The truth is that after pro-immigrant activists defeated the initiative at the Colorado Supreme Court, Fitz-Gerald slipped a knife into our back by turning around and passing the same bills into law. And then she held a press conference to gloat about how the Democrats were the new party of “tough on immigration.”

http://www.progressivecoalitio…..ion134.htm

Oh yeah, and she voted for a resolution praising the invasion of Iraq while a Colorado state senator.

If you can’t choose between Polis and Shafroth, fine. But it is disappointing that you can’t condemn Fitz-Gerald in strong terms.

I see some discussion of NC politics here today. I think the most nationally significant race will be for the Senate. E. Dole is up for reelection, but I think she’s going to be a tough nut to crack. I should be more informed on this, but there are only so many hours in the day. There are two Dem candidates at the moment, Jim Neal and Kay Hagan. Neal entered the race first, but when it became widely known that he is gay, Hagan (who seems to be the Establishment candidate) entered the race. Her protestations that it had nothing to do with Neal’s sexuality seemed perhaps less than fully honest. I gather that Neal is the more progressive candidate, but unfortunately , I don’t think this state is ready for a gay Senator yet.

My concern is over other things that relate to Neal. While it’s true he grew up in the Carolinas, he spent 20 years away and only returned there in 2006. Thus he’s gonna get portrayed as a bit of a carpetbagger, and unfamiliar with North Carolinas current issues. Compare that to Hagen, who was generally quite progressive in the NC Senate in terms of education, health care and Choice.

Neal has never been in any elected office, thus his actual record on these things is a bit of a cipher. Would he be able to actually produce viable legislation and work with other progressives? Or would he transform to more conservative positions, as so many that have projected themselves as progressives have?

Why is he running for the Senate, rather than some other office where he could gain the experience and demonstrate his capability to advance progressive positions?

Neal has been involved in corporate finance and has been involved in start-ups for health care firms. But what do these firms actually do? What was his role within them?

Neal’s homosexuality only was revealed after he announced his run for the Senate. Why was this something not placed right out front? He must have known that it would emerge as an issue in conservative North Carolina. But he kept this revealed. If one is going to run for office and is gay…one should be fully “out”. That’s more of an honesty and trust issue with the electorate. If you want the Public to “accept you” then you have to trust them to do so.

This ties in with running for lesser level offices. If one has succeeded at lower offices and demonstrated to voters that you are competant and working in their best interests they’ll ignore their prejudices. But Neal can’t demonstrate political success in this way.

There is the other issue~ the fact that he got divorced (because of his [newly discovered?] homosexuality?). Lot’s of questions there about his knowledge of homosexuality during his marriage that will be asked. That’s all going to be raised in the campaign as a Family Values issue by Republicans. While this process might be educational for North Carolinians, is a Senate Campaign where such “education” comes at the loss of a Senate seat to the Republicans worth it?
Wouldn’t it be better done at a State Assembly or Congressional House Seat level?

I’m … working for Joan Fitz-Gerald. She’s very solid – worked very hard on the progressive side of all the issues while she was President of the Colorado Senate. She has a proven track record and gets things done.

…

Remember the basic “rules”:
a) look good
b) speak clearly
c) listen to your constitutents and then speak from your heart on how you would address their interests.

Everything else is really theatrics.

Diane Benson held the first-ever LGBT fundraiser for a US Congressional candidate in Alaska history …

How is Benson’s campaign going?

For that matter, how is Allen’s campaign going in Maine and how is Collins doing?

…
And then there was the prescient Dick Lamm, who foresaw the looming crisis in health care and challenged us to think long and hard about it, back before anyone had thought much about it at all.

What’s Lamm doing these days?

I’m more likely to support the actual LGBT candidate than the non-LGBT but LGBT-supportive candidate. I know that’s “identity politics” but I’ve yet to face a Log Cabin LGBT neo-con on the ballot, so it hasn’t been a hard choice.

How would you know? Residents of Idaho have been voting for the actual gay man over candidates more friendly to equal rights for years. The same is true in many other states.

I think it is a mistake to believe that just because someone shares a gender, orientation or other characteristic, that they are necessarily going to be supportive of others. Clarence Thomas is easily the worst justice on the Supreme Court for African-Americans, a Republican Congressional caucus heavy with homosexual men hasn’t done equality any favors, and Condi Rice hasn’t compiled a stellar track record for being good for women’s rights globally as Secretary of State.

It also works the other way: we should not vote against people because they are different either. And that kind of identity politics has been very destructive over the years…

Vote for what people do, not who they do.

Just look at Rahm Emanuel.

I’m more likely to support the actual LGBT candidate than the non-LGBT but LGBT-supportive candidate. I know that’s “identity politics” but I’ve yet to face a Log Cabin LGBT neo-con on the ballot, so it hasn’t been a hard choice.

How would you know? Residents of Idaho have been voting for the actual gay man over candidates more friendly to equal rights for years. The same is true in many other states.

I think it is a mistake to believe that just because someone shares a gender, orientation or other characteristic, that they are necessarily going to be supportive of others. Clarence Thomas is easily the worst justice on the Supreme Court for African-Americans, a Republican Congressional caucus heavy with homosexual men hasn’t done equality any favors, and Condi Rice hasn’t compiled a stellar track record for being good for women’s rights globally as Secretary of State.

It also works the other way: we should not vote against people because they are different either. And that kind of identity politics has been very destructive over the years…

Vote for what people do, not who they do.

I’m more likely to support the actual LGBT candidate than the non-LGBT but LGBT-supportive candidate. I know that’s “identity politics” but I’ve yet to face a Log Cabin LGBT neo-con on the ballot, so it hasn’t been a hard choice.

Jared Polis had a fundraiser in SF that was written up beforehand in the local gay rag, but without saying when it was, so I contacted his campaign via the Polis website, thinking I would pay to attend and get some face time/chat that I could pass along to Howie for Blue America consideration.

Didn’t hear a word from the Polis campaign.

When a mutual friend said he was supporting Polis, I shared my experience and then heard from Polis right away. He gave me his email and phone number, and asked me to get in touch. He said he was having a fundraiser in California, headlined by Phil Angelides, in December.

I wrote back and said I’d like to meet him when he was in California again, but couldn’t imagine why people would come to a fundraiser headlined by Angelides, since he did such a poor job running against Arnold last time. I didn’t think Angelides would be such a great draw and said so.

That was over a month ago; haven’t heard anything since. I’d like to support Jared Polis but he is making it rather difficult.

I don’t know the response to this question, but is there any chance that you’ve been able to get Joan Fitz-Gerald to respond to an email and provide you with her phone number? If you’re not getting a response from Jared, try him again. :)