I have to admit that I was feeling a bit pleased with myself for this recent post in response to the 31 (at a minimum) votes to repeal the Affordable Care Law, in which, in response, I highlighted 31 U.S. House Republicans (and two Democrats) who I thought were most at fault for this utter waste of time and taxpayer money. And putting all the posts together, while a time-consuming and sometimes exhausting exercise, was something that I thought was beneficial.
However, it recently occurred to me that that’s not really going to do much in pursuit of what I believe is a bigger goal, and that is to return the U.S. House to the Democrats (or short of that, to cut into the Republican majority…besides, is Hal Rogers actually going to lose?).
So I did a bit of looking around and came up with this list of races in which control of the House could be decided, and I did the same thing I did with the 31, only with a bigger and broader group. I tried to put the Republican candidates in what I believed was an appropriate light on one hand, while including web site or other contact information for their Democratic challengers on the other.
Now I can imagine the response of “there you go again, Doomsy, trying to smear Republicans any way possible.” Well, it may shock you to know that I included complimentary information on three of them; Robert Dold for standing up for Planned Parenthood, Scott Tipton for standing up for wind power, and Richard Hanna for standing up to the Teahadists. But don’t worry – there’s plenty of other stuff to use against the rest of the list (including Hanna and Tipton, though I must say that Tipton’s challenger Sal Pace doesn’t exactly “light it up” in his interview with Ed Schultz…it should also be noted that I really couldn’t find anything on David Rosa in Texas or David Hernandez in California – I’ll admit that this list may be a bit inexact). Also, it’s likely that there are races on this list where the Repug incumbent is actually better qualified that the Democratic challenger.
The issue that matters, though, is control of the House, and if sending some less deserving Dems to Washington helps return us to the majority, so be it, as a certain Speaker said in another context (besides, who’s to say that some of these folks won’t grow into the job, in the name of the “greater good”?).
So, with that somewhat windy pretext out of the way, here is my list of the DCCC-targeted Repug U.S. House candidates and their challengers (Note: Some Republicans are challengers also in races where an incumbent isn't running or redistricting has taken place):
* - No party preference
Update 9/19/12: God, is Todd Long a mess (here)...though the Hopefully Next Congresssman With Guts may have gone a bit too far, as noted here.
Update 9/25/12: And Mike Grimm definitely earns a Dishonorable Mention for this, especially the part about Gabby Giffords.
Update 10/10/12: Some "do as I say, not as I do" stuff from Scott DesJarlais here...
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