The DCCC Has Abandoned Ohio Completely-- Which Doesn't Mean Real Democrats Have To

The decision yesterday to add Keith Mundy to the Bernie Congress Blue America page was pretty easy. Within the first 5 minutes on the phone with him, I knew I was speaking with a movement guy, not someone trying to glom onto Bernie's online donation flow.

Keith, who wanted to talk more about Bernie than about his own campaign, is running for the OH-16 suburban seat southwest of Cleveland that carefully skirts Cleveland, Akron and Parma to make sure just 1.6% of the population is black. The district is 92.7% white and the PVI is R+6. McCain beat Obama 51-47% and Romney beat him 54-45%. The multimillionaire, out-of-touch incumbent is Republican Jim Renacci managed to win the seat by defeating freshman Blue Dog, John Boccieri 52-41%. When Renacci beat Boccieri in the 2010 midterms it was because Democrats stayed away from the polls in droves. Why would they do that? How about because Boccieri was anti-choice, anti-healthcare and anti-gay-- like like Renacci. The Redfern Ohio Democratic Party, like the DCCC, never quite got the message that Democrats want to vote for candidates who are Democrats because of values and principles not Democrats because it's a corporate careerist vehicle for a bunch of corrupt insiders. In that race Renacci and Boccieri each spent a bit over $2 million and the DCCC and NRCC each spent around $1.5 on their respective candidates. Renacci self-funded to the tune of $752,400.

Democrats in Ohio's 16th congressional district won't have that problem this year. Keith Mundy is nothing like Renacci and nothing like Boccieri. Needless to say, Steve Israel (and his sock puppet), Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi are ignoring Mundy and the DCCC adamantly refuses to offer any help at all. With Redfern gone, the Ohio Democratic Party isn't as overtly hostile to progressives. The current head of the state party, David Pepper, told the media that "With Ohio families desperate for leadership in Washington that solves challenges like low wages and college debt and bad trade deals, Keith offers them a much-needed alternative to who they’re stuck with now." Not that the DCCC cares. They back corrupt conservatives who are basically just like Renacci, but only if they call themselves "Democrats," primarily worthless garbage candidates like self-funder Randy Perkins (FL), Monica Vernon (IA), Brad Schneider (IL), Lon Johnson, Wall Street whore Josh Gottheimer (NJ), failed Blue Dog Pete Gallego (TX), DCCC-Republican Mike Derrick (NY), Val Demings (FL), and Bryan Caforio some carpet-bagger rejected by the California Democratic Party but sent in by the DCCC to destroy progressive Lou Vince's chance to win the seat, virtually guaranteeing the reelection of tea party Republican Steve Knight. The DCCC has written off the state of Ohio entirely; not one Ohio Dem is on any of their Red-to-Blue lists.

So, Mundy is on his own; just him and the folks who believe in Bernie's political revolution. Hillary won Ohio, but Bernie did pretty well in the 16th district. He won Portage County outright, beat Hillary in the parts of Summit County that are in OH-16, and did well in Medina, Stark and Wayne counties. The Democrats there are now concentrating their energy on Mundy's campaign.

In his recent story about Mundy, Jonathan Fuentes, wrote that the candidate is far from being "your typical politician." Mundy told him he "ended up getting interested in Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren a couple years ago. Set up my first Facebook page: who’s it going to be, Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders? As it turned out, Bernie Sanders was our choice, and we’re all on a journey with him. From that, and organizing northeast Ohio into a really great group, and also opening the first grassroots office in the nation, it got to the point where we needed to have access to the Ohio Democratic Party. One of us had to step up to give legitimacy to our movement... Looking at my running for Congress, no matter who’s going to be our next president, the Congress we have now, you just can’t work with. What we needed to do was look at congressional races and change Congress. That’s when I decided it had to be somebody, and it ended up being me."

In fact, Mundy’s opponent, Rep. Jim Renacci, is what one would expect when thinking of, as Pepper puts it, “a card-carrying member of the Republican establishment.” A quick look at Renacci’s policies shows a politician who strictly adheres to the GOP party line: tax cuts for the rich, defunding Planned Parenthood, opposes gun control, denies climate change, opposes same-sex marriage and doesn’t care about the recent exacerbation of economic inequality.

