Energetic Florida Democrat Vipin Verma Scares Away 10-Term Incumbent John Mica

A couple of days ago I had an opportunity to sit down for a long chat with a brilliant and enthusiastic young progressive Democrat, Vipin Verma, who's running for Congress in Florida's brand new 6th congressional district. I had to find out how he ran off Establishment barnacle John Mica, who has now decided to run in a Republican primary against crackpot freshman teabagger Sandy Adams rather than face this Democrat in a seat he's held for two decades!

I grew more and more intrigued when well thought-out ideas to help lead his neighbors to a 21st Century feared and eschewed by narrow-minded conservatives like Mica and how to connect with voters on a progressive agenda started tumbling out of him in rapid fire. On the economy, he said “I live in a coastal district, which relies heavily on tourism, but in order for the district to thrive, we need to diversify our economy.” The sector that he would like to bring into his district is a high-tech manufacturing sector, such as robotics and nanotechnology, and increased focus on bio-medical research and engineering, such as stem cell research and its applications. “This is the wave of the future, and this is how we are going to grow as a district and nation,” he said. For the nation, he would focus on rebuilding our country’s infrastructure.

On education, one of his key issues that he came back to again and again while we talked, he said “We should think about revamping our entire system for the 21st century economy.” He proposes that the first step is to bring a top-tier college prep program in each school, and make it open enrollment, so as long as you are willing to work hard and put in the work you will be well prepared for college. The second step in a top-tier vocational or technical program in each school, in conjunction with community and state colleges, which prepares people to enter the job market at 18, with a high school diploma, and the technical knowledge to attain a middle class lifestyle. For the students interested in the high school diploma + technical degree program, they would attend the traditional high school in the morning and take the basic English, Math, Science, and Social Studies classes, and after lunch, they would go to the vocational school, or the local community college to take classes and learn skills to enter the job market after high school. So, in the end, they will graduate with a high school diploma, and a vocational degree.

You can read more about him, his ideas and stances on other issues at his website, vermaforcongress.com

I asked him to write a guest post on how he scared off Mica and set the stage for a Democratic victory in FL-06 in November 2012. Here is his post below; this is the way we like Democratic candidates to sound-- like they're one of us, not one of the Washington insiders:

John Mica Abandons Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns And Putnam Counties-- Runs Off To Orlando

-by Vipin Verma

I was always very interested in politics and decided I wanted to serve in the public life as an elected official. I watched the Republicans pass the Paul Ryan 2011 budget, which can be summed up as the destruction of the middle class and the “Death of Medicare.” I asked myself, how can the Republicans and John Mica vote to end Medicare for our seniors, when statistics show that millions of seniors would lose access to health care without it, and the voucher system would essentially leave millions of seniors without access to health care. Do they not understand what they are doing to the middle class and our seniors, or do they just not care?

If I had any doubts on how far the Republicans will go to destroy our country’s middle class, the final straw came when the whole debt-ceiling debate was taking place. Republicans held this country hostage for months, and in the end cost us our AAA credit rating.

Disgusted and shocked by the utter lack of compassion shown by the Republicans in Congress, who were more focused on political posturing rather than focusing on finding solutions to people’s problems, I remembered a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, "You must be the change you want to see in the world. ” I decided that the time was now, and I announced my candidacy for US Congress to take on John Mica and defeat him to reach Congress, and then take on Public Enemy #1: Paul Ryan, who I believe is destroying our country step by step, and is primarily responsible for costing us our credit rating.

I want to be the Democratic solution to Paul Ryan, and when he comes out with a budget proposal for deficit reduction projections for a 10 year period. I want to introduce a Democratic proposal that matches his deficit reduction projections at the end of 10 years without cutting Social Security or Medicare, or destroying our middle class. Finally, I will keep President Obama’s promise of not raising income taxes on families making $250,000 a year, and no person’s taxes will be increased beyond the tax rates they paid under President Clinton, the last time we had a budget surplus. Martin Luther once said, “We must rise above our individualistic concerns for the broader concerns of our nation,” and this is what we must do with budget. I am ready and prepared for this fight, and this is a fight we must win for our future generations.

