AL-Sen: Sparks Drops Out

Disappointing news:

Democrat Ron Sparks announced Tuesday that he will not challenge Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008.

Sparks, the state agriculture commissioner, said he decided not to run after talking with state Sen. Vivian Figures of Mobile, who is running.

“I believe that the best chance Democrats have to win that seat is if we are unified and avoid a primary battle,” Sparks said in a released statement.

Sparks is the second Democrat to publicly consider a campaign before opting out; U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, announced in January he would not run for the Senate next year.

Democratic primaries in Alabama have had a history of being nasty, divisive affairs in the past two decades, and it’s understandable that Sparks wouldn’t want to face Sessions with a mortal wound delivered by an opponent–or by meddlesome Republicans.  Still, this is a profoundly disappointing development.  Sparks could have made this a real race.

Race Tracker: AL-Sen

300 House races have Democratic candidates

Yep we have hit the magical 300. 17 months before election day too. We have so many more candidates in the field this cycle than at the same time in 2005.

Once again go and take a look at the 
2008 Race Tracker Wiki. & DCCritters.

Below the fold for all the news.
(cross posted at MyDD and Daily Kos)

300 races filled! This of course includes 233 districts held by Democratic Congresscritters.

But we also have 67 GOP held districts with confirmed Democratic opponents.

So here is where we are at (GOP Districts):
Districts with confirmed candidates – 67
Districts with unconfirmed candidates – 6
Districts with rumoured candidates – 29
Districts without any candidates – 100

1) The GOP held districts with confirmed Democratic challengers are as follows:
AL-04,
AK-AL,
AZ-01,
AZ-02,
AZ-03,
AR-03,
CA-04,
CA-24,
CA-26,
CA-41,
CA-48,
CA-50,
CO-04,
CT-04,
FL-01,
FL-08,
FL-09,
FL-13, [Either through the House of Reps investigation or Jennings has committed to another run.]
FL-15,
FL-21,
FL-24,
FL-25,
GA-10 [SPECIAL ELECTION JUNE 19TH],
ID-01,
IL-10,
IL-14,
IN-06,
IA-04,
IA-05,
LA-01,
MD-01,
MD-06,
MI-07,
MN-06,
MO-06,
MO-09,
MT-AL,
NE-02,
NV-03,
NJ-07,
NJ-11,
NM-01,
NM-02,
NY-25,
NY-29,
NC-03,
NC-08,
NC-09,
OH-01,
OH-02,
OH-07,
OH-15,
OH-16,
PA-03,
PA-15,
TX-04,
TX-08,
TX-10,
TX-11,
TX-13,
TX-14,
VA-05,
VA-06,
WA-04,
WA-08,
WI-01,
WY-AL,

2) The following 2 GOP held districts have candidates that are expected to run but are yet to confirm:
NJ-05,
NY-26,
OH-14,
PA-18,
VA-10,
WV-02,

3) The following 33 GOP held districts have rumoured candidates – please note that some of these “rumours” are extremely tenuous!
AL-01,
AZ-06,
CA-03,
CA-42,
CA-45,
DE-AL,
FL-06,
FL-10,
FL-12,
IN-03,
IN-04,
KY-05,
MI-09,
MN-02,
NE-03,
NV-02,
NJ-02,
NJ-03,
NJ-04,
NY-03,
NY-13,
NC-05,
OK-04,
PA-06,
TN-07,
TX-02,
UT-03,
VA-01,
VA-11,

