MARK PERA ON A ROLL AGAINST A FALTERING BUSH DOG REACTIONARY IN ILLINOIS

For an increasing number of people, the Internet has become a primary source of news. It's also a more targeted source. For people interested in politics, the days of listening to bullshit from incumbents is long in the past. Because of tools like ProgressivePunch, for example, voters are two clicks away from their congressmember's actual voting record-- like Dan Lipinski's. Yes, he may be a Democrat in a decidedly Democratic district but his voting record, especially when it comes to core issues, like a woman's right to choice or the occupation of Iraq is pure Republican. He doesn't mention that when he asks voters to re-elect him.

Today's Chicago Tribune features a piece by Jim Tankersley about Lipinski's desperate battle to hold onto a seat he should never have held to begin with, Bloggers Dog Dems Who Vote Bush. Woof, woof!

Tankersley has noticed the Bush Dog campaign that is attempting to hold reactionary Democrats accountable for voting with Republicans on core issues. And he turned to bloggers from OpenLeft, Arch Pundit and DWT to help explain the phenomenon to his readers.

Matt Stoller, the editor of openleft.com and the architect of the "Bush Dog" campaign, proclaimed Lipinski the first "Bush Dog" to be targeted in a primary by the "netroots." In an interview, he said Lipinski was "not a good Democrat."

"Bush has made it very clear that he's not withdrawing from Iraq, and he's not going to sign anything that would lead to withdrawal from Iraq," Stoller said. "Either Lipinski knows this, and he's misleading everyone, or he's stupid."

While many of the "Bush Dogs" hail from Republican-leaning districts, Lipinski's traditionally votes Democratic. That galls some of the other bloggers who have joined Stoller in supporting Pera.

Lipinski votes "like a right-wing nut," said Howie Klein, who runs downwithtyranny .com and is one of the leaders of Blue America, a political action committee founded by bloggers. But, he added, "He's not in some radical right district."

ArchPundit, OpenLeft and DWT aren't going to win this race. Mark Pera, an exceptionally good candidate, is. Bloggers can help get his message out and help rally some support in terms of volunteers and financial contributions but without a good candidate, bloggers can't do much at all in these kinds of races. And, as we've seen when Mark visited us over at Firedoglake September 8, Illinois' third CD certainly has an opportunity to elect a congressman who will be far superior to Lipinski.
Today's Tribune story begins with a quote from Pera.

"Every time Bush needs a vote," the Democrat from Western Springs, Ill., says, "he turns to Dan Lipinski and gets it."

In the most recent quarter, Mark outraised Lipinski, $100,000 to $75,000. And $30,000 of Mark's total, more than the difference between the two came via ActBlue. While Lipinksi was raking in the dough from the Chicago Machine and Inside the Beltway lobbyists. In fact, one of Lipinksi's donors was Louisiana Republican Rep. Richard Baker's Back America's Conservative PAC, which normally just gives to GOP incumbents but in this case has chosen to give to a Democratic incumbent who, at least when the chips are down, votes with the GOP.

The primary in IL-03 is one that can be won. So far 108 Blue America donors have given Mark $1,860. If you'd like to help keep that going, here's the place to do it.