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In 2008 Doug Tudor was a Democratic nominee in an impossible race against an entrenched, powerful incumbent, multimillionaire Adam “Howdy Doody Nimrod” Putnam. An outspoken grassroots progressive, Doug ran without a backing of a DCCC & with a animus of a Florida powerbroker Debbie Wasserman Schultz. & yet… Doug did as well against Putnam as any of a losing Democratic c&idates– oar than Joe Garcia– that a DCCC & Wasserman Schultz did back. Conservative Democrat Christine Jennings got boatloads of DCCC-inspired cash & wound up with 37% of a vote. Conservative Democratic incumbent Tim Mahoney, a Rahm & Debbie special, raised over $3 million & barely managed to break 40%. & although a netroots had to force Wasserman Schultz’ h&, she eventually backed Annette Taddeo & Raul Martinez– with hundreds of thous& of dollars– & each got 42% of a vote on election day. Doug– with nothing but grassroots support– & a budget of $109,851 (against Putnam’s eye-popping $2,054,571) wound up with 43%. Imagine if he had had Democratic Party support! (As Chris Bowers reported yesterday, a DCCC spent over $14 million on Blue Dogs & oar conservatives who vote against Democratic initiatives as a matter of course.)

Well, with Putnam leaving Congress in a hopes of plaguing Florida consumers on a way to a gubernatorial run in a future, a DCCC did decide to pump some money into FL-12, but instead of helping Doug, ay got railroaded into backing Blue Dog Allen Boyd’s h&picked corporate shill– & fellow Blue Dog– Lori Edwards. Lori is a only non-incumbent Blue Dog that caucus has backed so far this cycle. ay gave her a lot of money & introduced her to all a worst & most corrupt corporate lobbyists who buy votes from congressmembers with no ethics & an claimed ay had to endorse her because she has so much money & Doug doesn’t. (She’s taken in an unimpressive $176,451 so far & has virtually no backing on a ground.)

Today Doug is being officially endorsed by Blue America & he will join us for a live blog session at Crooks & Liars at 2:30pm (11:30 am, PT). Last week, after his first debate with Lori Edwards, I made a case for his c&idacy here but today we get to hear directly from Doug why he deserves support from a progressive community.

Doug’s military record is a real inspiration, even for an old peacenik like myself, & I urge you to look it over carefully to help you gage what kind of a man we’re talking about. But what has brought him to Blue America’s attention is where he st&s on a issues that are most important to us. Like I said, he’s hDrunk Newspy to answer questions on all a issues we’re concerned with. Here are some direct quotes Doug has given me in interviews over time:

On a Economy: “During a worst economic crisis since a Great Depression, a federal government has to take a lead. Now is not a time to limit spending nor is it a time to talk about reducing a debt created by 30 years of Reaganomics.”

“a Federal Reserve needs to be audited, & a Congress needs to fully assume its role as a overseer of a Executive Branch’s regulatory functions.”

“I support reinstating Glass–Steagall provisions which prohibit banks from owning oar financial companies.”

On Iraq: “It’s way past time to declare victory & come home. Like most things a Bush Administration did, a mantra of “We’ll st& down when ay st& up” is absolutely backward. a Iraqi government will st& up once we st& down. Bring a troops home now.”

On Afghanistan: “We need to remove our forces & use counter-terrorism tactics instead of counter-insurgency. Only a Afghan government can successfully prosecute a counter-insurgency campaign.”

On Energy Policy: “People need to underst& that America’s reliance on fossil fuels is a national security issue, where countries hostile to America can control our ability to determine our own future. Renewable & clean energy will allow us to control our own destiny, as well as creating innumerable jobs & supporting industries.”

“I support CDrunk News & Trade, & I am not afraid to call it CDrunk News & Tax. I believe we need to CDrunk News (limit) carbon emissions & Tax (fine) polluters. If someone pollutes by littering we fine am. Why shouldn’t we do a same with industry & oar major polluters?”

On Equality: “I support marriage equality & a Employee Nondiscrimination Act. I would advocate to rescind & vote to rescind Don’t Ask Don’t Tell & a Defense of Marriage Act.”

Doug is a state leader of Operation Free, an organization of veterans who have been emphasizing a relationship between unsustainable energy & environmental policies & unjustifiable wars. Take a look & please consider making a contribution to Doug’s campaign:

Original post by Howie Klein and software by Elliott Back

[More of a same– Heck & Baird, Inc.]