4) And last but not least the following 106 districts have not a single rumoured candidate:
AL-02,
AL-03,
AL-06,
CA-02,
CA-19,
CA-21,
CA-22,
CA-25,
CA-40,
CA-44,
CA-46,
CA-49,
CA-52,
CO-05,
CO-06,
FL-04,
FL-05,
FL-07,
FL-14,
FL-18,
GA-01,
GA-03,
GA-06,
GA-07,
GA-09,
GA-11,
ID-02,
IL-06,
IL-11,
IL-13,
IL-15,
IL-16,
IL-18,
IL-19,
IN-05,
KS-01,
KS-04,
KY-01,
KY-02,
KY-04,
LA-04,
LA-05,
LA-06,
LA-07,
MI-02,
MI-03,
MI-04,
MI-06,
MI-08,
MI-10,
MI-11,
MI-12,
MN-03,
MS-01,
MS-03,
MO-02,
MO-07,
MO-08,
NE-01,
NY-23,
NC-06,
NC-10,
OH-03,
OH-04,
OH-05,
OH-08,
OH-12,
OK-01,
OK-03,
OK-05,
OR-02,
PA-05,
PA-09,
PA-16,
PA-19,
SC-01,
SC-02,
SC-03,
SC-04,
TN-01,
TN-02,
TN-03,
TX-01,
TX-03,
TX-05,
TX-06,
TX-07,
TX-12,
TX-19,
TX-21,
TX-24,
TX-26,
TX-31,
TX-32,
UT-01,
VA-02,
VA-04,
VA-07,
WA-05,
WI-05,
WI-06,

Praise to those states where we already have a full slate of house candidates – Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

It is also interesting to note that we have only one race left to fill in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia. Thats 16 states with a full slate (17 when I can conform Unger in WV-02) and 6 states with one race to fill! That is almost half the states full or nearly full 17 months before election day, an impressive feat indeed!

Please note that in some races others at the racetracker site have confirmed candidates that I haven’t. This is because to satisfy me a confirmed candidate has either filed with the FEC, The Sec of State or has an active campaign website, or even if they come and blog and say yep I am running. Others are not so rigorous.

It is also great to see candidates in VA-06 and TX-11, 2 of 10 districts we did not contest in 2006!

We are well on track to beat the 425 races we contested in 2006.

*** Tips, rumours and what not in the comments please.***

By what margin will Bob Shamansky win?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

AK-AL, AK-Sen: Choices, Choices

MyDD’s Jonathan Singer recently had an excellent pair of posts chronicling the ethics controversies currently swirling around two of Alaska’s Republican federal statewide officeholders: Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens.  While the FBI is sniffing around Stevens and his son, Young has been catching heat for inserting a $10 million dollar earmark in a 2006 transportation bill that just so happened to boost the fortunes of a local real estate developer–and Don Young fundraiser–over the objections of local officials:

The Republican congressman whose district does include Coconut Road says he did not seek the money. County authorities have twice voted not to use it, until Mr. Young and the district congressman wrote letters warning that a refusal could jeopardize future federal money for the county. […]

Mr. Young’s role, first reported by The Naples Daily News, has escalated objections to the project. Environmentalists say the interchange would threaten wetlands. And a Republican commissioner of Lee County, Ray Judah, is campaigning against the interchange, calling it an example of Congressional corruption that is “a cancer on the federal government.”

“It would appear that Don Young was doing a favor for a major contributor,” Mr. Judah said.

With former Governor Tony Knowles having flamed out in two successive elections, Democrats are setting their eyes on recruiting who they believe will be their party’s next great hope to take on one of these highly-entrenched incumbents next year:

With a trio of stories today involving ethical allegations against Alaska Republicans, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich’s phone started ringing early with calls from Capitol Hill.

Begich, a popular mayor who won his second three-year term a year ago, is being courted to challenge one or the other of Alaska’s longtime Republican incumbents, who have more than 73 years of combined congressional experience. He’s the son of the late Rep. Nick Begich (D-Alaska), who died in a 1972 plane crash with the late Rep. Hale Boggs (D-La.), in a remote part of the Frontier State. Begich, now 44, was 10 at the time.

Facing a term limit in the spring of 2009, Begich is in a minor bidding war between the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — which wants him to challenge Rep. Don Young (R), who took his father’s seat after the crash — and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — seeking a challenger to Sen. Ted Stevens (R), 83, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history.

Now, if you were Begich, which race would you prefer to take a crack at?  Barring a retirement by either of these geezers (which is not outside the realm of possibility), I’d lean in favor of a Begich vs. Young match-up.  Both Young and Stevens are institutions within Alaska, but Stevens moreso, what with his seniority and his curious tie collection.  And while Young has cruised to comfortable re-election margins after a couple of scares in the early 1990s, the luster was removed after his relatively humble performance against little-known Democrat Diane Benson in 2006, where Young only won by a 57-40 margin despite outspending Benson by a nearly 10-to-1 ratio.  (Compare that to his 2002 and 2004 wins of 75-17 and 71-23, respectively.)

