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| I’m Yohannes — OFA‘s political director. Everyone calls me “Yo.”
I’m writing to ask you for money. Here’s why: There are dozens of close races I’m watching in about 40 states. The dynamics of each are shifting by the day. We just learned that one right-wing group is pumping $261,000 into just one Ohio congressional race to defeat the Democrat in office. At the same time, the Republican running for Senate in Delaware said something wacky during a nationally televised debate. And several of our House candidates are surging. A bunch of these races will be super tight on election night. That’s why we need to go all in in lots of places, so all of the close ones go our way. Can you donate $25 to make it possible? Your donations power everything we do. Money you give buys snacks for volunteers — you’ll be feeding someone who just spent six hours working their tail off, knocking on doors. It pays for a radio ad in a key city that tells folks how to vote early. Or a rental van to bring seniors to the polls. Or door-hangers that folks will be hanging at six in the morning so busy parents get an extra reminder as they leave for work. Give it a shot. You’ll be investing in a movement of millions of us who — even when it’s really, really hard — are fighting to bring change to this country. And it feels great. Chip in $25 or more now: https://donate.barackobama.com/CloseRaces Thanks, Yo Yohannes Abraham |
Tag Archives: United States Senate
Emergency: Save the Senate …video of Angle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4A6AIOwZGg
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There’s no point in sugarcoating this: If the election were held today, Republicans and their corporate benefactors would gain control of the House—and quite possibly the Senate.
That’s the nightmare scenario. It would spell an end to any hope of progress in the next two years—and quite possibly to Obama’s presidency.
But there are three key races that Republicans would have to win to take the Senate, and all are tied. Meaning, they’re close enough for us to tip the balance. We need to help these Democratic candidates raise enough money to get their message out—despite all the corporate ads targeting them—and run serious get-out-the-vote efforts.
This is a true emergency: We must stop the Republicans from taking over the Senate. There’s a critical fundraising deadline at midnight tonight. Please, make the most generous contribution you can afford, immediately:
https://pol.moveon.org/give/savethesenate.html?aa=5&id=24154-17809870-5a3ALlx&t=3
Here are the three progressive candidates in tight races who need our help right now:
We’re adding Alexi Giannoulias in Illinois to our Progressive Heroes list today because he’s locked in a tight race for President Obama’s old Senate seat, and because he’s running a populist campaign focused on taking on the corporate special interests and cleaning up Washington, D.C. This is the closest race in the country: Every poll in this race for the past two months has been tied.
Sen. Patty Murray
is the highest-ranking Democratic woman in the Senate. She supported the public option and the fight for clean energy jobs, and has worked with other pro-choice Democratic women senators to eliminate egregious gender disparities in insurance coverage. Her Republican challenger significantly out-raised her in the last three months, and Murray needs our help to win.
And Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada is facing Sharron Angle, the tea party fanatic who wants to “phase out” Social Security and Medicare, withdraw from the United Nations, and abolish the Department of Education.1 The latest polls show her tied—or even slightly ahead, and just yesterday her campaign announced that they’ve raised a record-breaking $14 million in the past three months.2
Can you chip in to these candidates’ campaigns and help stop the takeover?
https://pol.moveon.org/give/savethesenate.html?aa=5&id=24154-17809870-5a3ALlx&t=4
Thanks for all you do.
–Michael, Joan, Anna, Adam, and the rest of the team
1. “Sharron Angle says eliminate Social Security,” Progress Now Nevada, June 8, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4A6AIOwZGg
“Reid, in Fistfight, Could Take More Punches From Climate Bill,” Climate Wire, May 26, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=91813&id=&t=5&id=24154-17809870-5a3ALlx&t=5
“Sharron Angle wants to eliminate federal Department of Education,” MyNews4, September 8, 2010
http://www.mynews4.com/story.php?id=27445&n=122
2. “Angle raises $14.3 million,” The Washington Post, October 12, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=92142&id=24154-17809870-5a3ALlx&t=6
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Heroes
When you hear the cough of someone in New York caused by toxic dust from September 11, everyone knows it. These are the people that rushed to the scene to help any way they could, and because of their heroic actions, too many of them are now sick or even dying.
