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Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the DCCC, is more the kind of guy who reaches out to the grassroots than his odious predecessor, the Democrats' version of Tom DeLay, uber-insider Rahm Emanuel. Unlike Emanuel, CVH has regular conference calls with grassroots and netroots Democrats and solicits information from many diverse sources.
On recent conference calls he has been adamant that Democrats have a golden opportunity to pick up a southern California congressional seat because of the ethics mess of CA-42's rep., Gary Miller, has made for himself.
CA-42, an Inland Empire district where Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange County meet, is very Republican. Only 37% of votes cast there in 2004 went for Kerry and last year the extreme right-wing incumbent ran unopposed. A great many people commute back and forth to work and spend an awful lot of time in miserable traffic being brainwashed by Hate Talk radio.
Progressives and anti-war activists in Southern California have been even more determined than the DCCC that Miller's days of free rides were over. Netroots activists recruited a fellow blogger, Ron Shepston, a Kossack, and we're really proud to welcome him to Blue America for a chat this morning. (For background, here are a dozen excellent blog posts about this race.)
I spoke with Ron a few days ago, who's still figuring out how to juggle a full-time job, a family life and his campaign. He lives in Silverado in the foothills of the Cleveland National Forest, not far from Mission Viejo.
He reminds me a little of Charlie Brown, probably because he's an Air Force vet who served in the Vietnam War. He's 60 years old and he supports impeachment and an end to the occupation of Iraq... now. He's very much a "won't back down" kind of guy-- the opposite of a mealy-mouthed, overly cautious apologist for Republicans.
"The facts," he said, "warrant impeachment hearings. We have to do the right thing. Without a doubt the facts warrant the process."
In honor of one of the only candidates to have the cajones to come on here and say it in plain English, the first 20 people who donate at least $30 to Ron's campaign today at Blue America get a free "Impeach Cheney" cap.
His position on Iraq is also straight forward. He thinks it's a complicated situation but our presence is "only making things worse... The American people don't want this war and Democrats should be leading the country, not following the politics of fear." And Ron's own website gets right to the point on page one. No shilly-shally beating around the bush:
Defending Rule of Law under the Constitution.
Honoring---not needlessly sacrificing---troops.
Supporting fiscal responsibility: Americans deserve decent medical care and pensions---not huge budget deficits.
Making policy based on facts---not fantasies.
Working for the district---not big contributors.
Too radical and liberal for Orange County? Ron doesn't think so at all. "There are plenty of Republican voters who are excited about having a decent candidate running against Miller. People in the district don't feel he represents them. He seems to help his developer friends and doesn't bring much to the district...People here are angry about the assault on the Constitution."
Update: "Impeach Cheney" hats, get 'em while they're hot -- 10 left, free with a $30 donation!
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I’ve heard the radio in that district- enough to curdle yer blood..Good luck!!
Welcome Ron, you are showing a lot of courage to jump into this race.
Thanks rwcole. I think people here are more concerned than you might think by listening to the radio. I don’t think radio accurately reflects how concerned and ready for progressive change the people of Orange County are.
Welcome to FDL, Ron. You have a tough row to hoe. How can we, as bloggers, help you?
There’s almost zero publicity in the district about Miller’s ethics problems. Can that be changed?
Welcome Ron.
Thank you for coming to the Lake.
I’m not afraid of a challenge. I look for them. There are a lot of people who are showing a lot of courage in dealing with the mess that Bush and Republicans have given us. I’m glad that I can be here to represent them and the idea of fighting for American values is enough to make the challenge worth taking on.
Pictures from last month’s OC protest:
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.....ounty.html
It was huge.
OT with apologies
cleter. i left a reply at 182 downstairs. hope it explains a little.
Thanks Adie. I’m honored to be here.
Badwater. Yes and it will be. Because so few people even know Gary Miller’s name let alone his ethical problems.
That gives us a huge upside potential.
howieklein @ 4
This is Greg Diamond, aka Major Danby, Ron’s campaign manager, and of course I’m glad you asked.
