Donkey party doing its thing

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is smothering itself in a defensive cocoon, aiming to prevent Democratic snake oil professionals -- political consultants, pollsters, and vendors -- from signing on with primary challengers to sitting Democratic Congresscritters. The DCCC is tasked with re-electing as many Democrats as possible. It fears challenges will drain resources from members in competitive seats, hence they are blacklisting outfits that work for challengers.

Mostly when it comes to elections I'm a pretty rigid team player; if you want to win, you have to get with the program and stick to it. And there's little point in engaging with elections but to win. But this DCCC move seems dumb and counterproductive to me.

Progressive citizen organizations that have shown some electoral capacity since 2016 are kicking back.

“We reject the D.C.C.C.’s attempt to hoard power, which will only serve to keep that talent pool — and Congress itself — disproportionately white and male,” María Urbina, the national political director for Indivisible, a progressive grass-roots group, said of the campaign committee. “Incumbents who engage fully with their constituents shouldn’t fear primaries and shouldn’t rely on the national institutions like the D.C.C.C. to suppress challenges before voters ever have a say.”

Detroit Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who had served in the Michigan legislature and both won and lost in primaries before winning her current seat, offered her $.02:

I’ve experience being primaried. It’s s part of being kept in check with the folks you serve and always working hard for them. If anything, it reminds you to focus on your district all day, every day.

That seems right.

Sometimes a primary challenge, even a failed one, can serve a useful purpose. Here in blue-est San Francisco I'm glad someone usually steps up to annoy Nancy Pelosi -- not because they'll win, but because without challenges, the electorate sits unheard without audible dissent.

In recent cycles, this very blue region has seen one primary challenger make two charges toward Congressional office in the South Bay. When now-Congressman Ro Khanna, who'd made unsuccessful runs elsewhere, first took on longtime stalwart progressive Congressman Mike Honda in 2014, I figured he was just an impatient interloper. Honda seemed a decent guy and I liked having someone who'd experienced the World War II-era Japanese internment sitting in Washington. Khanna lost that round. But in 2016, Khanna kept at it and convinced enough 17th District voters to out-poll Honda. By now he's a veteran progressive Congressman himself and proving an imaginative and creative advocate for progressive policies. So an intra-party election served voters well in that one.

The DCCC can't stifle challenges when sitting members have real vulnerabilities or have drifted out of touch with their constituents. It could better bolster its vulnerable members by coaching them in how to take care of their districts, improving their communications, and sharing strategies from senior members who have this figured out. Most challenges to incumbents will fail. When they succeed, something was wrong somewhere.

Meanwhile, I'll continue my longstanding practice of donating only to individual candidates, never to the DCCC.