LOUISIANA’S 4TH DISTRICT
Paul Carmouche
Republican Jim McCrery has represented the district since 1989 and is one of nearly 30 retiring House Republicans to jump off a sinking ship. He has endorsed unknown attorney Jeff Thompson in the Republican primary. Thompson himself faces a primary challenge from two other unknown Republicans. Among Thompson’s key plans are increasing our military might and expanding oil exploration and refining capacity at home. The same old same old in a year when people want change.
The Democrats are likely to nominate Paul Carmouche, a respected local prosecutor, to fill McCrery’s seat. The district has a 33 percent black population, and it’s near districts in which Democrats have won surprising special election victories in the south. Carmouche says he will “fight for Louisiana’s working families and work to provide better healthcare for our veterans and reservists, give our middle-class families the tax relief they need, and stand up for Louisiana’s values in Washington.” Like the value of a good levee or two.
MICHIGAN’S 7TH DISTRICT
Mark Schauer
Republican Tim Walberg’s stay in the U.S. House of Representatives will be a short one. He is a freshman member who won his 2006 race with less than 50 percent of the vote. During his short stint in Congress, he has been one of Bush and Cheney’s biggest cheerleaders on Iraq, claiming that soldiers are telling him that Iraq is as safe as Detroit or Chicago. He said on a radio show in 2007, “80 to 85 percent . . . of the country is reasonably under control, at least as well as Detroit or Chicago or any of our other big cities.” Adding, “in many places it’s as safe and cared for as Detroit or Harvey, Ill., or some other places that have trouble with armed violence that takes place on occasion.” He also invited Dick Cheney to Michigan where they held a private fundraiser that raked in more than $100,000. Walberg is anti-abortion and opposes embryonic stem cell research. The Michigan League of Conservation Voters (MLCV) gave Walberg 5 points out of a possible 100 for his record on environmental issues in 2007. Of the 20 issues the MLCV tracked, Walberg voted in support of only one and against 19 pro-environmental measures, including tax subsidies to encourage the development of clean, renewable energy sources; setting higher fuel efficiency standards; and providing financing for water infrastructure projects.
Democrats have nominated Mark Schauer for Walberg’s seat. Schauer is the leader of the Democrats in the Michigan State Senate and has spent his career working and serving Michigan. He was a Battle Creek city commissioner and executive director of the Community Action Agency of South Central Michigan. Making Michigan’s wobbly economy a priority, Schauer says he’ll join Senators Levin and Stabenow to change our federal trade policies to help bring jobs back to Michigan. He has also voted to increase the minimum wage and protect the earned income tax credit.
MICHIGAN’S 9TH DISTRICT
Gary Peters
Eight-term Republican congressman Joe Knollenberg won a close race in 2006 despite heavily outspending his opponent. With the tide turning blue, what used to be a safe seat for Republicans is now up for grabs, and Knollenberg and his staff are starting to feel the heat. Knollenberg, who’s been a rubber stamp for the Bush administration, got some national attention when his chief-of-staff, Trent Wisecup, had a wild-eyed meltdown in front of a community activist who had asked Rep. Knollenberg about his policies on the war and why he voted against increasing funding for SCHIP, the popular children’s health insurance program. Wisecup called the constituent “anti-American,” and “pro-Toyota,” and said he was “against the country,” and wanted “Iran to win.” Sounds a lot like the Republican party platform—let’s give this guy a primetime slot at the Convention! To view a video clip of the diatribe, go to www.retirejoeknollenberg.com.
Democratic candidate Gary Peters was a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, a city councilman, and was appointed by the governor as Michigan’s Lottery Commissioner. He’s running hard against the Bush administration’s policies and Rep. Knollenberg, who supports them. He has the support of General Wesley Clark and VoteVets.org.
During his time in the Michigan State Senate, he authored a bill to ban drilling for oil and gas under the Great Lakes. He was also a founder and co-chair of the Senate Arts Caucus to promote culture, art and creativity in Michigan.
