Progressive Democrat Issue 95: THOUGHTS

We won. We won big. We took both the House and the Senate and state legislatures in several states. We took Sec. of State in Ohio, hopefully leading to some reform there. This was HISTORIC. And, as I write below, it was done through a unity of action between progressive grassroots and more moderate/mainstream Democrats. THAT is what I have been talking about. We need a strong progressive grassroots, but we also need to respect diversity of opinion within our party and remain more united in the face of the anti-American, anti-Constitution actions of the corrupt Republicans.

Now our work really begins. The media is still Bush's tame lap dog. Bush still holds veto power. And divisions will emerge immediately in our Progressive/Moderate alliance. I predict a fight between Pelosi and Murtha. Murtha is gearing for a power play. That could ruin us.

But for now we have won and now is the time to take the initiative. I have two suggestions for you. First, write to the media and tell them your opinion on this election, but its national significance and its significance to your state and local area. Send your letters to me as well, telling me if they printed it or not. If they printed it, I should credit the paper. If not, I want the option of using it in a future newsletter. But be heard in the media!

But just as important, I strongly urge you, if you have a new city council person, new Representative, new state legislator, to reach out to that new elected representative and make a connection. People often thing that electeds lose interest in voters once they win. Well, having met MANY electeds I can tell you that some do lose interest, but many do not. If you write a letter or make a phone call or pay a visit to their office now, when they are new, you can make a lasting connection. Congratulate them. Tell them your chief concerns. If you are a member of an organization, invite them to speak at one of your events. Meet them face to face and talk with them. Most electeds I know LIKE meeting their constituents and if you make that special effort, and you do so a few times, they will probably notice. This connection can be made most easily right after they win a seat for the first time. We have many new faces. They need to see your face and hear your opinion. Reach out now.

Finally, I want to leave you with the biggest lesson of this election. Americans woke up and realized their government had been lying to them for 6 years. They saw the depth of Republican lies and corruption and they voted accordingly.

The Republicans forgot a very important lesson:



“You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”

--Abraham Lincoln, the best Republican President

Progressive Democrat Issue 95: THE WINNING STRATEGY: the Progressive/Moderate Alliance

This was history in the making. Don't anyone downplay it. As pointed out by Michael Bouldin, "for the first time in American history, a political party lost no seats it was defending. Ain't never happened in 230 years, folks." This was historic.

But there is one very key lesson to be learned by us...by Democrats and by the left in general. This was won big because we worked together. When we are united, Democrats win. When we let the Republicans divide and conquor us, we lose. It is up to us to maintain that unity. Unity does not mean conformity. Mostly it means mutual respect even when we disagree.

So who were the big players in our victory? I think there are several key players. In no particular order:

Act Blue: $17,419,765 raised since 2004. Mostly small donors, not that "soft money" Republicans love so much.

MoveOn: targeted ads in some "safe" Republican districts made those districts so unsafe for Republican that Democrats won. CT-5, IN-2, NY-20, and NH-2 shifted after MoveOn.org ads went on the air and we wound up winning them.

But that ain't all. They then set up the most ambitious phone bank in history, making 6 million calls to voters by election day. This was probably the biggest GOTV effort in history.

But that ain't all...they now are offering a $250,000 reward to anyone who can give evidence of election fraud that leads to a conviction.

Howard Dean: we never would have won so big in Indiana or scared them so much in Wyoming and Idaho and Tennessee had it not been for Dean's 50-state strategy. Chuck Schumer's more targeted Senate strategy made sense for the Senate, but Howard Dean gave the states the ability to exploit Republican weaknesses when they appeared. Probably half our pick ups are thanks to this new infrastructure Dean has helped build in states that previously were ignored as being "too red." 2005 was a successful test of the 50-state strategy. 2006 was a RESOUNDING victory for Howard Dean's strategy. I don't think the DSCC needs to change its strategy, but the DCCC might want to take some lessons from Doctor Dean.

Progressive Majority: Targeting smaller, more local races right down to school board, Progressive Majority is training and helping out the next generation of leaders in several key states as well as helping boost minority representation. In 2005 they won about 70% of the races they targeted. They were more ambitious this year and didn't fare so well in terms of percentages, but they did well enough and they came really close in many other races. They have helped elect 76 young, enthusiastic progressives in 8 states, several races are tied (!), and others they lost by as few as 11 votes. As they expand, they will be a force throughout the nation for helping young progressive activists enter politics. We could probably have won this election without Progressive Majority, but their efforts are helping pave the way for future victories. And believe me, we need to be looking ahead!