Part of what we need, as is drilled into our skulls by every political professional we talk to and everyone who has great services that they can’t provide us for free, is contributions, but I’m not going to belabor that. The netroots community can do much more.
First, the netroots is a source of great info, ideas, and networking opportunities. We learn a lot by seeing what people do here.
Second, our need for volunteers of all levels — skilled ones, ones that can help with clerical tasks, precinct organizers — is immense. (And not just us — this is true of progressive candidates everywhere.) We have lots of places where people can fit in and we’ll be pitching that in the months to come. Anyone who is willing to help out can write me directly at greg@ronshepston.com, and for sure tell me that Howie sent you!
The political discussion on the radio is only surpassed by the religious shows- where guys who got their preacher credentials out of a cracker jack box wax loudly about salvation at the wholesale level.
Every year the cost of health insurance goes up by far more than the cost of inflation, is there a reason for this? Is this fair?
rwcole
One of things that people will surprised is the number of good progressive people who go to those churches. I know some of them and once we get our message out they will vote for me.
Badwater @ 5
For people that don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s a site chronicling some of this biggest problems. I wasn’t able to open the site just now so I’m going to go verify the URL. We’re not associated with the site, but we know good work when we see it!
[Mod: Trash Dirty Gary]
“Defending the Rule of Law under the Constitution” — that’s what I’m looking for. Didn’t we already agree on that a couple hundred years ago?
Donations to Blue America: I’m in.
Welcome Greg– and thanks for the help in setting this session up. I hope everyone is aware that we’re giving away free Impeach Cheney caps with donations to Ron’s campaign of $30 or above (first 20 donors at our Blue America page).
And Greg, what about volunteers? We have a lot of FDL community members in the L.A. area and only two races so far– Ron’s and Russ Warner’s campaign against David Dreier. Do you need volunteers? And, if so, what would they do? And when?
Great news Ron, glad you are jumping in there!
I’m in, Howie. Send that hat my way.
And ditto re the volunteers. My son is in college out there, and maybe I can rouse him to help.
Sandman.
This situation is not fair for the people who use the system. Those who see health care as strictly a business that only seeks to maximize profit need to be taken out of the equation.
We need a system that works for the health of the people and I think single payer does that.
Major Danby @ 16
The site is Trash Dirty Gary. [nomoredirtygary.blogspot.com] You can see why these transactions aren’t part of the material that Miller reports to his constituents!
Here in Florida, home insurance companies including Allstate and Statefarm are dropping homeowners polices by the thousands some after 20 years of coverage, are you seeing the same in CA due to fires and earthquakes?
By the way the insurance companies give 90% of their money to Republicans in Florida.
Ron,
I wanted to drop by here and again wish you luck.
I enjoyed talking to you at Yearly Kos and I know you have what it takes for the long haul that is coming.
You have a great staff of smart, energetic people and I look forward to working with you along the trail, and as members of the 111th Congress.
Barry Welsh
Indiana 6th District Democratic Congressional Candidate
egregious:
Very good. This is one of those things that is so obvious that it’s amazing that we are confronted with such an assault on the Constitution.
But it’s not surprising. There have always been and there will always be people who want to make their live better at the expense of others.
We are at one of those moments that will ultimately shape the course of our history and we have to be ready to expose those who mean to harm America and it’s citizens.
Major Danby @ 12
One fast suggestion: it might help if your website was a bit more informative. There’s nothing but placeholders under the “news & events” and “issues” buttons. Not a single upcoming event listing, and not a single statement about any issue.
Ron, you’ve got some good DKos posts on various issues. It ought to be pretty easy for you (or someone at your campaign) to quickly rework them into issue statements for your campaign website.
Gary Miller facts
Good to see you here Barry. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ll become a Blue America regular!
howieklein @ 18
Those are some mighty fine caps, Howie!
Right now, we’ve been concentrating on getting our early fundraising in gear (which means that if anyone out there has a background in fundraising or has time and would like to develop one, write me.) We need clerical help keeping track of names, looking up contacts, and the like. But there’s much more.
Gary Miller is about as ripe and low-hanging a piece of fruit as you’re going to find in Congress. There is a lot of research to be done on his atrocious record, along with some things I won’t mention here. We need help with that.
