WHY I DECIDED TO DONATE TO AMY KLOBUCHAR'S CAMPAIGN FOR THE MINNESOTA U.S. SENATE SEAT TODAY

A couple of weeks ago my friend Ruth called me and asked me to donate some money to Amy Klobuchar's Senate campaign. Ruth and I are on the Board of the same public interest group and it's only polite to donate to each other's candidates. And I trust her implicitly. I said "yes." But then I started looking into the race, of course-- remembering when another member of that same board had once asked me to donate to his state's "progressive" governor as the governor ran for the U.S. Senate, only to take my money, win the race and unveil himself as... Zell Miller.

Klobuchar will never turn into a Zell Miller or a Joe Lieberman. She has an admirable progressive record of public service that suggests she's going to be an excellent U.S. Senator. But I found something else that didn't inspire an immediate donation.

Schumer and the contemptible DSCC were in Minnesota working to sabotage Klobuchar's primary opponent, Ford Bell, as they had done to Paul Hackett in Ohio and Chuck Pennacchio in Pennsylvania (and, of course, as they are doing in Connecticut where they are trying to undermine grassroots efforts to hold Joe Lieberman accountable for his unswerving support of George Bush and the corporate agenda). I called Ruth and told her I wanted to hold off until after the primary because, although Amy looked great, Bell looked at least as good and because-- though no fault of Amy's-- I didn't like the anti-democratic DSCC tactics going on in the race. Graciously, she let me off the hook.

Today, however, I will make a donation to Klobuchar's campaign. Yesterday Ford Bell withdrew from the race, lashed out at Schumer, and endorsed Amy. Bell never really seemed to have much of a chance to win. Inside and outside the state, Democrats rallied around Klobuchar and there really was nothing wrong with her. I mean it wasn't a situation like in Pennsylvania where the DSCC was backing a reactionary over a progressive. Maybe Bell was more progressive and more outspokenly anti-Bush, but Amy is no Bob Casey. And as he said himself, "The differences within our party are important, but the differences between Mark Kennedy, George Bush and the needs of America are much greater."

Bell, the "peace candidate" and the insurgent up against the Inside the Beltway slime machine, was finding it impossible to raise money. The DSCC was successful in giving Amy's candidacy the air of inevitability and in scaring off potential contributors to Bell (as they had done when they decided to knife Paul Hackett in the back).

The Minnesota Democratic/DFL party had already endorsed Klobuchar at their official convention last month and Bell's unity move allows her to use all her energy and resources against Mark Kennedy, a Bush rubber stamp looking to move up after an abysmal job in the House. An accountant for the corrupt and disbanded firm Arthur Anderson Kennedy was first elected in 2000, and he has worked hard to build himself a truly awful voting record, that is a picture perfect example of how to serve the needs of corporate special interests while spitting in the face of the needs of your working and middle class constituents. (DMI, in fact, rates Kennedy a big fat zero on issues relating to the middle class and says he earns an F.)

Kennedy's moderate suburban district northwest of Minneapolis looked like it was ready to reject him this year. (Patty Wetterling came close to unseating him in 2004 and is running again for the seat-- now open-- this year.) But, fearing he would lose his job as a congressman, he decided to try for the Senate.

Meanwhile, Amy seems exactly right for Minnesota, a moderate, forward-looking progressive with a much-admired 8 year record as Hennepin County Attorney and a clear and strong vision for helping to clean up the mess Bush and his rubber stamp Senate is leaving behind. She promises to change the course in Iraq, not keep the course, which is what Kennedy has been voting to do. She promises to preserve and strengthen Social Security, not destroy it, like Kennedy has been voting to do. She promises to be a force to reform our massive health care crisis and our long-term energy crisis, not to let Big Business dictate policy the way Kennedy has (while he graciously accepted their bribes campaign contributions. And as horrible as Kennedy has been on environmental issues, Amy promises to be the opposite-- someone serious about conserving fresh water, protecting air quality and natural land.

Today Amy launched her first TV spot. It will give you a good idea about why she should be the next senator from the state that gave this country Paul Wellstone. My pal Ruth will be happy because I decided to donate some money to Amy's campaign. If you like to do likewise, please feel free to use ACT BLUE.




FRIDAY UPDATE: AMY MORE THAN HOLDING HER OWN AGAINST KENNEDY

Although she can't tap into the kinds of Big Business sources that buy influence through the GOP the way Kennedy has, Amy's grassroots fundraising efforts are more than paying off. The just-released quarterly report shows that she has nearly as much cash on hand as he does and that she actually out-raised him in the last 3 months! Let's keep it going and make sure we turn the Senate blue.