Brad Avakian For Congress (OR-1)

Primary voters in Oregon start filling in their ballots this Friday in the special election to fill David Wu's seat in the northwest corner of Oregon. The first congressional district is dependably Democratic. Obama took it with 61%-- and in 2000 and 2004 Bush only managed 44%. The district includes western Portland and the city's western suburbs including "Silicon Forest," plus Oregon's wine country and a bunch of Scandinavian socialist dairy farmers up north. It's a great place to live. And there are three big-time candidates in the primary, Brad Avakian, Suzanne Bonamici and Brad Witt.

Suzanne Bonamici is another business-friendly corporate shill being shoved down Democrats' throats by EMILYS List, the kind of politician who is a walking discouragement to Democratic base voters and keeps turnout among progressives depressed. She started her career as a lawyer in the Reagan administration. In the last debate Avakian was clear that he won't support any free trade agreement that costs jobs and, essentially Witt had the good sense to say "me too." By contrast, Bonamici, a millionaire, did a song and dance about having an open mind and wanting to stay neutral to use her leverage to make these trade deals better. Perhaps she doesn't know that trade deals are negotiated under fast track authority, so members of Congress-- especially junior ones-- have nothing to say about it.

I was less sure about picking between Avakian and Witt, but Witt hasn't shaped up as a serious contender and when it came to ending the occupation of Afghanistan, Avakian made it clear that he wants the troops to come home from Afghanistan immediately. "Now means now," he said. But Witt said we can't leave until we've trained the Afghan military. That means not in our lifetimes.

Avakian has the clearest record as a straight forward progressive leader. He'll make the best Member of Congress. This morning, Greg Sargent at the Washington Post put it like this: "Progressive Oregon labor commissioner Brad Avakian is running in a special election to replace Rep. David Wu, and if you want to see what it looks like when a Dem candidate for Congress is not afraid to fully embrace Occupy Wall Street, then watch this video":



And, if you're so moved, please consider contributing to Brad's campaign here at the DWT ActBlue page.