We need precinct captains. If anyone reading this is in or near CA-42 — I’ll give the boundaries of that territory in a separate post — we want to start organizing precincts now.
We are going to be doing a lot of canvassing, and that is a heavily volunteer effort.
We want Ron to be meeting people, voters and donors, and people in the LA area in particular will be invaluable help towards that.
I want to post this now, but will add more as it occurs to me.
Thank you Barry. You are one of the pioneers and giants of our movement and I’m honored to know you.
With people like you on our side I feel good about our chances at restoring American values.
Barry Welsh @ 24
Barry, anyone who has not seen you speak has missed out on something amazing. You were a dynamo at Yearly Kos and our campaign wishes you the best. We look forward to playing basketball against your office when you and Ron are both in DC next year.
Welcome, Ron & Major Danby, and hi to Barry Welsh.
Count me in, I want a hat, Howie.
http://www.actblue.com/page/blueamerica08
Peterr @ 26
Hello! I’m not quite in your district — one or two over — but I’ve been reading about your candidacy with interest since I first spotted it on Calitics. It’s great to see you here on FDL — as a relative newcomer here myself I’ve been very impressed with the caliber of people here in the last month.
I see people have already covered many of the basics, such as health insurance, lack of knowledge of Millers ethics (I didn’t know either; and I generally keep an eye on politics!) and so on. But I’ve got one for you that’s a huge one given this region: transportation. The famous southern California gridlock can be summed up with one finger pointed at the 91 freeway, practically throughout all three counties in your district. OC has been famously against expansion of alternative transportation particularly light rail. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts about transportation, including freeway, (light) rail, the Ontario airport and so on.
I’ll drop a line to the email address Danby gave above and see what I can do in terms of volunteering.
Sandman
I haven’t heard that but we will look into it. Insurance is meant to make people’s lives easier and in this case it’s not working. We need to do something about it.
Can you send me some links on this issue if can readily find them? We’ll do some research.
You mean you want a second hat, Jane? That one you were wearing yesterday is the hat I’m talking about. I’m in a matching mood. How about some folks giving to both Ron and Barry? I’m match donors who contribute to both these great candidates up to whatever I have left after taking Jane shopping at Target.
Peterr @ 26
Sorry about the mispost above. This is a good suggestion. We plan to have a state-of-the-art professional website done before long — we have not signed a contract, but we know who we want and it’s just a matter of our raising the money to get it underway — and have left the relatively undeveloped website we have now as a placeholder in the meantime. But you’re right that it can and should incorporate more of our text from our netroots rollout in the interim. Thanks for the good advice.
howieklein @ 28
Thank you Howie for all that you do, and thank you to all of you for all that you are doing. I come by and read often, but as for Blue America, all of us that are running are really in this together, because one of us alone can not make the changes that are necessary. We as candidates need to support each other because we are the only ones that really understand what the others are going through, so I plan to be a Blue America regular, well at least as often as the schedule allows! Thank you again, and please support Ron Shepston in CA-42!
howieklein @ 36
Sorry I cleaned you out at Target, Howie. What can I say? Sometimes it ain’t “cheaper to keep her.”
I do look good in my hat. And I made a contribution to Barry as well, so maybe that’s what I do to earn my second hat (which Kobe will proudly wear).
Jane Hamsher @ 32
Jane, it’s great to have the chance to thank you for all the good you do here. I’m sorry to have arrived too late at the Blogoalooza party last weekend to meet you in person. (I took a wrong turn and ended up in Camarillo. The city, not the hospital.) Ron would have been there as well but was chained to the telephone and calling donors.
Only 37% of votes cast there in 2004 went for Kerry and last year the extreme right-wing incumbent ran unopposed. A great many people commute back and forth to work and spend an awful lot of time in miserable traffic being brainwashed by Hate Talk radio.
Reminds me of where I live. Go, Ron Shepston, California’s newest Congressman!
