We keep hearing the doom and gloom about all the House seats the Dems will lose. The problem is we are poised for a big upset, yep we have a very good chance of ousting the incumbent Republican, Congressman Lee Terry and double down on the change we voted for in 2008. This race was recently polled by the Omaha World Herald showing it within the margin of error with 12% still undecided. Terry has never polled this low so close to the election. We have reason to believe it is much closer to a dead heat and very winnable with a big push the final few days before the election.
Tom White has been a sensational State Senator, his record of working for the middle class is legend. In 12 years Lee Terry has named a post office and done nothing constructive for the people he was elected to serve.
When Tom ran for the state legislature, he walked his district. He met us on the street and on porches and coffee shops and stoops. He talked to us, listened to us, he promised to work for us and he has. He believes programs and politics and promises are meaningless if they fail to work for US.
If this race was just about Tom's LD of Benson and Dundee he would win in a walk, but CD 02 is much bigger and more diverse. It includes North Omaha, with a large AA community. North Omaha is a monument to Omaha's racist past and the kind of outright neglect that has no place in this century. North O suffers from just about everything poverty and a 17 plus percent unemployment rate brings. There are areas that looked like bombed out war zones. Gangs, drugs, drop outs, drive byes and crack houses. Not an easy place to raise a family or have hope for the future. Not enough people care about what North O is facing, as long as their problems don't slop over into the more affluent areas of Omaha, out of sight and out of mind.
Tom has been working hard in North Omaha to bring constructive change. Including pushing for the redevelopment of the ten acre site that is the birthplace of Malcolm X. It will be a museum, park and community center. From an article from the Lincoln Journal Star
A few hours later, White is sitting in a circle with 20 community leaders at the Omaha Opportunities Industrialization Center quietly discussing how to attack the horrific unemployment, school dropout and violent crime numbers that plague their neighborhoods.
"This African -American community is as bad off as any in the country," one participant in this conversation tells Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards, who has joined White for the day.
Omaha's mandated $3 billion sewer separation project could provide jobs for many of the unemployed, White suggests, but it needs an aggressive congressman who will fight for federal funding assistance to confront the huge cost.
"It's the biggest public works project in Nebraska since the Interstate," he says.
White says he'd take north Omaha's problems to Congress and find ways to help attack them, seeking advice from members of the Congressional Black Caucus and partnering with them when he can.
"Today, there is no way anyone in Congress knows what we are facing in this community," he says.
Earlier in the day, White is walking from table to table, shaking hands at an AFL-CIO pancake breakfast in south Omaha not far from the packing plants and Hispanic neighborhoods.
That area has its own challenges with poverty, school dropouts, unemployment and health care, White says.
"And I have not heard word one from Congressman Terry about how to address those needs."
Now, the question for voters is whether they want a congressman who will aggressively represent their interests, White says.
"You can't get anything done for your constituents if other congressmen don't even know who you are," he says.
"I'm going to knock on the door of every player in Congress (and) talk to them about the desperate conditions facing tens of thousands of constituents here," White says.
"I can't imagine going to a place of power and not making those needs known."
Then there is a portion of Sarpy County, a Lee Terry strong hold. More affluent than Omaha, there are still voters who have no idea how much good has come into their lives in the last two years with Democratic programs. Tom doesn't run away from Obama's accomplishments, he tells the truth the people who don't have the benefit of press coverage that tells them their college aged kids can stay on their insurance, or there are no more rescissions, or children can no longer be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions. He is happy to tell seniors that not only is the donut hole getting closed and services being improved with preventative care being covered 100%, he promises to protect Social Security and Medicare. He promises to work on improving health care, not repealing but improving, making it work for more families. He speaks to the middle class, the struggling single mom, the seniors fearful of the future. Part of the 12% undecideds are made up of these people who need to hear his message of the future and change we can build on.
We CAN do this. It is calling and canvassing and doubling down on everything we believe in, as Tom is fond of saying, there are no do overs, we need to do this right, for keeps, to win. If you live in CD2 and have time, even an hour or two there is much left to do. There are calls to be made and canvassing to be done, particularly to the North and South ends to counter the Republican's voter suppression drive. There is a huge push to provide transportation for voters to the polls, to get agent ballots for those who are housebound and if you have only minutes to spare, talk to your friends and family, twitter. Help us make sure there is no vote left behind.
http://tomwhite2010.com/