On behalf of Team Courage, and from the bottom of my own heart, I want to say THANK YOU to the blogosphere, the Netroots, and all of the voters who helped me win another online victory yesterday. At 7:01 p.m. EST, we learned that we were one of the three winners in John Kerry's PAC's
"3 at the Buzzer" poll. Along with my fine Democratic colleagues, Senate candidate Jim Webb and congressional candidate Dan Seals, we are honored to have garnered the most online votes in the field of 17 Netroots candidates, terrific challengers all.
The prize is to be featured in Sen. Kerry's final fundraising email of this election season. With more than 3 million email recipients in his list, Sen. Kerry can give us a major boost at this critical point in the campaign.
We began our effort 16 months ago, and since then we have been supported and recognized by Democrats and progressives from across the country as a leading campaign for change. From our first election as
Democracy for America's first Grassroots All-Star late in 2005, to our election as
Russ Feingold's Progressive Patriots Fund's first Progressive Patriot, to being chosen one of
Mark Warner's Map Changers, to today's recognition by voters on
JohnKerry.com as one of the
"3 at the Buzzer", it's been a wild and wonderful experience.
The support our team has earned in the blogosphere has enabled us to mount a formidable campaign against one of the worst Republicans in the U.S. House: Lamar Smith, the ENABLER. Smith is a member of the House Ethics Committee who has stood by and allowed the corruption in Congress, the despicable acts of Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, and Mark Foley to go virtually unchallenged by the Republican leadership.
Smith virtually bought his seat on the Ethics Committee (to the tune of $10,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund) by supporting DeLay when several of his Republican colleagues had voted to admonish DeLay and were subsequently removed from the committee. We're not letting Smith off for his inaction and ineptitude; we're running a new TV ad, "Lamar Smith: The Enabler," throughout the district, in large part thanks to your generous support.
While we are honored to fight this fight, to permanently retire Lamar Smith and to help the Democratic Party take the leadership of the House from the hands of the incompetent and corrupt Republican leadership, I want to remind all of you that it is not over yet. We hope every progressive in America will step up and become part of Team Courage over the last few days of the campaign and ensure that the job is completed on November 7th. Please go to our website www.CourageforCongress.org and find out how you can help from anywhere across the blogosphere, or contribute through ActBlue.com.
And remember: at times like these, Congress needs Courage!
John Courage
Democratic Candidate for U.S. Congress, TX-21