Dem Super PAC Spending To Elevate GOP Hardliner In California House Race (Partly b/c Our Revolution)

[Exotica]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/dem-super-pac-spending-to-elevate-gop-hardliner-in-california-house-race

House Democrats’ main super PAC is quietly attempting to boost a hardline Republican candidate in a key House race, the latest attempt by national Democrats to avoid disaster in California.

The House Majority PAC has sent out mail pieces to Republican and independent voters in retiring Rep. Ed Royce’s (R-CA) district tying Phil Liberatore to President Trump, a clear move to raise the underfunded Liberatore’s name recognition in the district and try to siphon off votes from other GOP candidates to him. Images of the mail pieces were obtained by TPM from a source in-district.

The mailers advertise that Liberatore and Trump “want a bigger border wall,” oppose sanctuary cities (a major flashpoint in California, where Republicans are outraged Democratic lawmakers have declared it a sanctuary state), and tout his endorsement from controversial former Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio (R), a hero on the anti-immigrant right. While the ad is framed as an attack, it’s clear the goal is to boost him at other Republicans’ expense.

The effort is just one of many efforts from Democrats to avoid the disastrous scenario of failing to get a single candidate into the general election in a state where they have a number of key pickup opportunities.

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the ratfucking by Our Revolution:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/national-dems-jump-in-to-avoid-calamity-in-ca-primaries

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A few weeks ago, the DCCC jumped in to back Navy veteran and lottery winner Gil Cisneros (D) in the race for the open seat to replace retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA). The move drew howls from Cisneros’ opponents, the loudest of them from businessman Andy Thorburn (D) and the progressive organizations backing him like the Bernie Sanders-affiliated Our Revolution and the California Nurses Association.

That endorsement could come back to bite them, as a local Democratic official who’s backing Thorburn accused the married Cisneros of drunkenly trying to seduce her then withholding a campaign donation — a charge Cisneros and his allies strongly deny. Others told TPM Cisneros wasn’t drunk that night — including local Fox News reporter Jamie Chambers, who said he talked to Cisneros around the time of the alleged encounter and that he was “sober, clear, and lucid.”

Pushing one candidate over others isn’t their only option.

Party leaders have quietly worked on second-tier candidates for months to drop out to help the remaining Democrats consolidate the vote. And a few have done so – including Rachel Payne, who recently dropped her bid for the Rohrabacher seat. But others, like EMILY’s List-backed Mai Khanh Tran in Royce’s district, have told them to stuff it.

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The Intercept gets involved too

California Democrat threatens legal action over ‘fabricated voice mail’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/04/27/california-democrat-threatens-legal-action-over-fabricated-voicemail/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.eb1e98e8c0f7

Two Democrats in a blue-trending California congressional district locked horns Friday over a short piece of audio — a voice mail that candidate Andy Thorburn claims candidate Gil Cisneros left on his wife’s phone. By the end of Friday, the dust-up had led to legal action, accusations of fraud and one candidate comparing the other to President Trump.

The voice mail, first reported by the Intercept, is just a few seconds long. In it, a man identifies himself as Cisneros, a candidate in California’s 39th Congressional District, and informs Thorburn that “I’m gonna go negative on you.”

The Intercept, which has been closely covering brawls in Democratic primaries, reported on the voice mail Thursday afternoon. On Friday morning, Cisneros’s campaign released the cease-and-desist letter it had sent to the Intercept, claiming that the story was “false and defamatory” and further claiming that the audio had been faked.

“The voice on that recording is not Gil Cisneros, plain and simple,” said Cisneros spokesman Orrin Evans. “The Intercept’s ‘story’ about a voice mail — apparently provided to them by the Thorburn campaign — is completely false and manufactured. The Intercept posted the fabricated voice mail without even playing the recording for the Cisneros campaign to verify his voice, and took no steps to authenticate the recording prior to its release.”


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so SICK of these fucking dirty tricks from OR

they attacked an Indian American candidate (who won his primary tonight) as well

Kulkarni's teen drug arrest puts Fort Bend Democrats on edge

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Kulkarni-s-teen-drug-arrest-puts-Fort-Bend-12628608.php

snip

Nevertheless, the allegation, made at the start of early voting in Texas, has shaken up a U.S. House race in which Democrats hope to make inroads in their quest to loosen the Republican Party's long grip on the state.

Kulkarni disclosed the arrest to the Chronicle on Tuesday after the case was raised by the Fort Bend County Chapter leader of Our Revolution, a group representing a progressive coalition of activists who supported the 2016 presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Doug Beaton, the leader of the chapter, warned Fort Bend County Democratic officials on Kulkarni's previously undisclosed past in a letter posted Monday on social media. The letter suggested that Kulkarni, whose full first name is Srivinas, is running under an assumed name and that he had previously registered with the Federal Election Commission to run for a congressional seat in Massachusetts.


"As these concerns have been validated, we feel that this candidate would be a considerable liability for the Democratic Party in the midterm elections," Beaton wrote.

Kulkarni said neither charge is true.

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ratfuckers!

[sharedvalues]

1. Check your logic. This is good for Dems

The TPM article clearly points out how these ads are meant to help an extrmist Trumpite Republican candidate who will burn their party down, lose in the general, and help Dems.

Sounds fine to us.

[Exotica]

2. You miss my point, if the OR-backed candidate wasn't shit-stirring, there would be no need

(or less of one) to play this high risk (and costly) strategy.

I hate my state's jungle primary system as well. This is far from the only race we may end up with two Rethugs (and no Dems) in the general.

[sharedvalues]

5. Ah.

Ok, yup. Let’s have a thread of Dems who won’t drop out.

[Exotica]

6. They are doing far more than 'not getting out'

Last edited Wed May 23, 2018, 10:58 AM - Edit history (1)

And yes, when it comes to jungle primary states like we have here in California, by all means make a thread about people, who will not win, refusing to drop out and thus giving Rethugs a chance to grab top 2 places and shut us out of the general election.

[sharedvalues]

7. Names. I'm not in CA. Who is dragging down Dems?

[Cha]

3. Wow.. So much for "liability"

the primary voters didn't think so.. and this letter writer, Doug Beaton, has an agenda.

Who was their candidate?

Thank you for your OP, Exotica

[Exotica]

4. Steve Brown first, then Letitia Plummer in the runoff