Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Received this email from Indiana Senate candidate, Joe Donnelly's (D. IN) campaign today:
Sam,
It’s official – there is no tighter Senate race in the country than our fight in Indiana.
News broke this morning that the Cook Political Report, one of the most highly regarded political prognosticators in the country, has declared our race a toss up.
That means this race could go either way, and it’s all going to come down to whether Joe has the grassroots support he needs to keep pace with Tea Party candidate Richard Mourdock’s Koch-funded special interest backers.
Of course the campaign was also asking for money which I probably will donate to but here's something else in the email that caught my eye:
Wondering how big an impact your donation will have? On Tuesday, Nate Silver, founder of FiveThirtyEight.com and the New York Times’ resident political statistician, tweeted: “We estimate a max contribution to Joe Donnelly increases Dems' chances of winning the Senate by 8x more than one to [Elizabeth] Warren.”
This part was also emphasized in bold in the email. I recently wrote about Donnelly. Yes he's a Blue Dog but he's also good friend of organized labor and has been backed by the AFL-CIO:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I personally would like to see both Donnelly and Elizabeth Warren in the U.S. Senate. Donnelly's wrong on issues like immigration but he could serve as a great ally for Warren in terms of Wall Street reform. This is from Donnelly's Wikipedia page:
Wall Street Reform
During his second term Donnelly voted for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. [29] Provisions in the bill included; an end to bailouts for "too big to fail" banks, eliminating loopholes for hedge funds, mortgage brokers, and payday lenders that allow risky and abusive practices to go on unnoticed and unregulated, new rules for transparency and accountability for credit rating agencies, and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. [30] Donnelly helped write three amendements to the final bill; Amendment 1; Helps provide adequate tools to a new SEC division that regulates credit rating agencies. Amendment 2; Prevents the FDIC from being used in the future to purchase equity shares of troubled banks as a rescue attempt, and ensuring that the FDIC is used only to protect customers’ savings. Amendment 3; Prohibits the Consumer Financial Protection Agency to act on manufactured housing retailers. [31] In a press statement on the bill, Donnelly stated: "For too long, Wall Street and big banks exploited loopholes and ignored growing problems at the expense of hard-working Hoosiers and Americans. Compounding the problem was an insufficient patchwork of government regulators who missed the warning signs leading up to the economic crisis. Those days are over." [32]
In a March 2012 letter Donnelly signed with Democratic members of the House anf Senate, he urged Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler to curb oil speculation in the commodity market through new provisions in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Which, according to a publication from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, oil speculators dominate 80% of the energy futures market and adds $.56 per gallon of gas. [33][34] In the letter to the Chairman, it read: "We have a responsibility to ensure that the price of gas is no longer allowed to be driven up by the same Wall Street speculators who caused the devastating recession that working families are now experiencing. The CFTC must do what the law mandates and end excessive oil speculation." [35] On the issue Donnelly said: "Gas prices are too high in Indiana and we need to ensure that Wall Street speculators aren’t playing games with the oil markets, leading to financial harm to working families." [36]
In July 2012 Donnelly voted in favor of H.R. 459, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, sponsored by Texas Congressman Ron Paul. [37] The bill requires a full audit of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and Federal reserve banks by the Comptroller General. [38] H.R. 459 is now pending before the Senate.
Not to mention he's one of the few Blue Dogs who did vote for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Donnelly's Wikipedia page:
Health care
Donnelly strongly supports expanding health care so it covers a greater number of people. Because many are losing their insurance as a result of losing their jobs, or because their small business cannot afford to provide workers with health care, Donnelly suggests revising the health care plan so that all Americans are covered, as opposed to the 46 million that are currently uninsured.[48] On March 21, 2010, Joe Donnelly voted in favor of approving the Senate version of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
RCP also has this race in the Toss Up category:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/...
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Joe Donnelly is in a tight race against tea party extremist, Richard Mourdock (R. IN), who's idea of bipartisanship is Democrats adopting Republican positions on everything. Can you imagine how scary of a team him and Scott Brown would make in the Senate? I say we get both Donnelly and Warren elected this year. They're two different Democrats but they're friends of the middle class and organized labor:
Elizabeth Warren:
https://secure.actblue.com/...
Joe Donnelly:
https://secure.actblue.com/...