Thursday, January 17, 2008

TODAY'S CONGRESSIONAL ENDORSEMENTS

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Kweisi Mfume gets it right-- endorses Donna Edwards over Al Wynn

It's been all John Laesch getting endorsed by iconic figures like Studs Terkel, Noam Chomsky and Pat Quinn this week. But today the big one was another iconic figure, but in Maryland, not Illinois. Kweisi Mfume, currently head of the NAACP and a former Maryland congressman who was head of the Congressional Black Caucus when Al Wynn was first elected, came out strongly for Wynn's opponent, Donna Edwards. Mfume joins the ranks of the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, National Organization of Women, DFA, Friends of the Earth, PDA, Emily's List, MoveOn.org, the SEIU, and, of course, Blue America in endorsing Donna-- not to mention dozens and dozens of Maryland voters sick and tired of Wynn's corruption and reactionary politics. "This is a classic case of the voters being fed up with Al Wynn; they want somebody else,” said EMILY’s List Political Director Jonathan Parker. “We were all surprised with what happened [in 2006], and that showed that people in this district are ready for change.”

Oh, and Al Wynn had some endorsements too. Take a look at which avaricious corporations threw a mega-fundraiser for him. He serves their interests-- and they pay him off. Nice:



The DCCC also endorsed a bunch of candidates today-- John Adler (NJ-03), John Boccieri (OH-16), Charlie Brown (CA-04), insider machine hack Debbie Halvorson (IL-11), Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15), Linda Stender (NJ-07), Gary Trauner (WY), Andre Carson for the special election in (IN-07) and says they will back whomever wins the Special election in IL-14 that pits progressive, grassroots John Laesch against Blue Dog reactionary Bill Foster. I'd love to see Emanuel and his pals choke on that one! Oh, and about Gary Trauner-- great candidate and the DCCC really owed him the early endorsement since he probably would have won last time if Emanuel hadn't been skipping all around Capitol Hill telling everyone that Trauner had no chance in solidly red Wyoming. Trauner virtually tied incumbent wing-nut Barbara Cubin, losing by a few hundred votes, and helped persuade her to retire from politics this year.

Blue America hasn't endorsed any new candidates in a couple of months. Anyone have any suggestions? Right now my #1 concern is for progressives in upcoming primaries against reactionary insiders. The most important races for me: John Laesch, Donna Edwards, Mark Pera, Vic Wulsin. But let us know if there are any races you want us to jump in on.

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4 Comments:

At 6:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How about Tom Perriello in NC-5, against Virgil Goode? He doesn't have a Democratic opponent, but Goode is a disgrace and a disaster. And to top it off, he's a fund-raising machine!

 
At 6:52 PM, Blogger Karl said...

Hi Howie,

There is one canidate who is running a grassroots campaign against a establishment canidate much like Laesch vs Foster. It's Ashwin Madia in MN-03.

He's running against Terri Bonoff who is a former corporate executive who's campaign slogan is "Uniting the Middle". Not only that but like Rahm who many think helped nudge her in the race she thinks that moderate Democrats won in 2006.

"My “Uniting the Middle” campaign marked the beginning of a tidal wave of victories by moderate Democrats throughout Minnesota and the United States."

In reality people like Keith Ellison were the ones who won big in 2006.

Ashwin Madia is a former Iraq Vet who is running. While he was over there he worked on building up the legal system. And he also used his legal skills to defend a fellow solider against DADT.

"In the Marines, I was a defender," he said. "I won a case that was pretty unique. I'm one of the few if not the only attorney to have successfully defended a Marine against Don't Ask, Don't Tell."" His stances are not perfect but they are great for someone in this district.

Plus he is running a grassroots campaign. All the local progressives are behind him. He's raised more then half of his money (about 175,000 so far) from ActBlue (100,000 from ActBlue) and he is the only canidate who has blogged on DailyKos or anywhere else. I am not connected to his campaign but I strongly believe he is the right canidate. Please take a look at him and e-mail me if you have any questions.

And keep up the fight. Feb 5 is going to be a big day for progressives when Laesch and Pera win. And then one week later when Edwards wins it will be even better.

Keep up the fight!

P.S. As I previewed this I saw the above comment in favor of Tom Perriello and I would have to agree with that as well. He wrote a great series about conviction politics for TPMCafe and was a co-founder of Avaaz which I believe you have heard of (it's the international MoveOn)

 
At 8:42 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ed Fallon running against blue dog Leonard Boswell in IA3? (Desmoines to south central iowa) this would be a primary race.

 
At 5:47 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Howie,

Mike was at our statewide DFA meeting. I was impressed...

http://www.waltnerforcongress.com/cont/
index.php

 

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