Four times in the past two days, the OH-16's Democratic candidate for Congress in 2004, Jeff Seemann, has taken a few hits on Kos and Swing State Project.
I am not even going to touch the merits of whether or not we need another candidate to run, cause we do. If for no other reason than Jeff hasn't even pulled petitions to run, and he isn't going to. I'm also not going to talk about whether or not the district is winnable in 2006, but I do know that Ralph Regula is probably going to retire after the next term, and we need to start training people to vote Democratic in the race for Congress ... because for a long time, they haven't.
But I also know that this community was indeed the only reason we were able to wage any campaign at all in 2004, with Jeff Seemann... and you need to know all the good that came from that effort, and ultimately, from you.
1.) Jeff's campaign was the first ever congressional campaign to take its case directly, consistently, and in a high profile manner to the blogs, and many of them. We tried to include you directly as often as possible, and put the candidate himself online. Maybe some of you old-schoolers remember "
Campaign Manager for a Day"
A year and a half later, we see United States Senators following that lead, interacting and posting consistently on Kos, MyDD, and other community blogs.
2.) Then there is the staff that came out of the race. For the vast majority of us that clocked into campaign HQ, it was our first campaign experience. And almost without exception, it wasn't our last.
a. One staffer went on to work for Stephanie Herseth, did a good deal of community work in Democratic politics following the election, and is now deeply involved in local party-building.
b. One staffer is now an intern with Congressman Tim Ryan
c. One staffer works for Ohio State Senator Marc Dann, now running for AG in Ohio.
d. One staffer works for Ohio gubernatorial candidate Eric Fingerhut
e. One staffer went on to lead the Medina County Ohio Young Democrats chapter.
f. One staffer now works for another congresscritter whose name escapes me.
g. I went on to work for Chuck Pennacchio, Sherrod Brown and Paul Hackett (awkward!), and am now at the DNC.
So... when I read the posts, I knew a few around these parts might be a bit dissapointed; I just wanted to let you know that your efforts in 2004 continue to pay dividends in 2006.
Thanks!
Tim