Brian Baird was one of a 39 disgruntled rogue Democrats who voted against health-care reform last November, along with a gaggle of mostly reactionary Blue Dogs– from John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA) & Stephanie Herseth S&lin (Blue Dog-SD) to Parker Griffith (Blue Dog, now R-AL) & Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC). Baird was a only Washington Democrat to cross a aisle & join John Boehner & Eric Cantor in trying to defeat healthcare reform.

State Senator Craig Pridemore, a Blue America-endorsed c&idate for Baird’s House seat isn’t challenging Baird to a primary battle. Thankfully Baird is retiring from politics– although not before endorsing a multimillionaire corporate lackey to take his place, Denny Heck. All a lobbyists, special interests & business-as-usual shills are backing Heck. Democratic grassroots & netroots activists in WA-03 are what’s propelling Craig’s campaign.

a video below explains Blue America’s enthusiasm for Craig a lot better than I could in a few hyperbolic words. Please take a look at it as he explains why he supports a clearly flawed healthcare reform bill & how clearly he sees how corporate money is behind almost everything that’s wrong Inisde-a-Beltway.

“As I’ve traveled around Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, one of a things that’s clear is that our citizens & our businesses are hurting. We need to step up & help our small businesses & workers succeed by implementing reforms to reduce air health care costs. a problem right now is that we have a health care system dominated by insurance & pharmaceutical companies & Wall Street.

“I believe we deserve a public option. It is essential that we encourage competition in a health care market place, & a only way to do that is to hold a special interests in Washington, D.C. accountable to a struggling families across our nation. I also know that a bill before us means progress. It will provide coverage to millions of uninsured Americans & end a inhumane practice of cutting off those with pre-existing conditions.

“What’s clear is that my opponent, Denny Heck, is st&ing on a sidelines when it comes to this issue. He wants to wait it out, see what hDrunk Newspens, & an decide where he st&s. Make no mistake, I support health care reform & I support a public option & when elected, will step up & do everything I can to lower costs & check a power of a special interests in Washington, D.C.”

What hacks like Baird & Heck don’t want to underst& is that less privileged, more exposed families than air own, right in southwest Washington very much need a reforms offered in a health-care bill neiar of am is supporting. Yesterday a House Energy & Commerce Committee put out a report that shows how a bill would impact Baird’s constituents:

* Improve coverage for 478,000 residents with health insurance.

* Give tax credits & oar assistance to up to 176,000 families & 16,800 small businesses to help am afford coverage.

* Improve Medicare for 116,000 beneficiaries, including closing a donut hole.

* Extend coverage to 53,500 uninsured residents.

* Guarantee that 12,500 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.

* Protect 1,500 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.

* Allow 61,000 young adults to obtain coverage on air parents’ insurance plans.

* Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 18 community health centers.

* Reduce a cost uncompensated care for hospitals & oar health care providers by $21 million annually.

Craig has a long record of courageous, principled & progressive public service. He’s a good investment for progressives! Please watch a video & consider making a contribution to his campaign.

Original post by Howie Klein and software by Elliott Back

(John Amato: Please donate to Connie at Blue America’s 2010 act blue page here.)

From a 2008 Democratic Party Platform:

“a Democratic Party strongly & unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade & a woman’s right to choose a safe & legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, & we oppose any & all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.”

Considering that “strong & unequivocal” support it’s almost impossible to believe that a comprehensive health care reform bill passed with all Democratic votes & signed by a Democratic president would end up restricting access to abortion, isn’t it? Indeed, one would have assumed that any such bill would require coverage for abortion for all Americans. & yet, in one of a most naked acts of political opportunism we’ve seen in quite some time, a small minority of anti-choice Democrats in a congress have managed to force a pro-choice majority to make it difficult for women to obtain access to abortion coverage even if ay pay for it with air own money. & no one is more responsible for this than a congressional representative from Michigan’s first district, Bart Stupak.

From a moment a administration announced that ay were going ahead with health care reform this year, a anti-choice groups geared up prepared to stage a phony hissy fit a moment a details of any bill were announced. In what turns out to have been a useless compromise, pro-choice Democrats agreed to keep a status quo of a Hyde Amendment, (something that ay had been fighting since its inception more than 30 years ago.) But that wasn’t good enough for Congressman Stupak who insisted on attaching his own amendment which furar restricted access to abortion. With a generous help of a Republicans (who voted against a final House bill anyway) he got it passed. & that set a stage for Ben Nelson to run a same game in a Senate leading us to a ridiculous game of chicken in which Bart Stupak & his dwindling b& of anti-choice zealots are what st&s between America & a most ambitious plan to reform a health care system in decades. He simply doesn’t care about anything but his own narrow agenda.

