Sometimes the good guy/gal wins

I want to talk about one particular candidate that won tonight.
Not Randy “Ironstache” Bryce, although I am rooting for him.
Not Christine Hallquist or Ilhan Omar, although I'm rooting for them.

The primary winner I want to talk about had to overcome a mountain of obstacles, including dirty tricks by the Democratic establishment.

Jahana Hayes, the former National Teacher of the Year who grew up in public housing, won the Democratic nomination for the open 5th Congressional District seat Tuesday night, bringing her closer to becoming the first black Democrat from New England to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Hayes, who has spoken frankly about growing up in public housing and being the daughter of a drug addict, acknowledged her unlikely journey and the history-making quality of her campaign. She noted that she jumped into the race “102 days ago, with no money and no network.”

“People told me I had no chance and I had no business trying to do this,’’ Hayes told cheering supporters in Waterbury Tuesday night. “Tonight we proved them wrong.”

If you read no further, that alone is inspiring.
But yet, that is less than half of this story. First we must mention Mary Glassman, Hayes' opponent.

Glassman is a longtime local politician who twice ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor. Connecticut is a blue state dominated by corporations, and Glassman this week won the rare endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a Republican-aligned voice for big business. The chamber almost never endorses Democrats and rarely intervenes in a Democratic primary.

Joining the chamber is both MoveOn and the local chapter of Our Revolution, the group formed in the wake of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign for president.
...The endorsement by the central Connecticut branch of Our Revolution is highly unusual, as Our Revolution claims to back progressive candidates who — unlike Glassman — proudly embrace the policy platform Sanders ran on.

If Our Revolution and the Chamber of Commerce endorsing the same candidate sounds suspicious, it's because something rotten was going down.

Less than two weeks before the May 14 endorsement convention, Hayes — encouraged by Sen. Chris Murphy — jumped into the race. At the nominating convention for Connecticut’s 5th District, as The Intercept previously reported, it was Hayes who emerged as the initial winner. But convention chair Tom McDonough kept the vote-switching period open long enough for enough delegates to switch and swing it narrowly back toward Glassman.

Vote-switching itself is not uncommon, but the prolonged process was unusual. Chris D’Orso, a convention delegate who serves on the Board of Aldermen for Waterbury and backed Hayes, told The Intercept at the time that he’d never seen anything like it in his more than 20 years of deep involvement in local Connecticut politics.

Damn! That was 2016 Nevada primary type bullsh*t.
And still people saw through the smoke.
The good guy/gal won.

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mhagle's picture

Jana Lynne Sanchez won the dem nomination in the race for Joe Barton's seat with mostly a Bernie platform. There was a run off primary in June between Jana Lynne and Ruby Woolridge, the dem party favorite. Jana Lynne won by a sizeable margin. Just read in the paper today that Ruby and the dems sued Jana Lynne, claiming her signatures were forged. Judge threw it out because the handwriting "expert" couldn't show evidence or methodology. Plus the judge said, "why are you complaining about this now . . . in July? You should have sued in March if you really cared."

Ruby was strictly a nothing candidate. She didn't stand for anything. There is no way she could have beat a repub in this district.

So the dems are trying to fuck with their own candidates to make them lose if they are progressives? They did this to a dude who recently ran for the senate. Don't remember his name, but he wrote about it pretty extensively at the time.

I was going to include a link but as my kids say, "the internet is ass today." Smile

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Wink's picture

Congressional Primary winner
@mhagle
recently ran a Signatures gathering
effort to get on another (additional) party line on the ballot here for the Nov. election.
Something like 2,500 sigs were needed, and she collected over 4,000 (to be on the safe side).
The Repubs have challenged 2,000 sigs, of course, claiming many were "smudged" or fake.
So that's in court.
Anything - anything! - to bork Dem and progressive candidates!
Thing is, the Bernie wing of the party here - and yes there is one - (myself included) have zero enthusiasm for campaigning for the Dim primary winner, so 'we' will lose to the Repub yet again. {sigh}

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

The Aspie Corner's picture

And knowing them, they'll tell us it's for our own good.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Wink's picture

"It looks like some of you may need to switch your votes" (becuz we don't like who's currently leading). wtf?
And MoveOn and Our Revolution join the Chamber of Commerce... ??
Seriously?
Granted, most of these "Lefty" groups aren't, but... why not just slap a big red R on your forehead?! And, Conn. and Mass. claim to be blue, but first black female candidate to run for the House?
wthh?? (what the holy hell)

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@Wink

And MoveOn and Our Revolution join the Chamber of Commerce... ??
Seriously?
Granted, most of these "Lefty" groups aren't, but... why not just slap a big red R on your forehead?!

Until now I had operated under the assumption that Our Revolution wasn't corrupted yet.
My bad.

And, Conn. and Mass. claim to be blue, but first black female candidate to run for the House?
wthh?? (what the holy hell)

Once a party becomes entrenched in an area they forget about their voters.

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Wink's picture

white - and most people
@gjohnsit
live in Conn. Becuz it IS still pearly white, but...
wow.
Still, it's the vote switching mechanism that's...
what's the word... odd. To say the least.
Apparently in place to keep their politics "pure" in Conn.
Wouldn't want to upset the Stepford wives!
(and is why we get Joe effing Liebermans beating real Dems there).

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

lotlizard's picture

@Wink  
https://www.roadsnacks.net/most-african-american-cities-in-connecticut/

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It was her interview on The Ellen Show when she had won teacher of the year.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgSAzQsAKSM width:550]

In that interview, she said "Your journey is not determined by the place you begin." I thought it made for a lovely meme.

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