John Boehner's never had a contested reelection before-- and with the DCCC solely concerned with saving the seats of a bunch of worthless Blue Dogs whose voting records have soured Democratic voters... well, it looked like Boehner would skate into office unopposed again this year. But people didn't reckon on a tenacious and determined young West Point grad, Justin Coussoule. The DCCC, of course, has no interest at all, Coussoule being both grassroots oriented and a progressive. And that's where we stepped in. With the generous help of this community, Blue America managed to raise around $16,000 in small donations for a little billboard campaign in western Ohio's largely Independent 8th congressional district. $16,000? What can that accomplish? It costs a million to win a House seat!
Good point. If you know someone who can write a check for a million, I think the Supreme Court has made it legal to do that now. Have them send it to:
The Blue America PAC
PO Box 27201
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Short of that, we figured we could help jump-start the efforts of progressives in western Ohio who back Coussoule by helping to get his race noticed by the mainstream media. Buying ads on TV... the DCCC is spending around $750,000 on each of its anti-Choice, anti-gay, anti-healthcare reform Blue Dogs... not something we could do effectively. And Boehner, one of the most corrupt Members of Congress in history, has virtually unlimited corporate resources. So we decided on putting up a $4,500 billboard on a busy highway a few miles from Boehner's gated golfing community in West Chester right near the southern border of his district. We did and he immediately engaged-- just like a rookie or a rusty old drunk who hasn't had a campaign in decades.
He went crying to the local media that "ultra-liberals" from outside the district were picking on him and lying about his golfing record. He did our job for us and even the conservative newspapers in the area noticed his propensity for truthiness.
Boehner's spokesman says he only "held 7 golf events last year," but no one cares how many events he hosted. The question is how many times he's been out golfing instead of working. One day out of three seems like an awful lot, don't you think? Especially for someone who's advocating raising the retirement age-- for the rest of us-- to 70. Meanwhile, between his lobbyist-financed political action committee and his own considerable personal wealth-- apparently being a career politician pays a lot more than anyone ever guessed-- he's put at least a quarter million dollars into his favorite sport-- not counting the fetching shorts.
But even if he persuades Butler County voters we're... ultra-liberals, how's he going to smear Golf Digest? In October, 2005 that magazine reported that "Despite all of the problems facing Ohio families, according to Golf Digest Magazine, Congressman Boehner finds time to play about 100 rounds of golf a year-- most with special interest lobbyists. He says he pays special attention to the lobbyists he meets on the golf course, bragging “...if someone I’ve gotten to know on the golf course comes into my office with a good argument, I tend to want to listen.” Yeah, especially if they bring their checkbook. Oh, and speaking of checkbooks, can we hit you up again? We want to keep the billboards up-- and there are so many more nice messages Boehner's constituents ought to see about him-- and we want to run our TV spots. This page has pictures of all six billboards but the contest is over and we're just going to use it to collect money to BeatBoehner: more of these billboards everywhere from Darke and Mercer counties down to the southern tip of the district where Boehner keeps a home (at the 10th hole)... and more TV spots.
And John Amato knows a lot about Boehner's handicaps-- even beyond the obvious ones Joan is talking about today on the front page.