Archive for the ‘Candidate Suggestions’ Category

Post-June 8th Primary Candidate Pool update


09 Jun

We are happy to see that last week, Sheila Smoot got enough votes to be in a run-off next month for the AL-07 race.

Due to one candidate dropping out of a race, and three candidates losing in their primary, the candidate pool is down to 29 candidates. We are so proud of the effort that Lt. Gov. Bill Halter gave against Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

The 29 currently in the pool are:
Alan Grayson (Florida 8th)
André Carson (Indiana 7th)
Barbara Boxer(California Senate)
Billy Kennedy(North Carolina 5th)
Carol Shea-Porter(New Hampshire 1st)
Elaine Marshall (North Carolina Senate)
Jack Conway (Kentucky Senate)
Jim McGovern(Massachusetts 3rd)
Joe Sestak (Pennsylvania Senate)
John Hall (New York 19th)
John Yarmuth (Kentucky 3rd)
Jonathan Tasini (New York 15th)
Justin Coussoule (Ohio 8th)
Keith Ellison(Minnesota 5th)
Kendrick Meek (Florida Senate)
Kirsten Gillibrand (New York Senate)
Lois Herr (Pennsylvania 16th)
Mac D’Alessandro (Massachusetts 9th)
Manan Trivedi (Pennsylvania 6th)
Paul Hodes (New Hampshire Senate)
Regina Thomas (Georgia 12th)
Rodney Glassman (Arizona Senate)
Roxanne Conlin (Iowa Senate)
Sheila Smoot (Alabama 7th)
Suzan DelBene (Washington 8th)
Tarryl Clark (Minnesota 6th)
Tom Hayhurst (Indiana 3rd)
Tom Perriello (Virginia 5th)
Tommy Sowers (Missouri 8th)

The two additions are both U.S House candidates:

1. David Gill-candidate in IL-15 running against GOP incumbent Tim Johnson.  His website is here

2. Jim Wilson- Oklahoma State Senator running against OK-02 Blue Dog incumbent Dan Boren.  ActBlue link.

Post-May 18th Primary edition of candidate pool inclusions


22 May

Hat tip to ontheleftcoast for two candidate suggestions that I will add to this round of candidate pool additions.  One of our supported candidates lost their primary, but one won their contested race(congrats Admiral Joe Sestak.  May you be Senator this January), and one fights on in a runoff(our first award recipient Lt. Gov. Bill Halter).  PeanutButterPAC was very happy with the 5/18 primary results and will include a few winners to add to our pool as well.

The 27 that remain in our candidate pool are:

Alan Grayson (Florida 8th)
André Carson (Indiana 7th)
Barbara Boxer(California Senate)
Bill Halter (Arkansas Senate)
Billy Kennedy(North Carolina 5th)
Carol Shea-Porter(New Hampshire 1st)
Craig Pridemore(Washington 3rd)
Elaine Marshall (North Carolina Senate)
Jim McGovern(Massachusetts 3rd)
Joe Sestak (Pennsylvania Senate)
John Hall (New York 19th)
John Yarmuth (Kentucky 3rd)
Justin Coussoule (Ohio 8th)
Keith Ellison(Minnesota 5th)
Kendrick Meek (Florida Senate)
Kirsten Gillibrand (New York Senate)
Lois Herr (Pennsylvania 16th)
Mac D’Alessandro (Massachusetts 9th)
Marcy Winograd (California 36th)
Paul Hodes (New Hampshire Senate)
Regina Thomas (Georgia 12th)
Rodney Glassman (Arizona Senate)
Roxanne Conlin (Iowa Senate)
Sheila Smoot (Alabama 7th)
Tarryl Clark (Minnesota 6th)
Tom Perriello (Virginia 5th)
Tommy Sowers (Missouri 8th)

These are our newest inclusions:

U.S House Candidates:

1. Jonathan Tasini,-NY-15 candidate in a primary against incumbent Charlie Rangel.  His campaign site here

2. Manan Trivedi-PA-06 primary winner running against GOP incumbent Jim Gerlach.  His page here

3, Suzan DelBene- WA-08 challenger to GOP incumbent Dave Reichert.  Her page here

4. Tom Hayhurst-IN-03 special election candidate for a now open seat, and Democratic nominee for November.  His page here.

U.S Senate candidates

1. Jack Conway- KY-Sen Democratic Nominee running against wingnut Rand Paul.  A Must win for Dems. His campaign site here.

2. Vic Rawl. SC-Sen challenger to GOP extremist Jim DeMint.  His campaign site here.

How to ensure no one like Obama ever wins again, and how to FIGHT BACK!