MINNESOTA’S 3RD DISTRICT
Ashwin Madia
Republican Erik Paulsen is a state representative and a former staffer to the retiring Rep. Ramstad, who has held this seat since 1991. Dick Cheney held a private fundraiser in Minnesota in June that some local Republicans didn’t attend because they want nothing to do with him; Paulsen’s spokesperson admitted, “Paulsen did stop by the event.” Even though Paulsen was willing to attend a fundraiser with Dick Cheney to help raise funds for his campaign, he’s not as willing to talk about Mr. Cheney’s most controversial policy—the Iraq War. A search of Paulsen’s website—from “Issues” to “About Erik” to “The Paulsen Record,” and even using his website’s search engine, turned up no hits for the word “Iraq.”
His opponent, Democratic challenger Ashwin Madia, served in Iraq and isn’t afraid to use that four-letter word.
Madia’s parents came to the United States from India with $19 in their pockets. Their son Ashwin, born in Boston, went on to attend University of Minnesota and New York University Law School. He joined the Marines and is one of many Iraq war veterans running for office in the Democratic Party in the hopes of ending the war before another 4,000 soldiers perish.
After his time serving in Baghdad, Madia is now calling for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq over a period of 18 to 24 months.
MISSOURI’S 6TH DISTRICT
Kay Barnes
Republican incumbent Sam Graves needs to come out of the closet—the congressional closet. Roll Call, the inside-the-beltway newspaper, has noted that Graves’ TV ads state everything about him except that he’s the incumbent in this race and that he’s a Republican. Though he has represented this district since 2001, he’s too ashamed to admit that he’s a member of Congress and the Republican Party in his own paid advertisements! I sympathize with the guy, but I don’t think he’ll fool the people of the sixth district of Missouri again. This is a swing district that gets attention from both national parties, and one of Graves’ funding sources has been the disgraced former Representative Tom DeLay’s political action committee.
Even though he’s a closet-Republican and closet-Congressman, he’s voted with his fellow Republicans 91 percent of the time in the current Congress. He’s even in a dwindling group of Republicans who are still publicly claiming that China is drilling for oil off American shores near Cuba. In an effort to drum up support for offshore drilling, Republicans have falsely claimed that China is currently drilling for oil near Cuba. Dick Cheney went so far as to invoke the Red Menace to drive his point home: “‘Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply. Yet Congress has said . . . no to drilling off Florida.” In an unprecedented move, after being corrected by many sources, Dick Cheney admitted that he was mistaken when he said this (and said that conservative columnist George Will was his source for this false info. Yes, they have begun to eat their own.). Republican Senator Mel Martinez went on the Senate floor and corrected the record saying that the China-Cuba oil drilling story was not true. After both Martinez and even Dick Cheney’s corrections, Sam Graves continues to use the fake China-Cuba drilling story to push for more offshore drilling. Hey, Sam—I heard bin Laden and the Boogeyman are drilling in Cuba, too!
In 1999 Democratic candidate Kay Barnes became the first female mayor of Kansas City, the largest city in Missouri, where she served two terms. She is currently a Distinguished Professor for Public Leadership at Park University and holds Master’s Degrees in secondary education and public administration. She also ran her own small business, a human resource development firm, and has served the community as the first coordinator of the Women’s Resource Center at the Univer
sity of Missouri—Kansas City and as a staff member of Kansas City’s Metropolitan Inter-Church Agency.
On the environment, Barnes believes the U.S. should have signed the Kyoto Protocol and gone even further to raise the environmental standard and lead the world on this issue. She’s also a potential supporter of Rep. Conyers’ HR 676—she says she’s dedicated to universal healthcare and is “willing to consider all options to provide real health security” and that “we must look at every option before choosing the one that best fits our economy.”
Oh, and she’s a first cousin of Walter Cronkite. What more do you need, Missouri?