Make no mistake...this was a progressive grassroots victory. But it was also a victory for ideological diversity within the Democratic party. Some real progressive grassroots activists helped some moderate Democrats win, and now that we have won, the progressives and moderates have to maintain respect for eachother. Both sides have to remember this: we could not have won without this progressive/moderate alliance. United in respect, we can find the common ground we need to to win big. Divided over the few issues where we differ, or divided through lack of mutual respect, and we lose. Let's remember this lesson. And here I am speaking to the Greens as well, because the main problem I have with them is NOT ideological, but in how we related to diversity of opnion within the left. Republicans work by conformity and dictating from above. Democrats work by respecting diversity and listening to eachother. So let's DO IT folks. As I keep quoting these days, remember what FDR said:

"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country."

Progressive Democrat Issue 95: A RUNDOWN OF THE RESULTS

IOWA:

IA-1: This was one of our best pick up chances of the year. And we won it easily.

IA-2: this one only became close in the last couple of months of the election. But we won!

IA-3: the Republicans thought they could kick Vietnam vet and incumbent Dem Boswell while he was down, recovering from a bout with cancer. But we safely defended this seat.

Sec of State win (Mauro)
Sec. of Agriculture: Sadly, organic farmer Denise O’Brian did not win. This could have been historic, but we didn’t win it.

We won control of both the Iowa state house and senate, with DFA endorsed Elesha Gayman winning against a Republican incumbent in my father’s hometown of Davenport.

Big win in Iowa!


INDIANA:

IN-2: started “safe Republican” but with the help of MoveOn.org, we won this one! No one would have predicted this even a few months ago. Yet in the end it wasn’t even close.

IN-7: safely defended this seat. Congrats to Julia Carson!

IN-8: Can’t resist the obvious joke: there’s a new sheriff in town in this district. Ellsworth CREAMED the incumbent Republican.

IN-9: Our THIRD pickup in Indiana. We won it by a good margin, though not quite the knockout blow we had in IN-2 and IN-8. I predict this will be a tough battle ground district in 2008.

Took control of the Indiana state house, but not the state senate.

Sadly, we failed to take the very important Sec. of State and Auditor positions in Indiana, so there is yet ample potential for Republican fraud in Indiana…but we still kicked butt. And I bet Republicans are going to have a hard time getting corruption by Congressman Ellsworth!

Indiana was sill a HUGE success for Democrats and sane government this year, even if we lost some key battles.


WISCONSIN:

WI-5: we lost this one, though it always was a long shot. So, one of the horrible “Katrina 11” Republicans remains occupying this seat.

WI-8: Nice win here.

Took control of the Wisconsin State House, but not the senate, though we gained seats in the senate as well.

Mixed results in Wisconsin.


OHIO: everyone’s eyes were on Ohio, of course.

SENATE: We CREAMED them. Incumbent Republican DeWine is drowning his sorrows while Democrat Brown is celebrating.

SEC of STATE: YES! YES! YES! YES! The corrupt Republican Blackwell got his ass kicked running for Gov, and Democrat Jennifer Brunner has won the race to replace him. We now have a chance to clean up Ohio’s elections!!!

ATTORNEY GENERAL: The corruption of the Ohio Republican party has become legendary. Well, now there is a Democratic Attorney General who can prosecute them! Go Mark Dann. Time to clean up the mess in Ohio.

The only race we lost that would be important for cleaning up corruption in Ohio was the State Auditor’s position. We lost that one. But hopefully Governor, Sec. of State and Atty. Gen. will be enough.

We didn’t win as big as some expected with the Congressional House races in Ohio. We only picked up one House seat here, OH-18, and that was thanks to Bob Ney’s downfall. There were some close races, and some where election fraud might have skewed results, but it looks like we will only pick up the one seat.

Gained in both state legislatures, but both remain controlled by very corrupt Republicans. That will make reform harder and make Strickland’s job difficult. Mixed results in Ohio, but still damned good since it gave us a Senate seat and gives Ohio a chance to clean up the HUGE mess that it has become thanks to Republican fraud and corruption. Good luck Brunner and Dann!


PENNSYLVANIA:

HUGE Senate win. The most odious Republican, Rick Santorum, was soundly defeated. Casey would not have been my choice for a candidate, but he won. Casey is anti-choice, his biggest defect, but then again, so is Senator Reid of Nevada and yet his leadership has been excellent. Let us hope Casey will follow Reid's footsteps.

In terms of House seats picked up, PA was our biggest win with four solid pick ups. In a fifth race we are awaiting a recount, but we seem ahead by 1000 votes. We may pick up FIVE HOUSE SEATS in PA, which would be astonishing.


NEW YORK:

In my own state we kicked ass. Governor, Attorney General, Senate all were won not just soundly, but OVERWHELMINGLY. I can’t say our candidates for these positions were my favorites, but Eliot Spitzer has great promise for Governor, Cuomo may surprise me as Attny. General, and Hillary Clinton is overall good even if she supports the war in Iraq.