19 May

Small Online Contributions Add Up to Huge Fund-Raising Edge for Obama

~ NYTimes Feb 20, 2008

In 2008 Americans fought and beat Corporate Lobbyist sponsored politicians like John McCain (Drill,baby,drill & Bomb,bomb,Iran) and elected Barack Obama to be the President of the United States.

Just imagine if we could harness small contributions like this all the time to elect politicians who will stand up for people and against the special interests!

Well, the Corporatists can imagine that, and it scares them out of their minds! That is why, with the help of the recent Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court that allows Corporations to flood the American election process with millions and millions of Corporate money to fund Republican politicians and Corporate Democrats.

And their goal is to make sure that no one like Barack Obama ever wins a major election again, but you CAN fight back.

How to, below the fold

Regardless of what the results of yesterday’s primaries in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Oregon turnout, it should be considered a victory over Corporatist politicians like Blanche Lincoln, Arlen Specter and others. These politicians all had their party’s backing, all had the blessing of powerful special interests, and all may suffer defeat at the hands of populist driven, more progressive challengers.

But it still may not be enough.

Win or lose, this is a victory, but it may not be enough. Just imagine what we can with more organization!

Of course, the Corporatist political operations like the Republican party and the ConservaDem/BlueDog caucuses of the Democratic party know exactly how powerful populist driven, anti-corporatist, small donation driven activism can be, and that is why they have begun to use the Citizens United ruling to drown out populist organizing with unlimited corporate funding.

Witness the Dark Lord at work, Karl “Turd Blossom” Rove. In just 2 months after the Citizens United ruling, Rove has staged a Corporate $ fueled coup against RNC Chairman Micheal Steele, as detailed in the recent Rolling Stones article titled Rove Rides Again Bush’s former strategist is secretly seizing control of the GOP – and amassing $135 million to destroy the Democrats

Rove could only sit by and watch as the fearsome big-money machine he built over the course of a decade – his political Death Star – was blasted out of orbit by an insurgent Obama campaign powered by hundreds of millions in small-dollar donations.

This is a tale of how the empire strikes back.

~snip~

(G)iven the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United, there is little to prevent Rove from running the whole show. Political parties are barred from coordinating specific ads with “independent” groups – but that leaves plenty of wiggle room for other forms of strategizing. And even if Rove and Co. were to cross the line, there would likely be no consequences: The Federal Election Commission, which has sole enforcement responsibility, is gridlocked by its three GOP-appointed commissioners, who consistently vote to stymie any oversight. “The existing FEC is not going to enforce the laws,” says Fred Wertheimer, the founder of Democracy 21, an advocate of campaign-finance reform.

Bold text added by the diarist

Through his corporate funded groups American Crossroads and the American Action Network, Karl Rove has invented the anti-peanutbutterpac, monolithic, corporate fueled groups designed to fund corporatist politicians who will eagerly do the special interests bidding.

Their plan is simple, it is to overwhelm the small dollar donations that elected Barack Obama and other candidates who were not wholly owned by the special interests. Their goal is even more simple, and it is to ensure that no one like Obama ever wins an election over Corporatists who are only loyal to the special interests.

So, how do we fight back?

The political reality is stark, but here it is. Money talks, and bullshit walks. If Progressives and the opponents of Corporatist politics wish to have a say in the new post Citizens United $=speech world of politics, then we MUST put our money where are mouths are!

But the reality is that Progressive and anti-corporatist voters will never, ever have the money as individuals that the Special Interests can muster, and that is why we have to organize and work together.

This is where organizations like PeanutButterPAC come in.

With 1000 members donating only $5 a week, we can donate the maximum PAC donation of $5,000 each week to a progressive incumbent like Alan Grayson or a challenger to a corporatist Democrat like Marcy Winograd.

With 2000 members donating only $5 a week, we can double that!

With 10,000 members donating only $5 a week, we can run ads in swing states exposing Corporate shills in both parties, we can set up state based PAC’s to shift state legislatures towards protecting and helping people and NOT corporate interests, we can do a LOT with 10,000 members donating each week to PeanutButterPAC! Only 10,000 contributing members would scare the HELL out of Corporate shills in both parties!

With 100,000 members, we can be a force to be reckoned with, and our advocacy would be a multi million dollar force.

With 1 Million members, the sky is the limit, and we can buy the Senate back from the banks!

In a post Citizens United world, money talks and bullshit walks. The banks OWN the Senate. This is a fact. The only way working class Americans can take their representative democracy back from the Corporations and the Super rich is by buying it back. This is a game we are forced to play. If we do not organize and try to buy our representative democracy back from the super rich, you WILL have another Karl Rove ran corporatist machine back in power, sooner than you think. Now is the time to choose, will you kneel to the special interests and give up all hope, or will you stand and FIGHT!

