Worksheet for the 2018 Midterms (More Democrat Biographies and #MedicareForAll Support)

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28 comments

1. UserFriendly April 2, 2018 at 8:17 pm

   I’ve said it before, but I’ll suggest it again. MN-7 is a safe D seat and MN-3 is just as likely, if not more likely to flip than MN-2. Especially since the Dems winning back the suburbs narrative appears to be not as solid as previously thought.
2. dcblogger April 2, 2018 at 8:52 pm

   wow, thank you thank you thank you thank you

   this clearly lays out the struggle within the Democratic party. The party establishment does not want M4A and the cards are stacked against supporters. On the other hand, the wind is clearly at the backs of the supporters.

   I would be so interested in hearing from NC readers about the congressional races in their areas.

   Briannu Wu (who supports HR 676) is challenging Stephen Lynch. Anyone live in that district?
   https://www.briannawu2018.com/issues
   1. johnnygl April 3, 2018 at 9:36 am

      I used to live in his district. Lynch is a decent guy. He knows his district and has a solid base of support. He’s more centrist than i’d like, but he’s not flagrantly money-grubbing and pro-corporate. Disloding him would be a big ask. I’m not even sure it would be a good idea, without knowing much about his challenger.

      For example, i can recall lynch being against TPA and TPP. He’s usually pretty anti-war, too. A lot of this is probably driven by his base of support in the unions. Unions which don’t really want medicare for all.

      Of course, lynch’s district is changing a bit. It’s not poor by any stretch, but it’s still gentrifying with rising house prices and good transport links attracting a more affluent crowd.
   2. cm April 3, 2018 at 10:37 am

      Briannu Wu — of Gamergate fame…
      1. Swamp Yankee April 5, 2018 at 5:30 am

         I’ve had my problems with Lynch in the past, but Wu has come off so far herself as a gentrifying carpetbagger with little actual interest in the district, despite her laudable stand on Medicare For All. I think this lack of knowledge of the district will (rightly) hurt her candidacy, all other things being equal. Especially if the Lynch people can show up her total Boston-centric approach in places like East Bridgewater and Raynham, old Swamp Yankee Towns. And finally, the whole raison d’etre of her campaign is to turn Boston into San Francisco East. That is the last thing we want around here! Jiminy Christmas! This would be one thing if she were born and raised in Braintree or Hull; but she wasn’t, and it comes off as what it is — more colonialism by the top 10% class, this time in the “near-provinces”, the borderlands between the metropole and the hinterlands in eastern MA. The level of tone-deafness from her so far has been off the charts. When you factor in Lynch’s built up years of political capital in Southie and Quincy, sure, it’s a race, but it’s Lynch’s to lose.
3. Craig H. April 2, 2018 at 9:10 pm

   I hate to be picky but if you are taking requests instead of just “I” for intelligence it might help if you used at least “intel” (& sim. for the other milo’s) which is a searchable string. You can’t really search on “I”. :)

   But it looks great! This ain’t a complaint.
   1. Lambert Strether Post authorApril 4, 2018 at 2:20 am

      Because of the way I’ve been manipulating text strings to do the sorting and create the reports, single characters are better (and they take up less space in the table). If and when I shift to a database, I may revisit that, and use cute little icons, or something).
4. dcblogger April 2, 2018 at 10:14 pm

   seriously, this is a great reference tool and I have book marked it.
5. Carey April 2, 2018 at 10:17 pm

   My first-term congresscritter in CA-24, Salud Carbajal, does not support single-payer or Medicare for All,
   and my attempts to break through his office’s forcefield (that’s*just* what it feels like), have been futile.
6. edmondo April 2, 2018 at 10:18 pm

   Live in AZ-02. I would rate it a toss-up, not tilt D.

   If McSally wins the Republican nomination for senate, she will bring a lot of locals out to support her and maybe enough to carry the local latina GOP congressional candidate over the finish line. It’s a weird district, lots of high income, defense contractor types and two huge military installations in Davis Monthan AFB and Fort Huchacha Army base. The Dems running here are not the exciting type, think carpetbagger blue doggies, like Jon Ossoff. This one will be very close – probably 1000-2000 votes either way.
   1. Arizona Slim April 3, 2018 at 12:51 pm

      Well, edmondo, it’s Arizona Slim here, and you are hereby invited to Friday’s Naked Capitalism meetup in Tucson.

