ARCH-REACTIONARY BUSH DOG JOHN BARROW GETS A SERIOUS CHALLENGER-- MEET SENATOR REGINA THOMAS

How do you figure out who's the overall worst Democratic member of Congress? A good place to start is over at Progressive Punch where you can order everyone's vote in their Chips Are Down category. The bottom of the barrel, Democrats who consistently vote with the GOP on substantive matters, turns up Jim Marshall (GA), Nick Lampson (TX), and John Barrow (GA), the three of whom rotate from week to week as the worst. By way of comparison, the 3 best scores belong to Tammy Baldwin (WI-- 97.34), Linda Sanchez (CA-- 96.79), and Nancy Pelosi (CA-- 96.55). This week Jim Marshall's score is 29.28, Nick Lampson's is 30.43, and Barrow's is 31.02. None of them are worthy of the term "Democrat."

Lampson has no primary opponent and Marshall's opponent, Robert Nowak isn't making much headway. But Friday  there was some really good news on the anti-Bush Dog Front. An impressive Democratic state Senator from Savannah, Regina Thomas, tossed her hat into the ring against Barrow. Yesterday Senator Thomas told me she considers herself a fiscal conservative but when I started asking her the Blue America questions, she had all the right answers. She's adamantly opposed to the occupation of Iraq. When she talks about being pro-choice she makes complete sense on the non-ideological human level and she already voted against an attempt by the far right to pass an anti-gay constitutional amendment in Georgia. She was first elected to the Georgia House in 1995 and served as an assistant majority whip. In 2000 she was elected to the state Senate. Her legislative passions have involved education, children's issues,  welfare reform, veterans and defense issues, technology and consumer affairs. She doesn't have a campaign website up yet but there's a wealth of information about her on her senate website.

I just wanted to share the good news. I'll get into a deeper analysis of exactly why Barrow needs to go. And I'll do an interview with Senator Thomas soon. Keep in mind that the district is around 40% African-American and that African-Americans will be over half the voters in the Democratic primary. Senator Thomas has addressed the crucial issues that concern this mega-constituency really well as a state legislator. On the other hand, Barrow has been sucking up corporate money like there was no tomorrow and his warchest is overflowing. Senator Thomas has nothing to count on but grassroots support.


UPDATE: REGINA'S CAMPAIGN IS ABOUT REAL REPRESENTATION FOR WORKING FAMILIES

I spoke with Senator Thomas again today and she emphasized to me the difefrence in her record on working families and Barrow's failure to support his constituents against the encroachments of powerful Big Business interests. "This country," she told me, "was built on the backs and at the hands and sacrifices of working-class people. My voting record is 100% for working families. To see what this country is doing to families and the working-class is an abomination. Outsourcing our jobs to foreign nations-- taking food out of the mouths of our children can not and should not be tolerated.  This is the very fact that nothing will be done to bring the jobs back to America. With the national deficit being so high we do not even own America. IT IS TIME TO TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK!"