Progressive Democrat Issue 218

This will probably be my last newsletter for 3-5 weeks. Work, a conference, petitioning for candidates and vacation will be taking up my time into July.

Once again I want to ask my readers for help in four key NYC races

Josh Skaller: a good friend of mine running for City Council who was recently endorssed by Democracy for America and Howard Dean himself. Josh is a strong environmentalist and has worked on the local Howard Dean and Barack Obama campaigns. His main opponents are heavily supported by corporate interests. One of them is anti-Israel, and the other is anti-choice. Skaller, despite not taking any corporate donations, is doing well in fundraising and can be considered one of the two frontrunners in the race. I will be working very hard for Josh, and I hope some of my readers will send him some money to help us along.

Norman Siegel: another friend, this time running for the citywide office of Public Advocate. With 40 years of impressive civil rights legal work under his belt, including as a former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Norm is an ideal candidate for Public Advocate. Of course most of his opponents are corporate funded because corporations want a Corporate Advocate, not a Public Advocate. Norm is so scrupulous I once heard him turn down a ride from another candidate because it would require he report it as an in kind donation! That is an almost unheard of level of integrity. You can read about his long record of public advocacy on his website. I think you will agree he is one of the best candidates to come around in a long time and deserving of our support. If you can help out, please give a contribution.

John Liu: John Liu is running for Comptroller, the position that keeps track of the city's money. He is one of only two candidates in the race who actually has accounting and regulatory experience. The other two candidates (including that shady David Yassky I mentioned earlier) have no monetary experience whatsoever and are merely developer-supported shills. If Liu wins he will be the first Asian-American to win citywide office in NYC. This has generated some excitement, including from Asian-American politicians like Mike Honda from California, who has endorsed him. I have met Liu a few times and, in fact, was the very first person to officially endorse him for Comptroller. I think both John Liu and David Weprin (the other candidate in the race who has accounting/regulatory experience) would be good Comptrollers. I chose Liu because he is the more progressive of the two and the more dynamic candidate. Please help us elect a progressive, qualified Comptroller and elect the first Asian-American to win citywide office in NYC.

Finally, I want to mention another friend running for City Council, this time in my own district: Jo Anne Simon. Jo Anne is nationally known as an advocate for the disabled. Her main opponent is a developer-supported protege of the local corrupt Party Boss, so Jo Anne is our best shot at preventing a takeover of the district by the local machine. Which is a constant battle reformers like joy and I have here in Brooklyn. Please help us keep corruption at bay in NYC.

Here is this week's newsletter:

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Boycott Chevron-Texaco

Sotomayor "hard to BS"

NYC Focus: My Evolution on Working Families Party

Brooklyn, NY Focus

Queens, NY Focus

Bronx, NY Focus

Rochester, NY Focus

NEW YORK STATE FOCUS

Silicon Valley, CA Focus

Orange County, CA Focus

San Diego, CA Focus

Redding, CA Campaign Training

CALIFORNIA FOCUS

Houston/Harris County, TX Focus

Austin/Travis County, TX Focus

Dallas County, TX Focus

TEXAS FOCUS

NJ Young Democrats Convention

NJ-5: "Take the Fifth" PAC

Sussex County, NJ Events, Groups and Food Co-op

NEW JERSEY FOCUS

PENNSYLVANIA FOCUS

GEORGIA FOCUS

VIRGINIA FOCUS

NORTH CAROLINA FOCUS

COLORADO FOCUS

Jacksonville, FL Campaign Training

FLORIDA FOCUS

Tempe, AZ Campaign Training

ARIZONA FOCUS

WISCONSIN FOCUS

ILLINOIS FOCUS

WASHINGTON FOCUS

NEVADA FOCUS

IOWA FOCUS

MICHIGAN FOCUS