After political back-and-forth, we finally passed a bill in the House to pay for the healthcare these people need. Now we need the Senate to do the same thing. We have an obligation to step up for these Americans the way they stepped up for us.
I’m asking you to do one thing: sign my petition to put pressure on the Senate to pass our House bill quickly. We can’t let first responders go another day without the healthcare they deserve.
The House’s passage was a long-awaited first step towards getting heroic Americans the care and support they undeniably deserve. Now, we need to make sure it sees the light of day in the Senate.
We’ve seen the Senate become a final resting place for too many good bills recently, and we need to band together to make sure this bill becomes law.
After nearly a decade passed, the House did the right thing — but it’s not enough. We need the Senate to pass this crucial legislation to provide treatment to over 71,000 people exposed to dangerous toxins on the scene.
Thanks,
Anthony
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Washington State: Meet Dino Rossi …updated
Running for U.S. Senate, Washington
Dino Rossi is a Republican candidate in the primary for the U.S. Senate in Washington. He is real estate investor who previously served as a state senator and twice ran for governor of Washington.
In the 1990s, Sen. Rossi developed a relationship with one of Seattle’s biggest real estate developers, Michael Mastro. In 1997, when Sen. Rossi was serving in the state Senate, he purchased a building from Mr. Mastro. Two of Sen. Rossi’s fellow investors were Washington state lobbyists, David Ducharme and his father, Richard Ducharme. Mr. Mastro loaned the threesome $2 million to purchase the $2.5 million property. Separately, Sen. Rossi borrowed $50,000 from Mr. Mastro for the purchase, which he did not report as required on his financial disclosure forms. Mr. Mastro was also a donor to both of Sen. Rossi’s campaigns for governor. In 2008, Mr. Mastro’s multimillion dollar empire crumbled after it became apparent he had been promising untenable returns to investors.
listen as Rossi dodges questions about unemployment 2010
Sen. Rossi’s relationship with the Ducharmes continued long after they sold the building they had purchased from Mr. Mastro. While still a state senator, Sen. Rossi turned to the pair once again and convinced them to invest in a bank that he had started. Sen. Rossi invested at least $75,000 of his own money in the bank and made David Ducharme CEO. In 2009, the bank came under investigation for “engage[ing] in unsafe and unsound banking practices relating to its strategic and capital planning, credit underwriting, credit administration, concentration risk management, and liquidity management.” David Ducharme is currently working to secure enough capital to appease federal regulators.
Following his defeat in the 2004 gubernatorial race, Sen. Rossi started the Forward Washington Foundation. Sen. Rossi used the foundation to pay himself $75,000 a year while traveling the state giving speeches but little else. Sen. Rossi treated the foundation much like his own campaign committee, but he didn’t have to abide by campaign contribution limits or disclosure laws. The Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) opened an investigation into the foundation but Sen. Rossi stepped down as president before the investigation was complete and declared his candidacy for governor. The Commission later ended its investigation because of insufficient evidence.
In his run for governor in 2008, Sen. Rossi was supported by the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW). The BIAW spent $6.9 million largely to promote Sen. Rossi and criticize his opponent throughout the race. A complaint filed with PDC alleged that Sen. Rossi violated state law by coordinating fundraising with the BIAW, failing to register as a candidate in a timely manner, exceeding contribution limits and failing to disclose contributions. After an investigation, the PDC eventually cleared Sen. Rossi of any wrongdoing, but its final report revealed how closely the BIAW skirted the law in promoting his candidacy. Sen. Rossi’s close relationship to the BIAW shouldn’t have come as any surprise, though; Richard Ducharme is a former lobbyist for the BIAW.
