GO TO THESE TOWN HALL MEETINGS AND CALL THEM OUT, using the same type of language, including the "insurance companies don't think very highly of our intelligence"; they are not prepared to be called out, and it throws them off their game. There was no doubt leaving that meeting that the public option side in the room had won the debate, and that the wingers actually only represented 25-30% of the room - but the perception could have easily gone the other way had the meeting continued the way it started, with the minority sounding so loud it seemed to be a majority.
I also have to mention that if I at all managed to disarm the RW at that meeting, I was at best the third most effective speaker in the audience: it was a tough guy steel worker union man with the populist sharpness and effectiveness of a Jesse Ventura or a James Cornette, and especially a pro-life military family Sunday school teacher with a child she couldn't insure because of pre-existing condition whose incredible comments in favor of a public option were a home run, and made it very clear which side of the debate won that meeting. If I had to guess, I would strongly suspect that the wingnuts left that meeting fairly dejected, and that Congressman Courtney was generally quite happy with the way the meeting turned out (all the stress and drama not withstanding).
As well as a link to a downloadable flyer made by ShadowSD with some excellent points called Why A Public Option Makes Sense, aka "The Ten Health Care Talking Points EVERY DEM MUST REPEAT".
Greg Sargent at Plumline has this nifty little piece on Joe Courtney rapping the knuckles of those who oppose the public plan while they in congress enjoy such benefits on the public dime.
When I listen to the hysterical descriptions of what is in this legislation, I would remind many members to look at themselves in the mirror. Because what they are presently entitled to as members of Congress is exactly what this legislation is proposing to create for all Americans.
Sargent adds:
Courtney went on to blast opposition to the public plan as "hogwash," and concluded: "At the end of the day, we must give the people of this country exactly what they give us."
Since
last
fall's review of the spending habits of Congressional
campaigns, the state's candidates
have continued to find thrifty, questionable and downright foolish
ways to spend their money between October and March, several months
before voters start paying attention to them.
Democrats
in ostensibly competitive districts (Courtney, Himes, and Murphy) have
spent much less of a percentage of their income on average than
their Republican counterparts.
Chris Murphy's campaign, a
disciplined machine, has raised and saved the most and, not
coincidentally, has the lowest and most consistent burn rate.
John
Larson is the only candidate spending more than he is
raising. He
was actually left with less cash on hand at the end of March
than
when he started this electoral
cycle.
Sean Sullivan is the worst GOP candidate of the
year. (Tony Nania would compete for the title if he were for
real.)
Jim
Himes nearly matched Chris Shays in cash on hand, in large
part
because of Shays' pattern of big spending and Himes' past thriftiness.
But Himes raised less and spent more than Shays early this
year, diminishing
his progress.
CD
Candidate
Cash on hand
Jan 1 07
Raised
Jan 07 -
Mar 08
Spent
Jan 07 -
Mar 08
Cash on hand
Mar 31, 08
Burn
rate
Jan 07-
Sep 07
Burn
rate
Oct 07-
Mar 08
Total
burn rate
1
Larson
236,969
652,432
682,850
179,552
87%
155%
109%
2
Courtney
47,599
1,465,808
318,722
1,194,685
20%
25%
22%
2
Sullivan
-
230,450
101,462
128,988
23%
72%
44%
3
DeLauro
16,124
624,773
473,024
167,873
83%
66%
76%
4
Shays
61,544
1,608,255
532,072
1,137,726
37%
29%
33%
4
Himes
-
1,379,992
274,781
1,105,212
11%
27%
20%
5
Murphy
50,703
1,791,612
297,675
1,544,639
16%
18%
17%
5
Cappiello
-
654,655
232,039
420,316
24%
43%
35%
5
Nania
-
31,989
21,943
10,046
-
77%
77%
Burn rate = (total spent + debt)/ total raised.
More on the spending
habits of each candidate, and an update on April spending below.
Here's Rep. Courtney with a message about FISA/PAA (Tip of the Hat: Darcy Burner):
Yes, we can protect the country legally, without giving immunity to those who helped Bush break the law.
BTW... did he film this in a ritzy bathroom or something?
