Have you no sense of loyalty, DCCC?
The DCCC is after Christine Cegelis again.
A couple of months ago, I posted and sent to my mailing lists some information about Christine, including the fact that the DCCC was trying to recruit a millionaire for her district, the Illinois 6th. Never mind that Christine got 44% of the vote AGAINST HENRY HYDE, for God's sake, in 2004. And with a budget of only $100,000. The reason for the paltry budget is that she apparently had NO HELP AT ALL from the DCCC or the national party. They didn't think any Democrat could come so close to winning in that district, so why waste the money?
Christine's success against Hyde may have played a large part in his decision to retire. And the DCCC expressed its gratitude, not by backing her this time around, but by trying to recruit a "self funder" to run against her in a Democratic primary, meaning someone with a lot of personal wealth. I, for one, don't want more millionaires in Congress. I want fewer of them. They have no idea what most of us have to deal with, living day to day and month to month.
So the DCCC told Christine to raise $150,000. She raised $160,000. But now THAT'S not enough, either! Look at this, from The Hill, published a few days ago:
Democrats are urgently seeking an alternative candidate to Christine Cegelis (D) in Illinois's 6th District, as worries mount that Cegelis doesn't have the money to beat state Sen. Peter Roskam (R) in 2006.
Instead of helping Christine, the DCCC is trying to undermine her. Again. Never mind that the Democratic organizations in the district support Christine. She's been campaigning with them for more than two years. Never mind that she did what was asked of her. So what is this REALLY about? In discussing a potential Democratic rival for Christine, Hotline has this to say, "if she [the rival] runs on a centrist/pro-business economic platform without being reflexively anti-war -- this has the potential to be an interesting candidacy." (Thanks to David Sirota for this tip.)
Do YOU think the only platform that can make for an interesting Democratic candidacy is one that is centrist, pro-business, and not "reflexively" anti-war?
What is "centrist", anyway? I keep saying that 60 to 80% of Americans agree with us progressives on the most important issues--the ones that affect our liveliehoods. That makes US the centrists. BY DEFINITION.
As to the war in Iraq, those of us who are against the war are in the majority now. Not only that, 57% of Americans believe George Bush misled us to promote his war It seems to me that anyone who is reflexively NOT anti-war is the one who is out of the mainstream. Bush and the Republican Party are in serious trouble, and Christine is a candidate who will not hesitate to criticize their anti-ordinary person agenda. We need more people like Christine in Congress.
I don't work for the Cegelis campaign, but I HATE what's being done to Christine. If you hate it, too, then please do three things:
- Write a message to Rahm Emanuel (dccc@dccc.org) to tell him what you think of this disloyalty. Be polite, please, so that your message will have a better chance of being read. You can also call: 202-863-1500. If we want to make the Democratic Party democratic, we're going to have to bury them in messages, telling them what we want and what we don't want.
- Contribute to Christine Cegelis' campaign. If we want to make the Democratic Party democratic, we're going to have to pony up for the candidates we like, and not leave the field to the millionaire "self funders".
- Pass this information on to other like-minded folks.
Who runs this party, anyway?
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