I previously made this offer in
howgroovy's diary last Friday. I've done a wee bit of digging since then, and so far as I can tell, we've still got no Dem candidate running in Wisconsin's 6th District, making it the
only uncontested Congressional District in Wisconsin. So I repeat now what I said then...
This is the district I actually live in by about 1/2 a mile, represented by that wholly owned subsidiary of Walgreen's known as Tom Petri... Jef Hall gave him a real race last time around, but so far as I've heard has other fish to fry this coming year, being newly ensconsed in the state party hierarchy and all (and a good thing, too).
We really do need to get someone to run against Petri, if only to once again try to keep him honest and run a full slate in Wisconsin. I'd do it myself, but the combination of time commitments next spring and summer and the fun-but-nasty skeletons in my closet preclude that....
But here it is, folks, here's the gauntlet thrown down...
To anyone who will run against Tom Petri, I hereby pledge the following:
1. 1/2 of my maximum donation to a federal candidate (you do the math -- I'd do the whole thing, but I've only got so much cash to throw around)
2. Every bit of experience I've picked up from running campaigns, writing campaign plans, yadda yadda
3. Every spare moment of my time from mid-August through Election Day.
Note: I'm not pledging completely unconditional support here. You have to be willing to actually make the effort, no matter how uphill the chances. You have to be a theoretically viable candidate (one definition of which would be "not a freakish-Alan-Keyes-carpetbagging losing-thousands-of-votes-every-time-you-open-your-mouth type").
But if we're going to be an opposition party around here, we need to get busy with that whole "opposing" idea.
If you're interested in at least exploring the possibility, reply here, or e-mail me at wilco920 at yahoo dot com. Also reply if you know that this is already being worked on and I'm just behind the curve...
And if you're not from this district but like the idea, consider either spreading the word on this effort or starting your own if you're from (or live close to) a similarly unopposed district.
Here's to 435 Democratic Congressional candidates in 2006...