There has been a lot of coverage on KOS about potential seats that could be gained in the House in the 2006 election, including
this most recent one by
DanfromRaisingKaine. I have never seen my district, Missouri's 2nd district, listed. I think we have a shot here this year.
The incumbent
Todd Akin has a horrible rubber-stamp
record of supporting the Bush administration, fighting against civil rights, against public health, against immigration, against unions, and Pro War and Torture. He naturally is also against campaign finance reform, since he's been staying in power with the help of
soft money neither his opponent in 2002
John Hogan nor his opponent in 2004
George Weber ran very strong campaigns.
MO's 2nd is made up of West St Louis county, St Charles county, and Lincoln county. Although Todd Akin won in 2004 with 65% of the vote, I think there is a real shot for a few reasons:
1 - As previously stated no one has tried hard to challenge Akin, and his large campaign chest in the past. This year we have two more strong candidates Charles Karam and my favorite Rich Lesh
2 - In 2004 West St Louis county was won by Kerry by 55%. In 2000 St. Charles county voted against Todd Akin. I believe there are a number of indicators that show the 2nd district could join the 1st and 3rd as a
Democratic district if the voters could be presented a strong candidate, and a strong argument of why Todd Akin has not been serving their interests.
3 - Even the 65% margin of victory in 2004 is less than some of the margins that incumbents listed as potential gains in DanfromRaisingKaine's diary had. If Missouri's 2nd can gain support from DailyKOS and others across the country we could be an even stronger 'potential' victory than many others already on the radar.
A poll,
according to the St. Louis Business Journal shows current feeling in the 2nd district going as much as 60% against Akin, without a specific Democrat candidate!
Rich Lesh faces a contested primary against Charles Karam, George Weber, and John Hogan. John and George have already demonstrated their inability to challenge Akin. I know Rich is a highly intelligent, passionate, motivated, and well spoken man, with strong family values, and even better, social morals. He cares about everyone in his district, not just large money contributors. He has been meeting with local democratic, union, social, and religious groups to raise awareness of his campaign. Rich's campaign will be organizing with the help of Blue Utopia, which helped organize Paul Hackett's moral victory in Ohio. Paul may have barely lost, but he proved even in a district thought to be staunchly republican, if there is a concerted effort to counter the financial/power imbalance given to the Republican candidates by corporate and special interests, they can be defeated. RBH has noted Rich Lesh's presence on a few diaries on here already:
What makes a candidate website good?
I think Rich has done a great job of putting together a compelling, and usable website compared to other Missouri candidates.
121 House Republicans vote for Torture!
Rich is not a supporter of torture.
Filing ends in Missouri
Rich was the only Democratic candidate on the radar until the end of filing, and is still the strongest. Some want to ignore this race because of the contested primary. They might want to note that Akin's seat is also being contested from the Republican side by Sherman Parker.
I am certain that here in MO's 2nd, if we can rally behind a single democratic candidate, and find a way to raise at least semi-comparable donations and volunteers as the Republicans candidates, we have a more than good chance to join the 1st and 3rd districts as True-Blue bastions of Democracy in Missouri. I think we can run an even stronger campaign than House ran against Akin in 2000. This is not Akin's year!
This post was not paid for or endorsed by Rich Lesh for Congress. I am posting it as an interested citizen, and a volunteer for the Rich Lesh for Congress campaign. Please see Rich's official page for information straight from the candidate. He also has a great calculator that breaks down the current public debt to your individual amount owed, that is updated every day directly from the Public Debt website.
Thanks for reading, and comments, suggestions, and any help for the campaign are more than welcome.