Ah, we’ve finally reached the moment…
We’ve named our Progressive Platform, we’ve listed no less than 109 of our Progressive Elected Officials (and still counting), and now we’re due to list our Our Progressive Candidates.
This process has been great, and I want to thank everyone who has participated in this open source, collective netroots effort: you all are doing us in the netroots proud.
So, with no further ado, read below to discover how I’m going to structure the nominations process for Our Progressive Candidates and then, please, roll up your sleeves and join in!
I’d like to make this part of the process less about numbers and more about quality.
I’m asking for you to list the names of one or two candidates Currently Running for Office in the format we’ve used before
Name (with hyperlink if possible)
Office
Location
Core Issues TAGs (see body of this post for list)
However, different from before, I’d like you to add a brief rundown of YOUR rationale for supporting these one or two candidates. Further, I want to point out that it should be of no concern to you if someone has mentioned your candidate before. This is about YOUR nomination, not as much about numbers or making a list.
I’ve been asked whether I intend to make an ACT Blue page for these candidates. Let me put it this way, when this project is complete, and we’ve got a list of our Platform, our Elected Officials, our Candidates and our Organizations…my goal is that we have a discussion about exactly what we want to do from there.
To the best extent possible I think we should make this information public and accessible…hence anyone can do with it what they wish…AND we should discuss/debate what we want to do with it here on BMT. It’s up to us.
With that I’d like to invite you to do two things:
First, please nominate one or two Progressive Candidates below…Name (link), Office, Location, Issues, Reasons You Support.
Second, I want to BEG YOU to continue to add Eelected Officials either in this thread or back at the last post. Here’s why. The more I’ve “lived with this” the more I’m convinced that 109 is NOT enough, I’m convinced that comprehensiveness is CRITICAL on the elected officials list.
These people deserve to be known and when I hear a name that should be on the list that we missed: like Kamala Harris, District Attorney of the City of San Francisco…it just bums me out. We should try to make this lest as broad as possible…even to the point of doing research and breaking new ground.
So, while we nominate Candidate…please, let’s keep adding names to Our Elected Officials and make this a resource that Progressives everyhwere can use and find valuable!
As I live in Philadelphia, it’s natural that I would be involved foremost in regional races. But there are interesting national implications for the Philly congressional races. There are five suburban congressional districts. Four of them are held by Republicans. The fifth is held by a DLC Democrat named Allyson Schwartz. There are thirty-two Republicans that have been outraised by their Democratic counterparts. Among them are four from Pennsylvania [Jim Gerlach (PA-6), Curt Weldon (PA-7), Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-8), Don Sherwood (PA-10)]. The 6th, 7th, and 8th districts are all in the Philly suburbs.
Lois Murphy PA-6
Joe Sestak PA-7
Patrick Murphy PA-8
I’d also like to add the fifth suburban race, Lois Herr PA-16, who did not outraise her opponent, but has done pretty well raising over $150,000 so far.
Lois Herr will need a lot of money and free media to succeed, but the two Murphys and Sestak are poised to win their seats.
We could flip the 4-1 suburban advantage the GOP has to a 4-1 advantage for us. If Herr pulls an upset, it could 5-0.
Now, why am I supporting these candidates? I’ve met them all personally, and I like them. I am especially fond of Patrick Murphy because he bought me a beer. Actually, he is a good guy, and he has a lot of the attractive qualities you want in a politician without the jeded side. Both he and Sestak are veterans, but neither is a hawk. Pat Murphy is interested in improving education and taking care of our troops, while doing a better job on the environment.
You can see their positions on the issues at their websites, but I would I not describe any of them as DLC democrats.
Then there is the nature of their opponents. Curt Weldon and Jim Gerlach are basically insane. Fitzpatrick is a DeLay republican. Pitts is real jerk.
For these reasons and more, I am really getting behind our Philly candidates.
In the Senate, I have two main goals in mind. One is general. All things being equal, I’d like to see more women elected to the Senate and see the women in the Senate retain their seats. Truth be told, though, I don’t support any of the female GOP Senators. I do, however, find them to be less offensive than their male counterparts.
My second goal is to increase the progressive caucus of the Senate. Outside of Boxer, Feingold, and Harkin, it is hard for me to grant the label of progressive on ANY Democratic Senators. Some are better than others, but they generally are centrists.
With these twin goals in mind, I have the following wish list for the U.S. Senate:
Brown and Sanders top my list because they are both members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Hay Bright, McCaskill and Klobucher will help fill out the ranks of the Senate with women that I hope will change the culture of the institution favorably. Stabenow and Cantwell are two endangered incumbents. Pederson and Tester are fresh faces that have a chance to beat horrible Republicans.
I haven’t put in the issue tags on these candidates because I am supporting them for non-ideological reasons. However, the ranking does reflect a calculus that involves my perception of the progressivism on a host of issues.
Bill Winter, CO Congressional Dist 6
Health care for all, Withdrawl from Iraq, Renewable Energy……I just kind of love him and he has served in the Navy and the Marine Corp as well as being a progressive kind of guy
…an A-1 creep.
Here are two great progressives running for office.
David Bacon, Green candidate for Public Regulation Commission District 4 in New Mexico. (Environment, healthcare)
In his own words:
Dr. David Gill running for congress in IL-15. (healthcare, anti-war) David also talks about reproductive rights in a candid, sensible way.
These are my two nominations.Of course, Ned Lamont should also be on our list. And I hope someone also nominates Nancy Skinner.
