a half-century of name recognition and community support? Part of it was the laziness that sets in on longtime members who aren’t challenged seriously for decades. Clay had family members staff his campaign, an arrangement that is not illegal but speaks to the perception of the campaign from the incumbent as a money-making formality rather than an exchange of ideas. He didn’t raise very much money and much of what he did raise went to his sister’s law firm and her husband’s sketchy “internet engineering” company. As a result, Bush was able to significantly outspend Clay on TV and radio in the final weeks. Only in the final weekend did Clay take Bush seriously, going negative on her repeatedly in mailers. The late negative attack ads are a sure sign of trouble.

So Lacy Clay went the way of Joe Crowley and Eliot Engel, taking his seat for granted.

Second, Bush had a battle-hardened set of insurgent campaigners behind her, capitalizing on a massive mistake by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Democrats. The DCCC created a “blacklist” last year that barred campaign organizations and consultants who work for primary challengers to incumbents from working on any DCCC-sponsored campaigns. While this was supposed to starve primary challengers of talent, it had the opposite effect: creating a pool of progressive campaigners who solely work on these types of races, learning from their experiences and growing in knowledge and sophistication.

So the DCCC's boycott turned out to be an "own goal".

Justice Democrats and Fight Corporate Monopolies made significant media buys on Bush’s behalf, giving her that boost over Clay on TV and radio. Sunrise Movement, who also endorsed her, led a phone-banking blitz. Matriarch, an organization supporting progressive working women that Bush co-founded, provided budget and messaging and campaign filing support, some of the nitty-gritty of politics, as well as building grassroots infrastructure.

The article then mentions the "two-race theory", that it often takes two races for an insurgent candidate to unseat an incumbent one. So if AOC had lost in 2018, she would have been back this year, and she would likely have won. The article mentions that Josh Gottheimer and Henry Cuellar are vulnerable in 2022, but I can think of a whole host of others. Tom Suozzi, Bill Pascrell, Tom O'Halleran, Peter DeFazio, Earl Blumenauer, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, ...

 

[lpetrich]

Michael Benjamin on Twitter: "Ex-City Hall aide & unsuccessful City Council candidate @ElvinGarciaNYC (lost to @revrubendiaz in '17) is backing fellow de Blasio alum @mayawiley. What's nonprofit leader @Dianne4NYC to do? After all, she launched her longshot candidacy pre-COVID 19 (which seems a lifetime ago). https://t.co/lq4qgsnGyE" / Twitter
then
Dianne Morales for NYC Mayor on Twitter: "Isn’t it odd that white men aren’t asked what they’re to do when another one joins the race?" / Twitter
then
Lauren Ashcraft on Twitter: "I got asked all the time, as recently as last week, how I dared to run against a woman. Not from who you’d expect. But it happened a lot.
Why is it so hard to imagine that *all* candidates in any race could be women?" / Twitter

 

[ZiprHead]

Democrat Kai Kahele wins Hawaii primary to replace Tulsi Gabbard

 

[lpetrich]

Democrat Kai Kahele wins Hawaii primary to replace Tulsi Gabbard

Tulsi Gabbard is retiring from her seat.

With Months To Go, Here’s What Tulsi Gabbard’s Been Up To | Heavy.com

Meanwhile, Gabbard has been busy, posting support for UFC fighter and Hawaii native Max Holloway, engaging in a very public fight with 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, tweeting about yoga and celebrating the Supreme Court decision which shut down the Dakota Access pipeline disrupting Native Americans’ lives and resources.

However, her social media feed also reflects that she has also continued to do her work as a congresswoman, encouraging Hawaii’s residents to wear masks, raising awareness about the murder of Vanessa Guillen and working to pass police reform.

