Back in the fall, I was looking to get involved with a candidate. I had heard Dean say that the reason why the conservatives got so much power was because people like me..who are progressives but not very politically active.
Combined with the constant capitulation of the so-called "Democratic" congress on issue after issue, I was actually REALLY fired up.
So I was excited to see a race close to my own district being talked about on the front page of DailyKos.. I decided I was going to start helping out.
I started by sending a blast of email to my friends and by sending a tidy sum (for me anyway) to the campaign
(more after the jump)
I figured Kos and the a-list bloggers must have totally vetted this guy out and he's gonna be real good on our core issues.
But when I started calling people and trying to get them to volunteer, they all started asking questions:
-What's his position on universal healthcare?
-What's his position on not having a preemptive war with Iran?
-What's his position on the patriot act/Civil liberties in general?
www.markperaforcongress.com was (and is) silent on this. These are bread and butter progressive issues. In fact it only addressed 4 issues: Iraq, Choice, Stem cells, energy independence. Things that both the progressive and not-so-progressives now agree on.
Some progressive friends were gonna go meet him, so I asked if they could ask about these issues. They went. And they weren't satisfied. They felt Mr. Pera was hedging his bets.
Needless to say, my friends weren't gonna help out with their time (though many did financially). Even though one of them went ahead and volunteered, he told me it was more of an anti-Lipinski effort than a pro-progressive effort.
I, as well, found another candidate to support. I recruited 7 volunteers and worked when and where I could to make calls and distribute fliers (and recruit others to distribute fliers), I am fairly certain that we turned 500++ people to vote for the candidate I settled on (and it was a close election, and we might still lose, but at least it was VERY close).
What I did over the course of a few weeks was a pittance compared to what others did. These people sacrificed personal time, their work life, and probably reached out to tens of thousands of people over the course of six-seven months.
We (the netroots) put serious amount of money -- 200K+ -- into the Pera race (for us). But those of us on the ground, and in the area, that could have made a difference weren't as enthusiastic.
And that's why I think Mark Pera lost -- you can't win by being a having a platform somewhat not that different from simply "not-Lipinski."
For a true progressive candidate to win, in addition to a little money, you need to have a huge set of dedicated volunteers as well who believe in you.
Even to this day, the Issues page on the campaign site has more pixels devoted to what Lipinki's record was than what Pera's views were.