Dear Daily Kos Community/Kogs/Kosters/Kossacks, etc.,
In the 2006 primary, with only three months of campaigning, I won nearly 38% of the vote against Blue Dog corporate Democrat Jane Harman, the self-described Best Republican in the Democratic Party who voted for the bankruptcy bill, the Patriot Act, and the Iraq invasion.
Four years later, I'm back with an experienced team, ready to win. And I'm back here on Daily Kos because I need your talent, energy, time and support.
Stay with me.
Venice, California
This campaign is fueled by people power from the grassroots in
California's 36th District to the netroots across America.
Me & Howie Klein
Jane Harman is more vulnerable than ever, having reportedly been caught using her influence to subvert due process, then skirting an FBI investigation by colluding with the Bush crime family to defend
massive illegal wiretapping.
Our Government Not at Work -- was how comedian Jon Stewart put
it on The Daily Show.
Seriously, we need real representation from a REAL Democrat, not someone who voted recently to prohibit loan modifications in bankruptcy court, to kill affordable medications for cancer patients, to hold thought-crime hearings, and to send more of our young people to fight and die in Afghanistan.
It's not easy challenging an entrenched incumbent who can easily rack up $60,000 in PAC donations from military contractors - or get her friend Henry Waxman to write a hit piece for high donors spitting out $1,000 checks at champagne galas.
It's not easy challenging a crafty chameleon who fakes left when faced with a primary challenge from an anti-war leader in Progressive Democrats of America.
My campaign - Winograd for Congress 2010 - is meeting that challenge.
For months, our volunteers have been walking the precincts, and making phone calls.
As I write this, over 100 committed supporters are knocking on doors and doing virtual
phone banking, talking JOBS, NOT WARS and identifying supporters we can push to the
polls on June 8th.
Lawn signs and buttons are popping up all over the 36th district, from West Los Angeles to the heart of the harbor, San Pedro
I attended three house parties just last week, discussing national issues, as well as local ones,
-- the jets spewing toxic exhaust in Mar Vista, the butane and propane tanks posing
a threat to school children in San Pedro (shown below), the Super Fund sites threatening to contaminate
ground water in Torrance.
(Photo: Ralph Oden)
School children play sports near highly flammable and explosive butane and propane in San Pedro, off the #110 freeway. Nearby residents have been asking Harman for years to get the tanks transferred to a location far from populated neighborhoods. Nothing has been done.
My race already has the attention of people all over the country, with the
San Francisco Chronicle dubbing it one of the top seven races to watch in the nation,
and with Politico calling to ask if I thought Harman had betrayed our country during her
phone conversation with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Support is pouring in, not just from people in the district,
but nationwide – from people everywhere who want to see a change in Congress.
We have learned that it’s not enough to have a Democrat in office – we need a REAL Democrat.
Washington is paralyzed.
Real change cannot come from politicians entrenched in the system, who invest in
Goldman Sachs while voting for overnight no-strings-attached bank bail-outs.
If we don't act now, more voters will stay home, just like they did in Massachusetts.
If we don't work hard for progressives, conservatives will seize the mantle of populism.
We cannot surrender our country to corporate Democrats beholden to banks, war profiteers,
and Big Pharma.
Jane Harman must go.
In a few days we will open a 1300 square-foot campaign office in the bustling Villa Marina
Shopping Center, next door to Coffee Bean, across from Barnes & Noble in Marina del Rey.
Hundreds of volunteers will have a gathering place - to work, to phone bank, to
fan out all over the district with high visibility banners: Healthcare for All, Jobs, Not Wars,
Homes Before Banks.
But in order to win, we will need money for cable television ads and strategic mailers -- for rent, too,
which runs $2,500 per month.
We must raise over $250,000. Immediately.
My opponent has built up a war chest of over half a million dollars;
money from the military industrial complex and their PACS.
I refuse to accept Corporate PAC donations; yet have raised
almost $170,000 - and received endorsements from the University
of California- American Federation of Teachers, Progressive Democrats
of America, the Armenian National Committee, radio broadcaster Jim
Hightower, former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg, environmentalist
Ed Begley, actor Ed Asner, and Dr. Quentin Young, a national leader in
the single payer movement.
We will show the country that a clean energized campaign,
with donations from the PEOPLE,
can go toe to toe, yard sign to slick mailer
with Harman's corporate and military PAC money..
WINograd for Congress can WIN -- with your help.
Electing a progressive to Congress sends a strong message
that the PEOPLE will no longer accept bloated military budgets
that breed new enemies and starve our districts of funds for human needs.
With well over 15 million Americans out of work, with the administration proposing the largest
military budget to date, with Blue Dogs talking cuts in Social Security and
Medicare, we cannot afford to sit this one out in a district where Democratic
Party registration leads GOP registration by 17%.
Contribute as much as you can, as often as you can.
Please donate today at Winograd4Congress.com
Become a fan on Facebook: Marcy Winograd for Congress
Sign up to conduct virtual phone banking. Volunteer at
Winograd4Congress.com and then email Bill@WinogradforCongress.com
to receive a phone list.
Give of your pocket; give of your heart.
Seize the moment for real progressive change.
Here's to a New America,
Thank you for your support,
Marcy Winograd
I'm Marcy Winograd and I'm challenging Blue Dog corporate Democrat Jane Harman in the June 8, 2010 Democratic Party primary. In 2006, when I jumped into the race just three months before the primary, I mobilized almost 38% of the vote.
Join the campaign.
Join me on Facebook