Tulsi Gabbard on Twitter: "I've been practicing yoga asanas & yoga meditation for most of my life. The physical, mental & spiritual benefits of yoga bring me strength, clarity, understanding & purpose. Yoga is a wonderful gift that can transform our lives & the world. #yogaday2020 #internationalyogaday https://t.co/no3kdMsd8y" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Leeward Community College running on solar energy becomes UH's first net-zero campus on Oahu in Hawaii - University of Hawaii
then
KHON2 News on Twitter: "Leeward Community College is now running on solar energy. The school is one of the first net-zero energy campuses in the country. https://t.co/oS0yq8PUeJ" / Twitter
then
Tulsi Gabbard on Twitter: "This is awesome. My higher education started at this school. It's great to see them leading the way." / Twitter

Tulsi Gabbard on Twitter: "Catching the last bit of tradewinds at HNL airport before I get back on another plane! Doesn’t seem like it’s very full. Headed to DC for committee hearings and many votes. Will keep you posted! https://t.co/teib1lH1E7" / Twitter

Tulsi Gabbard on Twitter: "With historic high rates of positive COVID-19 tests in Hawaii & across the country, as well as newly announced reduction in testing capability, now is not the time to let our guard down. In the midst of this crisis, I’m urging @GovHawaii to maintain the 14-day travel quarantine. https://t.co/gnrBynJRYJ" / Twitter

Lauren Day on Twitter: "JUST IN: Dr. Bruce Anderson with the Department of Health says ALL of the recent clusters have been associated with people NOT WEARING MASKS. @KHONnews" / Twitter
then
Tulsi Gabbard on Twitter: "Be considerate of others. Wear a mask!" / Twitter

Tulsi Gabbard on Twitter: "In 2016 I joined thousands of veterans at Standing Rock as water protectors. Today's historic decision by the courts to shut down Dakota Access Pipeline and empty its pipelines by Aug 5 recognizes its threat to the water the Standing Rock Sioux & others depend on. #WaterIsLife https://t.co/w2NLHJFYXx" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

What might Tulsi Gabbard do now? Run for the state legislature? Governor?

Krystal Ball: Cori Bush's CLASS Identity Politics Are A REBUKE To Wealthy Dem Establishment - YouTube
She was asked about her faith, and she talked at length about how she loved everybody. Seems almost like AOC talking at length about how everybody is holy.

'They don't know what I know': why Cori Bush is poised to change politics | US news | The Guardian

But when we talk via Zoom on a Sunday afternoon, it’s not the exhaustion or the back-to-back interviews that are on Bush’s mind. 9 August is the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed, 18-year-old who was shot dead by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 – and Bush has just been at his memorial service.

“It’s hard looking at Michael Brown’s father and knowing that just last week he found out again that this officer won’t be charged,” she says, referencing the result of a five-month review that was decided last week.

“Just looking at him in his face, and seeing the other activists crying is tough. It has been six years and we keep coming back here every single year and we’re not seeing change,” she adds, fighting tears.

Following Brown’s death, Bush spent some 400 days campaigning on the streets of Ferguson. For her, six years marks the culmination of one of her areas of work – to get into politics – but not the other: to find justice for Black lives.

“Today is just a rough day, period, because it is when all of our lives changed,” she explains. “It changed and it went into such a dark, dark, unbelievable place for such a long time.”

How she got into activism:

Then, on 10 August 2014, the Ferguson uprisings began.

A nurse and ordained pastor, Bush would often arrive at the protests still in her scrubs. People knew her by sight, calling her Mom or Pastor Cori. In the ensuing months, Bush walked so much she wore down two pairs of shoes – one was a brand-new pair of Nike Hi-Tops.

Thus outdoing AOC with the holes she wore in her running shoes as she campaigned.

... the long battle against police, which featured teargas, armoured vehicles and violent clashes – and an incident in which Bush herself was assaulted.

“We were teargassed so heavily. Not being able to breathe and knowing other people couldn’t breathe, watching people laying on the ground, hurt or in pain … There were some pretty terrifying times out there,” she says.

What comparable sufferings do right-wingers have to show for themselves? Being tried for tax evasion?

“I know some people have said that the police don’t have enough money or officers, but we have plenty of money for teargas and Swat gear stockpiled in warehouses. Bear spray, pepper spray, skunk spray, rubber bullets – where does that money come from?” she asks.

...
Bush, who ran for Congress without insurance and has spent chunks of time living out of a car, knows her priorities. She is deeply committed to Medicare for All, as well as a $15 minimum wage: “Some of our essential workers were going to work for $9 an hour. But some of them lost their lives because they kept going to work – and then some of them contracted Covid,” she says.

