She came to a 2 hour meeting of our AAUW chapter. It was supposed to be a debate between her and her GOP opponent, Rothfus. But he refused to attend. We bent over backward to try to accomodate him - offered him 5 different options - not simple since we normally meet on a set day every month. His staff finally told us he would not speak to our group at any time BEFORE the election.
Surprising since demographically we are centered in a wealthy, GOP dominated area (Fox Chapel). However he correctly figured that the vast majority of our membership are too well educated and informed to vote Republican. So, Erin McClelland had the entire 2 hours and she did herself proud. When she first announced she was running, I collected signatures for her because she was a far better candidate than the 79 year old, former Murtha chief of staff, who had been caught playing fast and loose with Murtha's campaign funds, i.e., purchasing a $1200 rifle at an NRA function. (He's currently running a rifle range in the hinterlands of the District.) But as far as McClelland went, she seemed like a decent person, but I wondered why her first political run was for U.S. Congress instead of some local or state office.
After hearing her speak and fielding some tea party type questions from the two life long GOP members in our group, I conclude that she is too damn good to waste any time in the GOP majority state house or senate. And I learned that she was motivated to enter politics by her experience working for former Secretary of Commerce, Paul O'Neill. He was Secretary of Treasury under George W. Bush, and was fired by Bush (no panty-waist being pressured into retiring to spend time with his family bullshit) for publicly disagreeing with and criticizing Bush's (i.e., Chaney's) actions.
He was chairman of Alcoa before that and greatly increased that company's profits while also emphasizing worker safety. After leaving the White House, he devoted himself to health issues, and it was in that capacity that Erin worked with him for a year.
She is ready to hit the ground running to represent our District in D.C. Extremely knowledgeable AND well spoken on the issues - rattling off facts and figures, findings from peer-reviewed research, etc. She came out from behind the podium we'd provided and walked right up to the front row. She spoke for over an hour with extremely detailed facts and without having a note in front of her. When these 2 Tea Party (god, they embarrassed the rest of us!) members threw long, convoluted, Rush Limbaughesque and angry questions at her - mixing up immigrants, health care, unemployment all in one question, Erin was unflappable - politely, yet forcefully and painstakingly deconstructed their questions and addressed each issue individually.
She has got the right stuff for a progressive Democrat. Her grandfather was a union organizer, her dad a steel worker and her mom a nurse. Born and raised in Natrona Heights. I learned from her that our crazily gerry-mandered district has a slight Democratic edge. I think it will be close, but she CAN win. Hopefully Wolf's coat-tails will help.
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