The
Crashing the States team has departed from the Northern Virginia and DC region to move forward with our next adventures! We want to send out
HUGE thank-you to Lowell, Josh and the entire Webb campaign--as well as all the local bloggers we met--for being so nice to us and giving us so much of their time. We had an absolutely amazing time with you all!
We're just now leaving the Philadelphia area to head up to Linda Stender's campaign in NJ-07, where we will attend the rally with Max Cleland tomorrow.
But first things first: a recap of our time with the campaigns of the local Fighting Dems: Joe Sestak in PA-07, and Patrick Murphy in PA-08! And as a special added bonus: TWO LOCAL PHILADELPHIA SPIDERS!! With PICTURES!
We got into Philly from Alexandria--after paying over $10 in tolls and briefly driving through a section of Delaware--very late Thursday night. We met with Adam Bonin--our own
Adam B--to talk about the latest legal issues regarding the blogosphere, and how campaign finance regulations are currently affecting the the development of political activism in the blogosphere. Philadelphia has its share of scenic points, and we met at one of them--Rittenhouse square in the middle of downtown.
We also stopped by to talk to Chris Bowers about his role in the blogofascisphere. To make it look as geeky as possible, we both decided to bring out our laptops and our wireless internet connections and do some blogging from the front porch!
After our time with Chris Bowers, we attended some events with Joe Sestak--first at an African American community church, and then at the Clifton Heights Democratic Party candidate night.
(Admiral Sestak adressing members of the Careview Community Church)
Now, I'm assuming that you all know about this race, but if you don't, it's very exciting. Joe Sestak is a fighting Dem who served in the Navy for 31 years, and attended YearlyKos. His opponent, ultra corrupt incumbent Republican Curt Weldon, has never won the district by less than 19 points--but as of this moment, this race is a statistical dead heat!
We got the chance to ask the Admiral about his appearance at YearlyKos and his support from the netroots, and he was very enthusiastic about everything the netroots has added to his campaign, both in terms of energy, volunteer work and financial support.
But you know what's just as exciting? The atmosphere at the Clifton Heights Democratic Party candidate night. I spent some time talking to the organizers of the event, and they said that in previous years, they usually only have 20 people attend the event--but this time, there were at least 3 times that number in attendance. There's a large revitalization of the Democratic Party in the air, and it's not just for federal candidates. There were a few candidates for state legislature offices who told me that the Democrats in Pennsylvania have a better chance than ever at ending the long-lasting Republican control of the legislature and giving Ed Rendell a legislature he can work with.
(for local blogging about the PA-07 race, visit PA7watch.)
AND NOW FOR PA-08!!
Patrick Murphy is another one of our fighting Dems--an Iraq War veteran and constitutional lawyer who's running against freshman incumbent Mike Fitzpatrick, who is one of the worst enemies of net neutrality and blogger's rights in the current congress.
According to the DCCC blog, The Stakeholder, Murphy is in a tight race with Fitzpatrick, trailing 43-38 in a head-to-head matchup.
At the beginning of the day, we stopped by the University of Pennsylvania on our way over to the Murphy campaign to pick up PsiFighter37--who is one of my favorite bloggers, and a fellow frontpager on DenyMyFreedom--and had him hitch a ride with our crew to the Murphy campaign headquarters:
And while were there, we received a very pleasant surprise--Patrick Murphy himself stopped by the campaign headquarters! We were originally not expecting to see Patrick on the trip, as we had been told that he would be in private events coinciding with the duration of our stay in Pennsylvania. But despite his busy schedule, he graciously gave us some time and talked to us about his campaign, what's important to him, and how he was one of the first to receive an official netroots endorsement.
What impressed me the most about Patrick Murphy's campaign when I visited was how much young people are getting involved. I heard that a group of students from UPenn comes every weekend to canvass for Murphy. Also, a group from Smith College in Rhode Island (if I'm not mistaken) was in town to do some canvassing. Patrick Murphy's campaign is really inspiring the youth in the area, which is really exciting to see.
We're currently staying with Goldberry in New Jersey--it's a scenic area out here.
But before I go--I promsed everyone last week that every Friday I would do some spiders. Unfortunately, I didn't make it around to writing a diary last night, so here are...
TWO PHILADELPHIA SPIDERS!!
I submit to you my first offering. This spider is definitely in the theridiidae family. My current thinking is that this is an Achaearanea tepidariorum--but I can't be certain of it. Usually, A. tepidariorum--the common house spider--has a more bulbous abdomen--but the coloration is the same. Then again, it could be an immature L. mactans--the Eastern Black Widow, which is also in the theridiidae family of spiders. One is completely harmless, and the other is very dangerous, but they are very closely related.
And I found this on the car on our way out. I'll be quite frank. I have no idea what it is. The only thing I know about it is that it's a spider.