Recently, I've been looking more closely at the 50 state strategy and its implications for 2006. I've come to the realization that 2006/2008 are our only chances to try it out. Should we fail again, the pundits and DLC type politicians will come back and tell us we've wasted too much money on states we couldn't win. We're just idealists with no political skill. And, worst of all, we're contributing to Republican victories.
So, we need to put all we have into making Democrats competitive everywhere. This doesn't mean putting millions into every race like we did with Paul Hackett, but it DOES mean financial support for candidates we're interested in. In particular, it seems younger candidates deserve our support. Why? Because they represent the future of our party. If you're 20 , run for congress, and get no support you may be turned off from politics. If, however, you get a 1000 DailyKos members to give you 10 bucks each, you suddenly realize that someone out there believes in your campaign.
In 2004, my home state was blessed to have Barack Obama elected as its Senator. Anyone from IL knows that this could hardly have been predicted. Even in the days leading up to the Democratic party, many still thought Dan Hynes had a chance at taking the nomination. Still, the progressive forces united around Sen. Obama and word spread. Most of the credit rests with Sen. Obama himself. A candidate like him comes along very rarely, but imagine if he had lost in the primary and we had been deprived of his leadership.
Now, I don't mean to turn this diary into a conversation about Barack Obama. Rather, I suggest that we as Dems find candidates we support in primaries and help them out starting now. If there's no concensus, let them fight it out, but if there is lets offer our support. A great example is Montana where Jon Tester is clearly being supported by the majority of blogs and netroots. Meanhwile, in Ohio there is a split between Brown and Hackett so we should let them fight it out in the primary (in a clean campaign of course).
I'm from IL-10 but don't have a candidate to support yet within my district. However, I was looking around today at Nebraska where I'd heard of a guy named Scott Kleeb running for Congress.
Let me be clear, I don't have anything to do with the Kleeb campaign. However, here's a news story about Bob Kerrey supporting his efforts.
http://www.journalstar.com/...
This looks like the type of candidate we can rally behind and support. He's not as progressive as we'd all like but he's a young genuine Nebraskan who is taking the plunge and running for office. I say we each give him 10 bucks to encourage the campaign.
So how about it? Are you up for the challenge? Let's elect a Dem in the 3rd District of Nebraska. (It's currently Tom Osborne's district but he's running for Governor)
Give Scott Kleeb $10 today . Let's show the Republicans that no place is safe. And while you're at it suggest other candidates in red america who we can get behind.