On top of that, the potential negative campaign narrative against Young could be devastating.  The last time I checked, Alaska and Florida are on polar opposite ends of the United States, and that could be especially damning if Begich and the DCCC slam Young for being “the unofficial representative of Florida.”   “Don Young (FL-AL)” has a pretty good ring to it, wouldn’t you say?

Race Tracker: AK-Sen | AK-AL

TX-Sen: Watts Injects $3.8M Into Senate Bid

Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s first announced opponent, Mikal Watts, is bringing the noise:

San Antonio trial lawyer Mikal Watts has launched his bid for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination by donating and loaning his campaign fund a total of $3.8 million — an amount equal to Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn’s cash on hand.

“I took John Cornyn’s first-quarter report and matched it to the penny,” Watts said.

“We’re going to start with a level playing field, and then we’re going to start raising money and see what the people of Texas have to say.”

Watts, 39, donated $1.9 million to his exploratory committee and loaned it another $1.9 million. He formed the committee June 1, and its paperwork was available Wednesday.

And Watts won’t have much trouble raising money, if his $1.1 million fundraiser for the DSCC back in April is any indication.  Altogether a shrewd move by Watts — you’ve got to believe that some of Watts’ potential primary opponents would think twice about going up against that kind of money.  And, as Burnt Orange Report commenter colin argues, if you’re going to partially self-fund, you might as well do it early to stave off “sluggish fundraising” narratives.

UPDATE: State Rep. Rick Noriega, another potential entrant in the Democratic primary, responds:

Noriega said Thursday: “I am seriously looking at the race, but whether or not I get in or not, I have no intention of getting into a back and forth with a bank account. I do not want to reinforce the unhealthy idea that a candidate is judged solely on money.

“My focus would be the people of the state of Texas and whether (GOP U.S. Sen. John) Cornyn’s rubber stamp support for Bush, and the national leadership that has failed to provide a clear mission for our involvement overseas, is good for Texas.

(H/T: BOR)

Race Tracker: TX-Sen

I’m Running to Reclaim the Seat Tom DeLay Stole From LBJ

When I was a 17-year-old high school student in Austin, I volunteered for Congressman Jake Pickle, the legendary Texas Congressman who held the CD-10 seat for 31 years, from 1963 until he retired in 1994. Back then CD-10 was known as “LBJ’s District” because a young Lyndon Johnson had held it. LBJ used the seat to lead implementation of FDR’s New Deal, and his efforts brought electricity to central Texas.

Congressman Pickle was a worthy heir to the LBJ legacy. His work to reorganize Social Security has kept the program solvent and functioning into the present. He also brought a great deal of research and technology investment to the area, and was a strong and effective advocate for higher education and the University of Texas.

Now I’m running for that seat myself. And though the district has changed dramatically (thanks to Tom DeLay and his partisan allies), the promise of public service I learned in Congressman Pickle’s office still holds true today: honor the past and imagine the future.

Washington used to do a better job of addressing the needs and values of our citizens, thanks to public servants like Mr. Pickle. Not a perfect job, but a better one.

No more. The partisan zealots who have seized control have us headed in the wrong direction. There is a dangerous disconnect in the foreign policy they pursue under our name, and a mean-spirited push to do away with, rather than improve, vital services here at home.

We need a change in Washington. Now.

From Iraq to immigration to health care, Mike McCaul is neither honoring the past, nor imagining a future that makes sense. Simplistic, moralistic stands taken by poll-tested politicians haven’t made things better, nor has his rubber-stamping the failed Bush administration’s every policy.

It won’t be easy to make a fresh start. But with your help we can. Please come to my web site at www.dangrantforcongress.com today and sign up or contribute if you can. We’re especially looking for volunteers from the district – Ted Ankrum ran a great campaign last time and I’m looking to build on those efforts.