You might consider developing a cool graphic that shows how Dirty Gary is tied to corruption, like the one on Rep. Don Young (R-Abramoff) I helped develop for the Democratic Party up here in Alaska. When it comes to idiocy on the levels of Young and Miller, humor helps a lot.
Major Danby at 29
Please do give us the boundaries, we have a lot of people at firedoglake who live there or near there or have friends and relatives who might be persuaded to help you.
howie
Great idea Howie and thanks. I love seeing Barry getting as much help as he can get. He deserves it and more.
Peterr @ 26
We know–we’re working on doing just that.
Sandman @ 14
No, it’s not fair–and it hurts everybody, from the uninsured to the underinsured, from small business to large business. It’s definitely something the campaign will be hitting hard, and focusing on how little Gary Miller has done on the issue.
We are retired, and finally able to do a bit of travelling, mainly on Elderhostel trips.
Every place we go, we meet up with progressives from all over the country.
Many fellow travellers seem very frustrated, feeling they are alone and isolated, their voices not heard in their home states. A considerable number act shocked that they easily find so many like-minded folk on these trips.
We in red/or “purple” areas also remain very concerned over the possibility of election fraud. In northeastern Ohio just this past week, 200 absentee ballots were simply discounted in a primary election because of a supposed mistake in routing within the U.S. Post Office. Even though the Post Office admitted it was their error that delayed delivery, the OH Secy of State invalidated the ballots. It’s hard to know how to fight this sort of thing when you never know where it will come from.
So… 2 questions for you:
1) Ron, what do you think we citizens can do, especially living in supposedly “red” areas of the country, to help encourage candidates such as yourself? Obviously we can contribute to campaign coffers, but beyond that?
2) We in Ohio apparently still have work to do in order to protect our right to vote, and to have that vote counted. Suggestions?
Ed*ard Teller @ 41
Very clever! We’ve got a graphic designer or two onboard–I’ll give this a second look!
Ed*ard Teller at 41.
Thanks, that is a great graphic. I’ll save it and pass it along to others to consider something appropriate to Miller.
Ron Shepston @ 48
Yeah, I LOVE it. Can you e-mail it to me, Edward? I want to use it at DWT.
Major Danby says
September 15th, 2007 at 11:27 am
We look forward to playing basketball against your office when you and Ron are both in DC next year.
pssst… he may have a ringer….
Sir,
My husband was a Vietnam vet and POW, who was tortured by his North Vietnamese captors. He lived with his injuries for over thirty years, until his fatal heart attack two years ago.
My question, a question I am asking all candidtates, is: What will you do to remove torture as the law, policy and practice of the United States?
Torture is ALWAYS wrong, no matter who is doing it to whom.
For Dan,
Heather
Bush raised spending by 41% and tax revenue by only 21%, would you be willing to cut other programs to save Social Security and Medicare?
It is hard for me not to laugh when a Rebpublican says they are for smaller government.
The best place to get a quick grasp of the district is here: Wikipedia on CA-42
Ron Shepston @ 48
Here’s another one, developed this morning by one of our resident Da Vincis - darkblack. I call it flaming pork! I’m sure she’d help you create a similar image of Rep. Miller…
howieklein @ 49
On the way, Prof. Klein.
peanutbutter @ 34
I’m going to take this one because Ron’s submit comment just dropped out and he has to sign in again.
Why do we have such bad transportation here? Lack of public transit for one thing, but one big reason is too many cars. Part of this is because there has been not enough responsibility placed on developers — like Gary Miller and his campaign financier friends — to develop with an eye towards the effects on the larger community. They’re like a factory that produces a product, profits wildly, but can make that profit partly by dumping its waste products in the river. In Southern California, the river is the freeways and the waste product is cars.
We’ll be developing this theme in our campaign. We are not opposed to all development, but we’re opposed to irresponsibility and people keeping the profit while dumping the costs onto the public at large.
peanutbutter @ 34
My computer hung while posting that last comment, by the way, but I’m back now. I also want to thank you for your interest in campaigning. If you can tell me where you are, I can probably tell you who else is running in your area. We love having volunteers, but we know that our other friends running in this area need them as well, and we’re working towards a united front.
