As most of you know, Democracy for America was formed out of the supporters of Howard Dean's 2004 Presidential campaign. Jim Dean, Howard's brother, runs the organization. DFA members have voted the MN-06 race one of their priorities. Here's Jim's GOTV (get out the vote) message on behalf of Tarryl's campaign:
(Thanks to Dusty Trice for the vid.)
I spoke to Jim about Tarryl's race and politics generally. Follow me below the fold ...
I asked Jim why DFA is working so hard on behalf of Tarryl.
"Members wanted me here from a while back," he explained. "We're a member driven organization. Yes, there's a lightning rod on the other side, but Tarryl would be a really great addition to the Democratic Caucus. We need more people like her in DC."
DFA have over 25,000 members in MN and over 2,000 in MN-06.
I asked about the result of the Citizens United decision and all the corporate money flowing into our elections on behalf of Republicans.
"It's something we gotta do something about on November third," he replied. "In the short term, we can overcome it. Like electing Tarryl."
"The corporations have bought mainstream media and their narrative. Their media is bolstering a story that they've already written; that this year is going to be really, really bad for Democrats."
"We need to pass the Fair Elections Bill. It's already got 150 sponsors and co-sponsors."
Asked him to continue talking about the media which is really a problem in terms of Michele Bachmann as they've never covered the lies she tells and the conspiracy theories she spreads in her frequent TV and radio appearances.
"There's a generational shift going on right now," he said. "TV and newspapers are going to go away. Young people don't watch TV news. It's the incompetence of their reporting, they dumb it down so much. They cover the issues so poorly."
"Their share is shrinking and not fast enough," he continued.
"I was at St. Cloud State talking with some students about this. They don't watch TV news. They aren't bombarded with the corporate media's message about how bad this election is going to be. They're getting their news from the internet."
I asked him about what he thought about Minnesota politics as a keen observer of national politics and from what he's seen in his visits here.
"MN is a progenitor of progressive politics," he explained. "You all got it started. You started the progressive politics. Politics rooted in citizen-fueled government."
"You all have led the charge; you all were the first to get upset and have this bent toward reform of politics."
"This is the choice," he continued. "The biggest danger is no reform. Consider what we're facing. Corporate takeover of politics."
"And Michele Bachmann is the poster child for taking money from business interests."
I was talking to a guy in Avon, MN," he said. "His name is Jim Reed. He ran for State House as a pro-choice Democrat in the late 90s or so. Nobody did this back then. He's in a conservative district. He knocked on every door. He lost by 96 votes."
"We know that Tarryl's race is tough, but we can do it," he said. "We're realists. We work with what we've got."
"You're never going to hear someone in Minnesota complain because they can't raise another million to run more ads. Plus, we know that person to person contact is what works best. That's what we're doing."
We talked about the past races against Michele Bachmann and how Patti Wetterling listened to her Washington DC consultants ... the one's from the DLC. The Democratic Leadership Council is the pro-business, afraid-of-their-shadow Democratic orgnization who advocate triangulation and never taking a stand on anything. They also think being Republican Lite is the way to go.
In late October 2006, these DLC consultants were most likely the ones who convinced Wetterling to attack Michele Bachmann on taxes. At that point Wetterling was leading about 5% or so. She'd just given the weekly Democratic address to the nation.
After Bachmann's counter attack against Wetterling's attack, Bachmann surged to a lead in the polls and eventual victory.
"Yea, the DLC," he snickered. "The best advice I can give a candidate is that when they receive a check from the DLC, tell 'em thanks for the money. Then tell them you're fully staffed up."