This stands in marked contrast to a Mundy campaign that is built on a progressive platform. Mundy champions many of the ideals that appeal to the new generation of voters that have begun to find their voices in this election cycle. These ideals include universal healthcare, restoring infrastructure, breaking up the too-big-to-fail banks, leading climate change reduction efforts, and getting money out of politics, amongst others.

Fundraising efforts have only recently begun, since most of the campaign’s time was spent focusing on the Sanders race leading up to the primary.  Despite this delayed start, the United Auto Workers, an important union in Ohio, have already endorsed Mundy, who says the campaign is looking to ramp up in many areas very soon. “We haven’t done any canvassing until now. That’s something we’re going to start doing in about 30 days. The weather is just getting better here, just coming out of the winter, so we’re going to gear up that part of the campaign soon. I’m already reaching out to potential volunteers and potential donors.”

What began as a grassroots effort to bolster support for Bernie Sanders in northeast Ohio has now become the makings of a proverbial David versus Goliath. In a heavily gerrymandered district, Mundy faces an uphill battle, “What we’re looking at as far as progressive people, probably the only progressive people that are in our district are probably the young people.” Mundy will try to overcome this challenge by trying to reach a broad audience. “We’re going to be reaching out to young millennials, and we’re also going to be reaching out to the independents. But, we’re also going to reach out to an awful lot of Republicans who are not happy with the fact that my opponent has done nothing for anybody.”

As one of the wealthiest members of Congress, Renacci is out of touch with the people of his district, according to Mundy. “First and foremost, he’s not there for the people. He’s there for corporations and money. We haven’t been able to find one thing he has voted on that has helped the people within the district.”

“We are reaching out to people and asking them what we can do for them. Unlike my opponent, who really, as far as I’m learning, never comes down and talks to people. Our campaign is going to be a one-on-one with every person we can talk to, whether they be Republican, Democrat, or independent.”

Please consider chipping in what you can to Keith Mundy's campaign, because whether the next president is Bernie, Hillary or Paul Ryan, we're going to need as many progressives in Congress as we can get. Just tap the thermometer below:

How To Respond To The Republican and Big Oil Lies About Gas Prices

The Republicans and their shady front groups are trying to shirk responsibility for high gas prices and trying to blame Democrats. The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming has a point by point rebuttal to the GOP lies and obfuscations. The Republican "plan" is more of the same-- more of exactly what has gotten us into the current mess-- and based on the same exact "reasoning:" kowtowing to the GOP paymasters at Big Oil. Do you think I'm exaggerating? Big Oil has "donated" $220,438,183 to federal politicians (75% to Republicans and most of the rest to hacks and shills from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party). Believe me, Big Oil isn't shelling out that kind of money because they feel "patriotic." Those are, by any definition except a Congress' that is permitted to make their own definitions, bribes. And Republicans have responded-- and it costs us every time we fill up our cars. This year, Big Oil's biggest recipient is, surprise: John McCain, a slimy political hack who first came on the national scene as part of the Keating Five, taking massive bribes from a wealthy banker friend, bribes that wound up costing taxpayers several billion dollars when the bank McCain was covering up for went belly up.

But McCain isn't the only politician Big Oil is bankrolling. They are spending tens of millions of dollars trying to get subservient Republicans elected across the country. One right-wing hack who dances to their tune is Ohio's Kirk Schuring. Big Oil is his 4th biggest source of campaign contributions. And, predictably, he has come up with an energy "plan" which looks suspiciously like it was written by the same Big Oil lobbyists who are writing his campaign checks.

The 6-page pdf from the Select Committee on Energy Independence, linked above, has all the thorough answers to Big Oil and their GOP puppets like Schuring. But Schuring's Democratic opponent, state Rep. John Boccieri, knows that few people are going to wade through this document. His response to Schuring and ExxonMobil's lobbyists is my favorite campaign ad so far this week. Take a look:



And John Boccieri isn't the only honest man explaining that there is no chance America can drill its way to lower gas prices. An OpEd in today's NY Times gives it to you from T. Boone Pickens point of view. He implies that fellow Texan George Bush is a "fraud" or at least offering fraudulent energy policies.

This is a political parable for the ages: the guy who was behind one of the knockout punches to John Kerry four years ago is now doing Democrats the biggest favor of the election by calling Republicans on their phony energy campaign.

“Totally misleading” is the way Pickens describes Republican attempts to convince the public that if we just opened up all these forbidden areas to oil drilling then gas prices would fall. He’s not against new drilling, but he is honest enough to say it wouldn’t do anything.

