If the drunken pro-Iraq war ravings of Christoper Hitchens irk you, I have a suggestion on how to get some payback on the only known surviving Trotskyite basher of Mother Teresa.
Tonight six members of the Democratic House leadership (Reps Hoyer, Emanuel, Van Hollen, Davis, Mollohan, and Rahall) are hosting a fundraiser (event info) for the candidate they have personally recruited to flip WV-02 from Red to Blue: WV State Senator John Unger (ungerforconress.org)
Why will this drive a pill up Hitch's wazoo? Not only is John Unger an anti-war progressive with a real shot at winning this historically Democratic district; as a college student Unger spent a year working for Mother Teresa.
I kid you not! Check out the picture at start of main body of text.
Annoy Hitch! Donate here (actblue link) then read on for more info on Unger's great takeover opportunity.
First, on the off chance anyone would like to trot off to a fundraising event in DC in the next few hours, the event will be held today, Monday, 24 September from 6-8 PM.
The address is:
417 New Jersey Ave SE
Washington DC 2003
Now here's the picture proving John Unger worked with Mother Teresa. NOPE! I can't make it work. It is up on senatorunger.org. That'll make y'all loon into him anyway.
With that out of the way, I am not going to go into great detail in this diary. Instead I am going to refer you to posts on other sites in which I and others are touting this opportunity we can't afford to let pass.
On Swing State Project, I posted this verbose analysis (link to analysis) of the race laying out the case for the incumbent Wall Street Journal Republican Shelley Capito's vulnerability and why State Senator Unger is uniquely positioned to defeat her.
This race has been more than ably dissected by the good folks at West Virginia Blue (WVaBlue link).
So I will limit my sales pitch to noting that WV-02 is one of the very few opportunites we have in the 2008 cycle for to flip a Republican-held House seat for the following reasons:
- Democrats' voter registration percentage in this distirct is over 60 percent.
- Incumbent Republican Capito has seen her own vote percentage fall with each successive election. Her ceiling had fallen from 60 percent in 2002 to 59 in 2004 to 57 in 2006.
- Her victory margin is increasingly dependent on her performance in the district's Eastern Panhandle as her support has eroded in the main body of the state. Considering the increased Democratic turnout in Presidential election years compared to off-year cycles, Capito will have to increase her share of the vote in Berkeley County (the most populous and fastest growing county in the Panhandle) from the 68% she pulled down in 2006 to 79 percent in 2008. This is a difficult task rendered impossible by the next reason listed.
- In 2008 she will be facing Senator Unger, a proven vote-getter as a Democrat in the Republican-friendly Eastern Panhandle. Unger, running as a progressive Democrat, earned over 63 percent of the total vote in the GOP stronghold of Berkeley County. In the rest of his district, he ran even stronger (better than two to one at 67 percent).
- After morphing from a pro-choice Republican she was in her early political career into a reliably pro-life vote (30 percent from NARAL, checked off as opposing abortion except in the case of rape, incest and to protect the life of the woman in her NPAT for Project Vote Smart), Capito has flipped back to pro-choice. After more than a decade of giving lip service to the pro-life movement (strong in this district...a plurality of DEMOCRATIC voters self-describe as pro-life), Capito joined the House Republican Pro-Choice Caucus and PAC.
Capito has left her flank wide open for a Caseyesque (or in WV terms Manchinesque) pro-life Democrat to bring back home the folks we have lost over the last 25 years on social issues. Without abortion fragmenting Democratic values voters, it will be nearly impossible for Capito to assemble a winning coalition in historically Democratic WV-02.
And John Unger is just such a candidate. And his stand on abortion is one deeply rooted in his faith (remember he did work for Mother Teresa) rather than the cynical political calculation it appears to have been for Capito. Unlike his opponent, Unger's concern for the unborn does not end the moment they are delivered.
So, imagine an anti-war, pro-life Democrat like Unger running a well-financed and organized race against an increasingly vulnerable incumbent tied to every corruption scandal in recent years who just did her SECOND change of sides on abortion. And remember pro-life Democratic Governor Joe Manchin will be cruising to a landslide reelection against only token GOP opposition. Throw into that the probability Planned Parenthood donor Giuliani will be in one of the top two spots on the Republican national ticket.
With Manchin and Unger we can wedge the living hell out of the values voters who have provided the Republican margin both in West Virginia, the Ohio Valley generally, and nationally. We can help flip WV back at the presidential level as well as taking back a Democratic seat.
Is there any reason for folks on either side... pro-choice or pro-life... to trust Capito again? She has demonstrated her promises and convictions are purely tidal. In contrast we have a man with an electoral base in Capito's most vital region who embodies compassion in action and firmness of conviction.
We need to jump on the bandwagon for this race. We blew a shot at Capito when the national party and organizations stayed out of this district until way too late (no money until the weekend before Election Day 2006) despite Capito being tied to every major Republican scandal (implcated in the Safavian phase of the Abramoff scandal, top recipient of ARMPAC funds, see-no-evil member of the Page Board in the Foley scandal.
Despite outspending her Democratic challenger Mike Callaghan by $3,000,000 to $50,000 on mediia, she fell two points from her previous cycle numbers.
Even with the disgraceful lack of institutional support for the Callaghan challenge, Capito nearly fell below the 55 percent figure which redflags an incumbent's vulnerability.
It is a credit to the six members of the House leadership that they have recognized the mistake they made in 2006 and are working to correct it this cycle. The emphasis being placed on John Unger's bid is strikingly reflected by the fact his campaign is one of Rahm Emanuel's "Six Pack": one of only six challengers to who Rahm Emanuel, the architect of our 2006 victory, has contributed to in the 2008 cycle (so far).
Now that the House leadership is getting on board, I hope the Netroots will not be far behind. We left this seat on the table last fall. We should not make the same mistake this cycle.
We picked all the low-hanging fruit in 2006. And we have a few seats we won we are going to be hard-pressed to hold again in 2008 facing unindicted Republicans running on friendly ground. We need to pluck a few Republican-held seats to offset some seats we may end up losing back to the GOP.
WV-02 and John Unger offer us a fantastic chance to pick the GOP's pockets. We simply must invest in Unger's bid