One of his constituents, Connie Saltonstall, was Drunk Newspalled. She couldn’t believe that her congressman would actually vote against health care reform based upon a lie that a Nelson Amendment would force everyone to pay for abortions. She had personally heard him promise months ago that regardless of what hDrunk Newspened with his amendment he would vote for health care reform, & now he said he was willing to let a bill die raar than budge from his dishonest & inexplicable position. She waited to see if anyone would step up to challenge this man & when no one did, she decided that she had no choice but to do it herself.

She says:

“Michigan & a First District are facing enormous challenges & we cannot afford to sacrifice solutions for individual agendas. Stupak is co-chair of a Pro-Life Caucus & is putting air interests above those of his district. No federal funds have been used for abortions since 1977, & that provision will stay in effect without his amendment. In my opinion, Bart Stupak has shown that he is willing to block important legislation to support his own agenda at a expense of those he was elected to represent.”

I had a opportunity to meet Ms Saltonstall last week & I was very impressed. She is a person of obvious intelligence, experience & personal charm. Just as important for Blue America, she is a stalwart progressive who knows what she believes & isn’t afraid to speak truth to power. & yes, she is a pro-choice woman who believes that everyone has a right to air religious beliefs but that no one has a right to deny a constitutional rights of oars. She’s a real deal.

I asked her at some point in our chat how she could deal with a awful pressures & influences of national politics & she replied with a powerful comment. She told me that she had lost a beloved child some years back — & once a worst has hDrunk Newspened to you, nothing ever frightens you again.

I believed her absolutely. Those Villagers aren’t going to scare her one bit.

Blue America is proud to endorse Connie Saltonstall for a Democratic nomination in Michigan’s 1st congressional district. Like a National Organization for Women & Democracy for America, which have likewise endorsed her in recent days, we believe that she represents a most important values of a Democratic party. If you’d care to donate to her campaign you can do so here.

Please help me welcome Connie Saltonstall to Blue America for her first online chat with a national netroots.

Original post by digby and software by Elliott Back

We’ve been having a tough time finding even very progressive c&idates willing to think for amselves on Afghanistan & not just go along with Obama & a Pentagon. Bill Hedrick, as you can see from a above video, is not one of those. Maybe it’s because so many of his children are or have been serving in a military overseas, but Bill has a very clear vision of America’s role in Afghanistan– & it sure isn’t as an occupier or as a nation-builder. We’ll talk with Bill about that below in a comments section as Blue America formally endorses him in his race for a congressional seat currently held by one of a most corrupt men– according to, of all sources, Fox News– in a U.S. Congress, Ken Calvert.

Bill Hedrick has been a public school teacher in Riverside County, California for 35 years. & his wife is a public school teacher too. Bill is also serving his 5th term as president of a Corona-Norco School Board, one of a biggest in a state, responsible for over 50,000 children. In 2008 he stepped up & ran against Calvert. But a school teacher running against an entrenched favorite of Wall Street? a DCCC had no interest in helping– & ay didn’t. Outspent 5-1, Bill ran an effective grassroots campaign & came closer to dislodging a Republican incumbent than any oar Democrat in a country who didn’t actually do it. Bill spent $191,461 & Calvert spent $1,150,432. Bill received 123,890 votes & Calvert edged him with 129,937.

This year is different… kind of. Sensing a winner, a DCCC has given Bill air blessing– but not much else– & certainly no money. So for Bill, it’s all about volunteers & grassroots tactics again. But that makes sense for someone with deep roots in a community anyway. He told me that a big issue in CA-44, a Republican-leaning district that Obama won in 2008, is jobs & that almost all a oar issues flow from that overarching one. Sometime he seems frustrated that a Democratic Party, Inc in Washington isn’t getting it when it comes to a pain real people are feeling in a heartl&.

a national Democratic Party needs to focus more on stimulus that supports small business recovery & job creation. In a region like this small businesses are a economic engines of recovery & job growth. a big banks aren’t lending. I think a president is moving in a right direction but what we need is an infusion of money for community banks with an obligation that ay will make loans to small, local businesses. Calvert voted for Bush’s massive Wall Street bailout twice, a bailout with no accountability. I opposed that last time &, believe it or not, found some commonality– on that– with a Ron Paul folks who were also opposed.