I know if you help send me to Washington, D.C. we’ll have a representative that everyone in the district can be proud of. I saw Congressman Pickle at work first hand, and I’ll work hard to honor the past and imagine the future.

We need a change–right now.

[Cross-posted on DailyKos and MyDD.]

Greetings to the national Netroots.  I’m Steve Marchand and I’m running for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire to challenge John Sununu in 2008.

I’m writing today because I want to extend the dialogue I’ve begun with our New Hampshire Netroots to the national level.  As a longtime reader of national blogs like DailyKos, MyDD and Swing State Project, I value the open forum you’ve created, a forum that enables some of the most productive progressive dialogue in America today.

I’m running for U.S. Senate because we need a change in our nation’s direction. In my recent New Hampshire Democratic State Convention speech, I spoke about my experience and my vision for America.  You can watch the video of that speech on my website.

More below the fold

In my speech, I said what I strongly believe: we need to end the Iraq War right now.  We need to end it because it was fought under false pretenses and has been conducted with reckless leadership by the Bush Administration.

I applaud those members of Congress (including New Hampshire’s own Rep. Paul Hodes and Rep. Carol Shea-Porter) that stood up to the administration and refused to issue them a blank check for this war with a NO vote on the recent Iraq funding bill.  We need to see real withdrawal progress–right now–or we need to stop funding failed policies.

There are other battles, however, that we also must not lose sight of.  We need to guarantee affordable, quality healthcare coverage for every American, rich or poor.  As someone who has lived through the consequences of the national healthcare crisis, I understand what lack of coverage can mean.  Let me explain a bit more.

I grew up on the working-class West Side of Manchester, New Hampshire.  My father, a carpenter, and my mother, a millworker, came to this country from Quebec to build a better life for their children.  We didn’t have much, but more than anyone, they helped me understand the value and the power of hard work.

In the early 1990’s, however, New Hampshire’s economy was hit hard and our housing market crashed.  My father was left with a home that he couldn’t sell.  My family went without income for an entire year.  In this time of crisis, my parents did what millions of Americans have been forced to do: they dropped their expensive health insurance so that they could afford to feed their family.

And then, in her late thirties, my mother suffered a heart attack.

We were lucky; she recovered and is still well today.  But my Mom and Dad were forced to declare bankruptcy just to keep their home. These are the consequences of not having healthcare coverage when you need it most.

So when John Sununu says that we need to “stop complaining about healthcare,” well, I dare him to tell that to my parents and the millions of Americans without healthcare coverage living paycheck to paycheck.

We also need a Senator who knows that global warming is a problem and that we need real solutions to it–right now.  As Mayor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I’ve fought to make sure that our city is taking important, meaningful steps to become more green.  We aren’t waiting for the federal government to take the lead.  We’ve built the only Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED)–certified public building in New Hampshire, our new public library.  We’ve converted our city fleet to biodiesel.  And we’ve begun energy audits of all public buildings so we can make real changes to our energy use. 

The best part is, these changes in Portsmouth are saving taxpayers money.  Indeed, I’ve gained a statewide reputation for earning the trust of taxpayers by delivering value for their tax dollars.  We’ve shown that you can be fiscally responsible and socially progressive at the same time.  Those are values that I will take with me to the U.S. Senate.

And finally, as the recent Supreme Court decision shows, we cannot take Roe v. Wade for granted.  As the only 100% pro-choice candidate in this race, Democrat or Republican, I will always defend a woman’s right to make her own choices about her own body.

I look forward to being actively engaged with you here and in our New Hampshire blogs.  I appreciate your consideration, welcome your feedback, and encourage you to learn more about my campaign at my website, www.stevemarchand.com.  Together, we can bring real change to the U.S. Senate.

