NRCC Weekly Rundown: Mitt at March Dinner, More CA-21 Dem Humiliation, and Morgan Carroll Welcomes GITMO Detainees to CO

Here’s your latest NRCC Weekly Rundown:

NRCC’s 2016 March Dinner Headliner: Mitt Romney

Speaker Paul Ryan, along with NRCC Chairman Greg Walden and March Dinner Chairman Adam Kinzinger, announced this week that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will be the keynote speaker at the NRCC’s 22nd Annual March Dinner.

Romney said he is “excited” to headline the event and praised House Republicans for having “shown the country a vision for the future and a way to strengthen our economy and national security at such a critical time.”

For more on the Romney announcement and March Dinner, click here.

Ryan also announced that he is transferring $2 million in cash to the NRCC, one of the largest transfer by a Speaker of the House in a nonelection year.

Here We Go Again: The DCCC’s CA-21 Story

Recruiting embarrassments are becoming a weekly occurrence for Democrats in CA-21. Quick recap: The DCCC has desperately been searching for someone to run in CA-21 other than third-tier candidate and poor fundraiser Daniel Parra. They’ve actively recruited four candidates, only to awkwardly be rebuffed and leaving them with the uninspiring Parra.

Looks like Democrats were hoping the fifth time’s a charm, but it’s already hit a snag. Turns out their latest recruit, Bakersfield attorney Emilio Huerta, doesn’t even live in the district; he lives in CA-23 and is sure to face charges of carpet-bagging and political opportunism. This isn’t the first time the DCCC has walked—and tripped—down this road: A couple of the earlier recruits were from outside of CA-21 as well.

Knowing the DCCC’s trackrecord as of late though, Huerta may see the writing on the wall in CA-21 that Republican David Valadao is well respected in the community, reject the DCCC’s wooing, and stay put in CA-23.

In Other Carpet-Bagging News…

Last week, we told you about LuAnn Bennett, who was looking to run in VA-10 despite calling the Ritz Carlton in Washington, D.C. her home. This prompted the local Sun-Gazette to call Republican Barbara Comstock “the odds-on favorite” and Bennett “a 5:1 underdog.”

This week, Bennett made it official: She announced earlier this week that she is jumping in to the VA-10 race. Much like in CA-21, Bennett wasn’t the DCCC’s first choice—or second, or third, or even fourth choice—but looks like this is the best they can do: An out-of-touch carpet-bagger.

In case you’re more of a visual person, here’s the Bennett announcement as told through gifs.

And One Last Carpet-Bagging Fail. This time in CA-25

Sensing a theme here? Democrats aren’t too thrilled with the current crop of candidates they have running in CA-25, so they’re going outside the district to try and recruit someone. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…

Beverly Hills attorney Bryan Caforio is now trying to mount a campaign with less than a year left before Election Day. Compared to Republican Steve Knight, who has lived in the community for years and won the trust of voters, Caforio has little ties to CA-25 and will surely rely heavily on D.C. Democrats to help him throughout the race. Not only won’t Caforio be from CA-25, but he’ll already be doing the bidding of Nancy Pelosi and not putting the interests of the district’s voters first.

Morgan Carroll Welcomes GITMO Terrorist to CO

Even as the Obama administration has delayed plans to shut down Guantanamo Bay, CO-06 Democrat Morgan Carroll is ready to transfer detainees to her state and risk putting residents in danger.

With Colorado one of the proposed locations to relocate dangerous terrorists kept at the facility, Carroll told the Denver Post that she supports efforts to close it. And she apparently is more than ready to bring them to Coloradans’ own backyard; the Post reports she said was willing to hold them in the Centennial State.

Carroll spent months avoiding taking a clear position on Guantanamo Bay, but this new show of support for risking our national security by closing the detention facility and bringing transfers to Colorado allows voters to see where she stood all along.

Other News and Notes

• Maine freshman Bruce Poliquin’s first piece of legislation was recently signed to law. The Child Support Assistance Act helps families collect child-support payments from delinquent parents.
• A recent CNN/ORC poll found that an overwhelming majority of Americans disapprove of the Obama administration’s handling of ISIS. Eighty-one percent believe there are terrorists associated with the group already in the U.S., and 61 percent believe there could be an act of terrorism on American soil in the next several weeks. Do House Democrats stand by the president? Are they putting politics over national security?