Lynn Woolsey is co-chair of the Progressive Caucus. She has some advice for anti-war activists. We should find people to run in primaries against the pro-war Democrats.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) is encouraging anti-war activists to find challengers to centrist Democrats, with the aim of moving the party to the left and ramping up opposition to the war in Iraq, to the chagrin of top Democratic aides.
“You folks should go after the Democrats,” Woolsey said in response to a suggestion from an activist during a conference call last month organized by the Network of Spiritual Progressives.
“I’d hate to lose the majority, but I’m telling you, if we don’t stand up to our responsibility, maybe that’s the lesson to be learned.”
Democratic leaders have yet to punish Woolsey for her stance, but their aides were irked by and dismissive of Woolsey’s remarks.
“The political reality is that the real targets of the outside groups should be Republicans who have so far refused to join the overwhelming majority of Democrats in voting for a change of course in Iraq,” a top aide said.
‘Top Democratic aides’ can ‘chagrin’ this.
Our problem is that I’ve researched it, and there are hardly any candidates running in primaries against Bush Dogs. If Lynn Woolsey wants to help us find some candidates then I am for it. But candidates don’t grow on trees…and neither does money. We need a research project. For each of the Bush Dogs we need to know who the prominent Democrats are in their districts. And then we need some money to entice some people into running. That’s not something we can do without some powerful friends. The Progressive Caucus can’t do it openly, but back channels should be opened.
the tragedy is: where the hell is the Party? Where the hell is the 50 state concept? Where the hell is Howard Dean? Where the hell is the democratic party–DEAD!
the party, for obvious reasons, protects its incumbents.
Spending more time on blogs grousing about the party than out convincing progressives to unite behind an alternative primary candidate.
We say we want the Democratic Party to derive its power from the grassroots and then the first thing we ask is “Where the hell is Howard Dean?”
Sad. No wonder we are in such trouble.
what good is the majority in congress when they don’t do what we want?
i’m in favor of starting recall procedure against pelosi and reid, too.
Dems have been trying to reform the party from within and from without, like Nader, for years and have not been successful. I have heard Democratic pundits state that Pelosi is not worried about Cindy Shehan and should win handily. Marci Winograd ran against Harman, who is almost a Republican and only got (I believe) 37% of the vote. I don’t think there is much hope.
Politics is not a force of nature, it is a matter of persuasion. The groundwork has to be laid between elections.
Here we are once again close to an election complaining about the candidates. We have had almost a year to recruit candidates and set up campaigns against known Bush-Dogs. Why hasn’t it happened?
Oh, the leadership won’t help us. Just another phrase along the lines of “Uh, uh, it’s hard work.” Another excuse.
1.) I’ll identify a short list of CREDIBILE challengers in MN-07 and SD-AL. I’d leave MN-01 alone because Walz is with us more than against us.
2.) I’ll begin developing a list of progressives who can help staff these primary challenges. To be effective each challenger will need a skeletal staff to help organize the campaign, schedule the candidate, recruit volunteers, research issues and develop message and do field/GOTV. For many of these posts I’m sure there are folks with good progressive credentials who’d take a $1500 to $4000 monthly salary on a serious effort.
Email me a resume at progressivestaffing…gmail.com if you can help on a volunteer, part-time or full-time basis.
That is a generic account I just set up. I’d be willing to turn it over to a group like Blue Majority or the Progressive Caucus once we got going.
But these challenges will take money and fundraising oomph. Can we get anyone to step up on that?
We can raise money for serious candidates. I love your willingness to step up to the plate. I will warn you that SD-AL is not going to get any traction. She is being groomed for the Senate, and I know for a fact that the big players in the Netroots aren’t going to invest in taking down her favorables…look at her last election margin.
However, most Bush Dog challengers can expect support if they seem remotely plausible.
and the same holds true for MN-07. If Peterson wasn’t in, we’d probably have a Republican holding that seat.
However, those are areas I can easily network into and get a sense of what progressives are actually tied into their communities in some fashion and which are seen as “moonbats”, to use a righty term.
Are there any particular districts that you think I should look into? I figure I can develop a good short list for two districts max (maybe 3) given my workload(s).
any of the Tennessee districts, particularly the blue districts.
Almanac of American Politics and pick two of the Tennessee districts.