Anyway, it's good framing. It's going to take continued education/communication with the public to keep the fight going, even with a lame duck Bush in office, some Dems (esp. in the Senate) are still too eager to cave in. Good to see Courtney not falling into that pattern. And also note the timing with just-elected Democrat/scientist Bill Foster who ran on an anti-telecom immunity, anti-Iraq war platform - and won - in a red district whose previous occupant was Denny Hastert.
(And why don't they ever pick on Larson? Get him on that Stairmaster, Chris Healy. - promoted by mikect)
But where is Joe Courtney?
In 2006 Chris Murphy defeated Republican Incumbent Nancy Johnson by 22,000 votes. His colleague Joe Courtney squeaked out a victory over Rob Simmons by a razor thin margin of 91 votes. Conventional wisdom would suggest that Courtney would be considered the more vulnerable of the two in 2008, but the National Republican Congressional Committee doesn't seem to think so.
Roll Call (subscription required for the full article) obtained a memo from the NRCC listing 23 top targeted Democratic incumbents. Republicans have taken aim at Chris Murphy but left Courtney off of their list.
The purpose of raising campaign money is to spend it
- in a timely,
targeted, and effective manner. Some candidates focus on the
first half of that guideline and neglect the latter
portion. If campaign donors critically examined the
spending habits of some Connecticut candidates, they might have second
thoughts about contributing again.
To get a sense of how much
and how well funds are being spent, take a look at Congressional
campaign "burn rates" - how much of their incoming funds federal
candidates are spending in these early days of their campaigns.
Dist.
Candidate
Cash on hand
Jan 1, 2007
Raised
Jan-Sept 2007
Spent
Jan-Sept 2007
Cash on hand
Sept 30, 2007
Burn
rate
1
Larson
236,969
419,857
364,142
292,684
87%
2
Courtney
47,599
898,294
178,128
767,765
20%
2
Sullivan
-
132,384
30,686
101,698
23%
3
DeLauro
16,124
367,265
303,795
79,594
83%
4
Shays
61,544
838,489
306,242
593,791
37%
4
Himes
-
617,676
70,976
546,699
11%
5
Murphy
50,703
1,057,795
166,914
943,583
16%
5
Cappiello
-
268,802
64,434
204,368
24%
Burn rate = (Total spent during 2007 calendar year + debt as of Sept.
30)/ Total raised during 2007.
As
the biggest spender in a competitive district, Chris Shays is shedding
37% of his contributions as he goes. This is more than three
times the spending rate of Jim Himes, the most frugal and efficient
federal candidate in the state, who has departed with only a small
fraction (11%) of the funds he has raised. Despite Shays'
long
head
start, Himes has nearly as much cash on hand as his opponent.
If this pattern continues, Shays will soon fall behind his
challenger, in large part because of his wasteful spending.
Himes
Shays
Himes advantage
Average raised per quarter
308,838
279,496
Raised 29,341 more
Average spent per quarter
35,488
102,081
Spent 66,592 less
More on what they're
spending all that money on below.
(An important and well-researched diary from MikeCT -- take time to take action after reading! - promoted by Maura)
Progressives who supported Democratic Congressional candidates last
year hoped that the new majority would finally push forward
long-delayed progressive initiatives and articulate a positive vision
for public policy, rather than merely blocking the worst excesses of
the GOP. To spark discussion of a cross-cutting progressive
federal
agenda, in January, Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel cited examples
of ten
important legislative proposals that could form the
foundation of a multi-pronged campaign, addressing
universal health care, voting protections, worker rights, campaign
finance reform, and other issues. Since then, most of these
proposals have been introduced as bills in the new Congressional
session. I
took a look at which members of the Connecticut delegation have
co-sponsored these bills.
Thus far, the results are disappointing (see tables below).
Only Rosa
DeLauro has co-sponsored a majority of the bills. Joe
Courtney
and John Larson have co-sponsored no more than Chris Shays,
and
Chris Murphy has signed onto only two of eight introduced
bills.
The two measures
that were universally endorsed in the House, and the only ones that
have
been given a
floor vote are those that are 1) a prerequisite for the political
support of unions (Employee Free Choice Act), or 2) are useful
in
securing middle class votes (College Student Relief Act). In
other words, the easy bills. In the Senate, half
of vanden Heuvel's ten progressive proposals have not even
been
introduced as bills.