I know what I choose, and I hope you will fight with me.

Cheers

Become a member of PeanutButterPAC by clicking this link here

Make a seed money contribution to PeanutButterPAC by clicking this link here

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New Candidate Pool inclusions…your feedback is always welcome


11 May

We’re now in May, and Arkansas’s Bill Halter is the first candidate to receive an award from us.  Much has happened since I last posted about the candidate pool.  There are two candidates that are no longer in our pool due to the changing nature of politics.  So here is a reminder of who is still in our pool and the additions since my last post.

The 22 that remain in our candidate pool are:

Alan Grayson (Florida 8th)
André Carson (Indiana 7th)
Barbara Boxer(California Senate)
Bill Halter (Arkansas Senate)
Billy Kennedy(North Carolina 5th)
Carol Shea-Porter(New Hampshire 1st)
Craig Pridemore(Washington 3rd)
Jim McGovern(Massachusetts 3rd)
Joe Sestak (Pennsylvania Senate)
John Hall (New York 19th)
John Yarmuth (Kentucky 3rd)
Justin Coussoule (Ohio 8th)
Keith Ellison(Minnesota 5th)
Kirsten Gillibrand (New York Senate)
Lois Herr (Pennsylvania 16th)
Marcy Winograd (California 36th)
Paul Hodes (New Hampshire Senate)
Rodney Glassman (Arizona Senate)
Roxanne Conlin (Iowa Senate)
Ryan Bucchianeri (Pennsylvania 12th)
Tarryl Clark (Minnesota 6th)
Tom Perriello (Virginia 5th)

Here are the newest inclusions(Sheila Smoot was already part of the voting but I am including her here anyway)

U.S House Candidates:

1. Mac D’Alessandro-  Ma-09 Progressive challenger to Blue Dog incumbent Stephen Lynch. His Facebook page

2. Regina Thomas-Georgia State Senator  who is running against GA-12 Blue Dog John Barrow.  Her campaign site

3. Sheila Smoot-Running for the open seat in AL-07.  Her Campaign page

4. Tommy Sowers.  MO-08 candidate running against Republican incumbent Jo Ann Emerson.  This is also Rush Limbaugh’s Congressional District.  His campaign site

U.S Senate Candidates:

1.  Elaine Marshall.  NC-Sen candidate and primary winner(she faces a runoff).  She is the more progressive candidate and she has a real chance against Republican incumbent Richard Burr.  Her campaign site

2. Kendrick Meek.  FL-17 incumbent and FL-Sen candidate.  His campaign page

Fourth Round of Candidate Pool nominations and major thanks for a few suggestions


15 Mar

Welcome to all the new members since I last posted on candidates in our pool.   I was reminded that I was very remiss in forgetting to add a very progressive candidate from Washington, and so now I am making sure that he is in our candidate pool.  We are still working to add new software in our Members section that will allow any Member to put forth their own candidate to add and to allow everyone to vote on who gets our funds each week.  We are also looking at making the tip income portion of your donations more transparent and more understandable  so you know that only the tip portion of it goes towards our administration costs.  Everything else will go straight to the candidates.

The 18 in our Candidate Pool are:

Alan Grayson
André Carson
Bill Halter
Billy Kennedy
Carol Shea-Porter
Joe Sestak
John Hall
John Yarmuth
Jennifer Brunner
Kirsten Gillibrand
Lois Herr
Marcy Winograd
Paul Hodes
Rodney Glassman
Roxanne Conlin
Ryan Bucchianeri
Tarryl Clark
Tom Perriello

And now for some more candidates that I am sure we can get excited about:

U.S House candidates:

1. Connie Saltonstall-MI-01 candidate challenging anti-choice C-Streeter Bart Stupak.  She has raised about 35,000 on ActBlue.  Her campaign page on Facebook.

2. Craig Pridemore-Candidate for open seat in WA-03.  His campaign site

3. Jim McGovern-MA-03 incumbent and my Congressman.  His campaign site

4. Justin Coussoule-OH-08 candidate running against House Minority Leader John Boehner(pronounced BAY-ner).  His campaign site.

5. Keith Ellison-MN-o5 incumbent.  His opponent is a religion-baiting wingnut.  His campaign site

U.S Senate Candidates:

1. Barbara Boxer-CA-Sen incumbent.   Her campaign site.

We look forward to bringing the heat to Stupak, giving Boehner some heartburn and helping a progressive state senator become a Congressman for Washington.

