There hasn't been a diary on this yet, it seems; I just have a couple links I'd like to share, but here's the punchline:
Bill Sali, one of the most embarrassing folks to hold a seat in Idaho's congressional delegation (beating out Chenoweth, et al), still has $126,000 in debt from his narrow victory in 2006 over netroots candidate Larry Grant. He has $250,000 CoH.
Walt Minnick, his Democratic challenger for Idaho's first congressional seat, has raised $286,000 in the last quarter, has $444,000 CoH and carries no debt. The DCCC has added $349,000 to Minnick's campaign for media. For the more schadenfreude-inclined, it may be noted that Sali didn't meet the filing deadline, and has issued nine amendments to earlier reports since June 1.
In Idaho, the state that gave Obama his largest margin of victory, where Al Gore booked one of the state's largest venues to capacity to give a slideshow, where the state's largest city has a Democratic mayor, where Bill Sali won with a margin of less than 6% of the vote in 2006.
This is Number 24 in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures—the whole baked potato bar! Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.
Every state means looking at the red as well as the blue, and the small as well as the large. We’ve already suffered through Utah and Wyoming; today, let’s complete the red rockies trifecta and look at Friggin’ IDAHO!
How much did it kill the Wall Street Journal to have to publish this headline: "Idaho is No Longer a Lock for Republicans"?
Savor that for a few moments.
Ok, now on to the article.
SANDPOINT, Idaho -- Bill Sali is defying the political odds by making Idaho's first-district congressional race competitive. That isn't good for Mr. Sali: He is the incumbent.
A 54-year-old Republican from Kuna, 18 miles from Boise, Mr. Sali represents one of the most heavily Republican electorates in the U.S. The district hasn't elected a Democrat to the House since 1992; in the 2004 presidential race, 69% of its votes went to George W. Bush.
But through slow fund raising and a combative reputation, Mr. Sali has become vulnerable to his Democratic challenger, Walt Minnick, a businessman with little political experience.
Actually, Minnick has quite a bit of political experience, but from the outside, as an activist on environmental issues. And this is what having an "experienced" politician in the seat has meant for Idaho, some of the greatest hits folks might remember from his race in 2006:
When Mr. Sali was in the Idaho statehouse, he tried to amend a bill that would extend a law against domestic violence to minors because he wanted it to apply only to heterosexual couples. He supported efforts to make divorces more difficult to obtain. He upset some colleagues by insisting on legislation to require parental consent for minors to get abortions after courts frowned on such laws.
After an abortion debate in 2006, then speaker Bruce Newcomb, a Republican, told a group of reporters in the statehouse hallway that Mr. Sali was "an absolute idiot" after Mr. Sali insisted on the statehouse floor that abortions cause breast cancer. "I've not withdrawn my statement," said Mr. Newcomb, who now teaches at Boise State University...
He objected to putting a Mexican consulate in Boise. (He says it might encourage illegal immigration.) Last year, responding to a Hindu prayer recited in Congress, he said "multiculturalism is the antithesis" of the U.S. motto, E pluribus unum, Latin for "out of many, one."...
Mr. Sali also announced a draft bill to "propose that the force of gravity, by the force of Congress, be reduced by 10%" to combat obesity. Mr. Sali said it was meant to parody a bill to raise the minimum wage, which he felt ran counter to the laws of economics.
Sali has been a core mover in an attempt by an extremely conservative faction of Idaho Republicans (as opposed to the run of the mill very conservative Idaho Republicans) to take over the party, which they succeeded in doing at last month's state convention when they teamed up with Ron Paul supporters to oust the long-serving and relatively moderate party chair.
There's also the spectacle in the Senate race of an Independent candidate teaming up with Dem Larry LaRocco to make the point that Republican Jim Risch doesn't really give a damn about Idaho voters, since he's not running much of a campaign and thus far has refused even to debate. Risch has never been one of the most popular of Idaho figures, even among Republicans, and Rammell's continuing pounding on him (which has been getting serious press across the state) will hurt Risch to some degree.
Given all these factors, there's likely to be a lot of ticket splitting all across the ballot in Idaho this year. A fractured Republican vote is the only hope for Idaho Dems, and it's looking more and more likely that it can happen.
