It was just a couple of nights ago that Keith Olbermann was challenging us, in one of his "Special Comments", to rise up in the streets and take back this country.
He pointed out that the only way those on the left were going to be able to fight against those who are looking to get all "Tea Party" is to be as angry and as organized and as aggressive as the Tea Party community, and if we're smart, we'll take him up on that challenge.
But if you really want to push "professional" Democrats to the left, most especially this President, and you want to do it in time to impact the '12 cycle, the only way to do it is to run a candidate in primary contests that either moves the conversation your way...or leaves you with a surprising new Candidate.
And right here, right now, we actually have a chance to do exactly that - and that's why, in today's discussion, I'm going to challenge Olbermann right back.
This viewer has to hand it to Ned Lamont, who seemed move lively, energetic and full of ideas than Dan Malloy, who appeared almost somnolent at times.
Our field team is spread across Connecticut, and doing fantastic work. Over the last several weeks, they have recruited more than 3,000 volunteers, and together they have made more than 2 million calls and knocked on more than 150,000 doors.
And the results are showing. Despite two weeks of constant negative attacks by our opponent, Ned still leads in the recently released Quinnipiac poll 45-40, and Democratic voters believe Ned has the right positions on key issues, the right plan to turn the economy around, and the right character to be governor. And by a spread of 46-29, Democratic voters believe Ned is the best candidate to beat the Republicans in November and take back the governor's office for the first time in more than 20 years.
Every day, as each volunteer comes into our regional field offices, as we identify each voter, as we knock on each door and place each lawn sign, our momentum is growing:
The 121st State Rep. Race (Stratford) has been canceled. Challenger, Michael Singh, drove to Hartford and formally withdrew from the race. (Can we hope for the same from Lee Whitnum?) An email was sent from the SOTS office to the Stratford Registrar of Voters to tell them to take the day off.
Representative Terry Backer will now concentrate on getting elected to his 9th term as State Rep. Terry is a proven leader on environmental and energy issues. He is the Long Island Sound Keeper and a founding member of the International Water Keeper Alliance (which includes River Keeper).
One big fact has largely been lost in the recent coverage of the Democratic presidential race: Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning.
Her own campaign acknowledges there is no way that she will finish ahead in pledged delegates. That means the only way she wins is if Democratic superdelegates are ready to risk a backlash of historic proportions from the party's most reliable constituency.
Unless Clinton is able to at least win the primary popular vote - which also would take nothing less than an electoral miracle - and use that achievement to pressure superdelegates, she has only one scenario for victory. An African-American opponent and his backers would be told that, even though he won the contest with voters, the prize is going to someone else.
People who think that scenario is even remotely likely are living on another planet.
Clinton's likely reaction to being told this truth... Below the fold!
Superdelegates have a pretty awesome responsibility every election, but this year is unlike any other.
We need to show those superdelegates that we want them to speak up for us and that we are paying attention. We need to pressure them. I have been debating with myself about whether or not to post contact info for us to lobby them. I personally hate the idea of superdelegates as it creates a special class of Democrats that is free to cut as many deals and elicit promises for their votes as they want. Sure they are people that ave shown their unusually high commitment to the Democratic Party in some way or another, but it is still an ultimate American privilege of subverting democracy. I decided to only post info that is public information. If the superdelegates don't like that they are being contacted, then they should not shoulder the responsibilty or stand up, be leaders and commit.
As a remedy for this, I made the following map of the results:
Obama is green, and Clinton is red. The towns' sizes are in proportion to the combined number of votes that Obama and Clinton received on Tuesday. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good way to overlay county lines, congressional district lines, or town names.)
Video and photos from the Hartford Obama rally: also see Lon's diary with video here.
Fresh... if somewhat exhausted... from volunteering at the Obama rally in Hartford. The campaign hoped for about 10,000 people, but the XL Center, which I'm told holds over 16,000, was literally packed to the rafters:
If you could stand that poor (but hot off the presses) photo, you might also enjoy the equally poor (but equally hot off the presses) video below the fold...
U.S. / POLITICS | February 3, 2008
Nuclear Leaks and Response Tested Obama in Senate By MIKE McINTIRE
An Illinois controversy pitting two important constituencies against each other put Barack Obama's legislative skills to the test.
