ah… finally got to give up the dreaded oncall pager! w00t!
there’s some great blogging going on this week, and with the end of the financial quarter coming up a lot of candidates are vying for attention. i have saved some money and i generally donate right before the deadline as part of a fundraising push. the following folks are candidates i have given to or am going to give to before the end of the day (yes, today is the deadline!). i have decided to concentrate my money in texas, as i sincerely believe that in order to beat the republicans we have to take them down here in texas. this is their seat of power. this is where the fight begins.
the only exception i’m making to my “donate in my own backyard” credo is a wonderful candidate from illinois. last night i dropped some change to fighting dem john laesch, who is opposing speaker hastert. i could sing john’s praises all day; i think he’s great. here is his recommended dkos diary from last night. john is definitely on the right side of the issues and he’s got serious grassroots traction. here is a short blurb from his website:
* A health care system that ensures every American has access to affordable healthcare without overburdening government resources.
* An economy that puts the needs of Main Street before the desires of Wall Street while defending the American Dream for future generations.
* An education system that expands upon the dedication of family, promotes responsibility, and rewards achievement while opening the door to infinite possibilities.
* A national energy policy that focuses on reducing foreign energy dependence and national consumption, promotes alternative energy sources and strives for sustainability.
* A foreign policy that includes a Success Strategy for Iraq in the short-term and respects other nations; safeguards our security, the environment and workers rights in the long-term.
* A political system that works to ensure the integrity of our electoral system, increases voter turnout and reduces the influence of special interest groups.
drop some change in john’s pocket, will ya?
the next candidate i’m donating to is john courage. glenn smith has an excellent post up on why john courage can beat lamar smith. here’s an except from glenn’s post:
A recent Lake Research Partners poll put Smith’s re-elect at 31 percent. More than 60 percent were willing to consider someone else. Smith has a positive/negative of 37/40. Congress has a negative rating of 71 percent. Bush’s positives are down to 44, better than he’s doing in some places, but it’s like he’s fallen off the Devil’s Backbone here.
I don’t know John Courage personally. I hope I get to know him soon. He’s a married father of four, a Air Force veteran, a teacher, an honest guy who had the courage to run against the odds, and now the odds are running in his favor.
John Courage is right on Social Security, health care, the environment. He’s a teacher, and he’s been hanging with the schoolkids while Bushco leaves them all behind. But it’s his backbone, his Patriot’s Backbone, not the Devil’s, that attracts me to John. And that’s what’s going to make us all proud when he’s in Congress.
on top of all this, today john was added to the mydd & kos endorsed netroots page! this is fantastic news for the campaign. way to go, team courage!! here’s john’s donation link. now, if you don’t have any spare change to give to john, you can help him in another way. he has made the top five of mark warner’s mapchangers contest! head over to this page and register for an account. the top ten candidates are now going to vy for a fundraiser with warner himself. *please* vote for john courage. warner could bring in a ton of dough and that could put john over the top.
the next candidate who’s getting some change today is glenn melancon. glenn’s district is up here in north texas, and he’s running on a platform of economic security for america’s working families. i had the opportunity to socialise with glenn at our blogger’s caucus, and he made a real good impression. i also heard him speak at the democratic veterans caucus, and he was eloquent and sincere. i think he “gets it”. from his website:
As the Washington corporate elite self-destructs right before our eyes, “We the people” must seize the opportunity and demand a new direction. We can’t allow the lobbyists and consultantocracy to steal our revolution after the November election. The new Congress needs an aggressive “First 100 Days” agenda to restore the American Dream. I will lead the fight for the real change Texas Families deserve.
Our founding fathers wanted us to be a City on a Hill, a beacon guiding the rest of humanity toward the blessings of liberty. As Americans we have a rich and proud history. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt led the United States through the Great Depression and World War II by correctly identifying the country’s problems and acting swiftly to solve them.
It’s time to liberate ourselves from the corporate elite and follow FDR’s example. I will make the economic security of working families the highest national priority.
In the First 100 Days Congress must act to protect and promote well-paying American jobs. My plan calls for eliminating corporate welfare programs that reward companies for shipping jobs overseas. No company should get a tax break for outsourcing American jobs.
We must reverse the decline in real wages and benefits for working families. Something is radically wrong with our economy when worker productivity, CEO compensation, stock prices and corporate profits go up while salaries of the average worker go down.
Currently the corporate elite and their partners in the media and Congress are trying to redirect voters’ anger away from the new “Robber Oil and Gas Barons” and toward immigrants. Texas families and immigrant families share the same dream: to work hard, play by the rules and know that at the end of the day they’ve earned a living wage.
and hey, any candidate who puts an FDR poster on their main page gets points from me. here is glenn’s donate link.
the next candidate i am going to contribute to is larry stallings. larry is running for place 122 in the texas legislature. what i like about larry is that he is really engaged in his district and he understands the issues that are important to his constituents. one of those hot button issues is the texas trans corridor:
The Texas Trans Corridor is an elaborate plan conceived by Rick Perry and supported by Frank Corte that forces Texans to pay to drive on roads we constructed with our own tax dollars!