The campaign began in July 2011 with the goal to take our country back from the radical Republicans like John Mica in Congress, whose focus was on protecting the tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of our middle class. I knew it would be a long and difficult journey, but I was prepared for the challenge.

The first step, was creating a progressive platform so that the voters would know where I stood on the issues, and began introducing myself to the Democratic party activists at the local, state, and national level. I attended and spoke at the local Democratic party meetings and organizations, and started winning over insiders with my enthusiasm and my platform. I took my message to the grassroots level speaking to schools, colleges, non-profits, local and civic organizations, policeman, firefighters, students, teachers, unions, churches, and the voters at public meetings, farmer’s markets, and canvassing neighborhoods.

My main message to the voters was, “Do you know Mica voted to end Medicare as we know it”; “When was the last time you saw John Mica?”; “What has Mica done for you [referring to Volusia, Flagler, and St Johns county voters], as opposed to the Orlando region? Most people were shocked on his vote on Medicare, and could not answer the other questions, and Republican households told me that they would personally call Mica and ask him about it. I bet his phone was ringing nonstop with his supporters asking him about his vote on ending Medicare, and what have you done for my hometown?

Then, I proceeded to tell them about my economic plan of diversifying our district’s economy and bring high tech manufacturing jobs in each part of my district, and how we can climb out of our recession by focusing on rebuilding our country’s infrastructure. The people were responding well to my economic plan and I was laying the groundwork to defeat John Mica. Mica knew that he had real race on his hands and that he would not be able to sit in Washington DC and rely solely on his lobbyists donations to win this election. He would have face the voters that he had long ignored, and explain himself.

The second step was getting by name on the ballot, I decided very early on to qualify for the election by obtaining signatures in the true democratic fashion, and had my name on the ballot by November 2011, and was the first candidate at state, or federal level in Florida to qualify by the petition method. This send a clear message to John Mica that I had the people’s support and that his days in DC, fighting for lobbyists and special interests, were numbered.

Finally, the Postal Service issue came to the national spotlight, and I worked with the Postal Unions to get the message out to the public that the real problem of the facing the Postal Service was not revenue, but the mandate to pre-fund their health benefits for 40 years in a 10 year time frame, which is not required for any other federal agency, or the private sector.

In January 2012, I learned from my postal union allies that the Post Office were discussing closing another sorting facility in my district, after having closed a sorting facility in my hometown of Daytona Beach, and changing delivery standards to slower the rate of service. In a public meeting, I went and spoke on behalf of the Postal Employees to tell the Post Service that your employees are not a number on a payroll, who you can shift from one location to the other, without regard to their families. Furthermore, I told them that you don’t increase market share and revenue by decreasing the level of service and increasing costs. Finally, I told them to be honest with the American public, and tell them that the real problem is the 2006 mandate to pre-fund health care mandate, and not revenues, and that when elected, my first order of business would be repeal the pre-funding mandate, and return the overpayments to the Postal Service.

I later found out that Mica’s representative was present in the building, and heard me speak. Weeks later, John Mica decided to face-off in a Republican primary against Sandy Adams, instead of facing me, the only declared candidate in the general election.

Other candidates who were too scared to take on John Mica in this election will now inevitably declare to run for this open seat with platitudes to create jobs without offering any specific details, and hide their positions by not taking a stand on the issues. My message to the voters and the public is this, if you can’t face John Mica, how will you take on Paul Ryan, John Boehner, and Republicans in Congress. I will not back down from a fight and take on Paul Ryan and John Boehner in Congress with a progressive agenda to bring our country back to prosperity.

Scaring off John Mica was only the beginning, I will campaign non-stop and continue to fight for the American people, and strengthen the middle class. Once elected, I take on Paul Ryan, John Boehner, and the “Do-Nothing” Republicans in Congress, but I need your support.

I would appreciate any support that you can provide, and you can donate directly to me here.