Major Danby @ 56
I’d bet your district would be perfect for a light rail system. Has there been any talk of that at all?
I’m trying to get Jane to model her Impeach Cheney cap. If I do can we get some contributions for Ron’s campaign?
Ed*ard Teller @ 41
It never fails to amaze me how much talent there is out there in the blogosphere. Just imagine what would happen if we could harness it for good — oh, wait, that’s what we’re doing! Thanks and we wish our friends in Alaska the best. They will have a full time this cycle, I’ll bet.
Adie at 46
Two great questions Adie. There’s no magic but you’ve already displayed the most important thing you need - a willingness and desire to help.
What I found that got me where I am is to keep talking to other activists and letting them know you want help. If a particular person doesn’t respond to that then try someone else.
I know that doesn’t seem like much help but if you drop me an email I’ll do what I can to help you develop this more.
One of the ideas we and other campaigns have been developing is that of a real progressive caucus. The idea is to present a common brand that will draw in others.
There will be a website for helping activists and those wanting to help around the country.
thereisnospoon @ 53
Those maps aren’t detailed enough. I can’t tell from those where I fall in, when I checked a while back (when I first heard about Shepston).
This one does the trick nicely though: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd
howieklein @ 59
I would even if Jane didn’t model the cap but I’m a broke DFH
I want to help with this one.
howieklein @ 58
Miller is on the Transportation Committee, and has proposed some projects that have bipartisan support, some big projects that I don’t know have much of a chance like a train from the Inland Empire to Vegas, but from what I understand his actual energy and effort is going into expanding the toll road further south into Orange County. Guess who owns the land that would increase in value next to this extended road? But I am getting ahead of myself.
Light rail is absolutely an option that will need to be researched. Ron is an engineer — a professional technological problem-solver. I think people might trust him to come up with solutions more than the wealthy developer — with Ken Calvert, we call them the Traffic Twins — that we have in there now.
howieklein @ 58
It gets stomped on like an ugly slug everytime it comes up. We desperately need light rail here, but the OC politicos quash it every time. I’m hoping for a crack in the armor here.
Miller’s proposed projects seem to mostly benefit Miller and his cronies.
peanutbutter @ 65
The LA County portions of the district have commuter trains now.
Hello, Mr Shepston, and thanks for stopping by today. Welcome as well to your team.
Coupla quick questions:
1. Is Miller so damaged that the GOP might persuade him to step aside? Might he be challenged in a primary?
2. How would you have voted on the Hate Crimes Bill?
3. Have you lent your voice to those calling on California’s governor to sign AB43 making marriage gender-neutral?
Thanks again for your visit to BlueAmerica and FDL today!
PS — ET, that graphic rocks; we need one for every gop crook!
Chacounne at 51.
I’m so sorry about Dan. I can only imagine what he and you as a couple went through as a result of the torture he suffered in Nam.
This is really an easy one to deal with for me on so many levels but if I were in Congress today and when I’m there in 2009 this will be important enough to me to physically walk up to those who support the use of torture and ask them “Are you out of your mind?”
Torture does not work and only exposes our own soldiers to it in retaliation later and people like Dan and you and society in general will pay the price.
It is most certainly morally wrong and it doesn’t work. Those who encourage and condone its use do so for reasons other than obtaining information and those reasons must be exposed so that we can stop it.
Clearly we must restore the adherence to the Geneva Conventions as a start but we must go further so that Americans will see the value in eliminating torture.
egregious @ 42
Our district spans three counties and borders a fourth (Riverside.) It’s shaped a bit like Italy, and I think that its geographic center may actually be in another district! (See, I need a volunteer cartographer to check that out.)
In LA County, we start with East Whittier (including Whittier College), then eastward through La Habra Heights, Rowland Heights, and Diamond Bar. In San Bernardino, we have Chino and Chino Hills. (There are additional smatterings of unincorporated areas throughout all this.) About half of the district is in Orange County, and here let’s all tip a hat to the drunken monkeys that the GOP had do its redistricting.