While everyone on here and in the blogosphere is having a temper tantrum slamming the red side while their own party is doing exactly the same. Let's actually look at what needs to be done.
Enjoy people and pay close attention to the part where it says, 'we need to stop worrying about electing Republicans or Democrats because they are all a part of this." Partisanship is not the answer. It never has been and never will be and in this race I am the only answer to this problem because I refuse to take money from Big Oil (like Bill Sali has and does) and/or Financials. I refuse to be owned by Special Interest. So put your political bias aside and vote for the right person on November 4th. Your future depends on it. Literally.
(Pardon the grammar and poor spelling, I did not write this.)
I would like to think so. I figure that even if the Repub's here are tired of someone like Bill Sali they'll still vote Repub over Dem. But does that mean they won't vote for an Independent? On both side you have to realize that everyone is becoming disenfranchised. On the red side as they move to neo-cons and away from traditional conservative values, I could see this happening.
It's been a while since my last House diary, and I just know you've been sitting there wondering "when will Nathaniel publish his next House roundup diary? I can't live without my fix, and he's just so...incisive...and brilliant...and downright Lincolnesque." (h/t to Stephen Colbert for that.)
Well, pine no more! As always, seats are ranked by flippability, but since House races are so numerous (at 435), I eventually switch to alphabetical order after the first 18 races. I figured 18 was a convenient number...and I also got lazy after writing about Alaska At Large.
When they're hurting in Idaho, you know they're hurting everywhere. We've already seen the grassroots revolt in the works on the part of Paul supporters. But the fissures in the Idaho party run deeper. At the core of the party split is a fight over Idaho's primary system between the state central committee and many elected officials.
The battle came to a head this week, causing one Idaho observer to take note of the strong contrast between a united Democratic party in Idaho, and the Republican infighting [sub. required]:
With Obama at the top of the ticket, Democrats head into what promises to be a very good year for their party in congressional and state races across the nation with reason for hope.
Meanwhile, Republicans are still feuding. Their state central committee, comprising people elected locally, finally succeeded in forcing the party to sue a state government dominated by Republicans to require voters to go on record as Republicans before voting in party primaries. Statewide elected officials, GOP Chairman Kirk Sullivan and legislators had resisted both closed primaries and the lawsuit.
Monday, it appeared that resistance had not been fully overcome. Although the suit was filed a month earlier, it turned out state government had yet to be served with the paperwork, which would begin actual legal maneuvering. Worse, party officials gave differing reasons for the delay....
Is this conflict surprising? Not really. When any party has as large a majority as the Gem State GOP currently has, factions are bound to emerge, and eventually to collide. But this year in Idaho, Democrats have reason to give thanks that their own unity is not reflected in the party whose hold on power they intend to weaken.
The Democratic party is unified in Idaho, with a slate of legislative candidates that could be larger, but is still respectable. More importantly, they have two serious federal candidates in Walt Minnick (ID-01) and Larry LaRocco (ID-Sen), both of whom have been busy over the last few months criss-crossing the state to reach out to voters. There's also the Obama factor--Idahoans turned out in historic numbers to give Obama nearly 80% of the caucus vote. With him at the top of the ticket in November, you'd think even Idaho Republicans would start paying a bit of attention to the mood of the populace.
Instead, the state's leading candidates for federal office are displaying a degree of arrogance that would be surprising if it were coming anywhere but from Idaho Republicans. That arrogance has the potential to bite them with their own base. Both incumbent Rep. Bill Sali and leading Senate candidate Jim Risch are refusing to participate in primary debates.
Sali has backed out of tomorrow's debate sponsored by the League of Women voters on Idaho Public Television--the only one broadcast statewide--because he "just couldn't make it work in the schedule." Likewise, front-running Senate candidate Jim Risch refused to participate in the primary debate on IPTV, because he "didn't like the format, which allows for interplay between candidates that he fears could become negative."
Instead, Risch chose to participate in a debate by the most favorable of Idaho's media outlets, the NBC affiliate. Not only did they promise a format that was more to his liking--he wouldn't be challenged by his challengers--they controlled the audience, keeping out other political reporters.
Among those barred were the Associated Press, an Idaho Statesman reporter and independent candidate Rex Rammell, who parked a campaign bus outside the 1,500-seat Swayne Auditorium.
