Band of Brothers Reception in DC

[demdiva]

From the great Howard Park at the former Washington Kerry 2004 Meetup group (now DC Pragmatic Progressives)

Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Patty Murray, Former Sen. Max Cleland, Former Sen. Tom Daschle, Rep. Lane Evans, Rep. John Salizar, Gen. Wesley Clark & many other Democratic Veteran Leaders invite you to a reception in support of Band of Brothers 2006 and VETPAC -- on behalf of the many Democratic Veteran candidates who are running for Congress in 2006, Wednesday, February 8, 6:00 - 8:00 PM, Frederick Douglass Museum & Hall of Fame for Caring Americans, 320 A St., NE in Washington, DC.

$1.000 Patron, $500 Sponsor, $100 guest. Many of the Democratic veteran candidates will be on hand. 2006 has seen an unprecedented number of Veterans running for Congress who served in Iraq, the Gulf War, Vietnam and in other eras. These candidates (like Andrew Duck in Maryland, Chris Carney in Pennsylvania and Eric Massa in New York) need and deserve your support. Tuesday will be a great chance to meet and support a group of candidates who just may embody the tipping point toward Democratic control of the US House.

To RSVP or for further information please contact Kim Taylor [e-mail], 202-419-1848, www.bandofbrothers2006.org

[BlueIris]

1. Aw, thanks for posting. My mother was just asking about the BoB.

I said I hadn't heard anything about them lately, so I will be sure to update her with this info.

[FreedomAngel82]

2. Awesome

My democratic congressional canidate in my disctrict is one of them. (terry2006.com ) I wonder if he's going to be there. I'd love to go. I'm sure that'd be a great meeting.

[MH1]

3. For what it's worth....

Some of these candidates are running contested primaries and the national orgs have decided that the "Fighting Dem" brand is more important than what the candidates actually stand for, or whether the candidate even lives in the district they are running in.

I do not support the PA-07 candidate they have listed. He does not have a record as a progressive - far from it. I am very sorry that Kerry is in any way involved in this but I guess he can't avoid it.

Sorry to be a downer.

(demdiva, I appreciate your intentions, but that is just one more thing that sucks about the game DCCC is playing.)

[Mass]

4. I have seen many complaints in the same directions

I dont know the individual situations, so I wont comment, but I know the same situation exists in Illinois.

[TayTay]

5. MH, that's okay. You are entitled to your opinion.

There are a lot of Dems who are pissed off at how the DCCC is handling things. I am glad they are recruiting candidates to run and that we will be fielding, apparently, candidates in distrcits were we couldn't find people before. Rahm Emmanuel is not a very good DCCC Chair, if you ask me. He is too authoritarian and too argumentative. I'm not fond of him at all.

I can see the natural appeal of JK for this event. I can understand the politics behind is as a counter-move to the obvious ploy of Rove and the Rethugs to again paint the Dems as weak on defense. But I also see the point of not having candidates 'moved into position' by the national party. (I like organically grown candidates too!)

[demdiva]

6. Of course we should always

look at candidates as individuals with unique and distict values / opinions / etc.
That's something to look out for. Thanks for the input!

[FreedomAngel82]

7. Right

The guy running in my district he and I have talked through Email and he's the real deal. He's not a republican-lite type. No way. He doesn't have his stances up yet but he just recently officially became a canidate so he's working on that. He told me in an Email late last month he'll have his stances up soon. I've only talked to him really about the illegal spying and he's very against it.

[demdiva]

8. I also think

while democrats should believe in the same core set of values, that the Democratic Party HAS to be open to candidates that might diverge on particular issues.

The Republican Party has managed to win the past few elections by taking very divergent candidates and making them converge on a core set of "values". And, to be honest, I'm somewhat "Republican-lite" myself, although really more "Democrat-lite". Republican-lites aren't so crazy about the Republican base right now, and if those Republican-lite voters vote for democrats, that will help the democrats to regain control of Congress / the White House.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should "throw the baby out with the bathwater" as the cliche saying goes, but I do think that we need to find a way to welcome more people into the Democratic Party and to allow candidates to be attractive to their local voters.

[TayTay]

9. Ahm, MH did you see this?

Looks like you got a heck of a race over there in the PA-07. Sounds lively as hell.

ww.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/1/233925/1936 cut and paste and add in the first w

Wow!

