Ed Fallon For Congress

by: Chris Bowers

Tue May 27, 2008 at 18:06



Over the few days, we have held a fundraiser on Open Left, and right now we stand only $3,000 short of our financial goal. However, for the next week, we are putting that fundraiser on hold, and instead asking you to contribute money to Ed Fallon instead, whose primary against conservative Bush Dog Leonard Boswell is only seven days away.

Matt's post earlier today covers many of the issues where Boswell is a Bush-enabling conservative, and an old post of mine from last August tackles several more. Suffice to say that at Open Left working toward a progressive governing majority is our tagline, and changing Bush Dog behavior was one of our very first campaigns (heck, Matt actually coined the term "Bush Dog.") It is difficult to find a clearer opportunity to take a step toward accomplishing both goals than the IA-03 primary campaign. Defeating Leonard Boswell would send a message to all 39 of the other Bush Dogs: stop supporting Bush policies, and start voting your districts, or you will be held accountable. If you support the founding missions of Open Left, then supporting Ed Fallon is a no-brainer.

Fallon is a serious candidate, and a proven winner in this district. Even before the Des Moines Register endorsement today, Fallon defeated an incumbent Democrat for state assembly in a primary in 1992, and did so by a 2-1 margin. Ten years later, also by 2-1 margins, he fended off party-backed primary challenges for his seat. In 2006, he won this district in the Gubernatorial primary. He is experienced at winning primaries in this district, and surely with the endorsement of the DMR he will be charging hard at the end of this campaign.

Join the final push by donating to Ed Fallon. There are going to be huge Democratic majorities in Congress next year, but we need to work to make sure those are progressive majorities. Fifty new donors for Ed Fallon would be a big step in that direction.  

Chris Bowers :: Ed Fallon For Congress

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Ed Fallon For Congress | 15 comments
Fantastic news (4.00 / 2)
Let's do this. Getting Ed elected would be hugely important.

John McCain: Beacuse lobbyists should have more power
As would .. (0.00 / 0)
giving Hoyer the middle finger!!
[ Parent ]
Let's get going (4.00 / 4)
I matched the first 4 donors.  Let's get this thing rolling.  This is what the powers that be understand.

John McCain--He's not who you think he is.
It's several possible wins in one (4.00 / 3)
It's a contested primary, which will drive up Democratic registration and involvement in the district, and it will provide up upward coattails for Obama to win Iowa (though he is leading, padding the total is important for the mandate calculus after the election).

It's also how the netroots stays politically relevant when the forces in play at the Presidential level swamp us.

$50 (0.00 / 0)
Which is about the biggest donation I ever make, unfortunately.  Maybe $60 once.  And having already donated $40 to Fallon a couple months ago, I guess I'm in for $90, which is more than I ever gave Obama and probably about what I gave Donna Edwards.

Leslie Byrne's primary is a week after Fallon's, on June 10th.  Is anything organized going to be done further for her?

Is this push for Fallon going onto Daily Kos or FDL?  Those videos of Fallon and Boswell talking about 1) their biggest priorities and 2) Iraq would be gold on DKos.  Combined with the DMR endorsement, a front page push for Fallon could be worth quite a bit.  I realize that these sites put their own credibility at risk when they push hard for candidates who lose big, and I'm sure DKos feels burned by Mark Pera.  But with the DMR thing... I dunno, I hope y'all are talking to folks on the ground in Iowa.  If this is anything less than a ten point race, the bigger blogs should really be in it.  In addition to the money, there's the free local media, which if the frontpage posts are written properly, could wind up repeating Fallon's campaign arguments for him.  And a sense of gathering momentum is worth a lot on the ground...

DKos might feel burned .. (0.00 / 0)
and we all felt burned by Chris Carney ... but we can't worry about that ... live and learned for next time .. we gotta set the defeats aside and press on(Do you think the Club for Growth worries about defeats?) .. and keep working for better Democrats
[ Parent ]
Because 95.6% just isn't enough. (0.00 / 0)
"In the 110th Congress, Leonard Boswell has voted with the Democratic Majority in the House 95.6% of the time."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

aoei (4.00 / 2)
His Openleft BushDog Profile sez:


Boswell has veered to the left since the Democrats won back the House.  He's got an above average loyalty score (94.3%) this session but is missing on key appropriations votes and other big items.

Besides, when the 4.4% he's wrong on manages to include Immunity, the War and the MCA, it's not so impressive.

[ Parent ]
Yep. Just like the song says: "99-1/2 Won't Do!" (4.00 / 3)
You got my $25.  
[ Parent ]
You get rec'd for the .. (0.00 / 0)
99 1/2 mention   ;-)    I believe CCR covered that one too
[ Parent ]
Done and Done (0.00 / 0)
Well, I said I would kick in and I did.  Not much, being a poor student, but hopefully my little bit of money will help in some small way.  I would love to see Boswell go down.
I'm In (4.00 / 2)
I yielded to the community judgment and contributed.  I'm concerned that Fallon showed poor judgment by supporting Nader in 2000, but I'm deffering to the determination of the Open Left community that Fallon is worth supporting.  
Fallon was far from the only one .. (0.00 / 0)
that fell under Nader's spell then
[ Parent ]
Why I'm giving (0.00 / 0)
I'm going to send this guy $50-not in spite of, but because of his support for Nader in 2000.  

In other words, this is someone who has a clue as to how much pressure needs to be exerted on the Washington consensus for it to move even marginally leftwards.

To have recognized this is nothing to apologize for.  Who should be apologizing are the apologists-both current and former-for the last three decades of capitulation to corporations, lobbyists, white shoe law firms and the misery they have created through the access they purchased.

I want to thank Open Left for selflessly putting their own (4.00 / 1)
fundraiser on the back burner for this, and I particularly want to thank Chris for his ongoing monitoring of this type of contest, which I, frankly, don't have the dedication or the focus to do for myself.  You are providing a real service for those of us who are not as in the loop as you are, Chris.  I don't always agree with your political analysis (just the large majority of the time) but when it comes to selecting candidates to support, especially in the primaries, which is one of my real desires, you and Matt are the ones I trust to advise me.  Yeah, I gave to Mark Pera, and he lost.  Oh well. I gave to John Edwards, and he lost, too, and that was my own pick.  I bet Mark will be back, and next time he will be stronger. So thanks, Chris.  I find your insights into the reality of electoral politics indispensible.  Oh, yeah, and I am going directly to Act Blue to make my donation.
Ed Fallon For Congress | 15 comments




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