Quary said KTVB News Director Jim Gilchriest told him to exclude from auditorium access anyone not the list. Quary said Gilchriest told him he was too busy to talk to a Statesman reporter, who arrived a half-hour early about covering the only scheduled debate featuring front-running Lt. Gov. Jim Risch.
So let's review. The Republican party apparatus is at war with Republican elected officials. There's a grassroots movement by Ron Paul supporters who feel shut out of the party to take over precinct committee seats. The two leading federal candidates have blown off their responsibility to their base constituents by refusing to debate their primary. For the icing on the cake, Jim Risch has made some powerful enemies by shutting out key Idaho political reporters.
The national Republican party in a microcosm, arrogant and out of touch. That's a deadly combination in the face of a energized Democratic party and an electorate that's demanding change. Even in Idaho.
CO-Sen: It's only been one day, but Bob Schaffer's "Mt. Macaca" moment is fast becoming the stuff of Internet legend.
Schaffer released a TV ad yesterday, his first of the cycle, in which he claimed "Colorado is my life". Unfortunately, he said this as the ad depicted a photo of Mt. McKinley, the tallest peak in North America...and located in the State of Alaska.
As MissLaura noted in the midday open thread, the DSCC has put together a nifty little quiz for our man Schaffer, so as to prepare him better for the rigors of campaigning in the State of Alaska Colorado.
Meanwhile, the campaign of Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mark Begich had a dryly hilarious response:
"While Alaskans can understand why Bob Schaffer would promote our beautiful mountain, I hope he doesn't expect Alaska to cede North America's highest peak to the State of Colorado."
Begich leads incumbent Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska institution currently under investigation by the FBI, by a margin of 48% to 43%. Given Stevens' tenure, and (until recently) his tremendous popularity, it's remarkable to think that he may very well lose his bid for reelection. Alaska has been GOP country, and Stevens country, for my entire lifetime.
Meanwhile, House candidate Ethan Berkowitz leads 34-year Republican incumbent Don Young by an even wider margin, 50% to 40%. Provided Young survives his primary challenge from Lt. Governor Sean Parnell-which is no certainty-Berkowitz could hardly be in better position for the fall.
Even the presidential race is somewhat competitive in Alaska; it's hard to look at these numbers and not sense that we're entering a new era for the state of Alaska and the Democratic Party.
GA-Sen: Republican polling outfit Strategic Vision has polled the Democratic primary in Georgia, as well as general-election matchups. Unfortunately, Vernon Jones is leading the Democratic primary, with Dale Cardwell second and Jim Martin third. Jones is a real piece of work, as Tondee's Tavern notes.
Worse luck, Saxby Chambliss has a 30+ point lead over all Democratic challengers, and while I certainly don't expect that we'll win this seat, I sure would like to come closer than 65%-35%.
House Races
ID-01: Congressman Bill "Absolute Idiot" Sali is getting hammered by the local press for canceling a debate appearance against primary opponent Matt Salisbury.
IL-14: After four failed campaigns-two for U.S. Senate, one for Governor of Illinois, one for the U.S. House-perennial candidate and famed nutter Jim Oberweis has decided it's time for an image overhaul. (Good thinking, Jim).
Dairy magnate Jim Oberweis (R) is trying to soften his image in suburban Chicago, according to local media reports, going so far as to cold-call reporters in search of why he lost ex-Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R) seat in a March special election.
Dubbed the "What Went Wrong Tour" by The Aurora Beacon News, Oberweis is trying to overcome his smug reputation, earned after four highly negative political campaigns on which he has spent millions of dollars of his own money.
"People like to support people they feel like they know and can identify with," an Oberweis spokesman told the newspaper. "We can do a better job of letting people know who Jim is."
See, there's the problem. After four campaigns, people already know who Jim Oberweis is. It's why they voted for Bill Foster.
GA-10: Republican incumbent "Porno Paul" Broun made the mistake of defeating a favored GOP candidate in last year's special election, and as such, he has been targeted by the Georgia Republican establishment in this year's primary.
Porno Paul faces a remarkably stiff primary challenge (pun intended) from Barry Fleming, one so serious that House Republican leaders are forced to come to his rescue. Given their recent track record, I'm not sure Broun should be seeking their help.
