Mr. Gore had just concluded his remarks at the Atlanta premiere of An Inconvenient Truth (
http://www.climatecrisis.org), by challenging the theater full of progressives to "be the change you want to see."
Steve and I were two of the first to rush to the front to shake Gore's hand. I overheard a voice say, "Mr. Gore, I'm taking up your challenge - I'm running for Congress." When Steve introduced himself to Al, I recognized the name and said, "Hey, you're running in my district." We met, talked about how inspiring the movie was, a little about Air America Radio (Steve's a co-creator with his brother, Jon), and exchanged cards.
Please join me on the flip for more and a request for help.
I was duly impressed. This is the first time I've been inspired to volunteer for a political campaign.
In my (albeit amateur) estimation, Steve's campaign epitomizes the ethos of Crashing the Gate (which I just finished reading and highly recommend). If GA-06 can elect a progressive Democrat (and, after meeting him and hearing Steve's ideas, I believe that it will), any district in the country can. People here are hungry for an alternative to the status quo, and it's going to take talent, time and capital investment to get the positive message of change to the voters' ears.
Steve was to debate the first-term Republican incumbent, Tom Price, and Price's primary challenger John Konop on May 31. Although the date and time were pre-arranged with the congressman's office, he was a no-show. I was on hand to witness the event, which was otherwise very well attended.
"Good evening, John, Tom," Sinton said, nodding first at Konop and then at the empty chair reserved for Price, bringing laughter from the audience.
Here's what the local press had to say:
http://www.ajc.com/...
America is off course, and both political parties are to blame.
It's the message 6th Congressional District candidates Republican John Konop and Democrat Steve Sinton delivered to a packed auditorium at Marietta City Hall last week.
And both men heaped scorn on U.S. Rep. Tom Price, a Republican, saying he is one of the helmsmen. Whether the subject was illegal immigration, foreign trade, high gasoline prices or the economy, Price took a tongue lashing from his opponents.
the first-term Congressman was out of earshot. Price missed a League of Women Voters forum in favor of a meet-and-greet sponsored by the East Cobb Civic Association.
The audience in Marietta reacted with boos and chicken clucking sounds when organizers announced Price's absence. More groans and boos followed when his campaign manager began reading a statement from the congressman saying "a foundation has been laid for controlling runaway government spending" during his tenure in Washington.
...
Konop, a financial services specialist, and Sinton, a veteran broadcaster, answered questions read by a moderator and agreed on several issues, including Washington's failure to address the nation's energy problems.
Konop criticized the latest energy bill, which gave tax breaks to oil companies.
"You're not going to fix the energy problem giving money to the big monopoly oil companies," he said. "What we need is competition. We've stopped enforcing antitrust laws in this country."
"Were you ever a Democrat?" quipped Sinton. "No one thing is more egregious than giving tax breaks to Exxon when it made $36 billion last year."
Sinton and Konop criticized the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act as unnecessary, calling it a gift to publishing companies who create the tests. "It has nothing to do with no child being left behind," Sinton said.
Steve has begun to make an impression at the national level, too. Democracy for America is hosting an online vote to determine which congressional candidate will receive their next national DFA-List endorsement.
The winning candidate will receive a DFA-List endorsement and a national e-mail from DFA's Chair Jim Dean. I'm supporting Steve Sinton. You can join me and vote for Steve Sinton on DFA here:
http://tools.democracyforamerica.com/...
Voting for the first round closes on Friday, June 16 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time.
You can view the results of the DFA vote here: http://www.blogforamerica.com/
It's high time we turned this district blue, but it's a David v. Goliath effort.
According to opensecrets.org, here's the total amount raised by each candidate, as of March 31 (the last reporting date).
Tom Price (R) * $1,245,012
John H. Konop (R) $51,805
Steve Sinton (D) $27,693
http://www.opensecrets.org/...
As of March 31, the incumbent had over $1 million cash on hand. His primary challenger has just under $5000. (Tellingly, 87% of Konop's campaign has been self-funded.)
Steve had close to $18,000 cash on hand. I'm trying my best, but I don't have enough neighbors to bring that total up to $1 million.
http://www.opensecrets.org/...
