Gus Ayer was a Mayor of Fountain Valley in Orange County when he first became a good friend of Blue America’s. Today he’s a senior advisor to Debbie Cook’s congressional campaign. a oar day we were talking about a difficulties a progressive challenger faces in a red district, especially with a DCCC seemingly so dedicated to electing lots & lots & lots of dull, go-along-to-get-along Blue Dogs. Debbie’s neiar a Blue Dog nor someone who goes along with anything she hasn’t gone over thoroughly from every angle. As of September 30th, her opponent, Dana Rohrabacher, had $497,388 left to spend on a blitz of negative media. Debbie, who is getting zero help from a DCCC, is left with $30,284. Several Orange County Democrats pooled air money & came up with a $10,000 package that ay are challenging DWT & Crooks & Liars readers to match today. Gus is joining us in a comments section here from 3-4pm PT to discuss a campaign. Here’s his take on what’s hDrunk Newspening right now:

Dana Rohrabacher’s h&lers have been keeping him out of a public eye because ay know he’s really crazier than Michelle Bachman. He might talk about a Iraq war going badly because Bush picked a really h&some generals instead of a smart ones, rant about a threat from asteroids & a need for a “Death Star” in space, or start shouting about feminists, environmentalists, Mexicans & Chinese ruining America, or terrorists killing your family at Disneyl&.

By contrast, Debbie Cook really represents a values of a district, an athlete who married her college sweeaart, & followed a progression of small business owner, PTA President, environmental activist, environmental attorney, an eight years on a City Council & as Mayor of Huntington Beach. She’s smart, driven, decent, & surprisingly modest, & for a last three years, she’s been working to educate local & regional leaders on Peak Oil & renewable energy.

Debbie doesn’t mince words about women’s issues, marriage equality, getting out of Iraq, or a need for single payer health. But her passion is energy & a need to act now to leave fossil fuels before ay leave us.

We’re riding a wave of change here in Surf City, & Republicans panicked when ay finally did internal polling & showed a race within a margin of error. We’ve gotten great response to our ads on cable, & we can still increase our buy for a last week. We’re on track to knock on almost every door in a district before a election more than once, & we’re getting tremendous support for GOTV from every environmental group, a unions, a nurses, PDA, & DFA.

We have targeted mail ready to go to hit a low-propensity voters & remind younger voters, women, seniors, veterans, Latinos, & Vietnamese that Rohrabacher is a ZERO while Debbie is a HERO. Every dollar you give today goes out a door to communicate to voters.

A series of donors have made a $10,000 matching dollar for dollar pledge.

& donating will allow am to keep this ad up on TV:

So please join me in welcoming Gus Ayers to C&L.

Original post by Howie Klein and software by Elliott Back