If that primary gets ugly enough, it could create an opening for Democrat Bobby Saxon. This race is a long shot of long shots, but it should be interesting to follow at least. And one never knows...we've been doing some very exciting things in Southern House races lately.
LA-04: Speaking of Southern House races, Roll Call has an article about the Democratic resurgence in the South, marked by the two recent special election victories. Next on the Democratic hit list in the region is likely LA-04, home of the retiring Jim McCrery.
The district is 33% black, and has a PVI similar to Rep. Don Cazayoux's district of LA-06 (it's R+6.5). The Democratic candidate is prosecutor Paul Carmouche, and Roll Call seems surprisingly optimistic about Dem chances:
If Democrats can avoid a divisive primary battle and bring to bear the party’s vast fundraising resources — which will only be bolstered by the party’s performance in the recent special elections — then the 4th district will present another key Southern opportunity in the same mold as Louisiana’s 6th and Mississippi’s 1st.
It's real nice to be taking the fight to Republicans in their regional stronghold, as DemFromCT noted yesterday.
NM-01: Democrat Martin Heinrich has aired his first TV ad:
The Texas congressman and former Libertarian presidential nominee has targeted Idaho as part of his quixotic challenge to John McCain. Paul loyalists seek to yank the Idaho GOP organization up from the grass roots by fielding candidates for precinct committeeman in the May 27 primary. But they refuse to identify their slate.
An unusually large number of candidates, many unfamiliar to party regulars, seek to fill the county and state central committees, especially in Ada, Twin Falls and Kootenai counties....
Idaho GOP Chairman Kirk Sullivan said Paul's tactics were a hot topic at a recent National Committee meeting.
"They are working hard to have an impact on the national convention," Sullivan said. "But they don't talk to anybody. I have never been approached by a single Ron Paul person about what the party's doing, how they get involved, how the platform will be rewritten, how the rules will be established."...
Challis McAffee, 32, has been attending Central Committee meetings, where he declines to sign in. He is a self-employed Capital High grad who is converting a travel trailer to a food service rig in the driveway of his parents' Boise home, the address he lists for his candidacy.... McAffee chuckled at the notion the Republican Party, which dominates Idaho politics, is nervous about Paul's guerrilla tactics. "They oughtta be," he said in a stage whisper. "We're taking the party back."
Paul has quite a following in Idaho, and enjoyed an enthusiastic reception there last month. If his followers are organized enough, they might be able to pull off a repeat of Nevada and possibly throw a monkey wrench into the downticket races. Both Bill Sali, Idaho's first district represenative, and Jim Risch, current lieutenant governor and the party establishment's heir apparent for Larry Craig's seat, have primaries. Risch, in fact, has seven of opponents, a few of them the run-of-the-mill Idaho Republican kooks (including the Californian who has never been to Idaho), and a few of them fairly serious and committed.
A serious revolt by Paul's people, should it trickle down the ticket, might give Risch a bit of a scare in his march to the nomination. Once he gets that nomination (and he almost certainly will) he's going to have to contend with one of two Independent challengers: the elk rancher who has made it his goal in life to harrass Risch (so much so that he decided to run as an Independent, to up his chances of being on the general election ballot), and Pro-Life, a Ron Paul supporter), who has made it his goal in life to be on the Idaho ballot every two years. Is any of this enough to really endanger Risch or McCain in getting their respective nominations? Highly unlikely, but it could make things a little more fun to watch.
This is just a nice little example of Republican money woes, and it couldn't happen to a nuttier winger:
The Spokesman-Review reported today that sad-sack Rep. Bill Sali still owes $76K to his largest creditor from the 2006 campaign - and the vendor is telling Sali he must pay cash for future expenditures. From the S-R:
The Eagle, Idaho, consulting business that U.S. Rep. Bill Sali owes the most campaign debt to is still working with the congressman and longtime friend but on a cash-only basis. "It’s all cash up front," said Lou Esposito, owner of Spartac, LLC, a general campaign consulting company started when Esposito’s longtime friend, Sali, decided to run for Congress. He said the new agreement stems from the $76,000 still owed to the company from the 2006 election campaign.... Sali has $144,677 in total debt, of which about $76,000 is owed to Spartac and $46,045 to two other consulting companies in Virginia and Arizona.