GA-06 is a well educated, suburban, independent-minded district. Although it went for Bush in '04, it overwhelmingly elected Cathy Cox, currently a Democratic candidate for Georgia governor, the same year. And the trend is increased and vocal dissatisfaction with the status-quo. There's never been a better time to make this change.
Here's more information about Steve's campaign platform (my edits - take a look at his site for more).
http://www.stevesinton.com/
To prosper again, we as Americans must regain our economic independence and security.
To ensure family prosperity, our government must end tax credits for corporations that outsource our jobs. Instead, we should support companies that create jobs here for us. We must find solutions to make our benefits and our retirement secure, get the rising health care and health insurance costs under control, and make America more secure by reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Every family that works should have access to affordable health insurance that can never be taken away. Georgia has lost over 100,000 jobs in the past three years. We have to stop shipping jobs overseas. Making workers train their foreign replacement as part of their severance package is unpatriotic.
We must wipeout the budget deficit and restore sound fiscal policy to Washington. If not, it will be our children and grandchildren who will have to pay. Congress does not have the right to saddle future generations with this debt.
The only reason we have an immigration problem in this country is because large employers continue to hire illegals without facing consequences. Eighty percent of Georgians want large employers who hire illegal immigrants to be punished. Georgia is one of the fastest growing states in the country, but we have lost almost 100,000 jobs during the past three years. Want to stop illegal immigration? Remove the incentive for those who come here: when large corporations hire illegals they must be penalized to the fullest extent of the law.
We need schools that teach, where over-crowding and trailers in parking lots are not the norm. In order to attract qualified candidates into the teaching profession, keep them there, and allow them to provide for their families, we must be willing to pay educators better for teaching our next generation.
We know that one of our biggest investments - our homes - is just one bad zoning decision or one ill-conceived project away from declining property values. Developers must be responsible for and accountable for their impact on our traffic, community and home values.
It is shameful that our government sent these hard working young men and women into danger without adequate armor, in numbers too few to secure the peace, while operating on bad intelligence, and without a solid exit strategy.
We must insist that government spying on us end. No bureaucrat should stick his nose into our homes, our bedrooms, our medical decisions, our e-mails or our phone calls. More and more, our civil liberties are being taken from us.
I'll promote the vigorous pursuit of stem cell research. We have the technology to improve medical outcomes in this country. We raise money for research of many diseases, and I struggle to understand why, when we have a medically proven approach to curing people, our government fights it? Why aren't we taking advantage all of our medical resources?
It's disturbing that we don't have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink, and Congress is moving in the wrong direction. Our environment needs a wartime effort to develop safe, renewable fuels. This will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs that stay here in the US, while getting us out from under our dependency on foreign oil. We have a lot to get done, and none of us are exempt from contributing our part in protecting our natural resources.
Senior citizens on fixed incomes cannot afford the high cost of prescription drugs, understand the current prescription drug act, and one major event, such as open heart surgery, can wipe out a life time of savings. When coverage fails, it can force one or the other spouse out of retirement, and back into the work place to try to make ends meet. Their kids, already stretched thin paying their own bills, have to potentially sacrifice in order to care of their parents and grandparents.
Our democratic freedoms and civil liberties should not hinge on a vote based on $100,000 trips, gifts and money that officials receive for their personal use. We need to end the grip lobbyists have on Congress.
Thanks for reading this diary - any recommendations, DFA votes, or other intellectual, financial (http://www.stevesinton.com/...) or political assistance with my amateur effort to help Steve Sinton's campaign for Congress would be much appreciated.
UPDATE: Another opportunity to help out. Mark Warner's Forward Together PAC's MapChangers is "looking for fresh faces with fresh ideas - and for solutions-oriented Democrats with a focus on the future - candidates who will help us change the political map" - nominations are live at http://www.forwardtogetherpac.com/mapchangers and $5000 contributions and fundraisers are on the line...
UPDATE 2: More about who Steve's up against (and the incumbant's NEW BIG LIE here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/7/103215/2080