When Democrats came close to winning a congressional seat in Wichita earlier this year, but fell short, the party came in for a ton of criticism for not doing more to help the candidate, James Thompson. Their defense was that sometimes the party's involvement isn't actually helpful.
Now we have at least one example of a candidate agreeing with that assessment. DNC Chair Tom Perez and Bernie Sanders both offered to travel to Montana to campaign on behalf of populist blue grass legend Rob Quist, who is running in a House special election May 25th. Quist, according to sources familiar with how this went down, thought about it, and told Sanders he was welcome to come, but Perez would be better off staying home.
That says something interesting about the popularity of the national party and the DNC specifically, and also about Sanders. Quist has raised more than two million dollars, but Montana readers tell me he's getting swamped on the airwaves by his multi-millionaire opponent Greg Gianforte, with TV showing nothing but anti-Quist ads. (At a debate over the weekend, Quist endorsed legalizing weed. My kind of guy.)
Daily Kos says they've raised him $159,000 from more than 12,000 people. If this were 2016, that would be close to setting a record for a House candidate, but it's not 2016, and they've raised more than a million so far for Jon Ossoff in Georgia. But there's still time in Montana.
And I finished that MSNBC story that I mentioned here a few days ago. It's about how in the Trump era the network has curiously responded not by leaning into the resistance, but by becoming whiter and more conservative.
And the head of Fox News, Bill Shine, is out, charged with fostering a hostile work environment for women there. Ambush specialist Jesse Watters might be next; after getting suspended for making an awful remark about Ivanka Trump on air, rumors are flying around Fox that he'll be canned next. (I got in a fight with the guy at least year's White House correspondents dinner, so I have a particular curiosity to see how this goes.)
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