It Really Is Up To Us To Deliver A 60 Vote Senate

A few weeks ago we did a Blue America contest to award $5,000 to a congressional candidate. Our winner, Annette Taddeo (D-FL) wound up with over $36,000 (including matching funds from Chris Van Hollen and some other DCCC leaders). This week we started a week-long contest to pick a Senate candidate to give the same $5,000 check too. A donation of $1-- or $1,000-- counts as a vote and you can vote here. Since we started on Saturday afternoon, there have been over 300 votes and more than $9,000. Right now Jeff Merkley (D-OR) is ahead although both Andrew Rice (D-OK) and Rick Noriega (D-TX) are starting to catch up.

Like we explained on Saturday, these are the tough races-- not the low hanging fruit-- but the races that will determine whether or not McConnell, McCain and the rest of McLunatic Fringe will be able to filibuster and obstruct Obama's program for change. But, believe me, we're not the only ones who have figured this out. yesterday's Roll Call is calling attention to the fact that right wing GOP front groups are dumping millions and millions of dollars into the Senate races now, panicked that the reactionaries could lose their ability to obstruct progressive legislation. And they are heavily outspending independent progressive groups-- $23 million to $3.3 million.

The misnamed neo-fascist billionaires club, Freedom's Watch, has been on the warpath as have other ring wing advocacy groups like the national. Chamber of Commerce, Associated Builders and Contractors Free Enterprise, America’s Future Fund, Employee Freedom Action Committee and the Club for Growth. Freedom's Watch is spending heavily to save rubber stamp Republican Gordon Smith in Oregon and the Club For Growth is pouring money into Alaska to save the most corrupt member of the Senate, Ted Stevens.

Of course the good news is that this right-wing cash isn't going to McCain's campaign. The bad news is that our Senate candidates need help. Andrew Rice for example, is being viciously attacked by a corporate sleazeball incumbent who has millions of dollars in corporate cash flooding into his campaign coffers for a ceaseless barrage of negative attack ads. You may feel good-- and you should-- that grassroots activists have helped raise nearly $1.5 million dollars for Andrew Rice's campaign. But Inhofe has already spent twice that total and has $2.5 million on hand. This year he's the second biggest recipient among non-presidentail candidates of legalized bribes from Big Oil ($351,750). He's taken over $150,000 from lobbyists, over $180,000 from the kinds of bankers and investment firms he's been voting to deregulate over the years, nearly $100,000 from the Real Estate Industry, over $50,000 from the Insurance Industry... all the folks who he's been serving instead of the citizens of Oklahoma. Almost every cent of the contributions Andrew has gotten has come from small individual donors looking not for special favors but for decent representation for Oklahoma and a fair shot for working families for a change. Donating to Andrew's campaign will help him keep ads like this one-- debunking Inhofe's lies and distortions-- on the air:



Don't forget to vote-- in a contest with all excellent choices.


UPDATE: ANDREW RICE TAKES IT TO THE VOTERS

Yesterday Andrew held a press conference in Oklahoma City aimed more at regular citizens than at members of the media. He explained that he had called people together because "it's apparent that American taxpayers are going to be saddled with $700 billion worth of irresponsible investments by Wall Street, I'm alarmed by our Senior Senator Jim Inhofe's reaction. He said he'll 'be keeping an eye on the fallout.'" 

I think he should be working for a solution, so that we taxpayers are not forced to bail out unregulated schemers and millionaires again. 

Our other senator, Tom Coburn, reacted strongly, saying, "Congress has known about these problems for years, but did nothing because [they] were so obsessed with short-term politics...to do the hard work of oversight and reform that was necessary to avert this mess."   

I couldn't agree more with Senator Coburn. And we should all be asking ourselves, what has Jim Inhofe, who's been in Washington 22 years, done to avert this crisis? Absolutely nothing.   

In fact, it's ironic that for all these years Jim Inhofe has tried to tell us that big government is the enemy. He wants to privatize everything. Social Security, Medicare, health care, education.  

Yet, while he was keeping his eye on the fallout of the recent crisis on Wall Street, it fell to the taxpayers and government to bail out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and A.I.G., and pump tons of liquidity into the banking system. If government had not come to the rescue, our economic crisis would be catastrophic. 

Jim Inhofe helped give George Bush everything he asked for in terms of economic policy. Massive tax cuts for the wealthy. Deregulation. Limited Oversight. Look where it's gotten us today. 

Oklahomans are paying record prices for fuel and food. Credit markets are shrinking for consumer products like washing machines and other household items. U.S. banks are afraid to lend money to each other. America is now a more risky proposition for important foreign investors. 

I want to see Jim Inhofe take responsibility. He should be accountable for his misguided economic policies and pitch in this week with other bipartisan Congressional leaders to ensure that this $700 billion bailout is the last one.  

This is the largest price tag on any piece of legislation in our country's history; more even than we're paying for the Iraq War-- to bail out financial institutions that acted for the last several years without fear of government oversight .

I'm standing here not only as a nominee for Senate, but as a concerned taxpayer who is asking Jim Inhofe, for once, to put his ideology aside and ask the tough questions. Show some transparency, Jim Inhofe. Tell us what you've done, whom you've met with, which actions you've taken to challenge those corporations who will now benefit from this bailout. It's time to act and push for solutions. We don't have the luxury of waiting to see how things shake out.

I'm calling on Jim Inhofe to roll up his sleeves and get to work on solving this mess he's gotten us into. We need a plan that... 

• Ensures this $700 billion check is not a blank check. Taxpayers deserve accountability on the part of the Bush Administration in exercising this unprecedented authority;

• Ensures the investors and CEOs who put us in this mess don't get off scot-free;

• Includes help for everyday Oklahomans on Main Street;

• Includes more responsible regulators who will hold investment bankers accountable and not look the other way while the fox invades the hen house.

We sent Jim Inhofe to Washington 22 years ago to look out for Oklahoma. Unfortunately for us, he was asleep at the switch. And it's clear now that we can no longer afford Jim Inhofe's see no evil, hear no evil approach.

I want to remind you again, whether you decide to kick down even one dollar or more, to vote in the Blue America Senate contest. Andrew would make a great U.S. Senator-- as would Tom Allen, Jeff Berkley, Mark Begich and Rick Noriega. The one who gets the most "votes" in our poll (at the link) gets a $5,000 check from Blue America.