      Our Fearless Leader, Yves Smith, has already blogged this topic once and she’s about to post a reminder. Link to her first post:

      https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/03/announcing-tucson-meetup-friday-april-6.html
      1. DonCoyote April 11, 2018 at 10:34 am

         Arizona Slim had previously called our attention to Billy Kovacs in the AZ-02 race. Here’s an interview with Billy, done by Cenk Uygur, one of the founders of the Justice Democrats (who endorsed a different candidate in this race), in which Billy lays out his progressive bona fides (no corporate PAC money, #MedicareForAll, $15 minimum wage). IMO he didn’t do a good job on Syria at the end (Assad and Russia “accountable”).

         Also, his web page is still a slow to no loader in Chrome.

         We now return you to threads that are less than week old :-)
7. Knifecatcher April 3, 2018 at 12:09 am

   Picking nits, to be sure, but shouldn’t Levi Sanders of all people get an “S” by his name?

   Great work, as always.
8. The Rev Kev April 3, 2018 at 1:00 am

   I see that you have the field MILO for “military, intelligence, law enforcement, other,”. I sometimes wonder if you should for all the candidates have a field for NEOCON for people like Mitch McConnell and John McCain. Tulsi Gabbard is a MILO but otherwise has little in common with the first two people. McConnell and McCain are both ex-military so may count for MILO.
   If you were wondering about McConnell being a MILO, he was at Fort Knox back in ’67 but was let go because of his eyesight after only five weeks.
9. jefemt April 3, 2018 at 8:47 am

   Informative article and chart- Thank you!

   Sorry to see Montana- a flyover state with its single congressional seat,with a pretty hot primary, not included.

   The battle is for the seat presently occupied by the notorious pugilist–richest guy in either chamber — Greg ‘punch-the journalist’ Gianforte. Gianforte, you may recall, won an off-time election for the seat vacated by Ryan “Seal Team assault on the natural world’ Zinke.
   1. Lambert Strether Post authorApril 3, 2018 at 3:58 pm

      When I expand the table further into the red, it may show up!
10. Kevin April 3, 2018 at 8:54 am

    Wow, awesome spreadsheet.take the rest of the week off Lambert!
11. DonCoyote April 3, 2018 at 11:34 am

    Nice work.

    You commented on the h bias against #MedicareForAll. Am I the only one noticing the l (law-enforcement) bias? The lm’s are split, two on each side, but the eight “pure” l’s are all against. I am not in law enforcement, but this surprises me, as I would think there would be some support, for purely personal reasons (higher on the job injury rate) if nothing else.
    1. Alternate Delegate April 3, 2018 at 12:33 pm

       I also noticed those eight law enforcement L’s opposed to Medicate4All. All I have is a caught-at-second-hand whiff of a professional atmosphere that “all of the ills of society are due to someone getting something for free”. If they really feel that way, why aren’t they running for the nomination of a conservative party? I have a sinking feeling that I know the answer to that one. They are.
       1. Elizabeth Burton April 3, 2018 at 5:25 pm

          The current incarnation of the Democrats is a “conservative party.” The former conservative party is now libertarian. Just sayin’.
    2. Lambert Strether Post authorApril 4, 2018 at 2:23 am

       > The lm’s are split, two on each side, but the eight “pure” l’s are all against.

       That’s an excellent perception, and that is exactly why I went through the exercise of doing the coding.

       It may be that the Ms in the LMs who support #MedicareForAll have experienced single payer in the service?

       Hold that thought, and if and when I can expand the table further into the red, we’ll see if it holds up!

       Adding, the more people who look at this data and find patterns, the happier I will be! That’s what it’s there for!
12. oaf April 3, 2018 at 5:10 pm

    This is exactly the kind of information *We, the People* need…and which *We* so often find presented for our consideration by N.C.
    One little bite like this is WAY BETTER than oodles of Fake News from MSM.
    Thanks; Lambert, and all!
13. edmondo April 4, 2018 at 12:49 am

    1) TX: It’s amusing to see the establishment-backed leader try to steal the left’s clothes on policy, and encouraging to see that they didn’t try the “universal health care” or “Medicare Extra” scams. Next, they’ll pass it and take credit!

