But, it's not who you think.

First off, this one did hurt.  Kossack Ron Shepston (CanYouBeAngryAndStillDream) finished third in the CA-42 primary, finishing behind a virulent anti-immigrant Minuteman-type guy who for some reason filed as a Democrat, and eventual winner Ed Chau.

But in a turn of events even us bloggers weren't expecting, Kossack Marta Jorgensen (pcmedia) won her 3-way primary race in CA-24!  (She had originally announced her campaign on DailyKos back in March.)

Despite the unwillingness of our Democratic Congress (Rep. Wexler notwithstanding) to do their Constitutional duty to hold the criminals in the Bush Administration accountable for their actions, the major sacrifices made by and injuries done to Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson and their colleagues and associates will not soon be forgotten by those of us who care deeply about our country.  This nation owes them a debt of gratitude for their service and their willingness to tell the truth in spite of incredible hostility and pressure from a corrupt and utterly immoral White House and its cronies.

Those progressive patriots of you who live in the Southern California area will have the opportunity to meet Joe Wilson himself at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills tomorrow (Thursday) at 6:30pm for the equally courageous Netroots candidate Ron Shepston.  I'll be there as well, for what that's worth!

(So I do these every month for Calitics, but it occurs to me that I've never cross-posted it here.  So, um, here.)

Getting this one in under the wire.  On the last day of April, with just over a month to go until the June primaries, and six months to go until Election Day, there's a lot going on all over the state in the Congressional races.  Of the 19 seats in California currently held by Republicans, 17 will be contested in the fall, and some strongly so.  And we now have a full 34 Democrats with the election of Jackie Speier early in the month, and only one of them is a serious challenge.  We also have the first quarter of 2008 fundraising numbers, which will raise some eyebrows.  You can track these races yourself with the 2008 Race Tracker wiki.

A note: I'm mainly getting my numbers on cash-on-hand competitiveness from the Swing State Project.  Fundraising information comes from the FEC.

Here we go...

Honestly, I can't do this without you.

From the beginning, this campaign has been about the netroots taking the next step to becoming the mainstream. You've been fantastic, but we need more if we are to win the primary. If we implement the plan below we will win and set the stage to win in November. We need to make a lot of noise and talk to a lot of people. Not enough people know about us and even fewer understand why we are doing this.

Without the money, there is no campaign - so I'm not going to beat around the bush.  We need money; we need it now. We need your help.  If you believe in candidates emerging from the netroots, like I know you do, then please contribute.

Click on this button to go to ActBlue.


Jump below for a story and some details on how your money will be spent.

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to post a quick campaign update for everybody. I'm working hard everyday from 7:00am to 11:00pm and its paying dividends. I have recently been endorsed by Ambassador Joe Wilson and he will be campaigning for me here in the coming weeks. We will be moving into our new office as of April 1st. We are getting great exposure online and volunteers are signing up in droves to help me get out and talk to voters for the June 3rd Primary.  I have to admit, this is a really exciting time.

As some of you may already know, today is the end of the financial filing quarter and we have raised thousands and thousands of dollars from hundreds of individuals.  I have been very encouraged by the number of individual contributors doing what they can to help bring about the change we all want and need.

Okay, I'm sorry but I had to bring you here and tying this to the primary in some way was the best way we could think of. Tomorrow I'll be in San Jose at the California Democratic Party State Convention President Clinton is speaking on Sunday and I'm speaking at the endorsement caucus on Sat so there is a link. The Obama connection will be revealed below.

We're heading up tomorrow. I can imagine that some people will be thinking "Oh yeah, it's time to have some fun". It will be fun for us but fun because we are going to be working the convention delegates for the 42^nd Congressional District to get the endorsement from the Ca State Democratic Party.

Last week, I called on Rep. Gary Miller to reimburse the taxpayers $1.28 million for an earmark that he placed in the 2005 Highway bill.  You can read the release here.

We got some great folks to pick it up and write about it in the netroots.

The liberal O.C. posted thisstory.

Down with tyranny had this to say.

The good folks at Calitics put it on the front page.

Thanks for posting and we are working to get more folks to pick it up.  If you can, please contribute now to keep the momentum going.

Gary Miller is the incumbent Republican in California's 42nd district.  He's not my congressman but he does actually share part of the 33rd district of the State Senate where Gary, my husband is the Democratic Candidate.

So what's the big deal?  Well,Republican Rep Gary Miller thought it would be a good idea to use his Congressional powers to get 1.28 million dollars in earmarks for road improvements to a development he actually co-owns.  Yes.

"Gary Miller should reimburse the taxpayers for earmarks that help his personal business," said Shepston. "Like almost everyone else in this country, I work hard, pay my taxes and worry about my financial future. I don’t think my tax dollars should be used to personally enrich Gary Miller and his biggest campaign contributor."

Yesterday I wrote a diary about the importance of wrapping up the presidential nomination in order to pay more attention to all-important House and Senate races.  One of the races I mentioned was the one in CA-42, where our own fellow Kossack and all-around great guy Ron Shepston is working to defeat the über-corrupt Gary Miller.  Full disclosure: I have served and still serve as an unpaid advisor and strategist for the campaign.

I haven't been around much in the past few months. In fact, I've been busy getting ready for our bust-out campaign. Call time and endorsement pushes are very time consuming especially when you have to still work to put food on the table. With this post I am back.

Today, I called on Rep. Gary Miller (pg2) to reimburse the taxpayers $1.28 million for an earmark that he placed in the 2005 Highway bill.