Sali's fundraising was going along just peachy, Esposito sez, "until Democrats took control of Congress." Damn, everything is their fault. Interestingly enough, however, Sali has only been in Congress one term, since the Democrats took control. It could be that Sali's former contributors have come to the realization that they helped elect one of the Congress's biggest buffoons and have decided not to throw good money after bad.
Which seems to be the general opinion held by many Republicans' former funders, given the general state of their coffers.
While few are actually counting on Idaho to increase Dem margins in Congress, the state is far from hopeless, if candidate fundraising is any indication. Both Larry LaRocco in the Senate race and Walt Minnick in ID-01 reported strong Q1 numbers.
This week, the DCCC put Minnick on the Red to Blue list, a move they made in 2006 with Larry Grant, but then they waited until October to do it. Looks like they've learned something in the process. Minnick also hammered incumbent Sali in fundraising for the quarter, pulling in $227,586 to Sali's $107,600. He's got the cash on hand advantage as well, wth almost $328K in the bank to Sali's $124K. Sali is also carrying almost $135K in debt from 2006.
Risch raised $512,893 this past quarter and holds $935,876 cash on hand. LaRocco, who recently eclipsed a year of campaigning, has $253,707 cash on hand and raised $196,607. But Risch - who announced his candidacy last October - added a $380,000 loan to bring his overall total raised to about $1.1 million. LaRocco has raised $552,354 total....
In the past quarter, LaRocco drew contributions from 746 households, including 506 inside Idaho. Risch, who said he received funds from 4,000 people, said he did not know how his contributions broke down regionally. In the past quarter, Risch received $195,000 from political action committees, whereas LaRocco got $52,565.
These are extremely strong numbers for Democrats in Idaho. Minnick and LaRocco are showing a stronger base of support with their individual contributions than the state has seen in years. As for Risch, a not-too-popular guy who really, really hates to campaign and to fundraise, padding his total with a personal loan isn't too surprising. But if a loan of $380K sounds like an odd number--why not $350K, or and even $400K, Senate Guru has a theory:
Perhaps it could be that Risch is scared of LaRocco's candidacy enough to contribute the maximum he can without triggering the Millionaire's Amendment.
The Millionaire's Amendment is triggered when one candidate makes campaign expenditures from his personal funds in excess of a threshold amount - and, for Senate candidates, the threshold amount is achieved by the following calculation: $300,000 + ($0.08 x the voting age population of the state, which for Idaho is about 1,092,000, as listed by the FEC). In other words, the Millionaire's Amendment would be triggered in the Idaho Senate race if one candidate loaned his campaign more than $300,000 + ($0.08 x 1,092,000), which equals $387,360. The Idaho Senate race is so competitive that the Republican Risch loaned his own campaign just about the most that he could without triggering the Millionaire's Amendment, which would allow LaRocco (and Risch's Republican primary opponents) to triple their individual contribution limits from $2,300 to $6,900. In short, Risch, the ID-GOP and the NRSC are truly concerned about losing an Idaho Senate seat to a Democrat. That's the kind of strong campaign LaRocco is running and that's the kind of year 2008 is.
At the very least, Idaho Dems are going to make keeping Idaho Red an extremely expensive exercise for the Republicans.
One week ago, 2006 netroots hero Larry Grant stunned his supporters by withdrawing from his primary battle against Walt Minnick. As mcjoan wrote two days later, it was a classy decision by a man who has always put the good of Idaho ahead of personal ambition.
And today, Grant's selflessness is paying off for Idaho's 1st Congressional District, much earlier than expected. In 2006, it took us until October to get the ID-01 on the DCCC's Red to Blue list. In 2008, it happened today - 200 days before the election, and definitely early enough to make a real difference as we try to keep Rep. Bill Sali to a single term.
As D-trip chief Chris Van Hollen said in announcing the decision to make Minnick the 14th Red to Blue candidate this cycle:
Walt Minnick's Idaho values, experience as a business and community leader and commitment to bringing people together to solve problems make him an independent, effective voice for change for Idaho's families. The Red to Blue Program will give Walt the financial and structural edge to be even more competitive.
In the summer of 2006, there were strange rumblings about a potential Democratic House pick up in the most unlikely of places:"Freakin' Idaho!" as kos said. It was happening because of Larry Grant, a former Micron executive and a good Democrat who decided that this seat would not go uncontested.