Raises some interesting questions about a piece (albeit small) of Obama's record, but more importantly, raises questions about how and what he said to voters about this issue which were clearly contradictory to the facts. Recent mailers of his notwithstanding, he was not open and honest with voters about his purported accomplishments - or possible failings - here.
Clinton supporters are continuing their GOTV efforts today and tomorrow, with phone calls, canvassing, visibility and events throughout the state. In particular of note is Chelsea Clinton at the CT Town Hall - Voices Across America - tonite - see Events for details.
CD HQs and contacts are:
Nick Panagopoulos, 1st CD Coordinator
35 Marshall Rd
Rocky Hill, CT
702-217-2296
npanagopoulos@hillaryclinton.com
Fredrik Bolinder, 2nd CD Coordinator
19 Hope St
Niantic, CT
515-664-1789
fbolinder@hillaryclinton.com
John Williams, 3rd CD Coordinator
3305 Dixwell Ave
Hamden, CT
319-654-6839
jwilliams@hillaryclinton.com
Connecticut Congressmen John Larson and Chris Murphy threw their support to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Thursday ahead of his planned visit to the state next week.
This is an extraordinary development for Connecticut's Tsunami Tuesday primary. Outside of Chris Dodd, I would say that Larson is one of if not the most influential Democrat in the state, and to have the two of them campaigning for Sen. Obama is tremendous. As we saw in a diary earlier this week, the latest polls have Obama and Clinton in a dead heat for Connecticut's delegates. And after HRC's visit, it looks like Obama will be making stops in Hartford and New Haven as well:
Rep. John Conyers will be stumping for Obama in Hartford and New Haven tomorrow. Here's the times and locations:
Hartford
MEETING WITH UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT LAW SCHOOL STUDENTS
1:30 PM
University of Connecticut School of Law
Starr Hall, 2nd floor
45 Elizabeth Street
Hartford, CT
New Haven
"WHY OBAMA?" EVENT
6:00 PM
African American House Auditorium
211 Park Street
New Haven, CT
Great news! I cant believe Connecticut really matters in a primary contest, but that's the way it looks. Hopefully we can nominate Sen. Obama and carry him forward to the nomination!
You're still a registered Democrat, correct? I am.
So you won't be able to actually vote for McCain in the primary. I won't. It's funny, I just thought of that [last night]. I started to make a note to myself to make sure I asked for an absentee ballot. And I realized: I can't vote for him, because the Republican Party in Connecticut doesn't allow Democrats to vote in its primary.
Will you vote in the Democratic primary? No, I won't, because I'm supporting McCain.
There's some more icky quotes from Joe, and then this:
One trait I acquired early on in life was a very natural curiosity about how things fit together and what made them work. That trait was further refined during my 4 years at engineering school, where I was taught to examine every possible means of solving a problem before arriving at a conclusion. There were often multiple ways at arriving at said conclusion, some of which were better than others,
but all of which were feasible. Ultimately, what I learned was to always keep an open mind, to investigate every situation as thoroughly as possible, and to be skeptical where evidence suggests that a given conclusion may be incorrect.
Having spent 12 years writing custom database software much like that which lies at the heart of our e-voting machines, it was natural for my curiosity to be piqued by them, especially once all the accusations of vote rigging surfaced in both the 2000 and 2004 elections. So I endeavored to learn as much as I could about the operation of these machines in order to determine for myself whether claims of vulnerability to hacking and
miscalculations were valid. The more I learned, the more convinced I became that things were as bad or worse than the claims I had read, and the more concerned I became over the use of these machines for managing our elections.
Study, after study, after study, as well as independent investigations conducted by election integrity groups such as BlackBoxVoting.org, validated my
fears that these machines could, with varying degrees of ease, be undetectably modified (either on purpose or by accident) in a manner that would corrupt
the results of an election.
In this season of miracles, consider volunteering some time working for the presidential candidate who represents your core values.
We have a group of people traveling the four hours from Connecticut to Manchester NH to volunteer for democracy and for Dennis Kucinich's defense of democracy - for the final four days in advance of the New Hampshire primary.
A quick follow-up on yesterday's post about the primary in New Britain's 5th Ward. Democratic endorsed candidates Roy Centano and Lori Rocha won, leaving incumbent Democrat John Carroll off the November ballot.
Carroll campaigned with postcards and fliers, but he didn't have an army of door-to-door campaigning volunteers.
The town committee did.