    I am somewhat confused by your assertion that Gina Ortiz Jones supports Medicare for all because I read her website and if it’s there she’s hiding it well.

    From her website:
    In Congress, Gina will work to:

    •Make much-needed fixes to the Affordable Care Act, creating a fair and affordable health care system that covers every American.

    •Reduce the costs and red tape to small businesses – making it easier and more affordable for them to provide health care coverage for their employees.

    Neither of these is Medicare for all, in fact, employer-sponsored health coverage is the opposite.

    https://ginaortizjones.com/issues/accessible-affordable-health-care
    1. DonCoyote April 5, 2018 at 12:40 pm

       Yes, Gina seems to have focused-grouped her healthcare message too much. But she does have “Gina supports a single payer system”, which can only be #MedicareForAll. OTOH, maybe “supports” is the classic Democrat “fight for”, i.e. rhetorical/token efforts seemingly designed to lose.

       Her opponent in the runoff, Rick Trevino, seems to be a straightforward #MedicareForAll supporter, so the Texas runoff elections, scheduled for May 22, should yield a little more data.

       There is also this wrinkle: “Voters who cast their ballots in the primaries Tuesday can also vote in the primary runoff of the same party in May. Voters who did not vote in the primary at all can cast their ballot in the runoff elections of either party in May.”
14. Mrsyk April 4, 2018 at 8:18 am

    The AZ row in figure 3 needs to be edited. And how about those health (insurance?) professionals!!!(sarc)
15. Big River Bandido April 4, 2018 at 4:10 pm

    Looks like there was a redundancy or errant split in the Nevada races…Eric Stoltz is listed in both NV-03 and NV-04.
16. DonCoyote April 5, 2018 at 12:23 pm

    Here’s a video on how to further crapify the ACA from the AZ-08 special election (April 24th) D candidate (she already beat a #MedicareForAll Justice Democrat in the primary), Dr. Hiral Tipirneni. It’s a pretty solidly red district, but this plan seems to dovetail nicely with the Amazon/Berkshire/JPM healthcare “innovation” borg .

    Some of the lowlights:
    1) Medicare For All…who want to buy in (“in other words, a public option”). Government plan competes with other plans, but who decides how much to buy in?
    2) Employers provide a “stipend” instead of insurance. So *everyone* can go shopping (including Medicaid patients, who presumably get a “stipend” from Uncle Sam/their states). And no doubt it’s up to the employer as to the size of the stipend. 10% of current insurance costs? Do I hear 8%?
    3) Reduce regulations…because that always works (to increase profits).
    4) (ad nauseum) Free market forces work to drive down costs (because this has worked so well up to now). Or “More Choices and More Competition = Lower Costs and Quality Care” .

    So one more ‘h’ against #MedicareForAll. “Dr. Tipirneni, the Blue Dogs are on the white courtesy phone for you…”
17. bluegirlredstate April 6, 2018 at 12:32 am

    I wanted to post a screen shot, but I don’t know how on here. My sister is running for school board as a Bernie style progressive candidate and got invited to the Bold Progressives (AKA Progressive Change Campaign Committee)/ Our Revolution training. I was reading the email and Bold Progressives/ Our Revolution has also partnered with Indivisible, AFLCIO, Planned Parenthood, and more (they don’t list more, they just say “and more”). I thought the Indivisible partnership was an interesting one that Lambert might find curious, since they aren’t a progressive movement.
    My sister had to go through a pretty grueling interview process, where they grilled her about her progressive bona fides, and is the only candidate from our state who is attending.
    I kind of feel like their strategy here might actually be building a movement from the bottom up. They are training 400ish local, state and federal candidates. That river comment Lambert made in water cooler might apply here. The wave is coming, no matter what. I would be particularly interested to hear Lambert’s take on Bold Progressives. They might be a little more center, for example “everyone should be able to buy into medicare.” But that is a better position than “expand and protect ACA.”
    I can’t link the email, but I can link their about page for those interested.
    http://www.boldprogressives.org/about/

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