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:
- 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
- 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
- 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:
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
Tags: Billy Kennedy, candidate pool, House, Jennifer Brunner, Kirsten Gillibrand, Lois Herr, Roxanne Conlin, Senate, steering committee, Tarryl Clark
i’m pretty sure it goes without saying I vote for Lois
Beth has also suggested that we include Ryan Bucchineri, who was already on board with a primary challenge to Jack Murtha in PA-12 before his untimely death this past week.
if people want to know more Ryan’s website is http://www.ryan2010.com
I’m all about Billy Kennedy. We’ve got a real shot at this seat this time. He’s strong.
If I had two nominees it would be John Hall (D-NY19) who is my congressman and a good candidate and Alan Grayson, cause he fights his @$$ off.
But I could think of more if I tried
: )
Next post is password protected for just some people?
Hi Lorikeet! Yes, the next post was password protected – we only wanted steering committee folks to see that one for now. We’re kicking around ideas in there for a YouTube ad and we don’t want to tip our hand early, we’d rather make a splash when it’s ready.
Ah. Probably be good idea to put that in the post for the rest of us to see.
It’s been suggested that we should add Joe Sestak, currently tugging Arlen Specter to the left in the PA Senate race, and Marcy Winograd, I belie3ve she’s running against Jane Harman in CA.
Kossack RDemocrat makes the case today for John Yarmuth (KY-03) as someone that national progressives should support. After reading his diary, I’d have to agree…
John, I could write a second round of nominations post so in addition to the first six that we’ve talked about, we can include Sestak, Winograd, Grayson, Hall, Yarmuth and I think we could also put in for Andre Carson(IN-07) the only progressive in Indiana’s Congressional Delegation.
Tarryl Clark, in MN-06 has a primary opponent too- Dr. Maureen Reed. I think there are enough good democrats running against Republicans that giving money to challengers who are going to have to spend it in the primary seems ill-advised.
Thomas,
I was aware that Reed was also in the race against Bachmann, but Reed is a Blue Dog, and we figured it would be fun if we had a candidate that we could feel great about supporting against Bachmann. Of course, you are more than welcome to support Reed if you wish.
I wish I shared Pam’s optimism about Billy Kennedy’s chances. Virginia Foxx could finally stick her foot the rest of the way into her mouth and still get easily re-elected. North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District is solidly red-state — until the voters prove me wrong. Which I would like them to do.