Welcome to the
fifth state of the Crashing the States project! Well--four states and one district, I guess.
Today's entry takes us away from Philadelphia and takes us to the 7th district of New Jersey, where we met and talked to Linda Stender, who is running for Congress against ultra-wingnut Bush supporter Mike Ferguson.
Even better, we happened to arrive on a day that war hero Max Cleland--who would most likely still be the sitting Senator from Georgia had it not been for the shenanigans pulled by Diebold in the '02 Senate race--was in town for a rally with Linda.
Below the fold, you'll find photos, as well as the latest updates from the ground on the Linda Stender campaign!
Right now, I'm sitting outside on
Goldberry's back porch, talking with her and Rosi of
Blue Jersey. We're staying with Goldberry tonight before leaving for NYC, where we will be attending Brian Keeler's Blograiser! Here are Goldberry (center) and Rosi (left), pictured below, talking with a vet at the rally with Max Cleland:
The rally with Stender and Cleland took place at a local American Legion post, with just about every seat filled in the audience:
There's something awfully inspiring about seeing a man with only one limb--a war hero, no less--wheel himself into an auditorium to a standing ovation:
And then, you get really angry when you think back to what the Republican Party--the party that likes to wrap itself up in the flag, the party that likes to claim unequivocal support from the military, the party that likes to claim it promotes democracy--did to this man. They took this war hero, and morphed him into Osama bin Laden in a TV ad. And then they secretly altered the code in the voting machines in the election in which he was defeated--with no state oversight.
It was the first time I had ever seen Senator Cleland in person, and seeing his personal strength, and the will of his personality, the smile on his face, made me all the more angry at the cabal of soulless people that could feel a sense of accomplishment at smearing and cheating an American hero.
Cleland came out on fire. He started with a hard-hitting joke on the administration:
You know, I didn't get injured in Vietnam. I actually went duckhunting with Dick Cheney.
The good part is that now, at least someone in this administration has some combat experience.
And he wasn't through. Oh no. Not by a long shot. You see, Mike Ferguson is the rare breed of wingnut who believes in a constitutional amendment to criminalize abortion--even in cases of rape or incest. And Max Cleland told him exactly where he could put it.
You see, Mike Ferguson wants to criminalize rape victims, but he won't do anything about the people that are raping and screwing this country.
Cleland also took the Bush administration to task for ignoring the counsel of Shinseki, Franks and Powell and invading with only 150,000 troops; for failing to fund the VA while spending $8 billion a month in Iraq; for failing to provide our troops the proper equipment; and for just about every other abuse of the military that this administration has systematically engaged in since it usurped the reins of power.
Linda Stender got up and gave a similar layout of the facts, specifically regarding Mike Ferguson's sellout policies of supporting the Bush Administration at nearly every turn.
Linda made points about how Mike "support the troops" Ferguson had voted with Bush 93% of the time during his tenure in Congress, but had only an 8% favorability rating from associations of disabled veterans after having agreed to every single cut in VA funding proposed by the Bush administration. About $1.5 billion a week for Iraq, but not enough money for the VA--and that that is completely misplaced priorities.
Linda also mentioned Mike Ferguson's opposition to stem cell research, and many other completely wingnut positions he has taken during his time in Congress.
After the speeches, Gary and I got the chance to meet the two featured speakers:
We asked Linda about the current state of the campaign against Mike Ferguson. She told us that they're finishing up an internal poll this week to be released next week, and that while she doesn't have any official numbers, she knows from her previous campaigns for state legislator that she's getting a higher percentage of favorable responses than she normally gets for her campaigns, which is a good sign. We'll have to wait until the actual poll is released, but it may well show Stender within striking distance.
And Ferguson hasn't been doing himself any favors. He's been going around with this silly "Stender is a spender" rhyme for his campaign. Which is stupid, because not only does it seem childish, but the American people--even under the current conditions--understand perfectly which party is wasting their money in Congress right now. Not to mention--as an incumbent candidate, why would you want to mention your opponent by name and give your opponent added name recognition? I have no comment on the stupidity of the Ferguson campaign. The campaign also gave us a little insight into their anticipated quarterly funding report. While they didn't release exact numbers, they said that they're right on track with their desires.
After the event wrapped up, I began to wonder what it must feel like to be a Republican--being wrapped in the flag, but with all the brass already having left the building. It must feel a little like this:
This race hasn't gotten some of the same national attention that other races have gotten, but I think--especially depending on the poll results--that the Democrats have a good pick-up opportunity here.
For one thing, the district is not heavily Republican--in 2004, it only went for Bush 53-47. And this is far from a Republican year. In addition, Mike Ferguson is one of the most scandal-plagued Congresscritters on the block: the largest FEC fine in history, connections with Abramoff and TRMPac, and even an incident where he apparently harassed some female students at a bar in Georgetown when he was drunk.
Furthermore, as I explained earlier, Ferguson's values are completely out of touch with a purple district. Ferguson opposed stem cell research, and favors a constitutional amendment to criminalize abortion. So not only is Mike Ferguson one of the most corrupt members of Congress, his views hardly represent the beliefs of his constituents anyway. So it seems like a good pickup opportunity.
That concludes things for NJ-07! Tomorrow evening Crashing the States will attend the Brian Keeler blograiser! See you there!
(For local blogging about NJ-07, visit Blue Jersey and DumpMike.)