NEW JERSEY’S 3RD DISTRICT
John Adler
You know, one thing I’ve always said is that we need more defense contractors and war profiteers in Congress. Leave it to the great state of New Jersey to give us Chris Myers, the Republican candidate gunning for the seat being vacated by Jim Saxon. Myers is a vice president of defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Atop his list of accomplishments at Lockheed, Myers specialized in developing more efficient, effective and innovative tools for killing people, such as advanced sensors and weapons systems for the U.S. Navy.
Earlier in his tenure at the defense contractor, Myers served as vice president of Sea-Based Missile Defense. Isn’t it ironic that someone whose career has been in sea-based defense is now trying to board the Titanic known as House Republican minority?
It is no surprise that this Lockheed executive/ Republican candidate for Congress called on the Senate to pass the FISA intelligence bill that will give the President more power to spy on Americans and give telecom companies immunity for their role in enabling government spying. He is also calling on the Bush tax cuts for the rich to remain permanent.
Unlike many House Republicans, Myers is NOT in favor of building walls along the border to prevent illegal immigration. He thinks it won’t be effective and instead believes in high-tech solutions such as . . . sensors and cameras purchased from Lockheed Martin! Lockheed submitted a bid to the Department of Homeland Security to build a “virtual border fence” in 2006 and continues to push for the high-tech solutions to these problems. With Chris Myers, Lockheed Martin will have a trusted family member in Congress who can help deliver the bacon.
Attempting to stop Lockheed/Myers is Democratic candidate John Adler, a five-term State Senator in New Jersey where he was a key figure behind the state’s Smoke Free Air Act, which banned smoking indoors and in the workplace and received broad bipartisan support. The Sierra Club has endorsed his campaign, and he recently called for an end to all federal subsidies to oil companies.
Adler is New Jersey’s hope to stop the Myers missile from finding a home in Congress.
NEW JERSEY’S 7TH DISTRICT
Linda Stender
Leonard Lance is a longtime State Representative who won a nasty Republican primary against several opponents hoping to hold on to a longtime Republican seat vacated by Rep. Mike Ferguson. The Republican primary contests in New Jersey have been described as “bloodbaths,” as politicians scramble to hold on to their seats against a strong political tide against them. Lance’s top priority is to make sure the Bush administration’s economic policies continue long after Mr. Bush is out of office. He wants to make his tax cuts for the rich permanent and repeal the Estate Tax (or so-called “Death Tax for the Rich”). The Bush economy hasn’t been bad for everyone, and Mr. Lance seems to be one of the few who’s better off than he was eight years ago.
Democratic candidate Linda Stender is a New Jersey Assemblywoman who has focused on the environment, global warming, and gas prices during her campaign. She sponsored New Jersey’s “Global Warming Response Act.” This was a major piece of legislation and only the third of its kind in the nation; it requires the state to cut emissions of global warming gases to 1990 levels by the year 2020 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 2006 levels by the year 2050. When Governor Corzine signed the bill into law last year, the ceremony drew national attention and included a speech by Al Gore, who said he’s adding New Jersey’s efforts to his famous global warming slideshow.
Stender previously served as Councilwoman and Mayor of Fanwood, New Jersey, and came within 3,000 votes of winning this House seat in 2006 against the incumbent. She has the support of Emily’s List, Democracy for America, and the Sierra Club.
NEW MEXICO’S 1ST DISTRICT
Martin Heinrich
Like John McCain, Republican Darren White has relied on George W. Bush to help raise money for his campaign to fill Heather Wilson’s open seat, albeit at a closed-door event in order to avoid having voters actually see him associate with the man whom only 29 percent of the American support. Bush arrived in Albuquerque at 11:30 am, shook a few hands, posed for a few pictures with New Mexico’s wealthiest Republicans, raised $300,000, and snuck over to Arizona at 2:30 pm to do the same for the McCain campaign. After the event, White promised that his campaign would be “shaking up Washington with strong, independent leadership.”
White is the Bernalillo County Sheriff and has worked in law enforcement his entire career. He also served as county chairman for the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2004 and plans to continue their tax polices if elected to Congress.
