As I wrote about yesterday, Rep. Barbara Lee, (CA-09) is wonderful. She is an unabashed progressive who actually stands up for things like rights, peace, justice and equality. She is leading the charge to defund the war, she consistently stands up to Bush, even back when it was unpopular to do so. She is smart and charismatic and incredibly popular in her district (Oakland and Berkeley). She is responsive to her constituents and active nationally. I want her to be in the Senate. She is, quite frankly, the only elected representative I've ever had I feel really proud of.
Now, as you know, California already has two Democratic Senators. I like Barbara Boxer. I happen to think it might be better if we had two Senators named Barbara. That said, I don't think it is reasonable to expect that Lee would mount a primary challenge when Feinstein's current term ends in 2012. But there is a chance she will retire. One way or the other, I would like to put Barbara Lee forward as a leader we ought to be supporting, and one who would make a great next Senator from California.
Yesterday I posted about how consistently great Rep. Barbara Lee (CA-09) is. I expected that someone here would come up with some major objection to my statements of her excellence, but no one did.
Instead there was a fair bit of complaint about Feinstein, and then the following conversation:
I have a suggestion...replace Feinstein with Lee.
by Jacques
Gladly but... F-Stein might not go quietly. But when Lee declares she is running, I'll be there volunteering.
Dan Quixote
Feinstein will be 79 in 2012
I doubt Feinstein will run again - she'll be 79 when she's up for re-election in 2012. We should be getting Barbara Lee ready to run now; it'll take forever to get a good organization going in a state this big and everyone's going to see that election as a free-for-all.
tmo
Heiuan
Does anyone know...if Feinstein has signaled her intentions run again or not?
Dan Quixote
I haven't heard yet... however, she hasn't made any noise about wanting to exit, so absent any rumors, I've got to think she's intending to stay put.
Heiuan
Draft Lee for 2012!
Who wants to build the website?
Dan Quixote
So there is the possibility (large or small) that Feinstein's seat will be vacant in five years, and as Heiuan points out, building a statewide organization takes a while. Barbara Lee does have some advantages here:
- She is awesome.
- She is tremendously popular in her very politically active and ethnically diverse home district.
- She is well connected and well respected in the congress.
- She is not high enough in the House Leadership to garner blame for Pelosi's éclair imitation (and in fact has pushed very hard for Pelosi to find a backbone).
But still, she is not well known state wide and has little organization to speak of outside Alameda County. Which is why now, five years before we want her to run, is the time to start organizing. So I think it would be a great project for some of us here at Daily Kos to figure out how we can maximize our chances of getting Lee into the Senate.
This requires:
- An open seat (which I don't think we should work towards, just be ready for.)
- Lee wanting to run
- The organization and name recognition to win a primary and general
So my first question is whether this sounds reasonable to any of you. Second, how do you actually go about drafting a candidate for an seat that may or may not be open? I've never done anything like this before. I'm out of my depth.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Insults?