This has been a long time coming:
Vets.org PAC, the largest political group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans that has endorsed nine such veterans for Congress, is announcing seven new endorsements today.
If the Bush administration and the obstructionist Republicans in the Senate are paying attention, they’ll get the lesson here: When you start stupid wars and continually misuse and abuse the military, you’ll get veterans coming out of the woodwork to oppose you.
This brings our total card up to 16 military veteran candidates for 2008. And, as you’ll see below, some of our new candidates are well known Kossacks.
But we’re doing it with a twist: We’re holding a one-week runoff in which members will choose among them to determine which of these seven candidates will receive a $5,000 contribution from VoteVets. According to our press release:
The runoff, which begins today at VoteVets.org, will be open for voting for one week. Anyone that is currently a supporter of VoteVets.org, or those who sign up, will be eligible to vote once in the runoff.
Jon Soltz explained it this way in the release:
"One of the most frequent requests we get from supporters is to open up our endorsement process to veterans who may not have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, but still bring the unique qualities and judgment that only a veteran has," said Jon Soltz, Iraq War veteran and chairman of VoteVets.org. "As a member-driven group, we wanted to oblige and endorse these fine veterans of different eras. At the same time, we wanted to open up the process for our supporters, so they could choose which candidate will receive the maximum contribution we could give them."
So without further adieu, here they are:
Jill Morgenthaler, IL-4
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Eric Massa, NY-29
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Charlie Brown, CA-4
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Mike Lumpkin, CA-52
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Steve Sarvi, MN-2
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Bill Cahir, PA-5
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Doug Denneny, VA-11
Remember the VoteVets runoff is for anyone, so if you support one of these candidates (or you’d just like to learn more about them) please visit VoteVets.org and place your vote.