WV-02: Another Recruit Coup for House Democrats

I have to announce the good news of yet another recruiting coup for Congressional Democrats. After other successes very early in the cycle, particularly getting outgoing Kansas City mayor Kay Barnes to run against Sam Graves in what has traditionally been a swing district that Bush has won easily, and that was held by a Democrat long before Graves won it in an open seat in 2000. However, Talent lost this district to McCaskill by four percentage points, shwoing a strong Kansas City Democrat can win this. A small portion of Kansas City, and it’s suburbs make up almost 40% of the district, and the libral leaning St. Jospeh metropolitan area makes up another 10%. So, altogeter half the district leans Democratic, but the other half is highly rural, and mostly Republican.

Another early success was getting State Sen. John Boccieri to run against 82 year old 18 term incumbent Ralph Regula. His weak fundraising and age, make him vulneralbe to retiring, ahving a candidate like Jonh Boccieri, a former three term state rep, who was elected to the State Senate last year with 97,000 votes, the most of any candidate that year. As a major in the Army, who flew C-130 cargo planes for four tours of duty in Iraq. He’s Paul Hackett with legislatire experience.

But, the latest coup is that of getting 38 year old State. Sen. John Unger to run against Shely Moore capito in WV-02. He’s a fantastic candidate, young, a Rhodes Scholoar, and one of the youngest people ever elected to the West Virginia State Senate. He has a great deal of experience in the State Senate, having been elected in 1998, at age 29. He has since been reelected several times, and he represents what is considered a highly conservative, Republican leaning District in the state’s Eastern Panhandle, an area that votes more like parts of western Virginia, prominently Robet Goodlatte’s district.

Let’s handicap this race. Sen. Unger has been elected handily three times in this conservative district. His entre district is located in Capito’s district, giving him a strong base to start with. He represents all of rural Jefferson County, an extremely rural district of 42,000 people, whose county seat, (it’s largest city), Charles Town, has a population of just over 2000. Capito took a little less there than she did districtwide, taking 54% compared to 57% in the district. He represents part of right wing Berkeley County, which gave Capito 64% of the vote.

West Virginia has an interesting system. Each district has two State Senators elected to the same district. Sen. Unger’s district, district 16, his fellow State sneator is a Republican, Sen. John Yoder. That should be a testament of this district’s Republican lean, that in state where Democrats hold a supermajority in both houses of the legislature.

West Virginia, despite Bush’s successes, is a very Democratic state. Sen. Byrd has never won reelection with less than 64%. They tend to like moderate Republicans, and have elected two of them in the twentieth century, none so far. Cecil Underwood and Shelly Capito’s dad, the only Governor to serve four terms, (his career was completely tarnished when he got sent to jail on corruption charges). The only Republicans who have success in this state are so liberal they’re almost at the same level as the most conservative Democrats. Anyway, back to the point, Democrats had held all Congressional districts and both Senate seats for nearly eighteen years before Capito broke through in 2000, beating  self funding candidate Jim Humphrey’s narrowly.

She’s definitely liberal for a southern Republican. She’s the somewhat pro-choice, (that means less extreme whacko pro-life tghan most Southern Republicans), she’s pro-stem cell research, did vote to raise the minimum wage, and is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership. So, on the surface it would seem like she’s not the worst Republican in the house, and truthfully she’s not, there’s a lot worse congressperson you could have, like Virgil Goode. Sen. Unger could take some ground immediately with his populist appraoch and persona, that is backed up by ardent social conservatism, something very important in this state, one of the most socially conservative in the country. That’s one of the main reasons Gore and Kerry lost the state.

Of course he would need money. Capito always raises ungodly sums and wins by outspending her opponents twenty to one. She’s horrible on the stump the woman cannot speak in public cannot debate, and appears cold and stiff, therefore her her advisors actually tell her not to do retail politics. Instead she bombards the airwaves with falsely positive ads, and attack ads.

Her record is horrendous. She’s been a nonstop supporter of the Iraq War, and despite the support she gets from labor, she’s a business Republican. Her career score for the far right Chamber of Commerce, as I’ve tabulated it, 89%. Now, compare that to 65% for Tennessee Democrat John Tanner, arguably the most Economically Conservative Democrat in the House. Her score with the strongly Republican National Federation of Independant Business is even higher, (and this organization that endorsed such incubents as Curt Weldon and others).