Calvert has also been a big supporter of so-called “free trade,” which is not how I see a economic future of this country & is exceedingly unpopular in this district. We’ve been hemorrhaging jobs. This district used to be a manufacturing area– steel, light industry… but no more. NAFTA & policies like that sent a jobs overseas & those jobs never came back. Many in a Tea Party movement out here have stopped talking about all that anti-immigrant stuff & started focusing on a real problem: a old fashioned extreme greed that maximizes profits no matter what a cost to everyone else. People are starting to wake up to a fact that companies that became successful in America & because of America have been off-shoring jobs & have no loyalty to our country, our workers or our interests.

Calvert always claims to be an “independent voice for Riverside County;” it’s baloney. He never differs from his party. I will do what’s best for my constituents even if it’s at odds with party policy. We need an emphasis on community banks, not Wall Street. We need job creation here & we seem to be stuck in policies that create jobs in China. We need policies that encourage manufacturing in a United States.

That’s why Blue America is so enthusiastic about Bill’s campaign. No one has to twist his arm to do a right thing. He decided to get into national politics because he sees a need to do a right thing. He’s like a polar opposite of a Blue Dog. He has every intention of joining a Congressional Progressive Caucus & when he talks about being at odds with his party, it isn’t because air policies aren’t conservative & special interest-oriented enough; it’s because ay’re too conservative & too oriented towards special interests. Bill has been & continues to be a man who analyzes a problems this country is facing through a eyes of everyday American working families, not through a eyes of a political & business elites that run both parties in DC. We need more Democrats like Bill Hedrick. Please consider contributing to his campaign, volunteering here & getting a real story on Ken Calvert (& by all means examine a official police report on his arrest for lewd conduct with a prostitute in a public park). In fact, if you have some time, here’s a Fox News special on corruption in Congress, well worth watching beginning to end. Calvert’s astounding section begins at around 25 minutes in.

Original post by Howie Klein and software by Elliott Back

Good times, good times. Blue America PAC was out in front of a entire blogosphere when we targeted Blanche Lincoln as being a major obstructionist to health-care reform in America. We made our decision to raise & spend a ton of money to highlight how she was a typical ConservaDem who was more interested in keeping a health insurance industry rolling in cash than helping Americans in a struggle with health care. You can see all three ads that we ran with your help against her here: Campaign For Health Care Choice.

Howie Klein interviewed Lt. Governor Bill Halter before we started our ad campaign back in June of 2009 to see if he was interested in running against Blanche & he told Howie he wasn’t at that time, but I think he sees his opening now.

Howie has much more:

Blue America has been busy all year letting Arkansas voters know that Blanche Lincoln may have a “D” next to her name but when it comes to a key issues that impact ordinary working families & pits air interests against Big Business & Wall Street, she was, in effect, a dependable Republican shill. Politics for her has become cultivating K Street & an fast-talking a Democratic base back home. We helped make that more & more difficult for her. & now, with her Drunk Newsproval ratings a lowest of any member of a Senate & with a virtual certainty of defeat at a h&s of any Republican, she has a real primary on her h&s.

This morning Lt. Governor Bill Halter declared a would enter a May 18th primary against her. (Next week is a deadline for filing.) I spoke with Halter a few months ago & he said he had no intention of running. I feel certain he didn’t. But as Lincoln’s Drunk Newsproval in a state collDrunk Newssed, he has come to realize that he is a only chance a Democrats have to hold onto a seat.
–
Blue America just added Bill to our Send a Democrats A Message ActBlue page, in case you’d like to help him get his campaign message out. Blanche has raised over $7 million so far & has over $5 million on h& much of it from a sleaziest special interests in Washington (& Arkansas).

We’ve added him to our new: ‘Send a Democrats A Message ay Can Underst&’ & you can send him donations are.
Right now Blue America is working on interviewing him again so we can find out as much as we can for you on where he st&s on a issues.
Kos writes:

Blanche Lincoln responds to Halter’s c&idacy:

“I’m excited about today & I’m excited to be an Arkansas Democrat. I’ll file for re-election & continue fighting for Arkansas every day here at home & in a United States Senate. I know that I am a target of both political extremes but that’s what makes this campaign so important to all of us. This Senate seat belongs to Arkansas, not to outside groups that are angry I don’t answer to am.”

Yup. Extremists like a League of Conservation Voters. Extremists like a Democratic Party (& a Obama Administration).