But the real gains were in the House. Three solid pickups in a state most people ignored at first. Here it really was the grassroots that made the difference. Most of NY’s House races were ignored by everyone but the local grassroots. Only at the end did they become nationally on the radar, and in the end we won three.


VIRGINIA:

Webb beat the racist Republican Allen for Senate, though it was much closer than it should have been. With all due respect to Virginia, a former Sec. of the Navy should be able to beat someone who is publicly racist and otherwise useless more soundly. But Republicans seem to like racism and corruption better than former Secretaries of the Navy, so the race was very close. In the end, though, Webb won and I predict he will be a real force to be reckoned with in the Senate. Good job!

We lost VA-2 by a little and VA–10 pretty badly, but our efforts in those districts helped Webb. Virginia is still a tough nut for progressives, but overall, both 2005 and 2006 were pretty good years in Virginia elections.


NEW JERSEY:

Menendez held onto his Senate seat, and I bet he can now hold onto it for a long time to come, if he wants. Sadly we did not win NJ-5 or-7, but they were always long shots. Still…I’m disappointed. But still, we came closer than people had thought and that certainly helped Menendez.


SOME OTHER RACES:

HUGE Senate win in Missouri. Defeating Talent is big, and McCaskill is one of the best new faces in the Senate. Some small gains in the state legistlature as well.

In Montana we won in the Senate, sending the very excellent Jon Tester to replace corrupt Conrad Burns. But the bad thing is we lost control of the state legislature. That is a bad sign after the great gains in 2004.

We won somewhat unexpectedly in AZ-5, while creaming the white supremicist Republican incumbent in AZ-8. Along with Allen’s defeat in Virginia, that is a nice blow against racism that has been growing within the Republican party.

A particular sweet win is CA-11. Corrupt and anti-environment Republican incumbent Pombo was soundly defeated by McNerney. McNerney is great! He resigned from West Point to protest the Vietnam war and he has been a strong proponent of wind energy. This is a case where a particularly horrible Republican was defeated by a particularly excellent Democrat.

One big surprise, and one that Democrats really should pay attention to, is the fact that the Wyoming House race was practically tied. This was considered safe Republican. But the Democrat gradually and steadily wore away the Republican’s lead. As of now, the Republican has a handful more votes, but the race has yet to be called.

In Connecticut Lieberman won, which sucks but it doesn’t really change anything since he was the incumbent, and I admit that I do like to see Independents win from time to time to keep both parties on their toes…still, Lamont would have been far better. There were three close House races in CT. We won one, lost one and one is still in a recount with the Democrat slightly ahead.

In New Hampshire things swung back and forth. For a long time it looked like we would win two House seats. Then the Republicans surged and it looked like both seats would remain Republican. But in the end, we surged again and won. Two House pickups in New Hampshire! But even more amazing, we took BOTH state houses.

In Texas we picked up Tom DeLay’s seat (TX-22) and won Attorney General.

We did not win Attny. Gen in Florida, but we did win Florida CFO and out candidate there was a very excellent one. We won FL-22 and FL-16 but it looks like we may lose FL-13, which was one I was pulling hard for at the end. But that isn’t decided yet and will probably go into recount.

Progressive Democrat Issue 95: RUMSFELD OUT, GATES IN

The immediate result of the Democratic takeover was for Bush to start scapegoating. His first victim, with good reason, was Donald Rumsfeld, one of the main architects of our failed war in Iraq.

Bye, bye Rummy




But Bush chose as Rumsfeld's replacement someone whose record is mired in the same dumb policies as Rumsfeld and Cheney. Robert Gates, the man who will replace Rumsfeld, did a great deal to help establish al-Qaeda. Yes...al-Qaeda. I have discussed quite often that Republicans helped al-Qaeda come into existence. Well, Gates is the man most responsible for that. This is from Daily Kos:

Robert Gates made Osama Bin Laden what he is today. This is not exaggeration. By funding Osama Bin Laden's operations, training camps, weaponry and political influence from 1979 (even before Russia invaded Afghanistan), Robert Gates personally gave us our principal enemy in the "War on Terror".

More frighteningly, all of Robert Gates' support to Osama Bin Laden ran through Pakistan's ISI. ISI has been linked to training and funding the 9/11 bombers, the London bombers, the Madrid bombers, the Bali bombers and the Delhi bombers but is strangely immune from official Washington scrutiny.

I really wonder which side Robert Gates thinks he's on. With a 30 year history of pomoting and financing state and non-state terrorism, I doubt it is the side of the peace and prosperity of the American people and bringing our troops home safe.

There is a great deal more in that Daily Kos article. Read it, please. It proves that the resignation of Rumsfeld in no way indicates a shift for the Bush Administration. They are still following the old, outdated, failed policies they have for 6 years.

America's architect of al-Qaeda will not be our Secretary of Defense. Please consider writing the media about this one right away!