The point I’m trying to make is that we need to take her out. As a somewhat pro-life Democrat, this isn’t an issue to me, but her NARAL rating is only 50%, not great. She’s very pro-business, but still gets the support of labor, which is infuriating at times.

But, the main reason to tkae her down would be to deal the West Virginia Republican party a major blow. Capito, along with Secretary of State Betty Ireland, (who only won 52-48 in 2004 becuase her opponent was 90 year old Ken Heckler, congressman from 1959-1977, and SoS from 1985-2001), is their major figure, their only rising star. She’s a threat to both our Senate seats or the Governorship if we can’t take her down this time. Not to mention she does the state a poor service. It’s four Democrats are far more powerful than her, in fact she, according to a Knowlegis non-partisan group’s Power Rankings, is ranked 421 out of house of 435, and she’s a four term incumbent. She should have the hangof this now. For someone whose a rising start in the State Republican Party, she certainly has no power whatsoever with Republicans in congress. In fact the only people she has more power than are mostly Repubican freshman, that and Tom Tancredo, Pete Sessions, and Ted Poe.

Sen. Unger sounds like my kind of Democrat, the kind I’ve been advocating, socially conservative, and economically populist. These are the people who do the best with rural voters, at least from my experience. Plus, the stronger are majority is, the stronger is our mandate. That’s why this race is an interesting new development, and should be one of our top targets next year. Let’s see if she survive when we’re bombarding the air waves with even more money than her. Bush only got 55% here, and it has been a historically Democratic district, let’s take it back and show we can still be winners in rural areas and in the South. Let’s prove to the nation and beltway pundits who lable WV as a conservative state because of Bush’s margins against two Democrats who didn’t go over well with rural voters, (Clinton won the district with huge double digit margins, both times), just how Democratic it really is.

Anyone else who has a better idea of this race, please state it in the comments, because I don’t know much, all I know is what CQPolitics wrote, what’s on Sen. Unger’s Senate Profile and and the West Virginia Legislature’s site.

By what margin will Bob Shamansky win?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

GA-Sen: Chambliss Gets Another Challenger

UPDATE: Nevermind.  This guy is a gong show.


Despite recent polling showing Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia edging former Governor Roy Barnes (D) only by a 42-40 margin in a hypothetical match-up, there has been little visible enthusiasm among Peach State Democrats to reclaim the seat that Chambliss won from former Sen. Max Cleland under less than honorable circumstances.  Until now, the only candidate in the race has been DeKalb County CEO and self-professed Bush Democrat Vernon Jones.  With his beyond-awful fundraising and a somewhat controversial and flamboyant reputation, Jones has so far failed to gain much traction as a viable challenger or capture the imagination of state and national observers.  However, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution informs us that Georgia Democrats have a new choice: six-time Emmy winner and investigative reporter Dick Cardwell.

On Friday, Dale Cardwell ended an 11-year stint as an investigative reporter at WSB-TV.

On Saturday, he became a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, looking to knock off Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss.

[…]

Cardwell said he will run against what he calls the daily, debilitating corruption of Washington, and promises to eschew money from special interest groups and political action committees.

[…]

The first issue he mentioned to us was the immigration reform bill now before the U.S. Senate, and hammered out with the assistance of both Chambliss and Johnny Isakson.

Cardwell called it an “amnesty” bill that’s aimed at satisfying corporate interests. “Georgia has to be freed from this illegal invasion that’s holding down salaries,” he said.

Slap shots against “amnesty” aside (and Jones is no different on this score), Cardwell’s family background is “hardcore Democrat”, and grew up in Alabama and Kentucky in a mobile home as the son of a coal miner.  His biography lists a series of noteworthy investigations that have “led to the exposure of corruption on the part of former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, the conviction of former DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey, the resignation of Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett, the return of public funds by Senator Zell Miller, and the termination of Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue’s abuse of government airplanes and helicopters for private benefit”.

Cardwell would certainly have an impressive story to tell to Georgians, with his populist roots and his public service via journalism.  While not a top-tier recruit (although WSB’s footprint apparently covers 60% of the state), Cardwell seems to be a cut above Jones in my eyes.  And at this point, I’ll take that much.

