Hello, DCCC... Wayne Powell Is Taking On Young Gun Eric Cantor Just A Little South Of Where You Are

Last cycle we talked a lot about how the DCCC adamantly refused to even recognize the campaign against John Boehner by a valiant young progressive Democratic veteran, Justin Coussoule. They would go out of their way to invite every Democrat running for Congress to an event-- once an event in his own district-- and leave Justin out. If I ever doubted the DCCC was the enemy of progressives, I understood it after watching that campaign. It's as if they were doing all they could to protect Boehner rather than defeat him. This year we, once again see almost the same pattern we always see when it comes to Conservative Consensus posterboy Paul Ryan. The DCCC just absolutely refuses to help Rob Zerban in a race that is absolutely doable. That's pushed Blue America to lend a hand ourselves. So what about the third in the Republican trio of arch-villains?

Recently we met Virginia attorney and progressive vet, Wayne Powell. He's running a vigorous campaign against Eric Cantor, Republican Majority Leader. Cantor has been severely wounded by his interference in Republican primaries but, once again, the DCCC is taking an adamantly hands off approach. They're ignoring Wayne Powell. We added him to our ActBlue page. And I asked him to introduce himself to DWT readers.

Cantor as “Part of the Problem” of Legal Corruption in Congress

-by Wayne Powell, Democratic candidate for Congress (VA-7)

In Eric Cantor’s section of his 2010 book entitled Young Guns includes his description of the circumstance of both major parties when he was elected in 2000, a corrupt culture where “…the illegal corruption of the process leads to members indicted and behind bars, and the legal corruption of the [political process] leads voters tossing out the incumbent party.”(Page 29, Young Guns). I intend to see that this prophesy is realized in my race to unseat Mr. Cantor this election year, since he is the epitome of the corrupt culture that he describes in his book. He is the consummate political operator, a Washington insider who has become the poster child for what’s wrong with our political system.

In a lackluster congressional career over the past dozen years, he touts two recent initiatives by which he claims bipartisanship and an effort to “clean up” the political process, and spur job growth: the “STOCK Act,” and the “JOBS Act,” which neither prevents insider trading by the “political intelligence” agents who foster insider trading on Wall Street, nor stimulate job growth, but rather reduces the very regulation on Wall Street firms which led to financial and economic disaster in 2008. Even his own party colleague Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa derided Cantor’s stripping of the requirement that political intelligence operators register and that there activities be monitored stating that by taking out that provision the “…House would fulfill Wall Street’s wishes by killing this provision.”

In the “Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act,” Cantor claims authorship of the law that really doesn’t direct its primary focus on job growth, but on the reduction of regulations that have not be proven to hamper job growth in the first place. The possibility of fraud, and a recurrence of activities preceding the economic meltdown of 2008 is present, and the SEC chairman herself opposed the JOBS Act, stating that the Act could actually chill job growth if investors become concerned with the adequacy of protections and might make capital formation harder, not easier.

So if you wonder what it means if an insider trading bill promotes insider trading, and if a job promotion bill is really an effort to further deregulate the market, then we need to return to Cantor’s book and his statement that he had come from a “…place that believes in hard work being rewarded. I had come to a place where special interests are rewarded.” Page 29, 30, Young Guns). Well, I come from that same place, Richmond, Virginia.

I grew up as the son of a welder in the Church Hill neighborhood of Richmond, and I had to work hard out for everything I have. From 12 years old on-- nothing was ever given to me. I sought loans for my education after my father died at 51 years old, and later joined the Army, and commanded troops in the War on Terror. I built businesses and a law firm from scratch. I'm running for Congress to represent folks like my father, and my mother who survived on Social Security payments and with the help of me and my sister until she died. These are the kind of people that need our help in these tough economic times. I'm running my campaign with the same work ethic that helped me rise to the rank of Colonel in the Army and led to accomplishments in my business and professional careers. I’m running against a man who epitomizes exactly what he criticizes, a political operator who panders to special interests from the wealthiest and privileged corporate interests on Wall Street and beyond, and who has no time for his own constituents.

I'm not a politician. I am someone who believes, like most Americans, that something is drastically wrong with Congress and our country’s political system, a system where multi-national corporations and the wealthiest control too many of our elected representatives like Congressman Cantor.

There is a good reason that Cantor was dubbed the champion of the “overdog” by his colleagues in the Virginia House of Delegates. My first Commander in the Army told me in 1974, if you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem. There’s no doubt that Cantor is part of the problem.

While I'm running to represent everyday Virginians: families struggling to make ends meet, and small business owners, Cantor is only focused on pleasing those who raise enormous sums of money for him and his Super Pacs.

My campaign will lay out a forward looking vision for Virginia's 7th district that places people first. I'm also running to reform Congress, create jobs, and to make sure every American has the opportunity to find a job. Congress is broken, and I'm running to fix it and end Congressman Cantor's culture of corruption.

To do that, I need your help. Follow my campaign on Twitter, like on me on Facebook, or sign up for email updates from my campaign.