 

[lpetrich]

Another one to watch. Her primary is next week:
Jen Perelman For Congress on Twitter: "Please read @SpencerFordin very fair piece about our primary against Wasserman Schultz below:
It is time for #JENerationalChange in #FL23! https://t.co/tDvBswXKw8" / Twitter
noting
Jen Perelman takes on party and principle in primary bid

Do you take money from corporations? If so, Perelman wants to replace you with someone who doesn’t.

Perelman, an attorney who grew up in south Florida, said last week that the organizing principle of her campaign is that regular people — and not professional politicians — should be representing their communities.

“Congressional representation is a term of service and not a career,” she said. “These are people who are supposed to be speaking on behalf of their communities. The fact that you have to spend this exorbitant amount of money to do that precludes regular people from representing their communities. Now we’re suffering the consequences by having a millionaire Congress that is completely out of touch and doesn’t understand what’s going on for regular people.”

Then on how much money they have raised:

• JP: raised $315,000, cash on hand $90,503
• DWS: raised $1.5 million, cash on hand $600,000

“She’s been able to have her ads on local television on a loop,” said Perelman of her opponent. “She will be able to do unlimited mailers. Grass roots campaigns depend heavily on canvassing. And we’re still canvassing. We’re socially distant canvassing. We’re wearing masks. We’re distributing sanitizer. But the money matters.”

The primary will be decided on Aug. 18, but for Perelman, the message will remain the same every day against Wasserman Schultz, and it would be the same against a random Republican opponent.

...
Sure, it’s important to protect the environment, but not just for moral reasons. For financial ones. Floridians need to be vigilant about what’s in their drinking water because its purely in their best interests.

“Our biggest industry is tourism,” she said. “When you start having horrible red tides and very exacerbated blue-green algae, you’re messing up tourism for our state. I had a trip planned to Sanibel Island about a year and a half ago and I cancelled because the red tide was so horrible. Even dealing with COVID.

“All these things that are bad for our state are bad for our business. It isn’t just, ‘Oh, the manatees are dying,’ although that is a big concern. For people that don’t see it on a moral level, ultimately it does affect our drinking water. We have a finite amount.”

 

[lpetrich]

Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "We’ve spent months organizing for this day, and it’s not just my name on the ballot — it’s the future of #MedicareForAll, #HomesForAll, our planet, and a more peaceful world. Let's show our commitment to our progressive values.
Polls are open! Go vote: (links)" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Minnesota: Today is primary day, and a wonderful day to re-elect Ilhan Omar!
Ilhan’s progressive national leadership has brought transformative approaches to healthcare, housing, and more.
Head to the polls and remind your friends and family to vote as well. 🗳" / Twitter

John Nichols on Twitter: "They’re spending $4 million to try & beat @IlhanMN.
@AOC says, “It just tells you how damn effective she is against big real estate, against our military industrial complex, against our Wall Street complex, against basically every corrupt institution...” https://t.co/f11FTnB8Q4" / Twitter

annie fofani on Twitter: "@NicholsUprising @IlhanMN @AOC "John Nichols, at @TheNation, one of the best political reporters in America...latest article on today's primary @IlhanMN has one serious omission; he leaves out the huge role that elements of the pro-Israel lobby are playing in the effort to unseat her" https://t.co/iVZAW6ofa7" / Twitter
noting
‘Nation’ report on Ilhan Omar race has one glaring omission (pro-Israel donors) – Mondoweiss

But Nichols’s article has almost nothing to say about Israel-Palestine. He has one solitary sentence, in which he notes only that, “She has helped foreground a national conversation on Palestinian rights and the U.S.-Israeli relationship.”

No doubt plenty of people would like Ilhan Omar removed from Congress. But it is pro-Israel forces that have donated $2 million to her opponent, Antone Melton-Meaux. Public records show that among the Melton-Meaux campaign’s biggest donors are the pro-Israel America PAC, which has given him $500,000, and NORPAC, which coughed up another $350,000. In total, the challenger has raised about $4 million, so the pro-Israel donors, few of whom apparently live in Omar’s Congressional district, account for half of his war chest.

Melton-Meaux’s campaign website praises Israel, calling it a “beacon of liberal democracy.” He keeps his donors even more happy by adding:

From AMM's campaign site:

Movements such as Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel (BDS) only serve to further the conflict, elevate the violence, and harm those they seek to help. That is why I will always oppose BDS.