We start in La Habra on the Whittier border, then eastward through Brea (my fair city) and Yorba Linda, just missing Cal State Fullerton (but still an easy commute for students who’d like to volunteer. Ditto for UCI!) We take a right through Anaheim Hills and eastern Placentia and cover the OC portion of the Canyon area — Trabuco, Silverado (Ron’s home), Dove, etc. Then we hit Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, and a bit of Los Flores.
Major Danby @ 64
Oh, yes, that would be the one to extend the tollroad (let’s not even get on the subject of tollroads themselves) TO A $#@!& GOLF COURSE. Yes, so Miller and his buddy bud buds can zip right thru the traffic to lob a few before going into their offices. Despite the fact that such a road would obliterate protected beach areas (they actually have to lobby for an exception to allow this toll road to break State law)…aaaagggghhh. This is getting a lot of opposition, and it needs more, in order to be stopped.
In any case, tollroads, as just a lipsticked version of a freeway pig, are not the answer to congestion in this area. :-)
I should hope so. Some well thought out plans in this area could be very attractive.
“Defending the Rule of Law under the Constitution”
Spoken like a true Patriot, Mr. Shepston! TY!
twȝk @ 63
Thanks so much. We tried to get Kobe to model but his management was making unreasonable demands about nothing but Cristal in his water dish. Since Kobe’s never actually had Cristal we figured he was just being a dick and didn’t want to set a precedent.
OK, I’m in. Ron, best of luck.
Howie, any chance of getting the ActBlue page to remember my information? It takes me awhile to type.
Also, thanks for all you do
For those wanting to know the boundaries of the 42nd go to our website http://www.ronshepston.com and then to “About the 42nd” and then click on the map.
That will lead you to a very detailed pdf map of the 42nd.
Jane Hamsher @ 72
I’ll contribute just to get the woman out of that shameful Yankees cap.
TeddySanFran @ 67
I’m going to handle this one while Ron does heavy lifting elsewhere. (And we are rocked by all this action here, by the way, everyone!)
What we hear through the grapevine is that Miller is in for the duration, arrogant as Abramoff, determined as Doolittle, convinced as Cunningham, nervy as Ney. We are OK with that! We don’t think he’ll be primaried, let alone withdraw. But if it happens, we’ll just have to rely on the fact that people don’t like an unpopular war, destruction of our Constitution, etc. to carry us through!
I’m not sure which Hate Crimes bill you mean, nor of its provisions.
We haven’t gotten involved with state bills, since they’re not going to be part of Ron’s portfolio in Congress, except to endorse the Courage Campaign’s fight against the unconstitutional plan to give 20-22 of California’s electoral votes to the GOP. In Congress, Ron will oppose bills to prevent gays from having the same substantive rights that heterosexuals do, and will vote for bills that ensure those rights.
pleaded guilty to federal charges TeddySanFran @ 67
Miller’s predecessor, Republican Jay Kim, pleaded guilty to accepting and concealing illegal campaign contributions and the GOP did not ask him to step aside. He was defeated in the primary. It still amazes me and I doubt the GOP will ever ask Miller to step aside. Rules are different for Republics.
thereisnospoon @ 45
This gives me the chance to introduce thereisnospoon (real name disclosed at his option), who many of you know from his posts on many fine progressive blogs, who is our congenial campaign strategist!
Jane Hamsher @ 72
707! I’d imagine that Kobe would love to sport an impeach cheney cap. So much for a girl’s BFF!!!
jayt @ 50
I wondered what Larry Bird was doing these days!
We have a secret strategy to succeed in basketball games as well — I won’t play!
Thanks, Major, I’m in.
Background on the Hate Crimes Bill, and BlueAmerica’s history with the devil Chris Carney, here
Can’t wait for my hat!
Good luck, Mr Shepston!
Any comment about No Child Left Behind, it seems like a way to reward districts with wealthier students and punish districts with poorer students.
CocoaBeach @ 73
Jane just asked me the same question. Mine remembers everything but the credit card #. Jane thinks you need to login in for it to remember stuff. Our contact person at ActBlue who can help with this kind of stuff is Erin (erin@actblue.com).