As we saw again today on the delay in bankruptcy mortgage "cram down" legislation, and also in the delay on net neutrality legislation, it is a simple fact that certain Democratic members of Congress are more likely to listen to financial services lobbyists, and other corporate industry lobbyists, then they are to their own constituents. After all, there aren't many average constituents who can deliver $10K to your re-election fund every two years, but most corporate PACs will do so dutifully and without any real hassle.
Now, there is a new organization that is going to do something about this. Accountability Now, an alliance of several blogs, netroots organizations and SEIU, is seeking to redress the imbalance of members of Congress responding more to corporate interests than the interests of their constituents. From the New York Times:
A group of liberal bloggers said it was teaming up with organized labor and MoveOn.org to form a political action committee that would seek to push the Democratic Party further to the left.
Soliciting donations from their readers, the bloggers said they were planning to recruit liberal candidates to challenge more centrist Democrats currently in Congress.(...)
Left-leaning bloggers have already proven themselves influential in Congressional races, most notably providing muscle for the movement that helped Ned Lamont defeat Senator Joseph I. Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primary in 2006. (Mr. Lieberman retained his seat after winning the general election as an independent.)(...)
The political action committee will formally start up on Friday. Organizers said they already had $500,000 in their bank account, money that was raised over a short period in September when several blogs solicited donations. Organizers said they expected to collect far more than that when they start fund-raising in earnest next month.
Both Open Left and BlogPac will be a part of this effort, which has been desperately needed for some time. Kudos to the leading organizers, especially Jane Hamsher, in making it happen.