Republicans are furious at their longtime benefactor. Senator John McCain is currently running an ad in which he directly blames Barack Obama for $4-a-gallon gas at the pump-- as bogus a claim as anything yet made in 2008.

Then along comes Pickens, Texas oilman and billionaire corporate raider, overwhelming the McCain attack with a saturation message that has the added value of being true, as Henry Kissinger once said about another matter.

Pickens was a geologist before he found a deep pool of money, so when he says “the geology just isn’t there” to reduce oil imports through new drilling in offshore areas, he has some cred.

But, more importantly, Pickens is betting $10 billion in constructing what he says will be the world’s largest wind farm in the gusts of West Texas. If the mighty winds of the American midsection were harnessed, it could free up plentiful natural gas for vehicles-- a relatively quick step away from foreign oil.

THE BIG NEWS FROM LAST NIGHT YOU WON'T HEAR ON CNN-- ESPECIALLY IN OHIO

Dr. Vic Wulsin was a big winner last night

The big news this morning is that Hillary won 3 of the 4 Democratic primaries last night-- including Ohio and Texas-- although in terms of delegates, it looks about even between her and Obama for the day. (You can play with the Slate delegate counter, which is fun for wonks.) Also John W. McCain clinched the worthless Republican nomination to be the GOP's snarling sacrificial lamb in 2008. Turnout was massive-- for Democrats... even in Texas where Democrats have long given themselves up for dead.

Now, in terms of congress... there were several important races. For Blue America, the two most important were Vic Wulsin's in OH-02, which we covered last night-- and which we'll be going over this afternoon at 3pm (EST) at Firedoglake with Vic-- and Rick Noriega's senate race in Texas. With 3 opponents, the key for our candidate, Rick Noriega, was to avoid a run-off so he could start focusing on Cornyn. Mission accomplished. Rick wound up with 51% of the vote, just about double his nearest competitor, Gene Kelly. Bad news for Cornyn: about 18% of Republican primary voters rejected him. There were 3 congressional races in Texas we were following, two of them GOP primaries. Ron Paul coasted to renomination against the GOP Establishment rubber stamp Chris Peden (covertly supported by the McCain forces). And among the 10 far right maniacs looking to bring fascism back to TX-22 Shelley Sekula Gibbs took almost 28%. If she wins the run-off, as is likely, she'll face right-wing Democratic freshman Nick Lampson. For progressives and moderates there can be no winner this year in TX-22, although Lampson is less horrible on many issues than Sekula Gibbs. The only Democratic primary in Texas that had interested us was for the right to challenge the Clear Channel son-in-law, Bush rubber stamp Mike McCaul in a gerrymandered district starting in Austin and snaking east towards Houston. Grassroots fave, Dan Grant, was beaten, substantially, by Larry Doherty.

In Ohio, 99.99% of votes are now counted. Dennis Kucinich fended off his 4 challengers. He wound up with 52.27% of the vote. In OH-02 Vic Wulsin took 57.89% of the vote against two challengers. Fake Dem Stephen Black-- supported by former DCCC Executive Director/Emanuelista John Lapp-- ran the most repulsive primary campaign I've ever seen (straight out of Lapp's Karl Rove playbook). The interesting thing about OH-02, though is that is an overwhelmingly Republican district, far more Democrats came out to the polls than Republicans. In the presidential primary, there were 103,729 Democrats, while only 47,337 Republicans voted. Hillary garnered 55,783 votes against Obama's 46,426. McCain only managed 26,920 votes. Look at those numbers again. The Democratic loser absolutely swamped McCain-- in the GOP heartland! In the congressional race 94,946 Democrats voted while only 71,139 Republicans bothered to stick around, just over 40,000 of whom voted for Schmidt. So... Vic wound up with 54,965 votes to Mean Jean's 40,891. This race is going to be a big priority for Blue America for 2008. Try to make it over to FDL this afternoon (3PM- EST) to talk with Vic and if you can spare some money, she needs to replenish her war chest after a hard fought primary. Her Blue America page-- and Rick Noriega's-- is open now.

