Today, the eighth largest newspaper in the United States,
The Philadelphia Inquirer, introduced
Chuck Pennacchio's U.S. Senate campaign to over 750,000 people.
"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win."
-- M Gandhi
I would say we are now somewhere inbetween steps 2 and 3. And regardless of the final tally on primary day we will win. We have no choice but to win, because as the article points out, this campaign is about "fighting for a rebirth of the Democratic Party."
It is a fight we cannot afford to lose--no matter what establishment figures choose to ignore, laugh, or fight us.
You can read the piece in its entirety
here (subscription only online)
Here are some of the highlights:
Pennacchio, a Darby native, said he would mesh the Internet with the skills he honed as a political consultant and an organizer in the 1980s on three U.S. Senate campaigns, including those of Tom Harkin of Iowa and Timothy E. Wirth of Colorado.
He devises his strategy out of the basement of the Plumsteadville Grange, an organization that promotes rural living and agriculture. An air mattress hugs the wall. A sign on the door screams "BELIEVE."
The article does tend to focus a bit much on the campaign's Internet outreach. However, it also does a relatively decent job of capturing the "personal feel" of the campaign, the candidate, our emphasis on offline organizing, and the heavy-handed tactiics of the Democratic Party in their attempt to clear the field for Bobby Casey Jr.
Aiming for something larger than party nuisance, Pennacchio contends he is in the race to unseat incumbent Republican Rick Santorum, and there's nothing Democratic leaders can do to bump him aside, as they did with former state Treasurer Barbara Hafer and former U.S. Rep. Joseph M. Hoeffel.
"They can't touch me," said Pennacchio, 45, a Plumsteadville, Bucks County, resident and history program director at Philadelphia's University of the Arts. "They have nothing I want. I want a rebirth of the Democratic Party as a whole. I am not looking for patronage, a job, a career."
The piece continues, addressing stage three: "then they fight you." It highlights, for the first time in the mainstream media, that the Casey campaign is actively fighting us, online, as the establishment continues to deny our existence offline.
Casey's campaign, only three weeks old, has taken notice.
It hit Google with paid ad links, Internet yard signs of sorts that flash Casey's Web address in the right column when users search for "Chuck Pennacchio." It hired a Washington firm, M&R Strategic Services, to launch an "aggressive" Internet operation that includes reaching out to bloggers for support, said Marc Farinella, Casey's campaign adviser.
"Regardless of who our opponent would be," Farinella said, "we would be devising our Internet strategy right now."
Yeah, right. Nice try Marc. That wouldn't be so transparent if your first piece of outreach to the blogosphere wasn't a lecture filled with missives about electability and plea to toss aside issue differences in the name of defeating Rick Santorum.
Why make that argument if we didn't exist? Good effort though.
I would say that the only negative part of the piece was the headline (which was better in the print version). While we will always trumpet the campaign's willingness to talk directly to the grassroots, it is obvious the editor who probably spent thirty seconds thinking of a headline, doesn't get it, and thinks of two-way communication as nothing more than a novelty. Too bad.
The piece concludes by interviewing two bloggers. SheaBrianna of Urban Democracy and Daniel from Young Philly Politics. SheaBrianna has taken the time to organize our first ever Pittsburgh event this Friday night. And dare I say, she is doing a fantastic job.
This is just the beginning. We will use this exposure to create more exposure in the mainstream media, while never forgetting our (grass/net) roots.
Speaking to the people, without a filter, will always be what drives this campaign forward. Again, I ask you to aid our effort in creating a grassroots network across Pennsylvania with the goal of unseating Rick Santorum in November of 2006.
Thanks,
Tim
P.S. They did include a quote from me. A pretty obscure one. They took something I wrote on another non-campaign blog. Maybe you guys will get it. Unfortunately, most Inquirer readers won't.
"Wherever you look - we'll be there. Like a bad pop-up ad for the University of Phoenix," Pennacchio's 28-year-old blogging guru, Tim Tagaris, wrote on one Web site, referencing that school's Internet saturation.