 

[lpetrich]

So the "Israel no matter what" lobby is supporting AMM against IO.

There's also this scandal: Ilhan Omar Paid Her Husband’s Firm $600,000 for Ad Buys in July Alone

But it seems to be working.

With over 156,000 votes counted, IO has 57% of the vote, AMM 39%, and the other three around 1% each. So it looks like IO is winning.

"Squad" victory margins:

• AP: 1 to 0 (no challengers)
• AOC: 3 to 1 against MCC
• RT: 2 to 1 against BJ
• IO: 3 to 2 against AMM

 

[lpetrich]

IO celebrates her victory:
Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "In Minnesota, we know that organized people will always beat organized money. ..." / Twitter

In Minnesota, we know that organized people will always beat organized money.

Tonight, our movement didn’t just win. We earned a mandate for change. Despite outside efforts to defeat us, we once again broke turnout records.

Despite the attacks, our support has only grown.

This election isn’t about me. It’s about an agenda rooted in people’s everyday struggles—and the corporations and rightwing donors who are threatened by it.

It’s about standing up to a President who promised to ban an entire group of people from this country based solely on their Muslim identity, calls our countries of origin ‘shithole countries,’ and threatened to send us back to where we came from.

It’s about standing up for the basic human rights around the world—and fighting a military-industrial complex that opposes the recognition of people’s humanity and dignity.

It has been the honor of my life to represent you in Congress and I look forward to continuing to serve the people of the 5th District in the years to come.

The remaining primaries:

• Aug 18: AK FL WY
• Sep 1: MA
• Sep 8: NH RI
• Sep 15: DE

With such races as:

• FL-23 Jen Perelman vs. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
• FL-24 Sakinah Lehtola vs. Frederica Wilson
• MA-01 Alex Morse vs. Richard Neal
• MA-04 Ihssane Leckey (open seat)
• MA-07 Ayanna Pressley (no challengers)
• DE-SEN Jessica Scarane vs. Chris Coons

 

[lpetrich]

IO does a little dance:
Rose Movement on Twitter: "All of us seeing @IlhanMN win her re-election https://t.co/EvC56GxRuS" / Twitter


College Democrat at Center of Attack on Alex Morse Hoped to Launch Career Through Richard Neal - "Rank-and-file UMass College Democrats were stunned to see the letter their chapter’s leadership wrote on their behalf."

In the battle raging for Massachusetts First Congressional District, currently held by the chair of the powerful Ways and Means committee Richard Neal, political operatives are turning up in unlikely places. Last week, tensions flared after a letter, written by the Massachusetts College Democrats, informed Alex Morse, Neal’s challenger, that he was no longer welcome at their events — a letter that was promptly published by the school’s newspaper.

...
With the allegations short of details or any student claiming to be a victim, the focus has shifted to the origin of the letter. The man serving as chief strategist for the UMass Amherst College Democrats, Timothy Ennis, recently completed a class with Neal, who teaches a journalism course. Ennis, according to two members of the College Democrats chapter, was open about his hopes of working for Neal in the future.

No victims???

Meanwhile, an aide with the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, in which the journalism program sits, alerted the school’s administration of evidence that the recently surfaced allegations against Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse “are politically motivated,” according to communication reviewed by The Intercept. Spokespersons for the administration did not respond to requests for comment.

...
Sheedy said that she hopes to become a human rights lawyer in the future and is a passionate supporter of survivors of sexual assault, which was one reason she so resented the approach taken with Morse. She said that she is open to reviewing any evidence or testimony anybody might put forward, but so far has seen nothing that rises to the level of abuse, which undermines genuine survivors. “As someone who has very strong views on sexual assault, it’s tough seeing people mixing up words,” she said.

An internal poll from the Morse campaign posted Monday, taken before the eruption of the scandal, showed the progressive challenger within striking distance, down 45-35 with 20 percent of the vote still undecided. These numbers are similar to those achieved a month out from primary day by other progressives challenging incumbents, including Cori Bush, who won an upset primary challenge in Missouri’s first district, unseating Rep. William Clay and the Clay family dynasty that controlled the seat since 1969.

