Welcome, everyone, to what I've decided to dub "$5 Friday." Use this diary to "Pimp your candidate" below in the comments. Give us all your sales pitch as to why we should donate $5 (or more) to your candidate on this last day of the First Quarter. We all know that
early fundraising is so very important to every candidate, so here's your chance to help your candidate bring in some early dollars.
The only thing I ask in return for giving you this forum to pimp your candidate is to look over the list and find a candidate you'd be willing to give $5 to and donate the money. That way we'll all hopefully pull in a few extra dollars for our candidates.
Make sure to recommend this diary after you pimp your candidate. If we can get this up on the recommended list, we'll all get more exposure for our candidates. I'll pimp first below the fold!
Kirsten Gillibrand is running for Congress in NY-20 against the Miami Mob Boss himself, John Sweeney. Since he directed the mob action in South Florida in 2000, Sweeney has been nothing but a Bush administration tool, and currently, he holds a 92% voting record match with Tom DeLay.
His most recent Congressional action involved co-sponsoring the National Uniformity for Food Act, which will allow food suppliers to slowly poison us all in the name of making a buck.
Sweeney also has quite a few ethics problems. From his dealings with Jack Abramoff-related companies and tribes (More info can be found near the bottom of this diary), to his ski trip to Utah with pharmaceutical company lobbyists, to his recent Fantasy Camp in Lake Placid with lobbyists, big money donors, and aides, to his wife, who takes a neat 10% cut of all his fundraising, Mr. Sweeney has some serious explaining to do. Maybe that's why the Department of Justice is investigating him...
NY-20 is a gerrymandered district in the rural and suburban areas around the Capital District and into the Hudson Valley. The district has been designed to be Republican-friendly by cutting out any major centers of population. Any remaining population-dense areas are heavily republican.
Even so, we have a great chance of winning this year. Kirsten has already raised more money than all of Sweeney's past opponents combined. She's a great candidate with some great ideas.
Kirsten has a plan to be out of Iraq in 2 years, and leave no permanent bases or claims on Iraqi oil. She has a plan to get farmers in the 20th District to grow crops that would be used to produce biodeisel or Ethanol to help our nation become more energy independent. She has a plan to give tax breaks to low-income families and the elderly to help offset the skyrocketing cost of home heating. She cares very strongly about bringing ethics back to Washington, as is evident in her Ethics IOU.
Best of all, she has pledged to hold open meetings in a different county each month after she's elected, so she can listen to the concerns of her constituents.
She's got a great shot at winning, so show Kirsten some love!
UPDATE: The ActBlue page is acting funky today, so please go directly to Kirsten's website to show her some love!.