Contest!

Are you supporting Nick Leibhan in California’s 50th district? The district is gooper plus five- and Nick has a real chance to send Bilbray home!

I’m wondering if people have enough bandwidth to forget about the de-evolution of McCain’s VP pick for a few minutes and focus on congressional races.

Oops- that’s LEIBHAM- with an “M”.

So many good choices. So little cash to spare.

DWT has its first Pick Nick story up right now.

How do you feel about him? Is he just another Democrat who’s better than Bilbray or is he a real progressive leader we need to get into Congress?

Don’t forget, one dollar is the same vote as $100 or $1,000

Awesome Howie, keep up the great work!

Sure, we are going to send as many of those Medicare cutting, S-Chip No votes, Jim Webb GI Bill No votes, Extending Unemployment Insurance No votes, home where they can do less damage to our country!

So far there are votes for Annette Taddeo, Russ Warner and Larry Joe Doherty

I like what I have seen so far- which isn’t much yet. Local dems are VERY high on him and think that he may be the chance to take this seat back which should have fallen to the dems after the Cunningham fiasco—he appears to be a MUCH stronger candidate than Busby was.

I’ve had a couple of phone conversations with him so far and I’ll be meeting him in person soon. I want to make sure we never wind up with another Chris Carney if I can help it.

Anyone know much about David Roth- running in Ca. 45 against Mary Bono? That’s a Cook Gooper plus 3 district- but Bono seems to be immovable. Any chances out there?

David isn’t running again. Julie Bornstein is. He’s a great guy and we supported him last time. I don’t know much about Julie but the Calitics guys vouch for her.

And speaking about Calitics, it looks like California is in the house. Russ Warner pulls ahead in the Blue America contest.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Annette Taddeo at the Dem Convention. She is very determined to win, and with changing demographics in her district and massive turnout for Obama, she has a good chance.

Howie, do you feel Carney just lied to you and to all the FDLer’s. It was before my time here.

Taddeo is Orange to Blue and not Red to Blue for reasons that I didn’t quite get. But she is a great candidate.

Glad to hear that you are considering him. I plan to give him some cash- but would prefer to fund him through you if you decide to put him on the list- same about Roth if you decide to go that way. I don’t know much about him but would love to see Bono go do something useful- like cut hair.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/p…..poll_N.htm

Link to interesting new Gallup Poll info.

Yes, Carney told us he was pro-choice and he is virulently anti-choice. He told us he would support the hate Crimes bill and then he was one of only a small handful of reactionary Democrats to oppose it. Fortunately, enough Republicans voted for it, so that Carney’s homophobic vote didn’t do any good. The beginning of the saga is here. And it’s on-going. He also refused to return the money we gave him under false pretenses.

Is Carney the one Democrat we’d wouldn’t mind if he lost this election?

Should have said “cut bait” don’t think she has the skill to cut hair.

Once a person gets elected- the focus turns on staying in office- and if it’s a reddish district- that someone will be SORELY tempted to look a little sunburned- hard to avoid.

Politicians are vote counting machines.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a south Florida congresswoman and the co-chair of Red to Blue. She is supporting far right Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen instead of Annette. This is completely outrageous and the Democratic Party has refused to take even the mildest action against Wasserman Schultz. Annette, as you know yourself, is an extraordinary candidate and I suspect that DWS is afraid that Annette would be a more viable Senate candidate one day than herself.

If the number one goal is to put more “progressives” in congress- then it may be best to concentrate on goopers in blue areas or in purple areas- those elected are more likely to stick to progressive positions?

There are more than one Democrat who consistently vote with the Republicans on core issues. Personally, I would love to see Carney lose his seat– as well as others who support Bush’s agenda.

Is there still an upcoming primary in Florida?

I heard DCCC is interested in Grayson

Oops- never mind- I figured it out.

Expected in the Senate – 56. House I didnt get a number but we are going to lose 3 or 4 incumbents including “a couple” that are not on people’s radar yet.

