warner2.jpgHowie Klein and I are now at a fundraiser for Russ Warner, who's running against David Dreier in CA-26. Russ's race is the best chance in Southern California to unseat an entrenched Republican House member (echos of the Pombo race last year) and Dreier hasn't had a serious challenger in 28 years. The whole grass roots is rallying behind him, and we're having fun here today with SoCal bloggers D-Day, Todd Beeton, and newly minted blogger Lucas Gardner.

Russ had a really moving tale to tell about his son Greg who served 17 months in Iraq, and how he was motivated to run as a result of his experiences there. Greg is now in West Point.

Says Russ:

By the end of 2007, 1.3 billion dollars will have been spent on the war just from my district, CA-26 alone -- which is enough to provide medical insurance for 150,000 children. It's time that we end this war and bring the money home to be used for our children and the future of this country.

Russ indicates that he would not vote for the $50 billion supplemental that Bush is now asking for, and believes that the same thing is happening to the United States that happened to the Soviet Union when it went into Afghanistan -- we're being bled dry by Bush and Dreier's ill-conceived war.

We know that Dreier will be pushing reluctant Republicans to vote for the supplemental, so please consider stopping by Blue America and making a contribution to Russ's campaign. He's a great candidate and defeating Dreier would be a huge victory come next November.