Skip to content

Cleaning House

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s an election year. And two new super PACs want nothing more than to upset lawmakers who they think have gotten a little too comfortable in office.

The Campaign for Primary Accountability, which came online last year, has already made quite a splash, helping to oust Rep. Jean Schmidt
(R-Ohio) and giving Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) a run for his money in today’s primary.

CPA spokesman Curtis Ellis insists the group has nothing against individual lawmakers. But it is sick of business as usual.

“Just being a long-term incumbent is not gonna get you in our cross hairs,” he said, adding, “This is about good government … not ideology.”

The group’s mission is to shake things up by targeting single-party-dominated districts, particularly those where voters are fed up with the status quo. “We are the equalizer,” he said.

The group has its eye on several Members, including Reps. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), Don Manzullo (R-Ill.), Tim Holden (D-Pa.), Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas).

The other super PAC, Restart Congress, is technically supposed to be in the term-limits game. But Chairman Chuck Woolery sounds as if he couldn’t be more excited about expediting officials’ final days.

“I would like to unemploy 535 guys. I want to get rid of ’em,” the legendary game-show host-cum-political reformer told Mediate in an interview. “The less time they’re in there, the less time they’re promoting their own career. They need to promote America.”

Welcome to the party.

Recent Stories

Capitol Lens | Feeling the Bern

Capitol Ink | Power lift

How backlash to the pandemic helped shape Trump’s health picks

Deck the Hill with books aplenty: Capitol insiders share their favorite reads of 2024

Democrats’ competing postmortems leave out history — and the obvious

Kamala Harris lost, but how weak of a candidate was she?