I am sick and tired of letting career politicians who care more about their personal business than the peoples’ business run our country.  

Ten days ago, we posted a diary entitled "CA-42: Our sincere best hopes for Rep. Miller's family" that noted the abduction of the grandchildren of our opponent, Rep. Gary Miller, and prayed for the quick and safe resolution of that situation.  (An update may be found below the fold.)

Today, we're sorry that we must post a diary that is even worse.  Rep. Miller's 33-year-old daughter Elizabeth died unexpectedly last Saturday morning in Atlanta.  The cause of death is as yet unknown.  Funeral services will be held tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Calvary Chapel Golden Springs in Diamond Bar.

Nothing can prepare one for a tragedy like this, but the statement released by Rep. Miller's office was particularly eloquent: "Elizabeth was full of life – a vibrant and beautiful young woman who embraced everyone she knew.  She was the love of my life and will always be missed.  She is in a better place and at peace in God's arms."

We send our condolences to her family and will of course respect their privacy in this time of grief.  We ask our friends here to do the same.

That diary title is intended without irony; we hope that commenters will proceed in that spirit.

We've gotten contacted today by people who have asked us if we know about this story, making the rounds via AP and evidently on CNN, discussing the disappearance yesterday of three of Rep. Gary Miller's grandchildren.  Yes, we have, and after some thought we feel that a short comment is appropriate.  We'll defer political announcements and discussion for a future day.

Quite a few corrupt members of Congress were swept out of office in last fall's election.  And four Republican House members in trouble actually resigned ahead of time:  Mark Foley (FL-17), Tom Delay(TX-22), Bob Ney (OH-18), and Duke Cunningham (CA-50).  A review of the Republicans who left office before the 110th Congress (not all facing imminent indictment) can be found here.

Quite a few of the ones dengre calls the Abramoff 65 lost their seats, and a few retired.  But the majority of them are still in office.  Today, the New York Times has an article reviewing the state of investigations and impending indictments in the 110th Congress.  Not so surprisingly, John Doolittle (CA-04) leads the story.

At the risk of sounding melodramatic and of telling some in the Netroots what they may already know, I think it's necessary to highlight something that may not be adequately clear to many here in Left Blogistan: We have a nearly unprecedented opportunity to SWAMP the Republicans--but only if people will commit to getting off the blogs, and on the ground for significant portions of the next 15 months.

Now, don't get me wrong: most people who have read my posts over the last couple of years know that I tend to be a blog triumphalist: I know that simply electing Democrats doesn't solve everything, that the media must be held accountable for progressive electoral messaging to gain traction, and that, as Al Gore says in his must-read Assasult on Reason, blogs on the left and right create a much-needed two-way conversation between the government and the people--a conversation that has been sorely lacking for almost a century.

It's great that the netroots candidacy of Ron Shepston for Congress is getting so much attention.  His race against the unfathomably corrupt Gary Miller represents a progressive hope and a decided alternative, and people are so excited that, at press time, he's raised over $5,300 dollars through ActBlue in just a couple days.

Superlative.  Outstanding.  Fantastic.

Now let's really look at what he's getting into.  The campaign has asked me to contribute a guest column to the rollout providing the lay of the land.  We'll start with the bad news and move slowly into the good.

Hello and Happy Blogosphere Day, everyone!  It certainly is a happy one for the Ron Shepston for Congress campaign here in CA-42.  (The Fightin' 42nd!, as Stephen Colbert will someday say while interviewing Ron.)  For those of you who don't know -- evidently some people don't spend most of every day in front of Daily Kos -- our own CanYouBeAngryAndStillDream, who I like to call "Ron" for short, announced his run for Congress yesterday; the previous day I announced that I'm running Ron's campaign full-time.

But that's not what prompts this diary.  I have a picture to show you, and in deference to dial-up users it's below the fold.

Blogging is largely about talking the talk – and that’s important.  This diary is about walking the walk.

A few months ago, another member of this community and I made a pair of expensive decisions -- decisions to do what we felt we were obligated to do as patriotic Americans.  He -- the good-looking, likable, established-in-the-community one -- decided to run for Congress if I would manage his campaign full-time.  And I agreed to manage his campaign (at a steep discount from standard "Democratic consultant" rates) if it would be more than a token run.

A brain trust of Southern Californian Kosters – people like thereisnospoon, hekebolos, Shockwave, OrangeClouds115, occams hatchet, dday, atdnext, vernonlee, honorary Californian clammyc, and many others – were there at the beginning and have provided support and sage advice since.  Others have joined the train since then.  Tomorrow at 9 a.m. PDT, with the announcement of the name and handle of the nominee, the train leaves the station.

We want you on that train with us.  We're ready to crash that train right through the gates of Congress – and you know that that means we’re going to make a lot of noise.

Hi, I'm Andrew Davey, also known in these parts as atdnext. I'm a blogger at The Liberal OC, a place where progressives in Orange County, CA, come to discuss what we're doing to end the Republican reign in "The OC". Oh yes, and I have a web site called Trash Dirty Gary that's devoted to making known the truth about Gary Miller. The campaign to unseat Dirty Gary has invited me to take this space today to explain what's wrong with Gary Miller, and why we should mount a serious effort to unseat him next year. You can see how pathetic he is by looking at his Congressional web site, but what many people don't know about it his history of corruption and serving his outside-the-district interests at the expense of the voters who actually live in his district.

This has been covered extensively before, but I'll review it all after the flip for you...