The re-drawing of Congressional District 21 last week has pushed John Courage's
campaign into the open election stage, and today perennial candidate Gene Kelly filed to run against him. Please
support John today in defeating Kelly!
You might remember Kelly as the infamous challenger to Barbara Ann Radnofsky that caused her to get into an expensive run-off in April. Prior to that, Kelly had made several other ineffective runs for U.S. Senate, but refused to actually campaign. Instead, Kelly swindles votes out of "name recognition," but not recognition received from his own successes but rather from the successes of actor Gene Kelly, who starred in Singin' in the Rain in the 1950s and died ten years ago!
Even more cringe-worthy, on February 17, 2006, Kelly told the Houston Chronicle that he refuses to spend any money on his races. "If somebody sends me a dollar, I send it back," he said in a rare interview. Sadly enough, Kelly's platform of "name recognition" does get him some votes. The run-off between him and Radnofsky proves this, and was a drain on her campaign's funds.
Furthermore, it was reported in the Chronicle that Kelly "shuns invitations to appear at candidate forums and bypasses opportunities to lay out his campaign ideas." He balked at the newspaper's suggestion that, as a candidate, he may have a responsibility to partake in a dialogue with voters!
Compare this to John Courage, who has campaigned tirelessly for over a year and a half, traveling his district far and wide to meet face-to-face with voters and discuss their concerns. In March, John left his full-time job in order to devote more time to his campaign.
Kelly has shown Texans time and time again that he has no desire to lead, and he has made it clear that the only intention that led him to file for candidacy is to disrupt the democratic process and, in the process, gain attention for himself.
Now, Kelly has set out to disrupt John's race. But Team Courage has been waging a serious battle against Lamar Smith for far too long to see everything we've built up be halted by a nuisance like Gene Kelly.
Please join Team Courage in defeating Kelley in the open election by using our new online tools and donating today! Let's let Kelly know that we won't be intimidated by his childish ploys for attention.
Meredith Adams, John Courage for Congress