(Hat-tips: Senate 2008 Guru and Tondee’s Tavern.)

Race Tracker: GA-Sen

Dan Grant, Candidate For TX 10: ‘Why I’m A Democrat’

I’m running for U.S. Congress in the Texas 10th. Why?

Because my district was gerrymandered by Tom DeLay and Karl Rove, and our current representative does not reflect the mainstream values of Houston, Austin, and all the places in between.

Iraq.  Katrina.  Abu Ghraib.  Walter Reed and Guantánamo, Osama Bin Laden at large.  Big Pharma writing Medicare plans while Texas seniors lose prescription drug coverage.  Big Insurance writing campaign checks while Texans pay twice the national average to insure their homes.  Soaring deficits, a demoralized foreign policy – and a capital city so tied up in partisan knots that they have no idea how to get us back on the right track.

We need a change in Washington.  Now.

If the litany of failure during the past six years has taught us anything at all, two of its most important lessons are:

* Modern Republicans can’t govern because they don’t believe in government.

* When government breaks, voters turn to Democrats to fix it.

The Republican administration is discredited, and even some of its most loyal apologists are now trying to scramble back to the middle ground.  But voters aren’t fooled.  It’s the extremist ideology and partisan zealotry symbolized by fallen leaders like Tom DeLay that put them out of sync with mainstream voters in the first place.  So those who enabled DeLay’s enterprise to get themselves elected have no credibility portraying themselves as moderates now.

None of which means that Democrats will automatically inherit the mantle of leadership.  Yes, voters are disgusted with Republican corruption, cronyism, and incompetence.  But Democrats are going to need to provide a common-sense vision that gives modern expression to the traditional values that made us great. 

Those values are worth remembering.  They earned us respect around the world and led to creative policies at home that helped build a vibrant middle class.  The eight-hour work days, the 40-hour work week, maternity leave, workers’ compensation, and time off to go vote.  Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare to help keep working families from slipping into poverty.  Civil rights, women’s rights, environmental rights.

Each of those progressive changes happened because earlier generations looked around and said, ‘We need a party of our own that stands for the values we hold dear.’  And they would be astonished today to learn that some in our party are afraid of change.  We can’t be afraid of change.  We are the party of change! 

I believe in the power of effective government to make a positive difference in our lives.  Not more government, necessarily, nor even less government.  Just better government.  So that we can improve national security while taking smart steps to end our involvement in Iraq and guarantee that we don’t have to send our brave men and women back there in a few years because we didn’t do it right this time.  So that we can move toward energy independence, reduce the national debt, and help provide a level playing field for middle-class families who work hard and play by the rules.  So that we can make quality health care affordable, protect our natural heritage, and stop cutting investments in education even as our global competitors in China and India increase theirs.

Voters are yearning for change, not more of the same, and they are looking to us to propose decisive steps.  Let’s embrace that change – to put our principles to work again to get our nation back on the right track.  Not to forget our traditions, but to fulfill them and to make it clear what we stand for in terms our friends can’t misunderstand and our opponents can’t misrepresent.

We need change – now.  And that’s why I am a Democrat.

www.dangrantforcongress.com

KY-SEN: McConnell To Be Primaried?

There is every reason to believe tonight that even after tomorrow, the Republican bloodletting will not stop in Ketucky. A movement has begun to draft Larry Forgy to run against Mitch McConnell. According to Politcs1:

Call it Ernie Fletcher’s revenge. US Senate Mitch McConnell (R-KY), portrayed in state newspapers as the godfather of the Kentucky GOP, has his faction of the party heavily backing Anne Northup in Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary. That appears to be why a growing movement in the party — led by the pro-Fletcher faction — is looking for payback in the form of giving McConnell a tough primary challenge in 2008. Check out the DraftForgy.com website, urging former State Supreme Court Justice Larry Forgy (R) to oppose McConnell. Forgy was the GOP nominee for Governor in 1991 and 1995. The Draft Forgy website is filled with pro-Fletcher and ani-McConnell sentiments, plus lots of Forgy quotes that make him sound rather interested in the race.

Pass the popcorn!