When I talk to people about our candidate for Congress here in the district, I ask them a simple question, "how long do we have to wait before someone tackles the poverty issue in our region?" I have the answer: not long.
Almost half of the 29 counties in Kentucky's 5th Congressional District have poverty rates well above the national average, a few even exceeding 50%. This is not a new problem, although it has worsened due to the recession.
Kentucky's 5th Congressional District has been represented by Republican Congressman Hal "King of Pork" Rogers for 30 years. In that time, we've seen our poverty rates go up, our unemployment rates go up, and our quality of life go down. We have the lowest life expectancy, highest high school drop out rates, and some of the lowest expectations from our elected leaders.
We've got a fine candidaate running to make a difference, and he's not afraid to speak out. Jim Holbert is a Progressive Democrat running on a platform of ending the wars, ending the bad free trade deals which kill our jobs, and creating an energy policy that benefits America, and not OPEC.
Recently, Jim Holbert has been getting quite a lot of attention both here on DailyKos and elsewhere for this comment he made in the Lexington Herald-Leader:
"I have had no support from either our state or Democratic National Committee. It was not their idea for me to run." Holbert said. "I’m disgusted that the party hasn’t given me support and I’m disgusted that the party hasn’t paid attention to these issues."
See, the Kentucky Democratic Party is run by an elite few who support many "Republican-lite" Democrats. They invest their money in races where they know that the Democratic candidate has no chance of winning. Jim Holbert is running in the low-40s in the very few polls that have been taken, which is higher than Jack Conway is running in some polling.
Jim Holbert needs our help to keep on fighting this month. He doesn't have a lot to spend, but what he lacks in finances he makes up for in volunteers. That being said, we still need to run as many ads as we can before November 2nd.
If you want to help Kentucky's 5th District and America see better days, please make a contribution to Jim Holbert's campaign. Click here to go to Jim Holbert's ActBlue page.
Also, be sure to 'like' his page on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.