I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine who's running for Congress here in Texas: John Courage. John is a school teacher from San Antonio, an air-force veteran, and a committed Democrat. He's running against Lamar Smith,
the man who has done more to erode civil liberties than any other single member of Congress. Oh yeah, he's Tom DeLay's good friend too!?!
You might have seen some blogs talking about Smith's confidential immigration policy memo to Karl Rove that leaked yesterday. There's a lot more about Lamar's nastyness here.
With his strong showing in the DFA grassroots balloting, Courage has emerged as the strongest netroots candidate in Texas this cycle. He's got a chance to win Democracy for America's "Grassroots Allstar" election. The winner will get an email sent to the entire nationwide DFA list, announcing their endorsement of him or her. Vote for him in the finals here: http://tools.democracyforamerica.com/housevote/
When I was selected in the first Dean Dozen in 2004, that ultimately meant more than $60,000 in contributions to my campaign by DFA members.
More importantly it meant priceless volunteer support from DFA members across Texas and the country. John's success in making the top ten has already significantly raised his profile nation-wide. An outright win will put him into the top tier of congressional challengers.
Even the Texas Democratic establishment realizes that we need to make a run for every seat in 2006 John must show strong grassroots support and fundraising to attract the big money which will help him send Lamar Smith out to pasture.
John has a very real chance to win -- the district was redrawn in 2003 and now almost half the votes come from heavily Democratic Travis County, including the University of Texas at Austin campus. If you believe in the Texas netroots and that we're going to turn this state blue again, please support John Courage in the DFA Grassroots challenge.
Click here to vote: http://tools.democracyforamerica.com/housevote/