Primary Election Results Build
Toward End of the `Truman Era'
by Patricia Salisbury
Election results in primaries held in a number of states in the final election round prior to the Nov. 2, 2006 midterm elections bear out Lyndon LaRouche's message to the Democratic Party leadership and base: The critical issue in determining the future of the nation and its institutions is to end the "Truman Era" and return to the axioms and orientation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. LaRouche has cautioned again and again that if Democrats turn their backs on the lower 80% of income brackets in the population, because they're looking for the big bucks from the wealthiest 3%, then they are not only acting like fools, but ensuring that they will continue to lose elections. He noted that some Democrats would rather get money from the Democratic Leadership Council than win.
Then on Tuesday, Sept. 12, the results in primary elections in a number of states saw several candidates supported and funded by the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) lose, and one longtime Democratic incumbent almost lose, primaries to political neophytes who campaigned on getting out of Iraq, impeaching Bush and Cheney, or other issues of concern to the lower 80%. Among the candidates not endorsed by the Democratic national bureaucracy, who won surprise victories on Sept. 12 were:
- New Hampshire social worker Carol Shea-Porter won the Democratic primary for Congress against a candidate who had been endorsed by the Party. Porter wants a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq, and won without institutional fundraising, instead using volunteers.
- In Maryland, Rep. Albert Wynn (D), who never received less than 80% in any primary since 1992, was barely holding on to his seat after a primary challenge by newcomer Donna Edwards, who attacked Wynn for having voted for the Iraq war. Ten days after the election the votes in this CD were still being counted.
- In Florida, former Air Force fighter pilot Bob Bowman, who campaigned on the charge that every dirty policy of the Bush Administration "marches through Cheney's office," that 9/11 was a conspiracy by the government, and that Cheney and Bush should be impeached, won the 15th District Democratic primary with 54% of the vote.
Underdog Wins Upset in Massachusetts
On Sept. 19, the trend continued, when a leading DLC-associated candidate was smashed in the Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial primary by political underdog Deval Patrick. Blueprint Magazine/DLC advisory board member Chris Gabrieli lost to Patrick, who polled 50% of the vote. and astonished political and media commentators by carrying every county in the state. Gabrieli, who sits on the DLC advisory board along with synarchist banker Felix Rohatyn, and who reportedly spent $8-10 million on his campaign, polled 27%. The third candidate in the race, State Attorney General Patrick Reilly, who was backed by labor and political figures such as Boston Mayor Thomas Merino, in defiance of Patrick's offical endorsement by the state party at its convention, polled 23%.
Patrick, an African American who headed the Civil Rights Division of the Clinton Justice Department, won a victory characterized by the Boston Globe as spanning the state, "from the mountains to the seas." He began the campaign with a narrow following among well-to-do liberals, and expanded his base to include virtually every possible geographic and demographic grouping through both door-to-door grass roots and Internet campaigning techniques.
Although the campaign focussed on state and local issues, Patrick was unambigous about his opposition to the Iraq war, terming it "a catastrophic military and political miscalculation," and calling for withdrawal of the troops "as promptly as we can safely do so." Patrick told audiences that he did not believe that the invasion of Iraq was ever about terrorism, and pledged that as governor, he will urge a policy of prompt withdrawal from Iraq upon the President and Congress.
While Patrick failed to acknowledge the systemic economic-financial breakdown crisis the nation and world face, he made clear that, as Governor of Massachusetts, he intends to represent the lower 80% of income brackets on issues such as health care, taxation, and education.
Kerry-Backed Veterans Running Strong Challenges
In other races, a number of seasoned military veterans, associated with 2004 Democratic Party Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), are running strong challenges to incumbent Republican Congressmen—three in Pennsylvania, and one in upstate New York. Kerry stressed, in a press statement, that in addition to attacking the Bush Iraq policy, the candidates are orienting to the lower 80% of income brackets, have won the support of organized labor, and back "fair trade." The candidates are:
- Patrick Murphy, a former Army captain, Iraq war veteran, and former teacher of Constitutional law at West Point, is running against freshman Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania's 8th District (northeastern Philadelphia and adjacent suburban counties). Republican Fitzpatrick had supported the war—until beginning to backpeddle and move in the other direction recently.
- Chris Carney, a former Pentagon intelligence analyst, and now a teacher at Penn State University, is challenging GOP Rep. Don Sherwood in Pennyslvania's 10th District (far northeastern Pennsylvania). On Sept. 18, Vice President Dick Cheney held a private fundraiser for the embattled Sherwood, who has been tainted by a scandal in which his former mistress has sued him for allegedly choking her.
- Joe Sestak, a retired three-star admiral and 31-year Navy veteran, is running against Rep. Curt Weldon in Pennsylvania's 7th District (southeast of Philadelphia). Weldon is doing some fancy footwork, in trying to put some distance between himself and Bush. Labor had previously backed Weldon, but Sestak is so highly regarded by them, that the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO endorsed him—the first Democrat they have backed in that district in 18 years.
- Eric Massa, a 24-year Navy veteran, is challenging Republican freshman Rep. John R. Kuhl in New York's 29th District (Rochester). In what may be the kiss of death for Kuhl's campaign, Dick Cheney is flying in for a private fundraiser. Massa is a strong FDR Democrat and wears a 1944 FDR lapel pin. He takes no corporate money, and has the support of every conceivable labor interest. He is anti-free trade, and told EIR that his opponent had cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the Central America Free Trade agreement. He says, "Dick Cheney seems to have had a neo-con epiphany driven by Paul Wolfowitz and PNAC." He calls the Iraq war "the greatest strategic disaster in our history." He stressed that both Democrats and Republicans are deeply worried by the current policy.
Republicans Break With Bush-Cheney
On the Republican side, a small but growing number of Republican Congressmen are breaking with the Bush-Cheney cabal, and calling for Iraq withdrawal deadlines. In an ironic turnabout, the RNC (Republican National Committee) is, in fact, supporting some of these candidates now, rather than those who align with Bush-Cheney, because it figures that these saner Republicans have a better chance of holding onto their seats in Congress! From Svengali Karl Rove's standpoint, everything depends on ensuring that Republicans hang on to control of the House in January, to prevent the Democrats from going forward with the totally justified impeachments, and other investigations and prosecutions, which would surely begin should they become the majority. Among the Republican moves:
- Rep. Christopher Shays (Conn.) will offer a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq this week.
- Rep. Curt Weldon (Pa.) is preparing a non-binding resolution to determine the criteria for an Iraq withdrawal.
- Tom Kean, challenging New Jersey's Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, says Rumsfeld should resign.
- Rep. Pat Tiberi (Ohio) can't defend Bush's reasons for going to war with Iraq, and wants new leadership at the Pentagon.
In comments on the strategic significance of the Sept. 12 primary results and related developments Lyndon LaRouche declared, "We won big last Tuesday," He explained he was referring not so much to the specific voting results, but to what these results demonstrate about the state of mind of the population, and what the Democrats must do to take the country back from the lunatics currently running it on behalf of the synarchist bankers.