Tell Us Who You Want Us To Support and more Candidate Pool additions


08 Mar

Hello and welcome to all the Kossacks who read MinistryofTruth’s post on Daily Kos. We want to hear from YOU about candidates that you think we ought to get behind. I know we are working on additions to the website that will let you nominate your own candidates for federal elections(House and Senate). You are welcome to in the comments of this post to leave feedback on the candidate pool in general and to offer up your own nominations. We want to help to ensure that we have More and Better Democrats in Washington(and eventually in all 50 states).

The 12 in our current candidate pool are:
Alan Grayson
André Carson
Billy Kennedy
Joe Sestak
John Hall
John Yarmuth
Jennifer Brunner
Kirsten Gillibrand
Lois Herr
Marcy Winograd
Roxanne Conlin
Tarryl Clark

and now some more to add…

U.S House Candidates:

1. Carol Shea-Porter-NH-1 incumbent.  Bravely voted no to extend the Patriot Act.  Great Congressperson who needs help.  Her campaign site

2. Ryan Bucchianeri-candidate for the PA-12 seat vacated by Jack Murtha.  Naval graduate and a candidate that took questions from Kossacks and MoT not long ago.  That was a great thing for him to do.  His site is here

3. Tom Perriello-VA-5 incumbant.   Not a perfect guy(voted for Stupak  amendment…yuck) but introduced the anti-trust exemption repeal bill and voted No to the Patriot Act.   His Campaign Site

U.S Senate candidates

1. Bill Halter.  AR-Sen candidate. Not a true progressive but a lot better than Blanche Lincoln and he’s a moderate populist and no Blue Dog.   His campaign site

2. Paul Hodes.  Current congressman(NH-2) and NH-Sen candidate.  Endorsed by Gov. Howard Dean M.D.  His campaign site

3. Rodney Glassman-exploring a run for AZ-Sen.   Beating John McCain would be progress.  His exploratory site is here Props to Stranded Wind for this

That’s all for now.  Tell us what you think!

Second Round of Candidate Pool Nominations..


23 Feb

Following some discussion in comments from MinistryofTruth and others in the first nominations post, I will add six more nominations to our candidate pool.  Just a note to add, I as a member will always support the most progressive candidate that we can elect in a race.  So I tend not to support Blue Dogs if I can help it.  More and Better Democrats as we have Markos say.

U.S House Candidates

1. André Carson-Democratic incumbent(IN-07).   A real progressive in a conservative state.  His campaign site is here.

2. Alan Grayson-Democratic incumbent(FL-08).  A great Congressman who has 13! Republicans challenging him for his seat.   He is quite vocal too.  His site is here.

3. John Hall-Democratic incumbent(NY-19).  Ministry’s Congresscritter.  A good progressive that is close to Upstate New York.   His site is here. Also a co-founder of the band Orleans, who had a few hits in the 70s.

4. Marcy Winograd-running against the Blue Dog incumbent  Jane Harman for the CA-36 seat.  Winograd is a real Democrat.   Her site is here.

5. John Yarmuth-Democratic incumbent(KY-03).  Friend of Pelosi and fights for health care for all.  His site is here.

U.S Senate Candidates

1. Joe Sestak.  Current Congressman(PA-7) running against incumbent who converted to the Democrats-Arlen Specter.  Sestak is an excellent legislator and a better Democrat.  He will make Philly turn out, something Specter can’t do.  His site is here.

We are also closely watching a few other candidates and more nominations are sure to come.  Feel free to add a candidate you support in the comments.  We welcome helping out progressives.

Liveblog interwiew with Candidate Ryan Bucchianeri (PA-12) at 7pm ET on Daily Kos


18 Feb

I just thought I’d give all you fighting Progressives a heads up on this. AT 7 pm ET I will be conducting a live blog interview with PA-12 Democratic candidate Ryan Bucchianeri at Daily Kos.com, and I’ll be crossposting the interview here as well. I hope you join in and ask Ryan all the policy questions you’d like to.

I look forward to seeing you all there. Cheers.

Catch you later

: )

Crossposted at ProgressiveElectorate.com

First round of nominations to add to our Candidate pool.


08 Feb

During tonight’s Steering Committee meeting, and over the last few weeks, we’ve talked about which candidates we’d nominate to our candidate pool right out of the gate.  Ultimately, our members will be the ones to chose which candidates we will fund, and I nominate the people that I am about to nominate as a member of the Peanut Butter PAC, and I don’t have any more weight in this matter than any other member.  I will divide the nominations into two categories:  U.S House and U.S Senate and I’ll briefly describe each candidate and what seat they’re running for as well as link to their websites so you can learn more about them.

