Daily Kos: FISA votes may mean Democratic primary challenges from left in 2010

The influential liberal blog Daily Kos is putting more than 100 centrist congressional Democrats on notice that they may face primary challenges from the left in 2010 for their support of amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Several on that list are California representatives, including Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced), Jim Costa (D-Fresno), Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton) and Ellen Tauscher (D-Alamo).

The blog states that those representatives abrogated their duties as stewards of the U.S. Constitution with their support of an amendment that gave immunity to telecommunications companies that allowed government surveillance using their networks without proper authorization from a FISA court.

"Many are in solid (D) districts and have no fear of the opposition," writes Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, Daily Kos' founder. "Or they are in tough districts, and think that they are solid given the Republican alternatives."

Kos notes that if Democrats pick up more congressional seats this year, as some believers expect, its more liberal members should feel emboldened to pull the party leftward, because of the difficulty of losing a majority in the House of Representatives.

Zuniga encouraged readers to begin working with local groups, in conjunction with local Democrats or without if necessary, to find primary candidates for 2010.

While many of the candidates may not actually face primary challengers, or may defeat them easily, agitating for an alternative may convince more of them to vote differently in the future, Zuniga wrote.

Of the California representatives Zuniga targeted, many of them had no challengers or only token opposition in both the primary and general elections.