Daniel Marans on Twitter: "New: An internal poll conducted for Morse's campaign on Aug. 7-8 showed Neal losing ground against Morse, leading him just 45-35% with 20% "unsure," per a source familiar with the poll.
For context, Lacy Clay's numbers against Bush dipped below 50% a month before the election. https://t.co/QemmHq6rlU" / Twitter
Meaning that Alex Morse has a chance against Richard Neal.

 

[lpetrich]

Why Is Joe Kennedy Running for Senate?

The result is a Senate primary race that can best be described as pretty weird. On the one hand, there’s an incumbent who has served more than 40 years in Congress running as some kind of grassroots underdog. On the other hand, a literal Kennedy is claiming to be bullied by the political establishment and invoking language used by progressive insurgents who’ve sought new leadership to shake up the status quo.

There hasn’t been polling in the race since early May, when a UMass-Lowell poll showed the race had significantly tightened with Kennedy up by just 2 points. That, Markey’s campaign manager John Walsh argued, is because the progressive base has consolidated behind the senator. But another poll, conducted around the same time by Emerson College/7News, showed Markey trailing Kennedy by 16 points.

An activist asked JKIII why he is running, and he responded

“With due respect to Senator Markey, who is a good man, there’s more to this job than the way you vote and the bills that you file,” Kennedy answered, as reported by Boston Magazine. “It comes with an ability to leverage that platform … and, with due respect to the senator, if you’re not going to leverage that now … then when?”

But has Kennedy “leveraged” his House seat to the best of his ability?

“I think I have,” he told The Intercept, though acknowledged that he’s “done it differently obviously” than star representatives like Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez. He credits those women for using their platforms to cast a spotlight on issues of importance. “I’ve tried to do that in a way that is most natural to me,” he said, and pointed to his fundraising trips throughout 2018 to help Democrats flip the House. Kennedy said this work helped flip the House in 2018 and in a recent debate, he brought up his fundraising for Covid-19 relief groups and legal defense for immigrant families.

“Let me be clear,” he added. “When I critique Senator Markey … I’m not saying in persona, experience, history, or policy that I would be the next AOC or Ayanna Pressley. Like that’s not who I am, that’s not the policy positions that I necessarily take.”

“The reason Joe can go around [fundraising] is because he’s Bobby Kennedy’s grandson,” said Walsh, Markey’s campaign manager. “It’s not because he’s ever led on a single issue since he’s been in Congress.” Kennedy countered that he’s proud of his leadership in areas around mental health and LGBTQ issues, and noted he spoke to Black Lives Matter and transgender rights in his 2018 response to the State of the Union.

JKIII seems to me like he's a nobody who wants to be in positions for the sake of being in positions. If he wasn't a member of the Kennedy family, he'd be a just plain nobody.

 

[lpetrich]

Looking over to MA-04, the seat that JKIII vacated to run for Senator, I've found this article: Race to Replace Joe Kennedy in Congress Heats Up - "Ihssane Leckey, a democratic socialist and former bank regulator, is surging in the open field."

A crowded primary for Joe Kennedy’s congressional seat in Massachusetts is presenting Democratic primary voters with one of their final opportunities of the cycle to decide which direction to take the party. The nine-person race includes just about every archetype from every faction of the Democratic Party.

The article then mentioned this internal poll commissioned by Ihssane Leckey's campaign: CD4 TRACK POLL RESULTS

Ihssane Leckey has gained significant vote from a late June poll moving 8 points in ballot support to now hold 3rd place. Ihssane went from a virtual unknown candidate scoring 3% in June to now holding 11% of the vote. At 11%, she trails only Becky Grossman at 19% who has only moved+2 and Jake Auchincloss at 16%. Ihssane has leaped over Jesse Mermell (10%) and Alan Khazei (6%) with her strong anti-Trump and reform message.

• 19% Becky Grossman
• 16% Jake Auchincloss
• 11% Ihssane Leckey
• 10% Jesse Mermell (f.)
• 7% Dave Cavell
• 6% Alan Khazei
• 4% Natalie Linos
• 2% Ben Sigel
• 1% Chris Zannetos
• 25% Undecided

It was a phone poll of 400 people with 50% cellphones over Aug 1-4.

