MEAN JEAN SCHMIDT GETS SOME VERY BAD NEWS: VICTORIA WULSIN JUST DECLARED SHE'S RUNNING FOR CONGRESS AGAIN

Last year Blue America supported 30 Democrats running for House seats across the U.S. The candidate for whom we raised the most money was Dr. Victoria Wulsin, who ran against Mean Jean Schmidt in OH-02. Our online community managed to donate over $27,000 for Dr. Wulsin's campaign. She didn't win. But she did manage to get the most votes of any Democrat in the history of the district-- 117,595. Mean Jean Schmidt got 120,112 and recently Karl Rove listed her as one of the most vulnerable Republicans and illegally solicited assistance for her re-election campaign from the General Services Administration (GSA). Mean Jean raised $1,944,434 in 2006, most of it from Big Business and from herself. Victoria raised $1,069,096, 74% of which came from individual contributors.

I hope you remember this song Rickie Lee Jones and two of the Squirrel Nut Zippers sang for OH-02:



That was done with money contributed, mostly in $5 and $10 donations to the Blue America PAC by 1,383 members of our online community. We're open for business again-- and I'm meeting with Tom Maxwell, the writer of the song, in a couple weeks to see what we can come up with for next year.

A few weeks ago I urged Victoria to run again and she told me she was considering it and talking it over with her family and local backers in southwest Ohio. This morning's good news is that Victoria is in! I hope to get her to come on FDL for a Blue America chat in a couple weeks. Meanwhile, here's what she had to say:

"When Americans are fighting in Iraq, going without affordable health care, and struggling to support their families, we need an independent voice in Congress, not a rubber stamp for special interests and the Bush Administration," Dr. Wulsin said, adding, "The people of the Second District deserve a Congresswoman who will be honest with her constituents."