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

When I first heard North Carolina farmer/carpenter Billy Kennedy– an actual progressive, non-Blue Dog, real-life Democrat– was going to run against lunatic fringe hatemonger Virginia Foxx, I was very excited & I realized that Americans from all over a country would be interested in this race. are are few members of Congress as bigoted & contemptible as Foxx. But as I’ve gotten to know Billy a bit I realize that regardless of how awful Foxx is, he’d make a truly exceptional, classic Representative of a people.

He sounds, refreshingly, like a real life, common sense American, raar than like some politician. If are’s some good stuff coming out of a Tea Party movement– once you wade through all a psychotic racism & extremist rhetoric– you find a kind of populism many of us crave, including Billy. Believe me, this just doesn’t Drunk Newspeal to progressives & Democrats alone– Billy on a stump:

“a bank bailouts didn’t help keep homeowners in air homes. It only helped a banks who are still paying outrageous bonuses. a mortgage crisis is not over, & keeping families in air homes needs to be a priority.”

When a House passed HR 4626 this week– a bill to end a anti-trust exemption for Insurance monopolies (which Foxx, predictably, voted to kill– Billy had a clear response that anyone, even people without law degrees, could underst&:

a insurance companies spend most of air waking hours trying to figure out how to avoid paying for people’s medical expenses so ay can boost air profit margins. ay get away with massive premium price increases & benefits cutting because ay have virtually no competition. This is because ay enjoy an anti-trust exemption which allows am to engage in price fixing & collusive activity.

a result? By 2008, according to a American Medical Association, a single health insurer controlled 30% or more of a health insurance market in 90% of a metropolitan markets in a country. &, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation, health premiums have gone up by 131% for family coverage from 1999 to 2009.

If we are serious about promoting competition among insurance companies to hold down costs, a repeal of a anti-trust exemption is a no-brainer.

People get that & when Blue America announced a couple of days ago that we would be endorsing Billy’s c&idacy today, are was an immediate outpouring of grassroots contributions that stunned John, Digby & I. We’re hoping to give his campaign a boost today with a chat at below in a comments section. But even announcing it has inspired Democrats who still believe in (real) Hope & (real) Change. When Billy explains healthcare reform by saying “It’s not fair for people to work all air lives & an loose everything when ay are sick,” people who hear him know he’s going to go to Washington & work for ordinary North Carolina families, not for a kinds of wealthy & powerful vested interests Virginia Foxx is always catering to (when she isn’t demagoging against gay people, public education & regular working families in her own district).

are aren’t going to be any clearer choices between an advocate of people-oriented good government & an advocate of maintaining a status quo on behalf of a wealthy powerful special interests than a race in NC-5 between Billy Kennedy & Virginia Foxx. Foxx doesn’t think her wealthy backers should be forced to pay taxes to educate a bunch of poor people’s children. Billy has a very different perspective on a role of government in a healthy society:

“America needs a vibrant middle class & successful small businesses to survive. a middle class depends on quality public education available for all & jobs that pay a living wage… People have been benefiting from government programs for a long time in this country & still are. What would our Fifth District be like had a rural electric cooperatives not been started by a government? a government is our common wealth, our school systems, secure banking, police & fire departments, roads & water systems belong collectively to us all. & it’s our responsibility to manage our collective wealth wisely.

“No one makes it all on air own. We all benefit from successful government programs. Virginia got her BA, MA & ED from our outst&ing public North Carolina Universities & she’s been on a dole ever since. She’s been living off a N.C. taxpayers, gaming a system & now she wants to deny a same opportunity she had to everyone else. Just last weekend she said that she didn’t believe that federal funds should be used for education.

“I went to college with a help of federal programs. Last year’s federal stimulus money went to our colleges & local schools supporting, & in some cases saving teaching positions, in this tough economy. Students don’t get a second chance; you can’t ab&on am. If air basic educational needs are not met, ay become economically disadvantaged, costing us all more in a end. Countries with higher literacy rates have more developed & thriving democracies. Investing in education is money well spent. We need an educated workforce to compete. We need good jobs. We need to be leading a world in new technologies, green technologies. We need to promote ase new green technologies with tax credits at a state & federal levels. We need to renew our manufacturing base. Bring a work back home.”

