A good friend of mine is running in the 3rd Congressional District to replace Dick Gephardt. His name is Jeff Smith and I’d appreciate if you could drop by and help him reach his March Madness Goal of $10,000. You can just donate, or you can enter a pool for the NCAA Tournament. If you win, you get to play Jeff in a game of basketball. Given his stature, that might not seem like much, but he is very fast.
Also, for those of you in Chicago, he will be having a fundraiser on March 27th. Donations start at $50 so consider attending. Details will follow.
Jeff is running in a fairly crowded field. Amongst them he is the most progressive candidate with a chance to win the primary. He has had good success raising money to date, but needs more help.
His opponents includ State Senator Steve Stoll, former State Rep. Joan Barry, and State Represenative Russ Carnahan. Stoll is conservative for a Democrat, but a decent guy. He is pro-life, anti-gun control an pro-death penalty. Barry is pro-life and also a very decent person. Russ Carnahan has the largest name recognition largely due to his parents, former Governor Mel Carnahan and former US Senator Jean Carnahan. Russ is more liberal than the others, but suffers from a bad case of being inept and horrible in public.
I’m sure Russ is a nice guy, but he is one of the most ill-prepared candidates for office I have ever observed. The reason this matters is that the Republican in the race is one Bill Federer. For those unfamiliar with the wing-nuttery of Federer, you will know that he has the strong endorsement of Phyllis Shafly and Grover Norquist. And he has money-he is already at $450,000 for the race.
While I don’t shun more conservative Democrats like some, I will say that I’d far prefer a progressive candidate in the 3rd to challenge Federer and replace Gephardt. A conservative Democrat isn’t necessary here. The District is 60% Democratic.
I’m asking you to donate to Jeff today to ensure that he remain competitive. For those concerned over whether he is viable, take a look at the articles on the front page–Jeff has already shown that he can raise money and Roll Call has even noticed.
I’ll be asking for lots of donations for candidates in Illinois throughout the year. For those that can do it–that money is essential to a winning campaign by Barack, Bean and others, but this is an option to help out another candidate who can make a difference in Washington.
Done. Tell him I’ll raffle off my chance to play him one on one if Pittsburg (a team with whom I have no affilliation) wins.
He looks like a solid candidate.
Any sense of polls?
Why thank you! The polls are only internals from another right now and Russ is leading across the board. The name will keep it that way for a while.
I honestly don’t like talking bad about Russ, but once he starts meeting people, they get really turned off. He is the most awkward guy I’ve ever seen campaign and he can’t answer simple questions. His sister is running for Secretary of State and she is bright and sharp. I’m a big fan of hers.
And the raffle idea is cool–I was worried someone would ask me to play him and that would just be damn embarrassing for me.
Arch-y: Excuse me for my lack of Missouri knowledge, but where exactly is Gephardt’s district? I know the SEIU H.E.R.O’s program has just begun as has the AFL-CIO’s in general–so there’re going to be a lot of people beating the streets in local races. I also know that most of the Illinois H.E.R.O’s are going to Missouri (from what I can gather, a big office in Columbia and St. Louis and a smaller one in KC).
Arch-y: Excuse me for my lack of Missouri knowledge, but where exactly is Gephardt’s district? I know the SEIU H.E.R.O’s program has just begun as has the AFL-CIO’s in general–so there’re going to be a lot of people beating the streets in local races. I also know that most of the Illinois H.E.R.O’s are going to Missouri (from what I can gather, a big office in Columbia and St. Louis and a smaller one in KC).
Wiz, the race is south Saint Louis City, near mid County and South County of Saint Louis County and down Jefferson County. Most of the trades unions and the teachers unions are behind Stoll. He was a teacher and really his key Democratic constituency has been organized labor. Joan Barry has the nurses and some other unions. Russ I think has one union–which is telling . Jeff has had good relations with them, but I doubt they are going to go with him simply because two of them can currently help them in the Missouri Lege.
I’m betting the AFL-CIO won’t make a full endorsement simply because Joan and Steve are both members and no one wants to choose between them at that level.
All that said, any of the Democrats will be happy for the help against Federer, but the primary itself isn’t until August 1st. Right now is the critical fundraising period and so far Jeff has gotten a lot of attention.