Grant had originally volunteered to be the candidate recruiter for the open seat. He didn't want to run, but he also couldn't scare up anyone willing to put themselves on the line to run what was going to be a very, very difficult race. So Grant decided to do it himself. And did it so well that the Club for Growth and the Republican party had to pour money into the race to try to keep it. In Idaho. They even sent Dick Cheney in at the last minute. They did retain the seat, but with just a five-point margin, the closest election Idaho has seen for some time.
Larry Grant softened that seat up. He proved that a Democrat could run strong in Idaho, and with the stars lining up and enough money, which he didn't have in 2006, could win. But having proved that it could be done was the trick, and it attracted challengers in Idaho's Democratic primary, something that Idaho Democrats rejoiced over. It's challenging enough in Idaho to find one Democrat willing to run, and at the beginning of the cycle, we had three.
But it comes back to that money issue. Democrats have an extremely high profile race for the Idaho Senate seat that Larry Craig is, finally, abandoning. Larry LaRocco is running strong for that seat, and is a more than credible candidate. But that race is eating up some Idaho resources that make fundraising for the House seat a challenge. One of the challengers, Walt Minnick, has the benefit of having been an active fundraiser, and funder, for the party for over a decade. With the party establishment behind him, he's built a formidable war chest.
Saying "there isn’t ten cents of difference" between his views and Minnick’s, Grant pledged to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Minnick to help beat Republican Congressman Bill Sali.
"My campaign has never been about personal ambition," said Grant.
"An opportunity for Democrats like this doesn’t come along very often. I don’t want to be standing here in November asking ‘what did we do wrong?’ The objective is to beat Bill Sali."
His grace in stepping down was matched by Minnick.
Walt Minnick said, "What Larry is doing is truly extraordinary. He’s put his desire to serve in federal office on hold temporarily to do something greater – to put the Democratic party and the people of Idaho first, to remove Bill Sali from office."
Calling Sali "the most embarrassing and ineffective Congressman we’ve ever had" Minnick gave Grant credit for being "the foremost public spokesman to reveal Bill Sali’s voting record, which is abysmal."...
Minnick said Grant’s "selfless act" was the most important thing that could be done, and that Grant’s "superb" campaign organization has opened doors for a Democrat to win.
I've heard from numerous Idaho friends that immediately following the press conference, Grant, Minnick and Andrus moved the show to a downtown Boise coffee shop, where they plotted together on where the race goes from here.
My loyalties in this race were with Grant. I met Larry in the fall of 2006, when I was on my western races road trip. I've been in contact with him since, and have grown to respect and like him more and more. While I'm disappointed, this decision on his part makes sense for Idaho and makes sense for the race. Now that it's uncontested, the DCCC can and will come in to help Minnick. And Minnick is a very solid progressive with a strong track record in a key issue for Idaho, conservation. He's got a very strong campaign team in place. A united front behind Minnick in Idaho will at the very least make the NRCC and the Republican party have to spend a lot of money to defend this seat, money that they just don't have this cycle.
The groundwork laid by Larry Grant, with help from the netroots and Idaho's strong blogosphere, is what made this possible. Thank you, Larry, for all that you've done for Idaho's Democrats. You deserve a huge round of applause, at the very least. Now let's beat Sali.
I have worked on a campaign or two...I've also run for office myself. One of the things I've learned is that the staff and the people who volunteer to work dog tiring hours for a candidate have some of the best insights into the candidate's spirit, integrity and character.
I have recently signed on to help out one of my favorite people, Larry Grant. I say people, because that is what I think makes him a great candidate, but this diary isn't my testimonial...that will come later.
Many of you already know Larry. He attended the YearlyKos Convention in Chicago, which is where I first met him, and he ran for Congress (ID-01) in 2006...narrowly losing in a hard fought campaign...and, last but not least, he is a friend of Idahoan, McJoan.
Markos Moulitsas brought the Idaho Democrats to their feet at the Boise, Idaho Frank Church Dinner March 1, 2008 saying the country will look to Idaho, not for cheap bathroom jokes but for an election result that is proof that it will not be a Republican stronghold forever. He said Idaho Democrats can prove to DC and to Democratic naysayers that incremental and progressive change is happening and can happen in one of the most Repubican states in America.