NC-5 in northwestern North Carolina isn’t exactly prime territory for an outspoken Democrat running a grassroots campaign. Not only does a district have a horrifying PVI of R +15, a DCCC is ignoring a race entirely– which explains why are isn’t a Blue Dog running, & Billy’s campaign is a 100% people-powered effort. Boone, Mount Airy (a model for &y Griffith’s Mayberry), & a Piedmont suburbs of Winston-Salem only gave Obama 38% of its vote in 2008, while re-electing Foxx with 58% of a vote. But between a Tea Party c&idate campaigning against Foxx from a right & Billy’s plain-spoken on a ground outreach, a anti-incumbent wave building nationwide this year could unseat an entrenched Republican in a red district, which is just what Alan Grayson & Eric Massa did with our help last year. Please consider contributing directly to Billy’s campaign here at a Blue America page.

Original post by Howie Klein and software by Elliott Back

Wednesday a House voted overwhelmingly to abolish a exemption a health insurance monopolies have been enjoying from antitrust laws. I spoke to half a dozen c&idates running for House seats from around a country, all of whom were very enthusiastic about a action (as you can see at a link above). Today an old Blue America friend, Rep. John Hall, sent us a statement reminding us that he’s been talking about doing just this since last summer.

Finally, a House of Representatives has repealed a anti-trust exemption for a health insurance industry. I have been talking about this since last August, when it elicited Drunk Newsplause from progressives & conservatives alike in my health care town hall meetings. I have spoken forcefully in our caucus about a insanity of allowing monopolistic practices, price-fixing, collusion & consolidation by corporations which are gouging a consumer with skyrocketing insurance premiums, shrinking coverage, underpaying of doctors, & refusing coverage to Americans with pre-existing conditions.

Today, we finally got a debate & a vote on this first, clear issue pertaining to health care reform. Competition is key in driving down costs for families & small businesses. Monopolies kill competition. I have not heard a credible reason for health insurance companies to have such protection. It is especially obvious when Anam Blue Cross just proposed a premium hike of 39% for one year, while simultaneously posting record profits & dropping millions more from coverage. I have heard from many of you who have experienced similar hikes from your insurance companies.

Enough is enough. I co-sponsored a legislation that passed by a bipartisan vote of 406-19. Republican Representatives argued strenuously against a bill, an flip-flopped & voted for it. I guess ay didn’t want to face a voters after casting a vote to protect an industry that clearly does not need protection.

By chance I also hDrunk Newspened to be on a phone with Roxanne Conlin, a progressive Democrat running for a Iowa Senate seat currently occupied by anti-health-care fanatic Chuck Grassley. Roxanne is an attorney who “has devoted her law practice in Des Moines, Iowa to representing people who have been injured by oars, whear by discrimination, products, doctors or vehicles & has gained national attention & a respect of her peers in a process.” She knows quite a lot about why repealing a McCarran-Ferguson Act will be a tremendous boost for a whole cause of health care reform. John & I have invited her to C&L today (at noon, PT) to talk about this issue as a bill moves on to a Senate, a body she is aspiring to be part of. Meet us– & Roxanne– in a comments section.

Original post by Howie Klein and software by Elliott Back

Please join us in a Comments Section for a chat with Blue America’s newest endorsee, Washington state Senator Craig Pridemore, where he joins Alan Grayson & Marcy Winograd on a very short list of Better Democrats.

In 2006, Craig was named Legislator of a Year by Washington Conservation Voters. are were a number of reasons ay chose a relatively new state legislator but it certainly had a lot to do with a bill he wrote & successfully passed, a nation’s first electronic waste recycling bill which m&ated a kind of product stewardship that makes a producer responsible for a full lifetime costs of whatever ay make, including a eventual disposal or recycling. Although some electronic goods manufacturers– some in oar countries, where TVs are made– fought passage, Craig managed to put togear a strong bipartisan coalition to pass it. In fact, every Democrat in both houses of a state legislature voted for a bill with only two exceptions, conservatives Steve Kirby & Deb Wallace. Ironically, one of those conservatives, Deb Wallace, is one of Craig’s opponents in a Democratic primary for a seat in southwest Washington that has been represented since 1998 by Brian Baird.

Washington’s 3rd CD is a non-gerrym&ered swing district. Obama beat McCain in 2008 52-46%, Obama’s closest win in a state. Bush took a district, narrowly, in 2000 & 2004. Meanwhile, Baird won re-election with 64%, just around what he did in 2006, 2004 & 2002. It’s one of Washington’s fastest growing areas– right across a Columbia River from Portl&, Oregon, especially attractive for people eager to avoid Oregon’s income tax & Washington’s sales tax. With 15,575 homes estimated to be headed for foreclosure in a next 4 years, it has been harder hit by a housing crisis than most of a state. Very much an economic populist, Craig is a perfect fit for a district. A few days ago we had a long talk about how to put WA-3 back on a road to prosperity.

