As you guys can tell I have been mostly writing about Minnesota's sixth congressional district race. This race will be the most contested in Minnesota for two reasons: First in 2004 it was
the most expensive in the state, and will probably be again. Secondly it is an open seat this time, hence the expensive part. Scotty Mortensen is running an
open campaign for supporters to get info or chime in their two cents. Well some of the opposing candidates, be it Republican or Democrat has been taking basically public info and calling it insider information on
Republican blogs
Love him or hate him
Scotty Mortensen is not afraid of the issues, or letting his views be known.
He put an open call to who ever was cross posting campaign info:
Here's a juicy one for you. I challenge Michele Bachmann to debate
me, regarding abortion and gay marriage. Anytime, anywhere. Let's
debate these issues. Instead of thinking it's any big deal you've
gained access to my public yahoo group. Since, my campaign group is
now a public forum, this should be on your website in about 10- 15
minutes.
So, let's get this debate out in the public forum on radio or television.
Michelle Bachmann is a Republican also running for the seat. She is very well known in Minnesota for her hard-line stance on banning gay marriage and overturning Rov v Wade.
Having an open campaign forum is a kind of cool idea. But people should realize that no major "insider information" would be made public. Most of the stuff in the group is ideas on how to get the message out, or campaign news that wouldn't really fit on the website. Purchasing new campaign software for example is not news that a lot of people want to read about unless they have great interest in the race.
But the reason I wanted to point some of this info out is that I really believe in candidates that show courage and are unwavering in there positions. Paul Hackett stood his ground and almost won in a gop stronghold, knowing he could be damaged on some issues and positions he had. But Hackett kept them anyway. Kerry was attacked with the whole "flip flop" garbage and it worked on some voters. We need to learn from that mistake. If people disagree it is one thing, but we cannot let them paint as undeceive with the issues. I think it is great Scotty Mortensen wants to get his views out in the open. It takes sharp teeth to take a bite out of political opponents.
I hope that Scott does get his debate. We need more men and women in Congress that are willing to fight for what they believe in. Some may say it is a foolish idea, but I don't think so.
Your thoughts?