Mermell is a longtime friend and ally of Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who has endorsed her, while Leckey has the support of Rep. Ilhan Omar, who faces her own primary in Minnesota on Tuesday.

But the poll has Leckey and Mermell not battling for first, but for third — within striking distance of two more conservative Democrats.

Mermell comes out of the party’s dominant wing, having served as a top aide to Gov. Deval Patrick and in a senior role at Planned Parenthood. ...

Like Pressley, Mermell has fixed herself in the Elizabeth Warren lane, caught between the insurgent Bernie Sanders left and the deep pockets and influence of Massachusetts’ conservative political establishment. That can work for the popular incumbent Pressley, but it didn’t work for Warren, and Mermell appears stalled. She won 9 percent in a June survey also commissioned by Leckey’s campaign, and only rose 1 percentage point in the most recent telephone survey to 10 percent. ...

The leader in the poll was former prosecutor and corporate attorney Becky Grossman, pulling 19 percent with more than triple the support of the Bain Capital-backed Alan Khazei, the founder of City Year who is currently polling at 6 percent.

...
Despite both her statewide and national political connections, Grossman, too, has stalled, rising just 2 points from 17 percent in June.

The article discussed the big-money connections of some of the candidates.

 

[lpetrich]

Much of the movement in the poll went toward 32-year-old Jake Auchincloss, another Newton city councilor and a former Republican who has been hammered recently for a series of anti-Muslim and racist remarks.

...
In the June survey, Auchincloss sat at 7 percent, and his spending blitz and the Globe backing has lifted him to 16.

Only Leckey, a self-described democratic socialist, has similarly surged, on the back of her own well-funded ad campaign, rising from 3 percent to 11. The number of undecided voters dropped from 46 to 25 percent, meaning the race is slowly solidifying but still up for grabs. Part of Leckey’s rise has to do with her effective positioning as a counterweight to the billionaire donors propping up her competitors’ campaigns.

Then on IL's expertise as a bank regulator. Instead of being bought by big-money interests like "pharmaceutical executives, fossil fuel interests, and private equity moguls", to quote from the article, she watched over them.

Trump supporters, she noted, believe that the nation is like a business and that therefore President Donald Trump, a businessman, is the best choice to run it. “He knows exactly how to run it into the ground. If you really believe our country is running as a business, you have to have risk assessment, and risk management, and this country has none,” Leckey said. Those risks, she said, include environmental risk, credit card risk, student loans, and medical debt. “The more you can’t pay, the higher the interest, right, bundled and put in the portfolios of the big banks, and when it takes those giant banks down, the CEOs still profit.”

IL did a 6-figure ad buy to get this ad out:
Ihssane Leckey for Congress on Twitter: "I came to America with nothing. In 10 years, I went from mopping restaurant floors to taking on the biggest banks on Wall Street.
Now, I’m running for Congress to dismantle every oppressive system that denies us the basic necessities to live. Join us: (links)" / Twitter

... “I struggled through poverty, put myself through college and took on Wall Street’s greed. Now as the only woman of color in this race, I’m fighting for racial justice, to guarantee health care, free pre-K, and housing for all,” she says in the ad. “We need leaders who represent our diversity and courage.”

Then on some difficulties with her campaign staff, like DCCC's boycott of any campaign workers who help primary an incumbent.

Much of the original staff has since turned over, and now that the presidential campaign is over, Leckey has been able to bring in four veterans of Bernie Sanders’s operations, including Josh Miller-Lewis, doing communications; Jeremy Meadow, working on the data side; Malea Stenzel Gilligan, doing fundraising; and Brooke Adams, running field operations. The former Sanders aides, who are no strangers to a gruff boss, say that the characterization of Leckey as cruel by the disaffected former aides is utterly foreign to their experience.

Referring to a letter written by former campaign workers,

The letter’s characterization of Leckey as having “a lack of work ethic” makes a stark contrast with her life story. Leckey, 35, was born in Meknes, Morocco. Her father, a public school teacher, died when Leckey was 13, unable, she said, to afford the heart medication he needed. Her mother raised Leckey and her three older brothers, while Leckey resisted the strict, conservative culture of Morocco, and survived sexual abuse. The first time, she said, her mother told her not to tell anyone, otherwise her brothers might kill the assailant and themselves wind up in prison.