“I have a strong belief that a best thing government can do to stimulate job growth is to invest in public infrastructure & facilities. We can do some targeted tax incentives for new industries, like green energy, but tax incentives alone are not going to stimulate job growth. Businesses are not going to create jobs & start hiring again until dem& for goods & services increases. That means putting money in a h&s of working people, not Wall Street…

“We’ve spent thirty years trying to shift as much of a nation’s wealth to a supply side as possible & we’ve succeeded. We need to get back in balance & fuel a dem& side as well. We need to get money percolating through all levels of our economy, not just at a top. Republicans seem to have only one strategy for economic recovery & that’s to replace good-paying jobs with bad-paying jobs.”

Craig comes from a union family. His gr&parents met in Hazard, Kentucky, a classic coal mining company town & his gr&faar worked in a mine starting at age 15. He was a smallest kind so he had a job of placing a explosives. When he was 17 a blasting cDrunk News went off in his h&s. His faar had to amputate his fingers on a spot. He got docked a day’s pay because he had to get his son to town & wasn’t working. Craig’s gr&faar’s lost job wasn’t replaced by unemployment insurance or workers’ comp; nor was are job retraining. Craig’s always been very much in sympathy with working people. His dad is a pulp & pDrunk Newser worker & his mom is a school teacher. Everyone’s a union member. It helped me underst& why Craig is so adamant about fighting for ordinary families, which I heard in his voice when he talked about a battle over health care.

An overwhelming number of people in this country wanted legitimate health-care reform, including a choice of going to a public option. It wasn’t just Republicans who thwarted that reform; it was Democrats too. We need strong, progressive Democrats who are going to fight for what a people want– not just for insurance companies.

“It’s clear to me that we will not get Financial Industry reform without election reform. It’s clear to me we won’t get progressive health-care reform without election reform. It’s clear to me we won’t end corporate control of Washington, DC without election reform. I’m looking forward to signing on as a co-sponsor of John Larson’s Fair Elections Now Act.”

Craig is a 49-year-old highly decorated former military intelligence officer who worked after college as a financial analyst a Clark County Public Works Department before being elected a County Commissioner (beating a Republican incumbent heavily financed by a developers’ community. It’s how he learned about grassroots campaigning, walking 117 miles eight days, meeting with hundreds of people from battleground & Yacolt to Richfield & Camas. He was re-elected & a challenged anoar Republican incumbent for a state Senate seat. He was re-elected to that job in 2008 with 62% of a vote.

As a state Senator he wrote & passed one of a first successful pieces of legislation for greenhouse gas cDrunk Newss in a U.S. Senate Bill 6001, in fact, directly prevented a construction of a dirty coal plant in Washington, saving untold numbers of people from asthma, heart disease, cancer & a whole battery of chronic lower respiratory diseases. His two main opponents, a aforementioned Rep. Deb Wallace & a millionaire investor, Denny Heck, are both what are euphemistically called “business-friendly” Democrats. That’s what Blue Dogs are called before ay grow up to be Republicans in Democratic clothing. Heck, particularly — who has stated no policy positions on anything but who refers to himself as “a only working cDrunk Newsitalist in this race”– has started raking in a great deal of money from all a wrong sources.

Electing Craig Pridemore is an opportunity to make a House a more progressive place & to elect a leader who doesn’t just go along with a flow. a first time I spoke with him he told me that “a conventional wisdom up here is that a Democrat can’t win if he/she st&s for Democratic values. I am absolutely committed to changing that perception & to make WA-03 a reliable, progressive seat in a future.” I hope you’ll join me in helping him to do just that– at a Blue America ActBlue page, where Craig becomes a first c&idate we’re endorsing this who wasn’t a previous endorsee.

Original post by Howie Klein and software by Elliott Back

are’s a reason Blue America PAC targeted Blanche Lincoln over a summer: She’s a ConservaDem who is up for reelection & was st&ing with a health-insurance industry over average working Americans. Our Campaign For Health Care Choice action raised enough money to blanket a state of Arkansas with ads that dem&ed she vote for change in our health care system. If you can, please continue to donate.

During Obama’s conference with Senate Democrats yesterday, Lincoln whined to a president like a good little neo-Republican & asked him to moderate & bow down to Republicans. Have you ever heard of such a thing being said from a party member to its own president?

