Mahoney vs Lutrin....what was done in FL 16th by Rahm and Thurman.

madfloridian

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Sat Sep-08-07 10:21 PM
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Mahoney vs Lutrin....what was done in FL 16th by Rahm and Thurman.

I have written about David Lutrin several times, and about the fact that he was a Democrat running for Mark Foley's seat in 06. We were irate at how he was "disappeared" and Tim Mahoney was given DCCC support. Howie Klein of Blue America, Down with Tyranny and Fire Dog Lake wrote about it, more below.

I was glad to see that it was covered in the Truth Out report by Mark Renner. Tim Mahoney was a Republican until 2005, Renner says he switched in July, I thought August....but it was after he was recruited to run by Rahm Emanuel and Karen Thurman, Florida Democratic chairwoman, who went to see him. He was a Republican, and they recruited him to run as a Democrat.

Democratic House Officials Recruited Wealthy Conservatives

David Lutrin, a school teacher, union activist and staunch supporter of immediate withdrawal from Iraq, decided to run against Foley before Mahoney entered the race. After Mahoney declared his candidacy, Lutrin was contacted by field organizers for the DCCC who asked him to drop out and let Mahoney run unopposed.

Lutrin said that he also met personally with Mahoney. During a three- hour breakfast meeting, Mahoney offered Lutrin a higher-paying job if he agreed to drop out of the primary. "Mahoney tried to get me to run in a different district. He offered me a job at one of his non-profit organizations where he said that I would make more than I was making as a teacher. He said I could campaign full time while working at his non-profit as long as I agreed to drop out of the race," Lutrin said. Lutrin declined the job offer.

According to Lutrin, when he refused to step aside, the DCCC shored up local political support for Mahoney. The local AFL-CIO chapter, of which Lutrin was a member, came out with an early endorsement of Mahoney's campaign. According to Lutrin, the union told him that "they would like to back a fellow union brother, but Mahoney has more money and more political support from the party." Lutrin eventually dropped out of the race when the local teachers' union decided to support Mahoney.

The DCCC had the money, Mahoney had the money as a millionaire businessman...to "persuade" the unions to go along. That is terribly upsetting to me. The teachers' union and the AFL-CIO went along with Rahm and Karen and endorsed a Republican who turned Democrat to run.

Lutrin dropped out. His money dried up, and his support. I would imagine it would have been a great campaign if he had been given support as a Democrat, but he was not.

David Lutrin and family

There is more about Lutrin's treatment in this post.

Details from the Swamp that we call Florida Politics....FL 16...Lutrin speaks out.

Early on in the process– in mid-2005– Dave contacted Democratic Party organizations throughout the district, as well as the state party and the DCCC in Washington. Everyone was enthusiastic and encouraging. Glen Rushing, the DCCC point person for the region, told Dave he was "just the type of candidate we're looking for." He offered to introduce him to Alabama Congressman Artur Davis, the DCCC-appointed mentor for Democratic candidates in the region, who following their first phone conversation offered to help him with his race. Rushing then promised to get him in touch with Florida DCCC chief, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Emanuel's lieutenant for the Southeast.

..."Then something happened, something very dark and secretive, something people are just uncovering now. DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel found out something that could– and did– change the dynamics of the race in FL-16 dramatically. Emanuel became aware that Mark Foley– well-known for years Inside-The-Beltway, albeit not among his church-going constituents, as a very active (and very hypocritical) homosexual– was molesting the underage male congressional pages, and that he had been for many years. Did Emanuel call the police? Did he even call the staffers who are charged by Congress with looking out for the welfare of the pages? Doesn't look that way.

It appears he called on a Republican named Tim Mahoney.

...."He offered him a congressional seat and all he'd have to do was switch party registration and become a Democrat. That man is freshman Congressman Tim Mahoney.

Suddenly there was a new DCCC point person, John Vogel, and he had no idea who Dave was. Rushing called and suggested Dave talk to someone named… Tim Mahoney.

And David became irrelevant to the Democratic Party while a self-proclaimed fundamentalist Christian, a Republican when recruited, became the candidate.

I was just re-reading a post by McJoan at Daily Kos from September last year. She seems totally unaware that David Lutrin is running.

FL-16: Meet Tim Mahoney

With Foley's resignation, we've suddenly got another extremely good chance for a pick-up. So meet Democrat Tim Mahoney.

The guys at MyDD have some info. What you can glean from that is that Foley's name will remain on the ballot and any votes he gets will go to his as-of-yet unnamed successor.

Chris says:
Tim Mahoney has $343K cash as of 8/16. The district has a partisan voting index of +2.4 Republican. Even as an open seat, this district now favors Mahoney. If Adam B is right, Foley can't be removed from the ballot, which would end the race today. . . . This seat is now "lean Dem."

Update: I'm gonna steal from LarryInNYC in the comments. Yes, this is precisely why we need to have a candidate in every race.

None of the others she quotes mentions David Lutrin either. They did not even know there was a Democrat running. That was the power that was Rahm. The DCCC is not supposed to get involved in the primary races. Not only were they involved but along with the party chairman, they actively worked to get candidates out of the races.

It is just as it was with Jan Schneider in Florida 13th and Christine Cegelis in IL 06. Jan was marginalized in favor of Christine Jennings though she beat Jennings previously by 9 points. Christine Cegelis was out of the race when all of the Illinois powerhouse Democrats endorsed Tammy Duckworth. Cegelis's name was not mentioned again, just Tammy's.

Major Democrats who were asked to donate were not told that there were opponents in either FL 13 or IL 06. That we found out later.

David Lutrin was already running in FL 16 as a Democrat. McJoan's thread does not even mention him at all. There was no mention in the comments either of Lutrin.

All three were "disappeared" by simply omitting them. By pretending they never existed.