Coop Scoop: Snooping on the Midterms

How can the Democrats afford to not target vulnerable Republicans

January 14-15, 2022

By Marc Cooper

I was pleased to see Thursday morning that the DOJ has finally shown some muscle by indicting the fascist leader of The Oathkeepers and ten of his collaborators for “seditious conspiracy.”  It’s the first real concrete sign from Justice that the investigation is now moving up from the bottom rung of the January 6 assailants.

That’s about the only good news out there. 

The six shills on the Supreme Court, meanwhile, decided that with the COVID infection levels reaching an all-time high (health officials estimating a mind boggling 5 million infections per day in the U.S.), this would be a good time to usurp all government power and prohibit the proposed vax mandate on big companies.  I have no way of explaining this. 

I’m not even sure this decision is a wet kiss to business as most Scotus decisions are.  I suppose industry likes the mandate as it would have given them cover to get their employees jabbed and back to work.

And it looks today that Biden’s push to pass voting rights has crashed on the shores of Lake Sinema… the Arizona senator actually pre-empting the president’s meeting with Democrats Thursday morn by taking to the floor and once again proclaiming her undying and absolute defense of the filibuster. Branding her as a conservative or whatever is off the mark.  My educated guess is that Sinema knows she has become electorally radioactive and is now laying the groundwork for a second career sitting on a number of corporate boards.  Politico reported this week that some of her former aides are already working as corporate lobbyists.

Like you, I am frankly exhausted by her antics and contortions, along with Manchin’s practiced “”I’m just a country shitkicker” routine with the media, as well as with the rest of the Democrats’ inability to forge a strategy. 

And while Biden is getting blamed for everything including bad weather reports, it’s not hard to see how his favorability has sunk to 33%.  Most alarming to Democratic insiders, though, are recent polls showing Black support for Biden has fallen to 56% -- a sub-arctic reading for a Democrat.

Anyway you cut it, much of the hullabaloo about “voting rights” is overdone. American democracy, indeed, is in deep danger.  But anybody who thinks it is going to be fixed by passing this or that law is not paying attention.

No question that the Democratic bills on voting rights would mark an improvement in balloting but big-D Democracy needs much more, it needs an engaged and committed public in order to function.  And all the trends are running in the wrong direction.

[ PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT AND MAKE A CONTRIBUTION AT THE BOTTOM OF PAGE. I SHOULD BE FUND RAISING NOW BUT TOO MUCH IS GOING ON TO TAKE TIME OUT. PLEASE PITCH IN]

Daily life in the U.S. has become more dispersed, more angry, less civil, less democratic. The vitriol, nastiness and rank stupidity of American politics is infecting so many other precincts of our lives.  And all of the conditions that have contributed to the emergence of an organized, anti-democratic and authoritarian political movement are still present. And Arguably, they have only intensified over the last 5 years and doubled down in just the last 12 months.

It’s no accident that world wars and great natural disasters usually provoke earth-shaking social and political changes and there’s no reason to believe this pandemic will not do the same.  I think it already is.

This year is going to be all about the mid-terms, and I decided to get involved after last week’s newsletter in which I once again exhorted the toiling masses to do just that.

I took my own advice last week and decided to seek out the local congressional campaign.  I am not a big fan of doing campaign work but I thought this would be a good way to engage with other local political activists and see what we could get going.

Well… my field report is not very encouraging.  Here’s what I found:  In this very purple district I live in with what should be a very vulnerable Republican rep running for her seventh term, there is NO Democratic campaign even though we are less than 300 days away from voting. That’s right. None.

It’s sort of hard to believe.  Our congresswoman is Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, not exactly a Never Trumper but someone nevertheless detested by Trump

A low profile member, JHB came to prominence in the immediate wake of January 6 when she was one of the few Republicans who voted to move forward on Trump’s second impeachment (though she did not later vote to convict). 

She was also the congresswoman who stepped forward to rat out Kevin McCarthy and his January 6 phone call to Trump where they told each other to fuck off.  She was also willing to sit as a witness in the impeachment trial before the Democrats wimped out and decided to not call any.

Trump immediately turned on JHB. As did many local Republicans.  She has been chastised by the local GOP and Trump has endorsed one of the three hard-line Trumpies who are running against her (two of them with very high name recognition and some political experience).

Clark County, where we live and that JHB represents is a text book swing district.  Though we are nestled in deep blue west Washington and even though Portland is but 5 minutes away across the river, Clark was traditionally a heavy retirement and veteran community and, hence, has been more moderate than surrounding areas.

The trend line, however, is Blue. The county is growing and diversifying.  In 2020 a majority of 51% voted for Biden in Clark.  The mayor of Vancouver, the largest city, is a moderate Democrat. The head of the elected county council, however, is a Trump-adjacent Republican.

Since her public statements last year regarding McCarthy, JHB has been radioactive in local Republican circles.  Her social media postings draw hundreds of barbed comments calling her a RINO, a Communist and Traitor.

She has been busy fighting back with direct mail, positioning herself as a Total Trumper without mentioning his name.  Her abundant campaign lit has devolved to the usual sort of tactics, running a “poll” asking if you support defunding the police (a notion that has no support in this Portland suburb shaken by last year’s violent protests downtown).

One of two things are going to happen to Herrera Beutler in her primary. She is either going to get beaten by one of the insurrectionary upstarts or she will come out victorious but bloodied, hobbled and hated by much of the GOP base.

Either way, the Republican candidate for congress in this Washington third district will be a weak, vulnerable candidate, one that could be picked off on a district drifting away from Republicans.  And with the House currently dominated by a mere 4 seat majority, the value of each individual seat is obvious.

Here’s the weird part. For months now, I have been reading about the jostling among the different candidates for JHB’s seat.  And then it occurred to me, last week, that –duh—I don’t think I have seen a Democrat challenger named.

So I went looking.  What I found was Brent Hennrich, a movie theater tech with no name recognition, no past political experience and apparently no money has filed on the Democratic side.

He seems a nice guy who supports Medicare for all but he is definitely not a serious candidate and he does not have a visible campaign of any sort. And he probably never will.

All of which means that the Democratic party, writ large, is failing to even try to cash in on this vulnerable seat making one wonder just exactly what is the larger strategy of the party.

Now, there is something called the DCCC, better known as “the D-Triple C.”  This Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is the arm through which the Democratic Party, finds, recruits, and funds congressional candidates.

Apparently, they got lost or ambushed somewhere out on the Lewis and Clark trail and never made it here.

I am reporting this today as an alarmed citizen, not a reporter. So I have not (yet) called the DCCC or the local Dems to ask them what the fug.  I am interested in their answers though whatever they are they will be inadequate.  There is simply no excuse for the Dems not forcefully moving in here.

Nor am I about to judge the entirety of the Democratic midterm push based on this sort of anecdotal evidence. 

I will stay on it and report back.  But so far, it’s rather dreary. ++

While this newsletter will remain free to everybody, a committed minority must keep it funded. Now is a great time to pitch in.

Please take a moment now and become a paid subscriber, donor or sustainer. It’s sort of crucial.

You can also support The Coop Scoop via PayPal at any amount you desire. Nothing is too small or too big. Any donation makes you a subscriber.

Or consider becoming a sustainer via Patreon.  Check it out for as little as $4.