Democratic challenger Martin Heinrich is a former Albuquerque City Councilor and was appointed by Governor Bill Richardson as Natural Resources Trustee for the State of New Mexico, where he worked on environmental issues. While on the city council, he helped raise the minimum wage in New Mexico to $7.50. But the issue most critical to him has been the environment. He’s served on the boards of various environmental groups and is executive director of a non-profit group dedicated to environmental education. He has worked to preserve the Ojito Wilderness as well as land in the Rio Grande State Park. New Mexico is “The Land of Enchantment,” and Heinrich wants to make sure future generations of New Mexicans get a chance to be enchanted, too.
NEVADA’S 3RD DISTRICT
Dina Titus
Republican Jon Porter has only been in Congress since 2002 and he’s already gotten accustomed to the ways of Washington. A former staffer to Porter accused him of making fundraising phone calls from his congressional office, which is illegal (but the FBI chose not to investigate). And after visiting Iraq, he claimed that we had to stay longer because if we left, gas prices would go up to $9/gallon. Porter has voted along the Republican Party line 85 percent of the time during this congressional session. This includes votes in favor of war without end, in favor of war spending with no strings attached, and in favor of the FISA to expand the President’s power to spy on Americans. He also voted against raising the federal minimum wage and against allowing the government to negotiate directly with drug makers to lower the cost of drugs in Medicare.
Democratic candidate Dina Titus has served in the Nevada Legislature since 1988, including a stint as the Democratic Leader. She’s also taught American and Nevada Politics at UNLV and specializes in education policy. Her long career in the legislature has included major accomplishments such as sponsoring a bill creating Nevada’s Check Up Program to cover uninsured children. She’s also co-sponsored successful legislation allowing Nevadans to purchase cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and legislation to double penalties for those committing crimes against the disabled. Her long career for standing up for the less fortunate led to the 2006 dedication of the Dina Titus Estates, an affordable housing complex for the disabled that now bears her name because of all of her work over the years.
NEW YORK’S 13TH DISTRICT
Mike McMahon
Maybe the Republicans of Staten Island weren’t meant to have this seat. First, their incumbent Vito Fossella had to drop out after being arrested for drunk driving and later admitting to having an extramarital affair and fathering a child out of wedlock. The Republicans scrambled to find a warm body to fill in for Fossella. They settled for Frank Powers, a retired Wall Street executive who has worked as a behind-the-scenes Republican operative. In a sign of how littl
e support Powers had, he didn’t even have his entire family behind him. One of the two candidates vying for the Libertarian Party nomination to face Powers was . . . Fran Powers—Frank Powers’ son. About his relationship with his father, Fran says, “I like my father. I just don’t like that he’s going to vote straight for the Republican ticket and support Republican causes. This seat is too important to be in the Republican Party’s hands.” Sadly, a month after Powers was picked to replace Fossella, he died from a heart attack at the age of 67. Once again, the Republicans are scrambling for a replacement.
Democratic candidate Mike McMahon is a City Councilman who has the backing of Rep. Charlie Rangel and other New York Democrats as they try to flip the last Republican district in New York City. On Iraq, McMahon says, “I am opposed to the Iraq War and the time to start bringing home our fighting men and women is now.” In seeking to take over the seat held by scandal-plagued Vito Fossella, McMahon says that he wants to bring “integrity and respect back” to his district. The bar has been set so low by Fossella that it shouldn’t be a problem; when asked if he, like Fossella, had ever driven drunk or had an extra-marital affair, McMahon answered “no” to both. Give this man a cigar! . . . Wait! No! . . . A cigar’s a bad idea . . .
NEW YORK’S 25TH DISTRICT
Dan Maffei
Republican candidate Dale Sweetland served in the Onondaga County Legislature from 1994 to 2007. He’s running for Dan Walsh’s seat in the House after losing a Republican primary for the Onondaga County Executive position. He describes himself as “fiercely pro-business.” He’s also backing the gas-tax holiday scheme John McCain has supported and that won’t do anything to lower gas prices.
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