Other races in Ohio look bad for the GOP. Ohio's first CD, where Dreihaus is taking on struggling incumbent Steve Chabot, Steve wound up with 55,476 votes to Chabot's 44,661. In OH-03 Jane Mitakides will be the Democratic candidate against incumbent Mike Turner. 91,000 Democrats participated in that primary (giving Jane just under 50,000 votes) while only 60,000 Republicans bothered to vote. In OH-07 where Republican Dave Hobson is retiring, 83,000 Democrats voted, giving Sharen Neuhardt a victory in a crowded field while only 82,000 Republicans showed up and gave Steve Austria the nomination, also in a crowded field. Republican incumbent Steven LaTourette is in big trouble in OH-14. 95,000 Democrats voted and picked Bill O'Neill as the candidate with 59,857. Only 51,650 Republicans bothered voting. Bye-bye LaTourette. The other Ohio race of interest is in the 16th CD where Republican Ralph Regula is retiring. John Boccieri got 68,388 votes out of 106,000 cast on the Democratic side, while only 68,000 Republicans voted, picking Kirk Schuring with 32,503 votes (47.3%).


UPDATE: MANY REPUBLICANS VOTED FOR VIC WULSIN YESTERDAY

We have been talking with Vic over at FDL and she just dropped a bit of a political bombshell: "The 2nd District has some very interesting dynamics. Congressman Bob McEwen [OH-R] called this morning to congratulate me. He said that at his dinner table last night, the other six guests - all Republicans - had chosen Democratic ballots and voted for, yep, Vic Wulsin! He says the Repubs want her OUT (he barely lost to her in the ‘06 primary, so remember where he’s coming from) and want a reasonable alternative. So, I’d like to think some of the crossing-over comes from a desire to get Schmidt out."

THE REALLY IMPORTANT RACES THIS WINTER-- JOHN LAESCH, DONNA EDWARDS, VIC WULSIN, RANDI SCHEURER, MARK PERA...

When you think "change," is THIS what pops into your head?

All eyes that aren't focused on the looming recession and the war without end the Bush Regime's policies are leaving us, are focused on the presidential primaries and caucuses that will determine who will replace him one year from now. It's unlikely that any of the pathetic pygmies running to personify a third George Bush term can beat any of the Democrats seeking their party's nomination. In fact, the lead GOP contender-- McCain this week-- is thoroughly reviled by a great many Republicans, not because his voting record isn't far right enough-- it is-- but because they consider him an asshole and a phony-- he is-- and because he opposed torture and supported Bush's pro-corporate immigration policies. Among the Democrats, Hillary is no longer seen quite as inevitable as she was viewed before her third place finish in Iowa and close call in New Hampshire. But between Romney's and Giuliani's implosions, Huckabee's inability to catch on beyond the narrow confines of the evangelical crusade tents and the Chuck Norris fan club, and Frederick of Hollywood's long, long snooze, next November I expect her to beat McCain. OK, can we move on to something else now?

That something else, to me at least, are the races for the seats in the Senate and House. After the debacle of the current pathetic and anemic Democratic-lead Congress, it has become as clear as day that it isn't, after all, more Democrats that is needed. It's better Democrats. And that takes us back to the primaries. Three states have crucial ones coming up this winter, coming up real fast in fact: Illinois and Maryland on February 5 (Super Tuesday, presidentially speaking) and Ohio, one month later on March 4th. Illinois' and Maryland's primaries are expected to far exceed normal turnout for a congressional primary because of enthusiasm for the presidential candidates on the same day, especially in Illinois where Obama and Hillary have rabid support. Each of the three states has at least one race pitting a better Democrat against a status quo reactionary Insider.

And in Illinois there are actually 4 such races! DWT and Blue America have taken a position on 3 of them, the most of any state. We are urging this community to support John Laesch (IL-14), Mark Pera (IL-03) and Randi Scheurer (IL-08). All three are extremely difficult races. Randi and Mark seek to oust entrenched Republican-lite (actually not all that lite) Melissa Bean and Dan Lipinski, each of whom has abandoned basic Democratic Party values time and again to vote with the worst reactionaries in Congress to rubber stamp the toxic Bush agenda, internationally and domestically. Voting for Lipinski and Bean is like voting for a Republican. Just as tough is John Laesch's race against an Insider-backed millionaire, Blue Dog Bill Foster for the seat long-occupied by resigning disgraced crook Denny Hastert. Laesch came closer to knocking him off last year than anyone else in his congressional history and, in the process, has built a viable progressive machine in northern Illinois. Now he has to face a big-spending Rahm Emanuel hack and opportunist. I can't think of a more important race in the entire country on February 5.

