A Case For Mitchell Howie In North Alabama

Mitchell's the tall guy

Over the weekend Alabama Democrats got some bad news as word leaked out that Josh Segall decided to withdraw his challenge to reactionary Mike Rogers in the 3rd Congressional District. Steve Segrest is the likely Democratic candidate now, and it really is a stretch to imagine him starting now and beating Rogers.

Further north and west, however, in the 5th CD, Democrats have a much better chance to elect not just a Democrat, but-- and in Alabama this is saying a lot-- a real Democrat. The current Alabama Democratic members of Congress, Bobby Bright (2nd CD), one of the worst of the Blue Dogs, and Artur Davis (7th CD), an ambitious would-be governor who thinks his path to fame and fortune is accelerated aisle-crossing, leave a lot to be desired. But Alabama's 5th CD, across the northern half-dozen counties along the Tennessee border (plus a sliver of Morgan Co.), offers Democrats a great chance for actual change.

The 5th CD is a traditional Democratic district. They haven't elected a Republican in a century and a half, but they're represented by one now. Conservative oddball Parker Griffith-- whose only qualification was that he's a multimillionaire (all the DCCC ever asks for)-- snuck into office last cycle as a Democrat, immediately became the most Republican-voting Blue Dog, declared he wouldn't vote for Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker in 2012 and soon after officially joined the GOP. 

Now no one can quite tell who hates him more, Democrats in AL-05 or Republicans in AL-05. He has plenty of primary challengers from inside his new party, and Democrats are lining up to oppose him too. Problem with the Democrats is that most of them are just as bad as he is. One, Taze Shepard, is making it clear that he's even more conservative than Griffith! He's the grandson of Klansman and former Senator John Sparkman. Steve Raby is also a conservative Democrat, but a lobbyist who has funneled thousands of dollars to Republicans all over America. David Maker, a local misfit, is also running.

And that leaves one shot for Democrats to elect an actual Democrat in the tradition of FDR, Truman, JFK, Bill Cinton and Obama: Mitchell Howie. I asked him to do a guest post on his Green TVA proposal, since it is so integral to his campaign and so constructive and appealing to people across partisan lines. He sent me this earlier today:

In the first few decades of the 20th century, North Alabama was like a lot of other communities in our region. We have always had great communities and strong families, but a century ago most of those families made do with very little, and faced hardships in the course of their daily lives that few today can comprehend. Along with our nation, our region was in transition.
 
When President Roosevelt and a Democratic Congress created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933, a model was created for targeted government investment and innovation. An example was set for how the power of the federal government can be leveraged for great results when action is motivated by a commitment to service.

I am running for Congress from Alabama's Fifth Congressional district because I believe the time has come to return to Congress that commitment to service. Once in Congress, I plan to put forth a jobs proposal to recapture that original spirit of the TVA, by creating what I'll call a Green TVA (GTVA). Where the TVA's primary and lasting mission is to bring electrical power, the GTVA will work to enable Northern Alabama to serve as a center of research and development into the clean energy technologies of the future.
 
Few areas of our country are as well positioned to leverage local engineering and technical expertise as Northern Alabama. Paired with Marshall Space Flight Center and the TVA's existing research facility in Muscle Shoals, the GTVA will ensure that our region will continue to chart America's future in innovation. That innovation will draw manufacturing firms from across the globe to Northern Alabama, where they will find our unmatched blue-collar workforce. We already have the infrastructure to ship newly manufactured goods across the globe, where they are in high demand.

It's well known that the TVA's expanded scope of work included projects that directly created jobs, but what some might not recall is that the jobs created by the TVA went well beyond those who went on the Authority's government payroll. The positive business climate created by the TVA brought private investment and jobs far beyond those directly hired to work on energy or economic development initiatives.

In this same way, the GTVA can serve as a business magnet for North Alabama, attracting private investment and partnered research in the areas that will help draw the map for our country's path to energy independence. For every dollar-- public or private-- spent on research, there is an economic impact returned to the community multiple times over. An infrastructure like the GTVA, bringing serious government investments to bear in addressing the most pressing technical challenges of our time, right here in North Alabama, is exactly what our community needs.

Like the TVA, the GTVA will play an important role in community development as well. Researching and commercializing ways to generate more energy will be most effective only if paired with concrete steps to create a culture of conservation. So the GTVA will dramatically expand projects such as the Campbell Creek Energy Efficient Homes Project, looking into improvements in weatherization technologies. That research will then be employed by crews to make the homes of qualified seniors more efficient, to minimize the bite being taken out of fixed incomes by ever-rising energy costs. The GTVA will also research new technologies, and make government buildings-- including schools and state and local government buildings-- more energy-efficient, so that fewer tax dollars fly out of poorly insulated windows. Initiatives will be undertaken with clear goals, and followed up on with regular reports posted on the GTVA's website -- ensuring that the tax dollars invested are going where they're supposed to go.  