[MH1]

10. Not the diary (until your post), but Admiral Sestak

In fact last night I was at a meeting where they told us Scoles was dropping out and throwing his support behind Sestak. Then Sestak spoke for a while and took questions, followed by Lentz.

I was not impressed by Lentz, given all the campaign time he's had. Sestak, otoh, needs to polish up a few things but I think he will be a strong candidate. Personally he was plenty polished, as one would expect. Needs to work on message and delivery, but only a little, and that's not surprising considering he literally just announced.

I am really unhappy that Scoles dropped out. Hence I was feeling pretty cranky last night. That plus a headache I picked up at work, then going to that meeting in a tiny room, and having to sit in the front row and having several candidates (*not* Sestak, but especially Lentz) speak like they were in a thousand seat auditorium without a mike. Yikes. Ibuprofen wasn't even coming close to handling that.

PA-07 is getting ugly. Then again, PA "Democratic" politics is pretty ugly, if you ask me - refer back to the pay raise fiasco. It's pretty disheartening.

[MH1]

11. Also, I have passed on the "Band of Brothers" info

to someone who is tied in with Sestak's campaign. I see that Band of Brothers has at least one district listed with 2 candidates, so there should be no reason that they won't include Admiral Sestak. I hope he'll get listed there soon.

[TayTay]

12. MH: Lentz has dropped out, I see

Is this good news from your point of view?

Iraq war veteran drops out of U.S. House race
AP Alert - Political 02-10-2006
By By KIMBERLY HEFLING

WASHINGTON_An Iraq war veteran and Democratic challenger to Rep. Curt Weldon said Thursday he is dropping out of the race.

Bryan Lentz said that after conversations with Delaware County Democratic Party officials and Gov. Ed Rendell, he decided it was in the best interest of the party to step aside. He said he will run for the state House instead.

Lentz said he will support the candidacy of recently retired three-star Vice Adm. Joseph A. Sestak Jr., who announced last week he was also running in the Democratic primary in the 7th District.

In the quarter that ended Dec. 31, Lentz, an attorney and Army Reserves major who volunteered to serve with a civil affairs unit in Iraq, raised $83,372 _ nearly matching the amount raised by Weldon.

He said he will use that money to challenge incumbent Republican state Rep. Tom Gannon.

"I met with Joe Sestak and I met with my close supporters and we assessed that the best way to bring change to Washington and to Harrisburg was to move forward on a unified front," Lentz said.

Sestak, who served in Afghanistan, praised Lentz as a good soldier and candidate. The two are scheduled to appear together at a news conference Friday afternoon in Media.

"I just think it's a great day for Democrats," Sestak said. "I think what we're doing is doing our part, Bryan and I, for creating a unified party."

A press secretary for Weldon, a 10-term Republican who is vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, declined comment.

The district, comprised of parts of Delaware, Montgomery and Chester counties in the Philadelphia suburbs, went for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in 2004.

[MH1]

13. Wow, thanks - hadn't gotten that yet.

Good news? Well, probably in that there won't be an ugly primary fight, and I'm glad Lentz is being gracious... but I'm learning more about local politics than I think I ever wanted to know, and it ain't pretty.

In any case I applaud Lentz for his statement,

"People are as hungry for reform and change in Harrisburg as in D.C.," Lentz said yesterday. "I'm happy to serve the public in either capacity... . The admiral is obviously a great candidate for our party, and I'm for winning."

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/13836532.htm

I wonder how it came about. Nominating convention is next Tuesday, and Lentz was acting as if he was determined to stay in....I wonder if he counted up the guaranteed votes for Sestak (from the party bosses and their followers) and decided he couldn't win it anyway, so may as well take whatever bone the party machine wanted to throw him.

I'm still mad that Scoles is out...but given the political climate, Sestak is probably a more sellable candidate. Scoles' district already has good D's in the State posts, so unless he moves, he doesn't have any other options afaik. Maybe he only intended to run as a placeholder anyway, until they had Sestak bagged...that would explain a few things.

I'm glad that Lentz will run for state house....I hope he runs a good race, and he should be able to win, because of the PA Clean Sweep effort (throw the bums out - pay raise backlash).