With Mike Rogers Quitting Congress, Wouldn't It Be Great To Get Rid Of The Other Surveillance State Shill On The Intelligence Committee? Meet Challenger Paul Rundquist

You may have learned this month, as I did, that Surveillance State shill "Dutch" Ruppersberger of Maryland has an energetic young primary opponent, Paul Rundquist. MD-02, most of which is part of Baltimore County (with pieces of Anne Arundel, Howard and Hartford), is solidly blue, with a PVI of D+10. Whoever wins the primary can expect to go to Congress-- and Ruppersberger doesn't usually get primaried.

A former intel analyst, Rundquist seeks to put the issue of government surveillance and intelligence oversight to a vote in the primary and ride the issues into Congress. He is a dependable across-the-board progressive, far more so than the more centristy Ruppersberger, who has far more in common, voting-wise, with ConservaDems Steny Hoyer and John Delaney than with mainstream Maryland liberals like Donna Edwards, Elijah Cummings, Chris Van Hollen and John Sarbanes. According to ProgressivePunch, Ruppersberger's lifetime crucial vote score of 67.97 makes him the most conservative Democrat in the Maryland delegation. His record is, at best, mediocre and on issues concerning the Military Industrial Establishment-- which has bankrolled his career in politics. Ruppersberger votes more like a Republican than like the rest of his party. His biggest lifetime donor is Northrop Grumman and other shady arms manufacturers which keep his wheels greased in a very big way are Lockhead Martin, Raytheon, drone manufacturers Leidos Inc, General Dynamics, and Exelon. His reported legalistic bribes from the Military Industrial complex come to $738,750-- and his voting record reflects their interests.

Rundquist has much in common with former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, but is seeking a very different path. Both are tech-savvy millennials granted high level clearances who are disappointed with the government’s apparent disregard for the privacy of its own citizens. But Rundquist believes that the decisions Snowden made were reckless and indeed unnecessary. He believes that in a representative democracy, there is always the option to run for government office yourself if you disagree with your elected officials and that's the choice he's making. Of course, that begs the question if he'd even be running and making the case had Snowden not come forward in the heroic way he did.

In fact, Rundquist did not register as a candidate until the day before the deadline and he says he hoped someone else would address the issues that motivated Snowden and have mired U.S. agencies such as the NSA in an international controversy over privacy rights. No one did. The ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Ruppersberger, has failed to address this issue head on even though he represents the district where the NSA resides.  Rundquist decided to step up to the plate and run against Ruppersberger. Predictably, he's facing many challenges from the Beltway Establishment, Ruppersberger being a key Hoyer lieutenant. Ruppersberger is in his fifth term and made the appropriate noises so that he would be considered a serious contender for governor of Maryland.

Rundquist is also running for Congress while holding an active security clearance and continuing to work in the classified community. He is following the rules associated with his clearance and cannot provide specific details about policy changes without running his comments through formal review. He believes that government intelligence has saved lives and continues to save lives.  As such, he says, it should be treated with respect and he says that part of this respect is proper government oversight which values both the information itself and the privacy of its citizens. He believes that we still have a functioning democracy and is putting himself on the line to prove it. His belief in the system and his dedication to saving it from years of what he sees as sloppy oversight will be, in his opinion, refreshing against the backdrop of pessimism that has surrounded the issue of government surveillance and privacy.

"I don't think anyone goes to work at the NSA wanting to be a part of 1984," Rundquist said, who stressed his concern was with mission creep at the NSA and congressional oversight, not the agency's employees themselves. "The House Intelligence Committee has never attempted to step out in front and start discussions-- they've been reactive."

Rundquist is running for Congress in Maryland, but he is running on a platform that will affect the entire nation and in fact the world. If we do not accomplish reform in this election cycle, we may not have the chance to do it again. You may contribute to this cause on his ActBlue page here.