Larry Kissell was a high school history teacher who came to Daily Kos in April 2006, asking for our support in his run for Congress. The netroots came through big for him, but he lost his race by a few hundred votes. Kissell came back to us over and over to raise money. He won in 2008. And he then turned on working people and voted "no" on the health care reform bill. Voted with the Republicans repeatedly when it most mattered.
Yesterday, the SEIU turned in more than enough signatures to get Kissell's former deputy district coordinator on the ballot in November against him as an independent candidate.
The Service Employees International Union said Thursday that it has turned in the thousands of signatures necessary to qualify an independent candidate to run against Rep. Larry Kissell (D-N.C.).
SEIU submitted more than 34,000 signatures in North Carolina to qualify Wendell Fant as a candidate against Kissell. Only 17,000 were needed to qualify Fant to run this coming November.
The Hill
His first diary was in April 2006: NC-08: I'm Larry Kissell and You CAN Make a Difference!
NC-08: I'm Larry Kissell and You CAN Make a Difference!
by Larry Kissell [Subscribe]
Thu Apr 27, 2006 at 06:32:22 AM PDT
I'm Larry Kissell, and I'm running for Congress.
It may be corny, but I really do believe that one person can make a difference -- and that is why I'm running.
You can review all of his diaries here: Larry Kissell
SEIU is fighting the good fight here:
"These families are looking for leaders who are going to stand side-by-side with them and fight for their interests," Lori Lodes, a SEIU spokeswoman, said in a statement. "And that's what this effort is about — giving North Carolinians a choice to vote for someone who understands where they are coming from and can take their voice to Congress."
snip
The support of an independent candidate against Kissell shows the labor movement is not backing down from challenging Democrats this year, despite seeing Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) fend off a union-backed challenger this week.
The Hill
More from David Dayden (DDay):
SEIU has drafted Fant for this, but there is no wall of separation between the two. Fant has been aware of the draft effort and hasn’t discouraged it. As he is not a current candidate, SEIU can support the draft effort without running into any contribution limits for signature gathering.
Once Fant decides to become a candidate – and he must affirmatively make that decision by filing the petitions – then it becomes a more traditional campaign. "I don’t know what his decision will be, but we have created the conditions where he has more than enough signatures to be a candidate and if he wants to, we will have successfully drafted him into the race," said SEIU’s Matt Browner-Hamlin.
SEIU Drafting Former Kissell Staffer to Run Against Him in General Election
Meanwhile Kissell has lowered himself to filing an ethics complaint against Fant for using a government computer TO FILE A VETERANS ADMINSTRATION CLAIM!
In a letter to the chair of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, Kissell said Fant had broken House rules by using his official title and government computer to work on his own Veterans Administration case.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/...
As DDay says:
As for the ethics complaint, the more you think about it, "using a government-issued computer" for filing a VA claim is about the weakest complaint I’ve ever seen. Let he who has never used a work computer for anything but work activities cast the first stone.
SEIU Drafting Former Kissell Staffer to Run Against Him in General Election
Kissell neeeds to lose. Period. When the Fant camapign has a Act Blue page up, I'll be there to contribute.
It's time to send this blue dog back home.
Update I: As Marcus Graly points out in the comments, Kissell is not a formal member of the Blue Dog group in the house. He votes like one, though.