"The Democratic Town Committee did me in," Carroll said after learning of the results. "I lost. No hard feelings. No remorse."
If anything, the primary resolved the question of just how powerful the Democratic Party machine really is, although Democratic Town chairman John McNamara was quick to say Tuesday that "it is not a machine; it is a group of dedicated individuals who work like a machine."
Ned Lamont might not have won the Senate race, but his courage in putting the Iraq War front and center was the spark that lit a fire of anti-war sentiment, resulting in the Dems taking back Congress. If only our Senators, who just passed the Survelliance Act, had Ned's cojones. If only Ned were our Senator....
Just like in Connecticut last year, the Democratic Party is split between two factions. Until Lamont, it seemed as if the faction headed now by Hillary Clinton always seemed to win. One year ago today, we changed that. It is time for us to make the Democratic Party more like us and less like the other guys. We've done it before, now let's do it again.
If you ever needed proof that Hillary was Bush/Cheney/Lieberman Light, all you had to do was watch her in last night's debate.
Lamont rocked the house, and there was so much energy in the crowd. We finally won one guys - but there's still much work to do on this race. For you guys, that means I'll be making more trips up to CT to help out.
I'll post a final comprehensive review tomorrow night - I'm extremely tired now, and I have to get started on the 90-minute drive home. Thanks to everyone for being here. I hope I made y'all feel as if you were here for this.
Damn, it feels good to win.
We should all take comfort in knowing that nothing has changed over at Dump Joe, a website that is unfortunately still necessary.
Are there any reminiscing or special memory posts that I missed? Leave links and excerpts in the comments section!
Here's a real treat on the anniversary of Ned Lamont's August 8 2006 victory. The official website at www.nedlamont.com has been redesigned and relaunched:
I am so proud of the most important and lasting legacy of our campaign: you, the tens of thousands of new voters, hundreds of new activists, and vast numbers of staffers, volunteers, and supporters who have stayed involved. You are running for office, joining your local town committee, getting involved in other campaigns, and keeping your representatives honest.
One year after the primary, so many of you are staying active and continuing to challenge the status quo when it needs challenging.
In this spirit, we have relaunched NedLamont.com as a place where you can keep up to date on my political activities and stay connected.
To start, you can write a letter to the editor about what last year's primary victory meant to you, sign up to stay connected via email updates, read some of my reflections from the campaign trail, take action to help defeat the Republicans up for re-election who have been blocking bipartisan progress on Iraq, or find out what I've been up to since November.
Thanks,
(Video coverage and transcript of a Ned event in New Hampshire... thanks, mbair -- and hello to any granite-staters visiting MLN for the first time here! - promoted by mattw)
I went to a NH meet and greet with Ned Lamont appearing on behalf of Chris Dodd for President. It was old school Granite State grassroots with about 30 people attending an open discussion of current events in a lovely private home.
Ned came to discuss why he thinks that Dodd is the best choice for the nominee and why he thinks the NH voters should give Dodd "a fair shot," but Lamont also spoke for himself on issues ranging from Iraq to hedge funds and gave some very funny and illuminating remarks on his race for Senate in Connecticut last year.
Lamont was very relaxed and charming as it was an informal setting and he came across as genuine. He didn't have an answer from Dodd on every question posed, but he did answer our questions directly and engaged us all in that living room Sunday night in Portsmouth, NH.
Follow me below the fold for all the video of the remarks and the Q & A.
I just got an e-mail from DFNH about Ned Lamont coming to Portsmouth for a meet and greet. He'll be speaking "on behalf of Chris Dodd."
Anyone else planning on attending? I think I'm going. It's not on the DFNH website yet and I don't think that Dodd will be there but it looks interesting.
Jim Lash, current Greenwich First Selectman, will challenge Jodi Rell for the Republican nomination in 2010.
An article in today's Greenwich Time discussed the frustrations of Greenwich Republicans with Rell's budget plan, among other things.
The disgruntlement has reached a point that top party members in town are already predicting Rell would lose a Republican primary in 2010 if she ran for re-election.
It's been a longstanding Greenwich rumor that Jim Lash has ambitions for higher office. With some of the state's wealthiest and most influential Republicans already making public comments about a 2010 primary, and Shays looking like he'll want to run for re-election in 2008, I think a 2010 primary run is Lash's next move after he steps down as Greenwich's First Selectman.
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