Unfortunately the DC establishment had its way in the Ohio Dem Senatorial primary.  Menendez of NJ wanted Fisher over Brunner, the grassroots favorite, running TV ads for Fisher when Brunner was cut off from funding.

Too bad for Ohio - Portman (R) is likely winner in Nov.

 Isn't happy hour the best invention, ever?

that some people think Democratic incumbents shouldn't be held accountable by their own constituents.

We had some Iowa House Democrats retire this year, and a couple of them waited until the day or two before the filing deadline to announce their retirement. Leadership didn't want them to go public, because leadership wanted to make sure that only hand-picked Democratic replacements were able to file for the seat. Lame.

I know, no one loves a pedant.

     It's an important point that the membership of the party is taking charge and rejecting the advice of the Washington Democratic establishment. But this comes down to a sloppy lead sentence by some DC insider nobody ever heard of writing for an organization nobody should pay any attention to.
     He got it right on the second pass by referring to "the Washington Democratic establishment". And the situation in Hawaii is attributable not so much to Democratic division as to a very poor state law mechanism for filling vacant seats with no primary and no run-off. But as to Politico generally, don't give them any notice--it only encourages them.

Regarding HI-01, it's really the D.C. party establishment versus the Hawaii party establishment, NOT the establishment versus "the people."  Hanabusa is clearly down against Case in the 3-way among actual voters, so the D.C. establishment has a better sense of where "the people" are.  I'm no fan of Case, but I'm a fan of a Democrat winning over a Republican every time, and we're in trouble there on that effort.  I don't blame the Hawaii Democratic establishment, either, because Case for his part has gone out of his way to make enemies with nothing to show for it.  It's just a bad situation all the way around.

And regarding AR-Sen, Halter is clearly losing, he's not made up any ground at all over the last month.  I think Lincoln will win and might even avoid a runoff.  Halter is not going to be the nominee.

didn't apply to the race within West Virginia, as the Politico e-mail suggests.  The party itself was incredibly divided, in addition, over which candidate to choose.  Personally, I felt like they could conjure up a better one to face Mollohan, but most people were too afraid to run-against a 13 term incumbent for fear of alienating the party (hence why he hasn't had a challenger in nearly 20 years from the democratic party).  If anything it showed WV's willingness to part ways with incumbents for once.

Somewhat off topic but I felt it was relevant.

My spouse, Marcy Winograd, a true progressive, anti-war, pro-worker pro-union (with enthusiasm, not entitlement) candidate and Democratic grassroots organizer, founder of Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, is challenging blue dog Jane Harman in SoCal's CA-36.   At the Dem convention a few weeks ago, she faced off against the Dem establishment and put the "automatic" endorsement of Harman to a convention floor test, which the leadership procedurally bungled, to its embarrassment.  More fundamentally, there was a strong showing on the floor that Democrat rank and filers want a voice to challenge the "go along to get along" mutual back-scratching approach of the leadership, which can lead to complacency and candidates, like Harman, who have become out of touch with their constituents.  Marcy's challenge to Harman in 2006 and again this year have forced Harman rhetorically left, but Harman is only the wealthiest, and not the best or most progressive, candidate in the Dem primary.   Marcy's campaign would appreciate your support.  Please check out Marcy's website at http://winograd4congress.com and her Facebook page. 

My spouse, Marcy Winograd, a true progressive, anti-war, pro-worker pro-union (with enthusiasm, not entitlement) candidate and Democratic grassroots organizer, founder of Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, is challenging blue dog Jane Harman in SoCal's CA-36.   At the Dem convention a few weeks ago, she faced off against the Dem establishment and put the "automatic" endorsement of Harman to a convention floor test, which the leadership procedurally bungled, to its embarrassment.  More fundamentally, there was a strong showing on the floor that Democrat rank and filers want a voice to challenge the "go along to get along" mutual back-scratching approach of the leadership, which can lead to complacency and candidates, like Harman, who have become out of touch with their constituents.  Marcy's challenge to Harman in 2006 and again this year have forced Harman rhetorically left, but Harman is only the wealthiest, and not the best or most progressive, candidate in the Dem primary.   Marcy's campaign would appreciate your support.  Please check out Marcy's website at http://winograd4congress.com and her Facebook page.