Some of the inaction is curious. Chris Murphy, a
single
payer supporter while in the state legislature, has not yet
co-sponsored the federal single payer bill. While Rosa
DeLauro is
the sponsor of the Healthy Families Act, only one
of her local House colleagues has joined her as a co-sponsor.
Please contact your members of the delegation and ask them to
co-sponsor these bills and to advocate for a
more bold
and progressive agenda. (See contact info
below.)
Speaking of Joe Courtney, he's about to introduce his first bill in Congress and will be having a press avail on Monday, the 12th to mark the momentous event.
I wish I could announce that he is introducing legislation to strip FERC of its dictatorial powers or a proposal to make Dick Cheney live in Fallujah until all our troops have the same level of body armor Bush's bodyguards get, but he's starting small.
Courtney's bill designates segments of the Eightmile River and its tributaries for inclusion in the National Park Service's Wild and Scenic River System. This designation will not only aid in the preservation of the natural resource, but makes the river eligible for federal funding and grant opportunities for future preservation efforts. [From a Courtney press release]
If you want to witness this history-making event...
WHEN: Monday, February 12 at 11:00 AM
WHERE: Home of Sue Hessel*
26 Mt. Archer Road
Lyme, CT
*This event will be held outdoors along the river if weather permits.
Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, was named Tuesday to the House Education and Labor Committee, after a campaign in which he repeatedly criticized the Republican Party's policies on school funding and student aid. . . .
Courtney's position on the education committee will put him in the midst of a brewing debate over the proposed reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, he said Tuesday in an interview in his office on Capitol Hill. . . .
Courtney had earlier been appointed to the House Armed Services Committee, a position that will put him nearer to the spotlight Thursday, when the new Democratic majority calls two administration officials, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss their plans for the future of the war in Iraq.
These assignments are a sign that the Party is working to put Courtney in a strong position for his seeemingly inevitable rematch with Rob Simmons in '08.
(I love this idea. - promoted by Matt Browner Hamlin)
Note: The following is a general overview of a new blog I am working on called Progressive Wave. It is a re-post from Daily Kos. Simply put, we are looking for a large number of bloggers to cover our new representatives and senators in Congress. It's a damn shame that Ned Lamont won't be one of them, but we do need people who would like to do some citizen journalism in CT-02 and CT-05. If you're interested, please post here or email me at my address in my profile. Thanks!
It's great to see citizen journalism in action. A project here at Daily Kos is picking up steam - where we 'adopt' a congressional committee and keep tabs on their progress. It's a great idea, and by all means one that we should encourage; after all, a democracy thrives when its citizens participate actively within it.
Before the election I was thinking of taking a similar principle and applying it to our newly-elected Congresspersons and Senators in the U.S. Congress. Many of our newly-elected representatives come from extremely close races (such as Patrick Murphy in PA-08 or Joe Courtney in CT-02), or they are in areas that will make it a challenge for them to be re-elected every time they are up (Nick Lampson in TX-22 or Nancy Boyda in KS-02). While the Netroots-endorsed list has only included challengers, it's inevitable that we will have to begin defending our incumbents, beginning in 2008.
Joe Courtney's nail-biting lead over war monger Congressman Rob Simmons seems to be standing up in the recount process. From the Norwich Bulletin:
U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, still trailed Democrat Joe Courtney Friday night by 162 votes after 12 towns in the 65-town second district finished their recounts.
Courtney originally led Simmons by 167 votes after Tuesday's election. So far, Simmons has picked up 10 additional votes and Courtney has added five to his total.
Simmons lost a vote in Columbia's recount Friday, neutralizing the one-vote gain he received Thursday in Hebron. Courtney, on the other hand, picked up a vote in Vernon, his hometown, when a provisional ballot was counted in Friday's recount. And Simmons and Courtney each picked up one extra vote in Pomfret when two provisional ballots were counted there.
North Stonington ? The vote totals in the 2nd Congressional District recount remained the same here Friday: U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, 1,231; Joe Courtney, the Democratic challenger, 885.
?I wasn't worried about our town,? Sandy Steinhart, one of the head checkers, said after the recount. ?We're thorough.?
The other head checker, Stella Elbaum, agreed.
?We're anal. ... I asked my husband for ID,? Elbaum said.