U.S House of Representatives candidates:

  1. Billy Kennedy, running for the NC-5 seat against Virginia Foxx, the Republican incumbent.    Kennedy is a radio talk-show host, a farmer and a carpenter.   Here’s his website
  2. Lois Herr, running for the PA-16th seat against Joseph Pitts, the Republican incumbent.   A long-time member of NOW.  Has worked for Elizabethtown College since 1993.  Her campaign site
  3. Tarryl Clark, running for the MN-6 seat against Michele Bachmann, the Republican incumbent.  Clark is a State Senator and was the first director for the Central Minnesota chapter of Habitat for Humanity.  Her campaign site is here

U.S Senate Candidates:

  1. Jennifer Brunner, running for OH Class III Senate seat, an open seat vacated by retiring Republican George Voinovich.   Brunner is Ohio’s Secretary of State, and winner of a JFK Profiles in Courage award.   Here is her site.  I will look at her race against Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher  in the primary more closely in another post to come later.
  2. Kirsten Gillibrand, NY incumbent, running for election in a special election in November 2010.   Has come out strongly for immediately getting rid of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.  Her campaign site is here
  3. Roxanne Conlin, running for IA Class III Senate seat against Republican incumbant Charles Grassley.   Conlin is a lawyer with a long record for fightinh for the people, not corporations.  Here’s her site

In the comments thread, members are free to come up with their own nominations and discuss the nominations that I’ve put here.    These six could really bring about progress and fight for jobs and a strong middle class.

2010 Races to Watch: Merrick Alpert vs. Richard Blumenthal in CT’s Democratic Primary for Senate


21 Jan

Last time, I blogged on Connecticut’s only good senator, Chris Dodd.  Now the less is said about the other really bad senator from the Nutmeg State the better.   Currently, there are two Democrats who have announced their intention to be Connecticut’s next senator and hopefully beat the living tar out of the Republican primary winner, whether it be Peter Schiff, Rob Simmons or Linda McMahon, all of whom are obviously wrong for Connecticut.    The two Democrats are Merrick Alpert, a veteran and businessman from Groton and Richard Blumenthal, the Attorney General for Connecticut.    I’ll now say what my initial impressions of both are.

Alpert is currently the only one with a Senate Campaign website.   It is called Merrick For A Change.  His website does have some progressive bona fides to it.  He states his belief that “Access to quality health care is a right of every citizen” under Health Care on his Issues page.  He also said that preventative care and other basic health services need more funding.  He also has a Clean Government page under Issues where he’d write new tougher regulations on lobbyists and corporate PACs.   He shares a strong belief in Head Start with Dodd.  His Education page does lack his stance on charter schools, an issue that he should let the voters know where he stands on it since charter schools have an impact on unions and his stance would either attract or repulse labor votes.   He doesn’t have an Environment page under Issues, which is a little concerning but hopefully it will be added soon.   I called his campaign office, and talked to one of his staff.  He seemed knowledable, courteous and would get back to me about specifics on Alpert’s take on climate change and the environment.  His staffer did mention that Alpert is for High Speed Rail though.   Overall, I think he does have a good webpage.   It does need more fleshing on the issues like as I mentioned the Environment, but also Labor(does he support the Employee Free Choice Act?), Choice(for or against Stupak?),  and the Deficit(will he increase taxes and if so how?).

Blumenthal announced that he was running two weeks ago.  His only website is the Connecticut AG’s page, so he is kind of a sphinx on some issues right now.   I would think by now he’d have the start of his campaign website, but alas no.   So I would have to give him a D in that regard so far, but he does have plenty of time to articulate his positions on the Economy, Health Care, the Environment, Labor and Gay Rights.   From what I hear, he joined with Spitzer a few years back to go after AIG for something, which is a plus.   He seems to be on the side of the consumer rather than the banks.   He has some very good initial poll ratings against the Republicans, and he is a very experienced Attorney General.   My fear is that he’ll run a lacklaster campaign a la Martha Coakley and then get hammered by the Tea Party and/or the Connecticut for Lieberman party in the general election.   I’ll be waiting to see if he puts a campaign website out by February.

So we have two possibly good candidates to support for the Democratic nomination in Connecticut, and if one or both meet the criteria for funding their campaign, then we keep alive the greatness that Dodd has given us over the years and we stop the Tea Party from further encroaching into New England.   Connecticut cannot afford another Joe Lieberman or Blanche Lincoln, and we can help make sure that doesn’t happen.

Progressively Yours,

Pistol Pete