Moderate Democrats in GOP crosshairs after tipping scales on impeachment
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/oct/2/moderate-democrats-backing-donald-trump-impeachmen/
Rep. Elaine G. Luria had quietly supported her party’s priorities on gun control, advocated for veterans’ rights and kept focused on her conservative Norfolk, Virginia, district rather than seeking the national spotlight — and then she jumped onto the impeachment train.
All eyes turned to the former Navy commander last week when she and six other freshman Democrats with national security backgrounds came out in support of an official impeachment inquiry targeting President Trump.
Ms. Luria and other moderates helped “tip the scales” on impeachment, said Jennifer N. Victor, a politics professor at George Mason University.
“These were not like the liberal stalwarts. They were freshmen. They weren’t just following party leadership or party lines,” she said. “Some of them come from moderate districts. And so the fact that that group was coming out very publicly and saying ‘Nope. We’ve changed our minds. This is really serious now’ really began to turn the tide.”
It also put them in Republican crosshairs.
Ms. Luria and other moderate Democrats backing impeachment are feeling the heat from conservative groups back home, complicating their reelection bids and giving Republicans hope for winning back seats lost in 2018 and retaking the House majority in 2020.
“Luria is now pushing a radical scheme to impeach President Trump, dividing the country, tearing us apart — because she doesn’t like the president,” said an ad from the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC dedicated to winning a Republican House majority.
The group released similar ads targeting Democratic Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania. The ads tied the three moderate lawmakers to well-known liberal Democrats such as Sen. Bernard Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
The super PAC accused Rep. Abigail Davis Spanberger, Virginia Democrat, of backtracking. It cited an article in which she explained that her party needed to walk a fine line between investigating and rushing toward impeachment.
“Democrats in Congress have made it clear that the left’s crazed drive to remove Trump from office is far more important to them than improving the lives of their constituents,” Congressional Leadership Fund President Dan Conston said in a statement.
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(Article does continue. Zim.)
(Elaine Luria is my 'representative' in the House of Reprehensibles.)
Mad Poet Strikes Again.
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