N.C. Families First, a union-backed third party, has set its sights on 2012 after efforts to recruit a candidate to challenge U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell, D-8th, in the midterms fizzled out. The News & Observer reports:
N.C. Families First apparently will abandon efforts to run a candidate against Kissell, saying it likes the way he has been voting lately.
In a statement, the group said, “Since we’ve started our effort, we’ve noticed that Congressman Larry Kissell stood up to Wall Street, stood up against Big Oil and stood with working families who lost their jobs through no fault of their own.
“In spite of our tremendous disagreement with him on his vote against health care reform, we applaud him for those votes.”
The group said it would continue organizing to form a third party for the 2012 elections.
The timing is ironic in at least two respects. First, the party’s candidate, Wendell Fant, decided to skip the race shortly after the Republicans chose Harold Johnson, rather than the more controversial Tim D’Annunzio, as their nominee. Polls and pundits agreed that Johnson had a far better chance of beating Kissell than D’Annunzio did.
Second, I don’t buy the explanation that N.C. Families First suddenly was pleased with Kissell’s recent voting record. For liberals, the health care reform vote has become the litmus test and gold standard for a lawmaker’s legitimacy as a progressive. Furthermore, unions and their allies had spent ample time criticizing Kissell for the vote. Seldom was there a hint of praise for his other votes to moderate the criticism.
My speculation: the upperlings finally came to their senses and realized that ?10 is the worst possible year to challenge Kissell from the left. Let him win his maiden outing and then face him in ?12, which could be a better political environment for Democrats.
It boils down to this: given the political dynamics of the 8th Congressional District, Kissell is, most likely, the most liberal candidate Democrats are going to get.