I wouldn’t mind seeing my Blue Dog congressman lose. Hell of a thing, but there it is.
He’s no better on votes than Ney was. I’ve just spent a lot of long-distance money trying to get him to vote like a Democrat, and I’m sick of it.

The Democrats should pick up at least 20 House seats and possibly as many as 55. If the House Democrats lose 2 or 3 really bad Blue Dogs– Nick Lampson in Texas and Carney in PA look most likely– it is a good thing, not a bad thing.

The primary was this past week and the Establishment shill, Charlie Stuart, wound up with 28%. Grayson swamped him and he’s an incredible shot to take out Republican rubber stamp Ric Keller– who barely survived his own primary– in November. Orlando is going to be a bright spot for Obama and for Blue America.

It’s likely that many of our candidates– Grayson included– will wind up on the Red to Blue list. The problem is that the longer it takes, the more difficult it become sto use it to raise moeny. That’s Wasserman Schultz’ tactic in keeping Annette Taddeo off this long.

Howie, or anybody who actually speaks to US Congressman, are they shocked the the Bushies have increased the size of government more than any other administration? (Tax less and spend more)

If theer are any Kossacks in the house, recs over there would be much appreciated

We don’t need to increase the size of the Democratic caucus — we need to increase the size of the Progressive Caucus! And every one of these Blue America Democrats will do that. Districts that should be represented by GOPs should be represented by GOPs, not by Blue Dog Democrats who kowtow to the corporatists. The Blue Dogs are a cancer on our party. Let them become GOPs — they vote just like them.

We need better Democrats to move the party caucus in the progressive direction. More Democrats just calcify the power Steny Hoyer and Rahm Emanuel hold. I have no interest in improving their power prospects or getting them better offices and parking spaces.

This is a contest for our country and our party. Let’s win it with Blue America candidates, not Blue Dogs.

The ones I talk to feel the same way about Bush that most of us do. I don’t think anything would shock them… at least not as much as disgust them.

I voted for Grayson. So many good choices, but I want the tough progressive prosecutor! We need attack dogs, a whole lot of them.

Thanks for everything, Howie!

anyone who goes over to DailyKos to recommend, be sure to read Sherri Welsh’s comment about why the contest Blue America is doing is important. She’s the wife of Barry Welsh, one of our candidates.

Debbie Cook has now pulled ahead– barely– of Russ Warner. It’s lookin’ like a California contest right now!

I just got a funny note froma friend of mine in Orlando:

Stuart and his pals were so sure of winning that he had invitations to a Thursday victory fundraiser printed up. Somehow, they got mailed out, after he lost. “Dewey Defeats Truman!”

Rec’d

You should ask your friend to send you a photo of that invitation. It sure would look nice on top of a BA post the next time Grayson comes to chat.

Rec’d, also.

Come on, SoCal voters, let’s put Russ Warner on top. It’s going to be a very hard slog for him, with Dreier’s name recognition and lack of any new dirt at the moment (Howie?) We need to get Dreier involved in another John-and-Ken type free-for-all this year.

Polling showed that exposing Dreier as a closet queen doesn’t do much good. People in the district are more interested in hearing about all the money he takes from Big Oil and then votes on their agenda. I think Russ can win this race on the issues– if he has enough money to compete.As of June 30, Dreier was sitting on $1,903,654 (having already spent $1,348,731). So far Russ has raised $724,059 but only has $124,896 on hand. Rahm Emanuel was out here two or three weeks ago putting a hex on the race and telling big Democratic donors not to contribute; up to his old tricks again, just like last year. People don’t realize how dedicated Emanuel is to keeping the occupation of Iraq going.

Is there anything out there that you can point me to about his KC home/job and the fact he spends more time there than in San Dimas? Russ’s team said they were planning some kind of action on that and his ties to Bush, but haven’t seen much so far.