cross-posted at The Albany Project
After a lifetime of political activism, I have thrown my hat in the ring for a local election -- Rensselaer County, NY, Legislator in District 4, the towns of Schodack (where I've lived for 30 years), Sand Lake and Nassau.
The issues are clear, albeit parochial: under Republican one-party rule, property taxes have gone up 110 percent in seven years, the Republican legislative majority voted themselves a 33 percent raise right after the 2005 election, they use jobs in county departments to take care of their family and friends, and their top political operative gets more than $80,000 a year from county taxpayers to write campaign press releases designed to keep the Republicans in power.
More below the fold:
While this race will not have any impact on most of you, I am asking for your help because I am one of you. I have been a boots-on-the-ground activist for four decades. I have been a part of the netroots for more than five years, and have attended Yearly Kos in Chicago, Netroots Nation in Austin, and will be in Pittsburgh next week. I also attended last year's EschaCon in Philadelphia.
Now that I am a candidate, I am reaching out to the most effective network I know for help and support -- the netroots community.
So, why am I running? Simple, I was asked to run. While I have been a volunteer for campaigns from Eugene McCarthy to Barack Obama, and lots of other Democratic candidates in-between, I was never really interested in running for office. But after attending Yearly Kos/Netroots Nation events and meeting many netroots candidates, I've been inspired to run -- by people like Wes Clark, Eric Massa, Darcy Burner, Dan Seals, and Brian Keeler.
So when I was approached by my county Democratic chair to consider running for County Legislature, it seemed like the right opportunity at the right time. I understand the issues and I want to help Democrats in the Legislature make this county a better place for the people who live here.
I want to help protect our environment and clean up disgraceful toxic messes like the Dewey Loeffel landfill that continues to pollute Nassau Lake and the Valatie Kill.
I want to help bring clean, green businesses into our county to provide good-paying jobs and help stabilize our property taxes. And I believe we can streamline county government and cutting out the waste and patronage.
The county Republican machine used Andrew C. White's DKos diaries and comments against him when he ran for town supervisor two years ago. So while I have a low five-digit UID on DKos, with the approval of the admins, I am writing now as Linda Underwood.
My campaign blog is Linda 4 Legislature, and I'm onFacebook Linda Underwoodand
Twitter - Linda_Underwood.
I'll need to raise about $10,000 (mostly for mail and ads in a local shopper/weekly) for an effective campaign -- I hope you can help me do that at my ActBlue account. Any amount will be gratefully appreciated, and will go to help defeat some dastardly Republicans.
Thank you for taking time to read this, and for your support!