But there is one of equal importance-- the only high visibility primary in the state of Maryland. Last year Donna Edwards seemed to have beaten corrupt, corporate stooge Al Wynn in MD-04-- until some last minute voting boxes were suddenly found, all full of Al Wynn ballots. He managed to keep his seat. Donna is way better known in the district now-- and so is Wynn. The Insider Establishment, lead by Bush collaborators Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi-- with Emanuel pulling their strings from behind the curtain as always-- is desperate to keep their boy Wynn in office. But Donna has put together an energized coalition of labor, environmentalists, reformers, women, anti-war activists, and supporters from the grassroots and netroots. Of all the races February 5 this is probably our best shot at a victory.

Any of these progressives getting into Congress will send a shock wave, a much-needed shock wave, through the party establishment and a message that the Democratic Party is a people's party, not a vehicle for special interests and careerists. On top of that, both Laesch and Edwards, especially, promise to be genuine progressive leaders and actual agents of change (unlike, say Huckabee, Flip Flop, Obama, Hillary... even Bush.)

Bush said Friday he doesn’t take it personally when Democratic and Republican presidential candidates embrace change as a major campaign theme.

“Oh, listen, if you're running for office, you can't run for office and not say, ‘I'm an agent of change,’" Bush told NBC News’ David Gregory. “That's just American politics. If I were running for office at this point I'd be saying, ‘Vote for me, I'm-- I'm gonna be an agent of change.’"

Yes, well he's talking about Obama and McCain and Hillary and Romney-- but if he thinks Donna Edwards and John Laesch are in that category, he's in for a big, big surprise. Both will be more than just good, solid progressive votes in Congress-- votes for the people and against the special interests. Each is an idea person and each is a tough and persistent fighter. I fully expect Laesch to whip the near moribund Progressive Caucus into shape and make it a real force in Congress, a counterweight to the Insider power elite represented by Emanuel and Hoyer.

And then there's Ohio one month later. The most crucial race is in the legendary second CD, an uber-Republican district represented by far right crazy-woman Mean Jean Schmidt. Dr. Victoria Wulsin nearly beat her in 2006 and she's poised to finish the job this year. But the Republican establishment has a trick up it's sleave-- a lifelong millionaire Republican, Steve Black, claims he is now a Democrat and wants to run against Mean Jean. Black has hired Emanuel DC hack John Lapp (an ex-DCCC Rove type slash and burn expert in the most vicious and vile kinds of negative campaigning). So far Lapp's main contribution to Black's campaign is a ridiculous and almost lurid ad claiming Doctor Wulsin isn't a doctor-- and this is based on his sexist overlooking of the fact that she got her medical license under her maiden name before she was married. Look at the ad; it's the reason a wealthy Republican shill thinks Democrats in OH-02 should nominate him to be their candidate. Hopefully Democrats in southwest Ohio will tell Black and Lapp where to go.

The other congressional primaries in Ohio are in the third CD to take on incumbent Michael Turner and the Democrats running are David Esrati, Jane Mitakides, and Charles W. Sanders.; the seventh CD (Dave Hobson's old seat) where Bill Conner, Sharen Neuhardt, Jack Null, Thomas Scrivens, David Woolever, and Richard Wyderski are the Democrats running; the tenth CD where disgruntled Democrats Joe Cimperman, Thomas O’Grady, Rosemary Palmer, and Barbara Ferris are challenging incumbent Democrat Dennis Kucinich; the 12th CD, where Democrats sense Pat Tiberi may be vulnerable and the race has drawn 4 hopefuls: Aaron Dagres, Marc Fagin, Russ Goodwin, and David Robinson; a similar situation in the 14th, where Steve LaTourette actually is vulnerable and will have to face either Bill O’Neill, Dale Blanchard, or John Greene; the 16th CD-- open because of the departure of Ralph Regula-- where both the DC and local Democratic establishments are firmly behind John Boccieri but where a last minute entry by Mary Cirelli throws a spanner into their plans; and a quixotic primary in OH-18 where reactionary freshman Zack Space is being challenged by Mike Pitrone.

The Blue America endorsed candidates, John Laesch, Randi Scheurer, Mark Pera, Donna Edwards, and Vic Wulsin can all use some help. If you have some spare money you want to put towards a better America, it will do a lot more good on any of these races than throwing it into the huge pots being collected by Clinton and Obama. You can donate at the link at the beginning of this paragraph and keep in mind, even $5 and $10 donations add up and help fight the well-heeled candidates bought and paid for by the special interests whose main interests are to screw the rest of us.