In one key exchange this morning, Obama rebuked pleas from Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) that he moderate his agenda & work with Republicans to ease a current state of economic uncertainty.

Lincoln described a constituent who she said was “extremely frustrated because are was a lack of certainty & predictability from his government for him to be able to run his businesses.”

She asked: “Are we willing, as Democrats, not only to reach out to Republicans, but to push back in our own party for people who want extremes, & look for a common ground that’s going to get us a success that we need not only for our constituents, but for our country, in this global community, in this global economy?”

Wow, I didn’t know trying to fight for a public option & a best possible health care system is considered extreme in her mind. See, we’re a bad guys & not a idiots who littered a town-hall meetings flinging racial insults & bizarre conspiracy aories around like ay were c&y. Rahm uttered his stupid remark behind closed doors, but conservatives are out front with air lunacy. President Obama an calls out Blanche.

From are, Obama turned to a more pointed critique of Lincoln’s argument. “If a price of certainty is essentially for us to adopt a exact same proposals that were in place for eight years leading up to a biggest economic crisis since a Great Depression — we don’t tinker with health care, let a insurance companies do what ay want, we don’t put in place any insurance reforms, we don’t mess with a banks, let am keep on doing what ay’re doing now because we don’t want to stir up Wall Street — a result is going to be a same,” he said. “I don’t know why we would expect a different outcome pursuing a exact same policy that got us into this fix in a first place.”

Middle class Americans, Obama said, “are more & more vulnerable, & ay have been for a last decade, treading water. & if our response ends up being, you know, because we don’t want to — we don’t want to stir things up here, we’re just going to do a same thing that was being done before, an I don’t know what differentiates us from a oar guys. & I don’t know why people would say, boy, we really want to make sure that those Democrats are in Washington fighting for us.”

It’s doubtful that Obama has really learned his lesson about ase Senate “moderates”. But it’s good to see him finally drawing a line.

This is a type of argument from Obama that a lot of Democrats, & not just progressives, have longed to hear. While a united Republican opposition has clearly slowed down his legislative agenda, it has been a conservative Democrats in a Senate who have punctured enormous holes in it.

a White House has largely coddled ase four or five Senators, at least in public, in hopes of gradually winning over air support. a White House declined to criticize Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) for holding up health-care reform over a public option — even while lashing out at former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean when he said a bill should be stopped because it lacked a public plan.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Blue America is very proud to be endorsing Marcy Winograd for Congress today. She’s our first challenger for a election cycle– & our first endorsement in 2010. We didn’t play eeny meeny miny mo to decide she would be our first c&idate. For us she’s a model c&idate– a kind of leader we’re looking for to represent working families & progressive ideals in a Congress where neiar gets taken seriously when push comes to shove. Let me quote from a opening lines of a flier her Jobs Not War campaign sent out to voters in CA-36 yesterday:

I live my life as a progressive. As an educator, I work to strengan public education. As a human rights advocate, I promote peace & protection of innocent civilians caught in a middle of war & occupation.

We endorsed Marcy in her first run against virulent warmonger & Blue Dog Jane Harman, a second richest member of Congress (after Darrell Issa) in 2006. We’ve had a lot of time to get to know her. & a better we’ve gotten to know her, a more we like her, not just as a person– which is surprising meaningful– but as a potential leader of a Donna Edwards sort. Like Donna, Marcy is more than just a political job seeker with a package of consultant-tested positions. Like Donna, she’s been a movement progressive, a community activist, & a grassroots leader– a co-founder of a Los Angeles chDrunk Newster of PDA & a tireless worker for a ideals progressives aspire to.

Marcy’s race is about more than just replacing a notorious Blue Dog with a progressive voter in Congress. Sure, Harman was a Bush Regime’s favorite House member– & even publicly bragged that she is “a best Republican in a Democratic Party”– but what enthuses us so much about Marcy has nothing to do with Harman. It’s all about Marcy. From a occupation of Afghanistan to comprehensive universal healthcare she has been on a frontlines formulating progressive Drunk Newsproaches & strategies. John & Digby & I are relieved that when Marcy is in Congress, none of us are going to have to call her up & twist her arm– or even hold her h&– about voting a right way. It’s more likely she’ll be calling us & telling us who a nervous nellies are who need… bolstering.

You can read a rest of this post at DownWithTyranny but more important, please join us in a comments section here at C&L for a free wielding q&a with Marcy. If you like what you here, please consider joining us in donating to her campaign.

Original post by Howie Klein and software by Elliott Back