CATCHING UP WITH SOME OF OUR CANDIDATES: DONNA EDWARDS, CHARLIE BROWN, MIKE CAUDLE, SHERROD BROWN, MIKE ARCURI, DAVE MEJIAS, ERIC MASSA, JOE SESTAK

There has been a great deal of action in the campaigns of all our Blue America candidates. I have a couple of updates I want to make you aware of. Today's Washington Post emphasized how Maryland's own Ed Lamont type candidate, Donna Edwards, took corrupt/reactionary Liebermanoid type incumbent Al Wynn to the woodshed at a public debate. Wynn had nothing and Donna was brilliant, so one of Wynn's goons physically attacked and stomped a 57 year old Edwards volunteer when he was asked to stop ripping up Edwards campaign signs. The Post made it clear that whatever happened outside the debate, Donna certainly won at the event. "Wynn appeared to get the worst of it inside. In their first time sharing a stage, Edwards attacked Wynn on his votes supporting the war in Iraq, the repeal of the estate tax and changes in bankruptcy law. Edwards said the Democratic congressman has voted in 'lockstep' with the Republicans, making him out of sync with the 4th Congressional District, which stretches across parts of Prince George's and Montgomery counties. She hit him hard on his vote to send troops to Iraq, a stance that Wynn has since described as a mistake. 'He says, "Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have voted for it,"' Edwards said. 'Well, "sorry" is just too late.'"

I just got off the phone with Donna. The overwhelming victory she won at the debate was over-shadowed by her compassion for her elderly campaign worker who is badly hurt. It turns out that one of the thugs who attacked and kicked him is a Wynn congressional aide! "Mr. Wynn," she told me, "will stoop to some anything to get people to think about something other than his voting record, which is very much a Republican voting record in one of the bluest districts in the country."

All the way on the other side of the country, in a pretty red district, CA-04, Charlie Brown is working full time to displace one of the worst of the worst Republican incumbents, John Doolittle. Yesterday Charlie's campaign launched two radio ads and a corresponding website, CorruptOrIneffective.com. (You even get to vote on whether Doolittle is one or the other-- or both.) "John Doolittle has amassed an unbelievable record with his involvement in both Congressional bribery scandals," explains Charlie. "On the other hand, his record is just the opposite when it comes to our country's most pressing problems. He has been completely ineffective-- out of control spending, tremendous missteps on national security, no action on border security, soaring gas prices, to name just a few. It's time for change."

A bit more under the radar, at least nationally, is the crucial race in Oregon's 39th House District, where a new poll shows progressive Mike Caudle pulling virtually even with Oregon's own would-be Tom DeLay, Republican House leader Wayne Scott.

We had a great session with Sherrod Brown on Wednesday and right afterwards the new SUSA poll confirmed that Sherrod's opponent, the merry rubber stamping idiot, Mike DeWine, is the third most disliked senator in America-- following Abramoff-buddy Conrad Burns (MT) and Mr. K Street, himself, Rick Man-on-Dog Santorum (PA).

But Sherrod isn't the only one of our candidates seeing good polling data. Oneida County District Attorney Michael Arcuri now leads State Senator Ray Meier, a far right nutcase, in the race for New York's 24th congressional seat (which is an open seat because of the retirement of Sherwood Boehlert). "Washington is in desperate need of new ideas and a new direction," said Mike. "I look forward to working with the voters here as we fight to bring real change and reform to Congress."

Interesting union stuff too. You might expect the AFL-CIO to endorse Democrats. But they don't always. In fact in two of our target districts in NY, the 3rd and the 29th, the AFL-CIO has been endorsing Republicans Peter King and Randy Kuhl. The AFL-CIO has always tried to keep some doors open to the GOP and has always worked very hard to find a few Republicans to endorse who don't publicly advocate violently anti-Labor positions. Since George Bush and the extremist wing of the Republican Party have taken over it is harder and harder to find any Republicans who have even the barest modicum of respect for working men and women. These days GOP Labor policy seems to fall barely short of re-instituting slavery. The New York AFL-CIO has tried mighty hard to nurture a cooperative relationship with Peter King and with Randy Kuhl and they have made a point of never endorsing any Democrat who runs against King and they endorsed Kuhl in his 2004 race.

That just changed. Both Kuhl's and King's records on issues relating to working people are absolutely indefensible. DMI examined their votes on legislation pertaining to the middle class and they wound up with big fat zeroes and ratings of F. Not one person in the entire Congress did worse than King or Kuhl. Their votes on specific Labor-related issues are so ghastly that it would be impossible for any Labor union to endorse either and then face their members. When it comes to outsourcing American jobs to cheap foreign markets, these two creeps aren't just dependable votes, they're actual leaders. When it comes to protecting workers pensions from avaricious corporations... well, all those bribes contributions they've taken from Big Business... they have more than earned their keep by screwing workers over again and again and again.

The AFL-CIO just flat-out endorsed Massa. The Long Island situation was a little different and this week the state executive board decided to recommend "No Endorsement." But when that hit the AFL-CIO convention floor, the members voted to reject the recommendation and to endorse Dave Mejias. This is the first time ever that the New York AFL-CIO has decided to endorse a King opponent.

Tomorrow's guest at Blue America will be Victoria Wulsin (OH-02), an incredible person taking on Mean Jean Schmidt. And on Wednesday we have a very special session with Ben Rahn, one of the founders of Act Blue. The next Saturday, Jerry McNerney will be joining us. Also tomorrow, Joe Sestak will deliver the national Democratic response to Bush's weekly radio propaganda pack of lies. Joe, who rose to the rank of Vice Admiral and retired after 31 years, will be trying to help Bush understand the basics of national security, something he hasn't grasped in his five and a half years of catastrophic and very dangerous policy failures.