A couple months ago, I
stopped by DailyKos to talk to you about
SecureUS PAC, an organization I founded to strengthen the voice of Democrats on critical national security issues and help regain Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
In that first diary and I also told you we'd be holding training sessions to help bring our Democratic House candidates up to speed on national security issues. Well, today I'd like to update you on our progress.
More on the flip.
Last month,
SecureUS and
Third Way brought 32 Democratic challengers to Washington, DC for a rigorous series of panel discussions, presentations, break-out sessions, and media training exercises. The day-long event was designed to help the candidates think and talk about security policy in ways that convey strength to voters, and to learn about the Democrats' "smart and tough" approach to terrorism, nonproliferation, an exit strategy for Iraq, and homeland security.
Eric Massa recently blogged a bit about the training session here.
The central message of the training was this: when it comes to security policy, the right policy is also the right politics -- and the latest polling by the DSCC and others confirms that this strategy is working.
When voters were asked in the recent Geoff Garin/DSCC poll who they would choose this November if they were voting solely based on who could best protect America, 41% chose the Democratic candidate and 39% chose the Republican. Among independents, that gap was even greater, with Democrats holding a 33% to 23% edge.
There was more good news recently for SecureUS: just last week, the DCCC identified the party's 22 most promising House challengers and made them part of its highly competitive "Red to Blue" program -- a sign of strong party support and viability. The "Red to Blue" list included 10 SecureUS-supported candidates -- that's almost half of the list, and it's extremely exciting that these challengers are faring so well. Those 10 SecureUS candidates are:
* Phyllis Busansky (FL-9)
* Francine Busby (CA-50)
* Joe Courtney (CT-2)
* Diane Farrell (CT-4)
* Steve Filson (CA-11)
* Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-20)
* Baron Hill (IN-9)
* Ron Klein (FL-22)
* Patsy Madrid (NM-1)
* Lois Murphy (PA-6)
If you'd like to support any of these or other SecureUS-endorsed candidates in your area, please visit our ActBlue fundraising page to donate to their campaigns directly.
There is still an enormous amount to do in the weeks and months ahead, but the SecureUS/Third Way training session was not only groundbreaking, it was a tremendous first step towards helping Democrats take back the House in 2006.
Thanks to all of you for your continued feedback and support.
-- Jane
P.S. I'll try to stop by from time-to-time this afternoon to respond to a few of your comments. Thanks in advance for your feedback.