One of the most gratifying aspects of having a truly national party, one with an actual 50-state strategy, is that it emboldens candidates to stand up for progressive values even in historically conservative territory. It is especially gratifying when serious candidates are able to do this, and when they are able to sell progressive ideas in such a way that conservative voters can embrace them.
Judy Baker is just such a candidate. A state representative from Columbia, Missouri, Baker is running to be the next Congresswoman from an R+6.5 district, one represented of late by current Republican gubernatorial candidate Kenny Hulshof. This district gave President Bush 59% of the vote in 2004, and had not seen a competitive race since Hulshof ousted Democratic Rep. Harold Volkmer in 1996.
Judy Baker has spent over twenty years working in the health care industry, and founded her own healthcare consulting firm in 2002. Affordable and accessible health care has been her signature issue in the Missouri Legislature and during her campaign for the U.S. House.
During her campaign, she has succeeded in couching progressive ideas in common-sense terms. She talks openly about her faith (she is a deacon in her church, where her husband is pastor), stressing that it is precisely her faith which propels her to public service and to fighting for health care and economic reform. She is an adjuct professor of economics at Columbia College, and she opposes the Bush Administration's failed economic policies. She has stated her support for middle-class tax relief, as well as her opposition to any bailout plan which does not provide Congressional oversight, taxpayer equity and which includes CEO compensation.
She's a strong advocate for veterans' affairs, having grown up in a military family. She is a proponent of investing in alternative energy, providing quality education, and investing in stem-cell research.
In other words, Judy Baker is the kind of representative we would be lucky to have anywhere, let alone in solidly red territory like Missouri's Ninth. She is able to run there, and run strongly, because she understands this critical truth; those in conservative areas are hit just as hard by the downfall of the Bush economy, if not harder, than everybody else. Those in conservative districts have precisely the same trouble getting decent health insurance as anyone else does. And that has been the centerpiece of her campaign.
Now, her opponent, Blaine Luetkemeyer, is a standard right-wing lackey. He's for all the usual things...he loves the Bush tax cuts, opposes SCHIP expansion, trumpets his Right to Life credentials, opposes a path to citizenship as part of immigration reform. He's also an ardent supporter of privatizing Social Security, even after the financial meltdown illustrates to one and all how very bad an idea this is.
The DCCC has a nice ad on Luetkemeyer's idiocy, in fact:
And while Judy Baker campaigns on getting the economy working for the middle class again and creating decent jobs for American families, Luetkemeyer has backed precisely the kind of reckless financial deregulation and speculation which cause the economic crisis in the first place; he sponsored 2003 legislation which deregulated the banking industry in Missouri, a move which looks exceptionally bad in retrospect.
So the choice in Missouri's Ninth is one between a progressive candidate taking the fight to previously unchallenged areas of the country, or a right-winger who represents the same failed policies of the past eight years.
Can Baker win? She certainly can. Her internals from August showed her leading Luetkemeyer 41% to 38%, and a Research 2000 poll for Daily Kos showed her within single digits of the Republican. She enjoys the support of the DCCC and EMILY's List as well. As the economic crisis continues, Baker has a terrific opportunity to demonstrate the very substantial differences between herself and her opponent on economic reform, and to present her populist vision for the American economy to the voters of her district.
We're fortunate to have a candidate like her in this district, and we're happy to add her to Orange to Blue. With your help, Baker can bring progressive Democratic representation into red territory.
On the web:
Judy Baker for Congress
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