That’s right. We pay twice. [...]
And the taxation is not a minimal expense. The estimated cost is $3000 per Texas family per year.
We cannot allow the taxing of public highways. People for Effective Transportation writes, “We can no longer vote along party lines. We must shop the ballot, de-elect the looters and elect a better candidate.” In Texas District 122, that candidate is Larry Stallings.
his wife is wonderful, too, which speaks volumes. this is one of those campaigns where a few dollars will go a long way, and i urge you to drop some change in larry’s pocket.
the next candidate that’ll receive some of my hard earned dollars is david pillow\. david is running in texas 94. this is my district, so naturally i’m going to drop some change. but there are more reasons that i’m contributing other than that fact. for one thing, as many locals know, state rep. kent grusendorf – an 18 year GOP incumbent – got squashed by primary challenger dianne patrick. she whipped him good. do-nothing kent – who headed the education committee in austin – got whipped for may reasons, which included his lack of achievement on the education committee, a strong “throw the bums out” undercurrent in this district, and a large chunk of democratic voters crossing over in the open primary to help oust him. this presents david pillow with a prime opportunity. district 94 residents have shown they are hungry for change. now the thing is, dianne patrick ran on a democratic education platform. unfortunately, she’s not going to be able to push her agenda in austin. speaker craddick was not happy to lose his pawn grusendorf, and dianne pissed off a lot of repub power players when she beat kent. as a republican, she cannot push the democratic education plan, and most likely will be punished by speaker craddick. she won’t get committee appointments and she won’t have any power. she’ll just be a seat-filler. i say this as someone who respects what patrick has accomplished in the past. but this is just the reality of her situation. david pillow on the other hand, can strongly push the democratic agenda. he doesn’t have to run away from his party, he doesn’t have to run away from his values, and he doesn’t have to pretend he’s a republican in order to speak out for the people of the 94th district. i have been able to meet david and he is a genuine, down to earth guy who cares about the future of this state. if you want real change, you have to vote for david. i’ve got an email in to his campaign manager, because i don’t see a donation link online (this is part of the reason we asked for donations to activate actblue in texas). when i get one i’ll post it.
and finally, the last person i’m donating to today is david harris. if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t read about dave yet, here is a good starting point. dave is right on the issues: he’s pro-choice, pro-environment, has a strong national security background, and is an all-around genuine guy. i have had the pleasure of being friends with dave and michelle for a while now, and i have never met two people who were more dedicated to the democratic party and progressive politics. dave’s a fighting dem who served in iraq and wants to continue to serve his country.
his opponent, joe barton, is an out of touch delay rubber stamp. it’s long past time for him to go. put simply, barton doesn’t give a crap about us. he is the head of the house energy and commerce committee, and as the mailbomb he dropped on the district yesterday says, “More than 50 percent of the legislation that reaches the House floor for a vote passes through this committee, which has jurisdiction over such important issues as energy, health care, trade, consumer protection, and telecommunications.” this means that a man who is bought and sold by the energy and telco sectors is responsible for overseeing legislation effecting those industries. barton’s spearheaded the effort to kill net neutrality. on page two of that same mailbomb, barton proudly displays a picture of himself watching bush sign the horrible energy bill, which was a giveaway to the energy industry and did nothing to relieve consumers who are straining to pay their gas and electric bills. in the mailbomb he also brags that drilling in ANWR is a long term solution to our energy crisis. so he’s not only stupid, he’s completely out of touch as well.
but you know, i could talk shit about barton all day. he’s horrible. instead, let me tell you how donating to dave could help us pull out a win. first of all, the urban parts of this district are taken care of. there are several democratic groups that are busting their butts canvassing arlington and south fort worth right now. we are making good contacts. what dave’s campaign needs to do is concentrate in the lower counties, the rural parts of the district. we don’t need to buy tv ads down there; we need to send mail. we don’t need to launch a blog campaign; we need to show up at events and meet the people of the district. dave is already doing the heavy lifting there and has been making serious inroads everywhere he goes. but we need money for mailers. right now they’re doing a 2000 X 5 campaign. that would give us enough money to mailbomb the rural areas for the rest of the campaign. so for only 10K we can make this a race. your donation will go a loooong way here. please donate today and let’s boot barton!
and finally, the last thing i wanna link today is this entry by jerome. it’s a nice trip down memory lane for those of us who were around during the early days of dean. it also credits dean nation – something which was sorely lacking in the dean post-mortems. i’m proud of the work we did there even if we didn’t accomplish our goal. we laid the groundwork; we blazed a trail; we made great friends and memories. i’ll never forget the experiences or the lessons learned. thanks for finally writing it all down jerome.
update: a nice courage interview w/tracy russo is posted here.
