This week Analilia Mejia won an upset victory in the Democratic primary to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill. She defeated former moderate Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski and nine other candidates.
She ran well to the left of the field, gaining the endorsements of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. She called for the elimination of ICE (this year’s equivalent of “defund the police”) among her hard-left positions.
In a bizarre twist, Malinowski was targeted for defeat by the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC. Their political arm ran blistering and false ads against Malinowski, claiming that he was a supporter of ICE. In truth, a decade ago he voted for overwhelmingly bipartisan budget bills that included money for ICE. He strongly opposed ICE’s tactics under Trump.
And, in fact, Malinowski had been a long-time supporter of Israel. So why did they target him? Because he had said he was open to putting some perfectly reasonable restrictions on aid to Israel in response to their over-the-top response to the awful Hamas attacks of October 7th. Apparently, AIPAC thought Malinowski was a shoe-in or some other moderate would win and they wanted to use this early race to send a message to candidates this fall.
Well, surprise! AIPAC succeeded in making a woman who called out Israel for “genocide” the Democratic nominee. Mejia is from the hard-left wing of the party that serves as apologists for Hamas. Nice work, you guys.
Mejia now faces a moderate Republican in an April special election. It’s a pretty safe Democratic district, but it would be a good thing for Democrats in the long run if Mejia is upset. That’s because her nomination is a disaster. The last thing Democrats need is a slew of nominees this far to the left. If that happens in primaries this spring and summer — including the primary for Wisconsin governor — my party will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again.
I’m somewhat comforted by the unique circumstances of this race. For one thing, the moderate Malinowski may have won but for AIPAC’s idiotic antics. For another thing, this was a crowded primary with most of the candidates trying to follow Sherrill’s center-left approach. That ceded all the hard-left votes in the primary to Mejia. And finally there is the affluent, college-educated nature of the district. It’s a pocket of radical chic.
It’s possible now that Joe Hathaway, her moderate Republican opponent in the April general election, could score an upset. While I still want the Democrat, however flawed, to win, a Hathaway upset would send a valuable signal to my party: nominate candidates from the hard-left and we lose.
That’s it for this week. Awful warm weather moving in for the weekend will destroy the ski trails up here in the north woods. I might as well head back to Madison tomorrow. I’ve got a niece touring the UW this week. She’s from California. With temperatures nearing 60 she’s likely to come away with the impression that this is winter in the Midwest. If she chooses the UW and gets in she may have a surprise in her future.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 