We're going to be working hard here in PA the next month, to do all we can to save women's rights, to prevent another Joe Lieberman from being elected to the senate. We need YOU to come to PA for a day or two, from your state, in the next few weeks, to help insure that Bob Casey stays on his stealth course. We don't want him representing us in PA. We want a real progressive who will become a strong leader in the US senate.
If Bob Casey jr. wins, then the democratic party will sell out women's rights. They will adopt a policy of endorsing anti choice Catholic men... well, maybe not just Catholics. But the gains women have made for decades will be thrown away by a bunch of half-assed democrats who are so owing to corporations and the hundreds of PACs he's taken money from, over 100 of them the same ones Santorum has received money from. I really feel that Casey will do like he did in his failed gubernatorial campaign, lose his 17 point lead and crash and burn.
Casey has been touted because he won his treasurer's race with a record number of votes. But he was up against an unknown. Do YOU know who he ran against? Neither does anyone else. Casey is going to lose in November.
There'a an alternative. Chuck Pennacchio has built a strong grass roots base throughout the state of PA. He's short of money but way ahead on the ground. He's a true progressive who I believe will become a great senate leader, with the potential to be the next Paul Wellstone. He has guts, integrity, humility and he refuses all PAC money, even progressive PAC money.
I don't think this is just about Pennsylvania. That's why I'm asking you to come to Pennsylvania in the coming weeks. I'm not crazy. During the 2004 presidential race, busloads of Kerry supporters traveled to PA from Massachusetts, NY, CT, Maryland, Virgina, New Jersey. They came to canvas, to knock on doors and talk to voters.
Some might say that this is just a primary in an off year election. But that's the exciting part. Casey doesn't have any grassroots base. He has a lot of money from out of staters and PACs. He's never been able to win a single internet poll, and all you have to do to win one is get your base to click on the link. There's an incredible opportunity here to tell the centrist, spineless republican lite democrats in congress and in most states that we're not going to take it any more. We're taking back the democratic party and it starts with Pennsylvania. You don't have to come by the busload, though it wouldn't hurt. Drive in for a day or a weekend. Contact the Pennacchio Campaign Website to arrange to coordinate with canvassing leaders.
This is a race that can be won, that, if it is won, will get a progressive candidate on the front page of every newsweekly. We're working our butts off here. But you could help. If you can't get here in person, send the campaign money. They will do with $25 or $50 what another campaign might do with a thousand dollars. They're running a campaign that is based on grassroots strength. They aren't depending on big money because as soon as you depend on big money, you infect the campaign and taint the candidate. A pure race, won by grassroots efforts will be a thing of beauty. If we lose the results are horrifying. Help make a success happen in PA.
PS We don't think there will be many enthusiastic Casey supporters out there. I find that the people who support Casey are republican lites, out of staters and people who have lost heart and given up, who are willing to accept anybody but Santorum. That didn't work with Kerry. It absolutely won't work in Casey's case.
Rob Kall is editor/publisher of http://www.opednews.com, which has over 100 regular writers and 1200 ocassional writers and commenters. We'll be adding blogging before the end of April. One difference is that not only will diaries be promotable to the front page, but also to hard pages, as articles that are spidered by major news websites.
True Progressives
There are always some regular Casey supporters who get nasty any time a pro-Pennacchio diary is posted. They get pretty toxic.