Colo. State House of Reps., Dist 13:
Jim Rettew Primary 8 Aug against Claire Levy;
Issues: healthcare, environment/energy/transit, education.
Stands a good chance of beating his opponent, primarily because of his ties w/ Boulder and the University. Intelligent, thoughtful, personable candidate who’s made an outstanding effort to get out and meet people face to face.
Congressional Candidates:
Dist. 4: Angie Paccione
Running against the noxious Marilyn Musgrave…Nuff said
Dist.6: Bill Winter
Running against the execrable xenophobe, Tom Tancredo…more than ’nuff said.
Had no idea that Fort Carson was trying to expand the Pinon Canyon training site and trying to run ranchers off until I read Angie Paccione’s site. Fort Carson has taken such a huge swathe of land right at the foot of the Rockies, and some of it now has hazardous waste on it that needs to be cleaned up and was in the process of being cleaned up before Bush took office. In getting real here……I can’t see that the military needs any more of Pinon Canyon than it already has. I will talk to my husband about this more tonight. He has done lots of training in Pinon Canyon. Pinon Canyon is where the troops at Fort Carson go down range and pretend that they are deployed. They have acres and acres of land to play on in my opinion though and have no reason to need any more of Pinon Canyon. Why don’t they clean up the hazardous waste areas that they have on Fort Carson and rehab those sites for training?
Barbara Ann Radnofsky TX US Senate Issues: Veterans, Equal Rights, Taxes, Iraq, Bringing our troops home, Education
Mary Beth Harrell US Congress TX District 31 Issues: Bringing our Troops Home, Education, Taxes, Budget, Equal Rights For All
John Courage US Congress TX District 21 Issues: Bringing our Troops Home, Education, Taxes, Budget, Equal Rights For All
The reason I am supporting these candidates and many others in Texas is because they believe in America and the People of America. They are sick of the current regimes hatred for anything not rich or religious. They do not believe in all the no bid contracts or the tax loop holes being handed out to Corporate America. I believe they can make a difference not only for Texas but for the Nation.
If you need more candidates I can add a lot more that are running for state offices also.
please add in the local races too. We’re trying to get a big list of progressive candidates. Local races are the hardest for us to dig up.
Here are a few of the great Texans running who I am trying to get elected.
Mark Strama Tx House District 50 issues:education, health care, transportation, and economic needs
Valinda Bolton TX House District 47 issues: Education,open goverment,health care
Karen Felthauser TX House District 52 Issues, healthcare, education, Toll roads
Donna Howard Tx House District 48 Issues:Education,open goverment,health care
Kathi Thomas Texas Senate 25 Education, Healthcare, Taxes
All of these candidiates represent the best in Democrats and also worked like hell to stop the marriage amendment in Texas last year. I know them all and wish I could vote for everyone of them.
If you need more candidates let me knwo and I can keep adding to the list.
Barbara McIlvaine Smith, State Rep, PA district 156
Anne Crowley, State Rep, PA district 167
does this mean you have power?
Sadly, no. It means I’m hanging out at the bookstore again, and feeling guilty about my inability to respond to this diary earlier.
The tree has been removed from the wires at least, and the utility pole has been put in, so I’m feeling hopeful it’ll be back on today. 🙂
Carol Shea-Porter http://www.carolforcongress.com
NH-01 Primary Sept. 12
I am supporting Carol because she shares my values, and because NH is one of 5 states that have never sent a woman to Congress! Until women are equally represented in our legislatures, we will never heal our country.
She speaks against the war calling for withdrawal (she is from a military family), for universal healthcare, moral budgets, etc.
She will represent the rest of us.
Paul Lang Pennsylvania Senate 6th District. Learn about Paul.
Andrew Rice is one of the few hopeful signs I see in Oklahoma politics.
I live in a very liberal district in Maryland (DC metro suburbs) where the Democrats outnumber Republicans about 2 to 1. We’ve got a VERY interesting local race going on here for the Maryland State Senate — a Democrat incumbent who’s been in office over thirty years and a real visionary progressive who’s challenging her and the party “machine”. So our big election is actually going to be the Democratic primary in September — I don’t think the Republicans are even running a candidate for this seat.
So I’d nominate Jamie Raskin, candidate for MD State Senate in District 20 (Silver Spring/Takoma Park).
What I find most exciting about him is that he’s got a real progressive power-to-the-people VISION, who sees the job of representing our district in Annapolis as being something more than bringing home our “fair share” of the state’s budget — to serve the common good of not only one district, but people across the state. He’s running a very lively and innovative grassroots campaign, lots of enthusiastic volunteers, no corporate donors accepted, doing a lot of knocking on doors and small-group meet-and-greets. His goals include universal health care for Marylanders, getting the corporate money out of political campaigns, promting aggressive environmental enforcement (he said that An Inconvenient Truth was the scariest movie he’d ever seen), and supporting an education system that doesn’t just “teach to the test.” But he’s also one of the most approachable and people-oriented candidates for office I’ve ever seen (or heard of).
Surely there is room for our good friend John Conyers from Michigan who is running for a House Seat for something like the 22nd time! (don’t hold me to the exact number, but it is a lot.)
Kid, I am unable to locate anyone local to me. But one of my pet causes has an ActBlue page here for candidates who support stem cell research running against opponents of it.
I was unable to find any mention of it on their websites, although Patrick Murphy does mention another of my personal beliefs – he is pro-choice.