His official title may be “Representative”, but Congressman Jim Matheson does not represent Democrats very well. In the current session of Congress, Matheson has a higher right wing legislative score than his progressive score, giving him an overall negative rating in the That’s My Congress congressional scorecard system. Given Matheson’s affiliations, this low score is no surprise. Matheson is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of congressional Democrats who work with the Republican Party to block progressive Democratic legislation.
Matheson has a long history of voting against progressive causes. Most recently, he voted in favor of extending the worst abuses of the Patriot Act without any attempt of reform at all. He also was one of only a small group of Democrats who joined with Republicans to vote against compromise health care reform legislation.
For a long time, Democrats in Matheson’s congressional district, Utah’s 2nd, have felt that they don’t have a choice, that because Jim Matheson is a Democrat, they’re obligated to vote for him, no matter how many times he betrays their trust. Claudia Wright has broken that cycle of abuse. She’s moved beyond complaining about Matheson’s poor representation, and into an open, formal challenge. Wright is campaigning to replace Jim Matheson as the Democratic Party nominee for the House of Representatives in Utah’s 2nd district.
Wright’s campaign is not just an opportunistic grab for power at a moment when Matheson is vulnerable. It’s a specifically progressive project. The campaign explains, “This is a citizen-led initiative seeking a representative who is answerable to the people, rather than the corporations that fund multi-million dollar campaigns. The initiative is being led by a coalition comprised of citizens who have committed themselves to working for justice on climate change, healthcare, LGBT, labor, immigration, peace, and environmental issues. Many Utahns are concerned that Congressman Jim Matheson has sold out these progressive constituencies to corporate interests. The Citizens’ Candidate movement is committed to the ideals of the Democratic party: to taking our political system out of the hands of corporations and putting it back into the hands of citizens.”
In Utah, the Democratic primary election will be held on June 22. The deadline for petitions for ballot access will be on May 19. I’ll be writing more about this particular election contest in the weeks to come.