Source: CREW
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Dino Rossi running for US Senate and questions as well
below is a vid from 2008 about abortion
Watch dino Rossi questions on 9/21/10
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Fix the Senate
The filibuster is the #1 obstacle to progress
Congress has left Washington and there will be no more chances to pass much-needed legislation before the election. There will be no public option, no climate bill, no end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” no new tier of unemployment benefits, no end of too big to fail, no response to the horrible Citizens United Supreme Court decision and no end to the crisis facing the federal judiciary caused by the dearth of judicial confirmations. There is one reason why, despite Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate, Congress was unable to pass many common sense reforms — the filibuster. Tell the Senate: Fix the filibuster. Click here to automatically add your name. The filibuster is an antiquated provision in Senate procedure that requires a 60-vote supermajority to pass legislation, confirm nominees or even perform some of the most mundane parliamentary tasks. Filibuster abuse has gotten so bad that on Monday, a staffer for Senator Jim DeMint (a Republican senator from South Carolina and the one most closely associated with the Tea Party) sent an e-mail to the offices of all the other senators explaining that Sen. DeMint would filibuster any bills he had not personally approved of moving to the floor. This is what the filibuster has reduced the Senate to — an arena where moments of pique, inflated feelings of self-importance, the casual and callous disregard for the crises we face as a country, and political posturing can bring the business of the legislative branch of our government to a grinding halt. Tell the Senate: Fix the filibuster. Click here to automatically add your name. Many progressives are frightened of filibuster reform. Some defenders of the filibuster argue that we should keep it because the Senate should be a place for deliberation. If that’s true, then the filibuster is exactly the wrong tool for the job. There are over 400 bills that cleared the House and were not taken up by the Senate because of the filibuster or the threat of a filibuster, including many with broad bipartisan support. The filibuster hasn’t led to deliberation in the Senate; the filibuster has led to debilitating constipation of the Senate. Others want to keep the filibuster around so that a future progressive minority might be able to stop the excesses of a conservative majority. Even if you think that the Republicans will keep the filibuster in place when it’s no longer to their benefit, it’s hard to look back and survey the past history of the filibuster and deem it any near a net gain for progressives. Look at what the filibuster has gotten us. The filibuster did not prevent the appointment of a conservative majority on the Supreme Court that was able to hand the presidency to Bush. And afterward, it did not stop the appointments of reactionary and partisan Justices Roberts and Alito to the Court. The damage averted during the eight years of the Bush administration because of the filibuster is dwarfed by the amount of progress the filibuster stifled in the two years since President Obama took office. The simple fact is that we cannot allow the Senate to continue in such a dysfunctional manner. We need it to start functioning again if our nation is to meet the myriad challenges we face. At the beginning of the next Congress, the Senate will be able to change the filibuster rules with a simple majority vote. There are multiple proposals on how to fix the filibuster, many of which have merit. But what is clear is that the Senate must seize this opportunity to fix the filibuster. Tell the Senate: Fix the filibuster. Click here to automatically add your name. Thank you for working for a better world. Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager P.S. Some progressives oppose efforts to reform the filibuster because they anticipate times when the filibuster will be used by a progressive minority to stop the overreach of a conservative majority. If you look at the totality of how the filibuster has been used, it has on rare occasion achieved tactical success for progressives. But on the whole it has proved a strategic disaster for those who fight for social change. The filibuster systematically works against those who want the government to function, who want to see our legislators address problems and fix things, and who want the government to move us past old prejudices and hateful laws written in the bad blood of our forbears. And given the craven, callous disregard of Senate Republicans for the multiple crises we face as a nation, given their utter willingness to place political ambition and partisan gain over the need to legislate, is there any doubt that they will have the slightest scruples in eliminating the filibuster when it’s to their advantage? Rather than endure additional years of dysfunction in one of the most important institutions of our Republic, we should address the problem on our own terms. Click here to automatically add your name to our petition tell the Senate: Fix the filibuster.
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