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Political Note #284 Dana Balter NY CD 24
2020 General Election
Dana Balter https://electdanabalter.com again. I rarely write Notes to support one or another candidate in a competitive primary. Dana Balter has a primary. It does not look competitive. On March 30, Syracuse.com reported on a recent poll which had Dana Balter leading her primary opponent 64-21.
For our purposes, think of Dana Balter as the nominee. She will run again against incumbent Republican John Katko, to whom she lost by 5 points in 2018.
Start donating now to Dana Balter so that she can make a stronger run against Katko this time. She is unusual. In general, candidates who succeed (or come close to succeeding, as was the case for her in 2018) are moderate or conservative Democrats. In 2018, for instance, ten of the forty who flipped seats had a military connection. Most of the forty who flipped Republican seats joined either the conservative Blue Dog Coalition or the moderate New Democrat Coalition. Only a few joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
If Dana Balter were to be elected, she would probably join the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In her 2018 campaign she advocated a version of Medicare for All and called for the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes. A former teacher, she became the director of education for a disabilities non-profit.
Dana Balter’s campaign experiences have demonstrated the extent to which those who manage the political arm of the Democratic Party, the DCCC, much prefer moderate or conservative candidates. In 2018,after Dana Balter had locked up the support of county Democratic Committees, national Democrats sought a primary opponent for her, an opponent she defeated handily.
In 2020, Dana Balter had an early primary opponent, probably with similar national support. Her primary opponent was able to gain County Committee support from the two most heavily populated counties. That support did not matter. She is winning again handily.
Dana Balter is, it turns out, an effective politician. She teaches Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs where she is also getting a doctorate. She has been a central figure of the Central New York Solidarity Coalition. These are progressive organizations she gets to work together for political goals. The organization recalls Upstate New York’s national leadership for the abolition of slavery and for women’s suffrage. They pledge, for instance, “to tear down the walls that divide and impoverish us.”
Do not underestimate someone who can coordinate groups who identify with Central New York’s radical history and can create an effective organization out of them. They list no individual leaders on their website. Their opponent appears on the website. The incumbent Congressman John Katco. They list his voting record. They point out his support for Trump’s tax cut, his votes to ban abortion his votes to allow those who are adjudicated as mentally incompetent to own firearms. It is enough to make a Progressive gnash her or his teeth.
Can make me gnash my teeth, too. As for Dana Balter, good for her. Don’t get me wrong. There is a good reason why it took moderate and conservative Democrats to flip many of the Republican Congressional seats. Their districts are conservative. I love supporting Democrats in 2018 like Ben McAdams (UT), Joe Cunningham (NC), Abigail Spanberger (IA), and Kendra Horn (OK). I support them again in 2020. We need the full spectrum of the Democratic Party in Congress. We need Dana Balter https://electdanabalter.com. Provide her with some support. Help elect an ideologically diverse Democratic Congress.
Below are Congressional seats Democrats are trying to flip from incumbent Republicans. The ones with asterisks ran in 2018* In 2018, Democrats flipped 40 Republican seats in the House. Let’s flip 20 more.
Congress
Arizona 06 Hiral Tipirneni* to beat incumbent David Schweikert
Arkansas 02. Joyce Elliott to beat incumbent French Hill
California 50 Ammar Campa-Hajjar* to win this now open Rep seat
Florida 16 Margaret Good to beat incumbent Vern Buchanan
Illinois 13 Betsy D Londrigen* to beat incumbent Rodney Davis
Indiana 05 Christina Hale to win this open Republican seat
Iowa 04 JD Scholten* to beat incumbent Steve King
Kansas 02 Michelle De La Isla to beat incumbent Steve Watkins
Michigan 03. Hillary Scholten to defeat incumbent Independent Justin Amash and the Republican nominee
Michigan 06 Jon Hoadley to beat incumbent Fred Upton
Minnesota 01 Dan Feehan* to beat incumbent Jim Hagedorn
Missouri 02 Jill Schupp to beat incumbent Ann Wagner
New York 02 Jackie Gordon to win this open Republican seat
New York 21 Tedra Cobb* to beat incumbent Elise Stefanic
New York 24 Dana Balter* to beat incumbent John Katko
Ohio 04 Mike Larsen to beat incumbent Jim Jordan
Pennsylvania 10 Eugene DePasquale to beat incumbent Scott Perry
Texas 02 Sima Ladjervardian to beat incumbent Dan Crenshaw
Texas 21 Wendy Davis to beat incumbent Chip Roy
Texas 22 Sri Preston Kalkuri to win this open Republican seat
Texas 23 Gina Ortiz Jones* to win this open Republican seat
Washington 03 Carolyn Long* to beat incumbent Jaime Herrera Beutler
