Prairie State Wire

An election guide posted on the Communist Party USA’s (CPUSA) website said that the party is “deploying its resources” to unseat U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), as part of a larger effort to flip 24 Republican seats the Democrats need to capture control of the House.

“A plan for staff travel is being worked out with each district (it considers a close race),” the party’s Sept. 20 posting said.

One of CPUSA’s main goals listed in its “Election 2018: A Guide To United Action,” is to “Build the base for the Communist Party…”

Communist Party of America

“Despite big corporate money being invested in state after state, and extraordinary voter suppression methods to maintain Republican control,” the CPUSA’s guide says, “it is possible to flip the House and even the Senate and many governor’s seats and state houses this November.”

Political analyst Chris Robling said that the Communists and other fringe groups in American society have absorbed the message of the Democratic Party, one that’s no longer resonating with a broad national base.  

“The Democrats are incapable of appealing to a majority of voters outside the major urban areas,” Robling said. “That’s why the over the past recent elections they lost the presidency, the House and Senate, governorships and state legislatures.”

“They are reaching out to groups, including criminal illegal aliens, that are rightfully marginalized, “ he added. “Don’t underestimate their willingness to do anything for what they perceive as the greater good.”

In one recent example, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said at a campaign stop that the “blue wave” (the Democrats hoped-for surge in November) consists of  “undocumented” immigrants.

The Democrats’ image among voters has taken a noticeable slide since the 2012 elections, writes Noah Rothman in Commentary Magazine.

“The Democratic Party continues to languish in the low-to-mid-40s, even after it lost control of both chambers of Congress and the White House,” Rothman writes. “By contrast, the GOP — a party with a perennial image problem, even among its own voters — saw its favorability jump in Gallup’s September survey to the highest point in seven years.”

The CPUSA says it's involved in two states where a Senate Republican seat can be flipped: “AZ (Flake open), TX (Cruz), and four states where a Senate Democrat needs protection against being lost: FL (Nelson), IN (Donnelly), MO (McCaskill), NJ (Menendez).”

It’s involved in eight states that can flip governors from Republican to Democrat: “Four in the South: AZ, FL, GA, MD and four in the Midwest: IL, IA, MI, OH.”

The Communist Party of Illinois has also taken a keen interest in the Roskam race. On its Facebook page, the Party posted a September story by the union-owned Chicago Sun-Times about a Democratic poll showing Casten in the lead.

A more recent poll by POLITICO has the race in the too-close-to-call category.  

Roskam has a history of bucking the trend. In 2016, Roskam won a sixth term by more than 18 points; Hillary Clinton beat Trump in the district by seven points.

“Peter Roskam is one of the hardest working members of Congress,” Robling said. “He’ll work 18 hour days to make sure the voters come out. If they do, he wins.”