Though our region remains strong, our state suffers from one of the ten worst unemployment rates in the country. I believe that Alabamians look to our portion of the state, and our strong foundation, to create growth that can resonate. Like the TVA before it, the GTVA represents a chance to seize this opportunity to employ government investment and a targeted commitment to service, to lift our great state out of the Great Recession. Lastly, I consider this jobs initiative as a way to strengthen our national security because fostering energy independence will help disentangle America from countries that willingly sell us oil but hate our way of life.

Please join us in making this vision a reality by visiting HowieForCongress.

Today's Guest: Josh Segall, Proud Alabama Democrat

A trusted friend turned me on to Josh Segall's campaign around 6 months ago and I've watched as Josh has built a credible effort in a red-leaning district worth fighting for, eastern Alabama's 3rd CD. In 2006 the far right incumbent, Mike Rogers, spent $1,046,764 against Democrat Greg Pierce's $7,674. Pierce still managed to win nearly 40% of the vote. This year Rogers had taken in less than a million dollars but his problem isn't that he has less than he had last year; his problem is Josh Segall... who's raised over $800,000, still not as much as Rogers... but a helluva lot more than $7,674!

Rogers is a classic rubber stamp Republican with an abysmal and indefensible voting record. Yes, it's Alabama but Rogers is part of the right-wing jihad against working families and on those kitchen table issues Alabama is just like the rest of the country. And right now, they are steaming. Even in Alabama Bush's approval rating is in negative territory, with barely 45% of the voters feeling he's doing an acceptable job.

At 29, Josh would be the youngest member of Congress if he's elected. We've talked intensely about the issues that are important to the progressive community. Unlike Chris Carney, who lied to us in 2006 in order to make us believe he was pro-choice and in favor of equality in order to gain our endorsement and financial support, Josh has told me that he was just looking for an opportunity to present his ideas and start a dialogue and that he felt that some of the social trends in the district, trends he is in sympathy with, wouldn't make him a Blue America candidate. He is however committed-- and outspokenly so-- to Choice. If elected he may wind up a part of the Blue Dog caucus.

He makes a living as a civil defense lawyer in the heart of the civil rights movement: Montgomery Alabama. There are a lot of reasons to want to see him in Congress. Obviously, one is Mike Rogers, a members who has taken $307,658 from the insurance industry, $236,003 from Big Pharma, $194,900 from Big Oil, $188,603 from Commercial Banks, $107,600 from Wall Street... and has a voting record that keeps that kind of special interests money flowing. When it comes to the bread and butter issues that impact the lives of Alabama working families, Mike Rogers is playing for the other team.

One of Josh's passions is infrastructure. He did a short guest post at DWT about it you might want to check out. The video below will also give you an idea about where he's coming from. And here's his website for anyone looking for more information or who would like to volunteer or contribute). Please join us in the comments section at Firedoglake today at 11 am, PT (1pm in Alabama) and find out what it takes to run for Congress as a Democrat in the heartland of Bush Country.

Guest Post From Alabama Democrat Josh Segall

Tomorrow, Josh Segall will be out Blue America guest at Firedoglake (1pm, Central Time). I asked him to use a topic he feels passionately about to introduce himself tonight. He's running in a tough but far from impossible district, AL-03.

HOMEGROWN ALABAMA
-by Joshua Segall

So this is really both the story of what made me want to run for Congress and also the model for the kind of work that I'm most excited about. When I was in law school at the University of Alabama, I started a program called Homegrown Alabama. We brought together students, faculty, farmers and businesses to get the University to buy more produce from local farmers. The farmer’s market we started still runs today. But when we started it, we couldn't get enough farmers because we were in the middle of a terrible drought. 

Droughts in Alabama aren't a Nature problem. They're an infrastructure problem. We have more water than almost any other state in the country. We just don't save our water. California, at one point, produced 80% of the winter vegetables in this country mostly by irrigating desert land.  Alabama has 7 million acres we used to farm and could farm again. 

3 million acres would be more valuable than the whole of our automobile industry and in 2009 we'll be the leading manufacturer of automobiles in the country. We could farm that land while encouraging consumption of local foods and bringing down the price of food. 

So that's the heart of what I'm about: using our resources and developing our infrastructure. Giving people $600 is not the way to improve the economy in this country. Investing in basic infrastructure is. Alabama has enormous potential if we had good roads, bridges, and basic medical care. If we don't invest, we'll continue to see rural communities fail to sustain themselves and young people won't move home-- there will be no jobs to move home to. 

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You can learn more about Josh and his campaign here and, like I said, tomorrow, 11am, PT, he'll be joining us live at Firedoglake. Meanwhile, here's a campaign ad that pissed off Republican rubber stamp Mike Rogers no end: