Like the DNC before it, the DCCC brand has become so toxic that even Democratic voters are rejecting it. The inflection point was reached two weeks ago in Texas’ 7th Congressional District when the DCCC attacked a progressive candidate like a Republican would.



In a rare move, the DCCC published opposition research about journalist and activist Laura Moser, who’s been backed by several major progressive groups. The campaign committee has tagged Moser, who recently moved back to Houston, as a “Washington insider.”

The attack against a fellow Democrat infuriated progressive groups who fired back at the DCCC and argued that voters should be the ones deciding who will represent them. Groups like Credo, Our Revolution and Justice Democrats launched a petition on Friday calling on DCCC chairman Ben Ray Luján (N.M.) “to stop undermining progressive values.”

In fact Our Revolution hadn't decided who to back in the race until the DCCC identified who the progressive was.

If the DCCC thought that their smear attack was going to undermine Moser, well, they thought wrong.



But there are few signs here that the DCCC’s punches have landed. Instead, Moser’s fundraising has ticked up — she’s collected more than $130,000 since the DCCC post on Feb. 22 — and she’s urging voters in a digital ad to “[reject] the system where Washington party bosses tell us who to choose.”

... Addressing two dozen voters at a candidate meet-and-greet in a townhouse here last week, Moser urged them to bring a friend to the polls on Tuesday, joking, “I would usually ask for money, but the DCCC has set us up for a while,” drawing a mixture of laughter and boos from the group.

Not only did the DCCC attack garner Moser the support of progressive groups, not only did it give her fundraising a boost, it also helped out her standing in the polls.



According to the poll, conducted with 726 “likely Democratic primary voters,” Moser has moved from sixth to second place since January, which would secure her a place in the May runoff — exactly what the DCCC had tried to prevent.

The anti-DCCC backlash has spilled onto the editorial pages.

The Nation: When DCCC Calls, Hang Up the Phone

BoingBoing: Don't give a dime to the DCCC, they'll just use to front DINOs and smear Justice Democrats

Normally, when your voters are responding in exactly the opposite way that you intended then you might pause and reflect on your methods. But this is the Democrats we are talking about, and if the Dems have anything in abundance it is arrogance.



Asked if the DCCC had been “clumsy” in its approach to Moser, Israel said that people were missing the forest for the trees. “The more critics of DCCC focus on the process, the less we’re focusing on how to win that district,” the former congressman said. “I understand that people are upset but you know, I’d be more upset if we get involved in a civil war that costs us a victory in a district and produces another Republican who will rubber stamp Donald Trump.”

...

“People are voting for or against the Trump agenda,” the former DCCC chairman told The Daily Beast.” Most voters are not propelled or motivated to cast their vote for a candidate that is for or against the DCCC or the DNC. To make this a referendum on the DCCC is the ultimate in inside baseball.”

First of all, if Moser's fundraising and polling is proof of anything, then voting against the DCCC is exactly what people are doing.

Secondly, it is the DCCC and DNC that are responsible for the Dem's civil war.

Thirdly, a civil war is exactly what the Dems need, because the establishment has no respect at all for progressives.

It's not just that one race in Texas. The DCCC has been putting its finger on the scales in Pennsylvania too.



The drama in Pennsylvania is centered on Greg Edwards, a pastor running for a newly drawn swing seat in the Lehigh Valley. On Thursday, he told The Washington Post that the DCCC had approached local Democrats to ask whether he could be persuaded to seek another office.

“As far as I know, they only targeted one candidate to leave this race — the most progressive candidate, the only candidate of color,” Edwards said. “Their inability to understand why that’s fundamentally wrong says everything.”

...“It’s a shame that the DCCC and the wealthy white donors and revolving door consultants that make up the Democratic Party establishment are actively trying to stop Greg [Edwards],” said Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for Justice Democrats, a group that has endorsed left-leaning candidates in a number of races, including some with incumbents, where party leaders prefer different candidates. “Their consultant-driven strategy seems to prefer milquetoast candidates who they believe can appeal to moderate Republicans over progressive candidates of color. This is what systemic racism looks like.”

Shahid has a point.

The DCCC is consistent in it's support for former-Republican candidates over genuine progressive candidates.



In the second district of Virginia, the DCCC has endorsed a former Republican, Elaine Luria, who voted twice for Scott Taylor, the Republican she's hoping to unseat on behalf of the Democrats; she's not the only "former Republican" whose campaign you'll be supporting if you donate to the DCCC -- there's also Nebraska's Brad Ashford. Both secured the DCCC endorsement over progressive Democrats, who were shunned by the party establishment.

At this rate, candidates will be asking for the DCCC to endorse their opponents in order to prove to voters that they aren't part of the establishment.