At the age of 17, she also survived an unsafe, illegal abortion — the only kind available to the nonwealthy. After a year at a public college, she transferred to a more selective school, studying economics. At 20, she managed to get a visitor visa to the United States, and applied for and received a student visa while in the country. She learned English, made it her home, and eventually worked her way to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where she became a regulator leading stress tests at major banks.

Then on IL's response to that letter. The former staffers gave it to the Boston chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, and IL responded by rejecting Boston DSA's endorsement of her campaign, on account of Boston DSA taking it too seriously without asking her about any of it.

 

[lpetrich]

Looks like "The Squad" is all re-elected, since they won their primaries in heavily Democratic districts.

• AP: 1-0 -- no challengers
• AOC: 3-1 -- AOC: 74.6%, MCC: 18.2%, BK: 5.0%, SS: 2.3%
• RT: 2-1 -- RT: 66.3%, BJ: 33.7%
• IO: 3-2 -- IO: 57.4%, AMM: 39.2%, others: 1.6%, 1.1%, 0.7%

Joining them, in other heavily Democratic districts: Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Marie Newman, Cori Bush

In half-half districts: Kara Eastman, Katie Porter

Uphill struggle: Paula Jean Swearengin

 

[lpetrich]

Chats Reveal Plan to Engineer and Leak Alex Morse Accusation

The leadership of the University of Massachusetts Amherst College Democrats began discussing an operation they believed could sink the campaign of Alex Morse for Congress as far back as last October, a plan they then helped engineer and which came to fruition on Friday, after the College Democrats sent a letter regarding Morse to the Daily Collegian, the school’s student newspaper.

The letter, sent three weeks before his primary challenge to Rep. Richard Neal, informed Morse that he was no longer welcome at College Democratic events, alleging he used such opportunities to socialize with students and later connect with them on social media in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. Message logs obtained by the Intercept — both from leaders of the College Democrats UMass Amherst chapter group as well as chats one of them had with Morse — shed new light on how this purported scandal was deployed. As a condition of obtaining the logs, The Intercept agreed to publish some of the chats and paraphrase others.

...
In a statement that followed its initial letter, the College Democrats wrote, “The letter was written at the direct request of those affected by Mayor Morse’s behavior, and those individuals were involved in the writing process. The stories included in our letter are their stories. They have not spoken out individually about their personal experiences because they wish to remain anonymous.”

The implication that the letter was the collective work of the members of the chapter is false, however. It was written by leadership without input from the members, according to messages provided to The Intercept from the organization’s GroupMe chat. The day after the Daily Collegian published the letter, a member of leadership sent the following message: “Hello everyone. I’m sure some of you saw the article about Alex Morse and letter udems and other orgs sent to his campaign. I’m sure many of you are confused and even disappointed. If anybody needs support or wants to talk about it the udems eboard is here for you.”

 

[lpetrich]

Ilhan Omar Won A Bitter Primary To Stay In Congress - "Omar beat a well-funded challenger in her Democrat-heavy Minnesota congressional district."

Ava DuVernay on Twitter: "THIS JUST IN: @IlhanMN joins @AOC and @RashidaTlaib in winning her primary election despite horrible attacks and tremendous amounts of money spent to defeat her. All that energy and all those dollars wasted, ‘cause these ladies aren’t going anywhere. https://t.co/VBMgRr1pDJ" / Twitter

Anne Ursu on Twitter: "@ava @IlhanMN @AOC @RashidaTlaib In Minneapolis, we got anti-Ilhan mail every damn day. Didn't work." / Twitter
Much like all the anti-AOC mailers that MCC's campaign sent out in NY-14.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "I want folks to recognize how big of a triumph @IlhanMN’s victory represents.
Tens of millions in big money was targeted to unseat 3 of us as “safe” Dems - almost unheard of.
This is what happens you deeply challenge systems of power and corruption. But the people triumphed." / Twitter

Aaron Huertas on Twitter: "Anybody doing accountability reporting on the moderates who wasted millions of dollars primarying @AOC, @IlhanMN and @RashidaTlaib?
Could have spent that money on beating Trump! " / Twitter