Why isn't Rob Simmons calling in pedophile protector in chief Dennis Hastert to campaign for him, as he did in 2000 and 2001? The Day thinks it has an answer.
Well, don't expect to see Hastert around here this election year. I doubt the Ranking House Enabler is high on the Simmons stumping guest list right now.
In fact, about the closest thing the Simmons camp has served up this campaign season by way of a connection to Washington Republicans and the Bush Administration has been President Bush I, the Bush who knew enough not to march on to Baghdad.
Maybe it's a good thing, too, that Hastert and his scandal stay away, given Congressman Simmons' propensity lately to publicly point out phallic symbols. (OK, he did it only once, at a lighthouse dedication. But, still.)
Our Republican Congresspeople just get weirder and weirder. Now The Day reveals that Rob Simmons apparently thinks of penises when he looks at the Avery Point Lighthouse.
We ask these questions because surely Simmons, the self-aggrandizing former CIA operative, must have vetted the candidates before exposing Washington to someone with Misenti's special interests in risky behavior, guns, and gaming violence. Yet he either discovered them and chose to capitalize on these interests or never discovered these interests at all.
Once Misenti arrived in Washington to work for Simmons he claimed to frequent bars that patronized underaged drinking. Did the Simmons operation introduce him to this lifestyle? We are left to wonder aloud and lament that a Connecticut House Representative apparently left the impression on Misenti that unlawful behavior, anything goes, and insider politics are the right stuff.
Simmons campaign manager, Chris Healy, proves he has no moral compass. Speaking of the vile, anti-semitic blog of Simmons supporter Tom Misenti (who trolls her from time to time), the Norwich Bulletin had this to say:
The case might be made that Misenti is a callow youth lacking judgment, perspective and taste.
And there might be a hint of condemnation for such badly considered, offensive imagery.
There was none of that from the Simmons campaign.
Chris Healy, Simmons campaign manager, had this to say of the blog: "It's a non-issue and a distraction. ...This has nothing to do with the campaign. We didn't authorize it; it's not sanctioned by us."
Simmons has had nothing to say.
So caught up in defending against involvement with the blog, it apparently never occurred to Healy to condemn the work as wildly inappropriate, well over the line of political discourse.
No, this was, as Healy saw it, "a college kid exercising his right to free speech."
No, this was more. This was beyond offensive. This was an affront to decency and deserved universal condemnation.
John Wirzbicki, over at CT Blue, has a superb rant on the subject of torture and Democratic spinelessness and how it loses us elections. He even takes a well-deserved swipe at Courtney.
Related topic: I am still a strong supporter of Joe Courtney, but my heart sank during the recent debate when he said he supported John McCain's bill, which only gave Bush 90% of what he wanted, instead of the 110% McCain eventually gave him. Why does every Democrat look for shelter in the warm embrace of McCain's hypocrisy? Like Specter, he talks the talk but never walks the walk, and even his talk is unacceptable. The fact is, there was absolutely no need for any bill on this subject whatsoever. Existing law was fine. All Joe had to say was: "I am against torture. I believe that these people should be given fair trials. I have faith in the American justice system. I don't have faith in George Bush, a consummate liar, to responsibly use the powers he is seeking. Let's let the system work. "
Joe, John McCain is part of the problem. He is a right wing ideologue who is a adept at currying favor with a pundit class which thinks he represents "moderation". He is not moderate, he is extreme. He is not principled. He is 100% ambition.
U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons' campaign released information regarding its internal polling that shows the three-term Republican incumbent leading Democratic challenger Joseph Courtney 50 percent to 36 percent. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released its internal polling data that said Courtney was holding a 1 percentage point lead, essentially proclaiming the race a dead heat.
As a Shoreline resident, I get all kinds of hot and bothered about the rape of Long Island Sound on the altar of energy industry greed, while Dick Cheney looks on, drooling and saying, "More, more, MORE!"
That's why I was moderately heartened that a coalition of Democratic candidates, including Joe Courtney, gathered in Madison to bash Rob Simmons on his support for the Bush-Cheney Energy Bill and his complicity in the ghastly Broadwater project.
Among many other things, the bill reiterates once again that FERC shall have absolute, untrammelled, dictatorial power to site an energy project anywhere Dick Cheney damn well chooses. The states are stripped of all recourse. So much for states' right, let alone simple democracy.
Since
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