OHIO STATE SENATOR JOHN BOCCIERI IS GOING TO BE A CONGRESSMAN-- BYE BYE RALPHIE

CNN is reporting what no one doubted would happen before the end of the year: another Ohio Republican, 82 year old Ralph Regula, will be retiring at the end of the session. As first reported here last June, the Ohio Democratic Party is firmly behind John Boccieri. The 16th CD-- just south of Cleveland and Akron and taking in Medina, Stark (and the city of Canton) and most of Ashland counties leans Republican, bust less and less in recent years. Bush won with 54% of the vote against Kerry (if the votes were counted properly) but both Governor Ted Strickland and Senator Sherrod Brown racked up substantial victories in the district last year, convincing the DCCC that OH-16 is a great shot for a takeover.

Regula has been bitter and disconsolate ever since Jerry Lewis stole the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee out from under him. Regula's voting record is tragic-- pure, unadultered rubber stamp, something one would expect from a member of Mitt Romney's "whip team." On Iraq Regula has never differed with the Bush Regime-- not even once. And now that he's finally retiring... he says he wants to be a cowboy.

Regula's son Dickie was supposed to inherit the seat but he lost an election as a Stark County Commissioner and he is no longer considered a viable candidate for elective office. A vicious GOP primary is expected between two far right nutcases, State Senator Kirk Schuring and Ashland County Commissioner Matt Miller. Schuring is an anti-choice fanatic and a typical crooked pol. Both have reputations as pathetic hacks and neither is well regarded. Many Republicans in the district particularly detest the overly ambitious Miller because he ran a vicious primary campaign against Regula last year and had already declared he would oppose him again this year. Senator Boccieri is a major in the Ohio Air Force Reserve and is currently stationed in Iraq.

TWO STATE SENATORS SQUARE OFF IN OHIO 16-- BUT REGULA IS STILL BREATHING

John Boccieri and Gov. Strickland

We've mentioned before that doddering, senile old Ralph Regula (R-OH) is near the end of his trail, at least politically, and that he would probably retire "soon." He was hoping, like so many self-entitled Inside the Beltway hacks, to leave his district to his son, Richard. But the son was defeated in his attempt to be re-elected to the Stark County Board of Commissioners last year, short-circuiting that notion. Among the Democrats getting thinking of running in OH-16 are State Sen. John Boccieri, Alliance at-large Councilman Steve Okey, Canton councilman Bill Smuckler, and Ohio appeals court judge Scott Gwin.

The district leans Republican. Bush won in 2000 and 2004 with, respectively 53% and 54% and last year Regula won re-election to his 18th term with 59% of the vote (his smallest percentage in many years). Saturday's Beacon Journal makes it clear that Republicans are losing patience with Regula. Democrats are already coalescing around Senator Boccieri who has officially announced his challenge and is being backed by popular Governor Ted Strickland.

The wingnut most likely to throw Regula under the bus is a right-wing, anti-choice state Senator named Kirk Schuring. He doesn't have the cajones to challenge Regula in a primary but he says he wants to be ready in case... something happens (Regula is about to turn 83). He can expected to be a rubber stamp nonentity for a Bush/Cheney-like agenda. People who think America has been going in the wrong direction need to look in other directions than Schuring.

Today's L.A. Times published a poll reflecting widespread dissatisfaction with the tepid response the Democratic majorities have had to the excesses of the Bush Regime. Democrats are sick and tired of symbolic, non-binding votes and are fed up with "impeachment is off the table." Most people are aware Bush is far and aware the worst occupant the White House has ever had. Voters repudiated him last November and elected majorities in both houses and now they expect results. A vote for Schuring would, of course, be a vote for more Bush. What about John Boccieri? He says things have to change and local Ohio bloggers seemed excited about him running. He's not some slimy Inside the Beltway Cheney-Dem and is opposed to Bush/Emanuel/Hoyer corporate trade legislation. He was deployed to Iraq 3 times as part of the Air Force Reserve so it's less likely that the GOP Cowardly Chicken Hawk Brigade will be able to swiftboat him successfully-- not that they won't try-- but we need to find out his stand on the occupation. (In his annoucement speech yesterday he called for an end to the occupation.)