2010 House Primaries

The CA Dem Party: What Is It Good For?

By David Swanson

I've followed the struggles of progressives within the California Democratic Party from the opposite coast and admired their achievements but wondered about their limitations.  They're the first to pass resolutions opposing wars, but for the most part their members in Congress vote to fund the wars just the same.  I'd rather have a party that "supported" wars but didn't fund them, if that option were available.  I'd rather have a brand new party, if that were possible.  But, given the dominance of the Democratic Party, passing progressive resolutions and working to someday elect progressive representatives looks like an admirable project, and -- at least from afar -- one imagines that it must be having an impact in Sacramento if not yet in Washington.

When Woolsey Met Harman

By David Swanson

As I sit waiting to fly out of LAX, secure in the knowledge that while most of our money is going into the greatest effort the world has ever seen to make most of its people hate a particular nation, everyone around me has had to take off their coats and shoes and display their toothpaste, except for the people living on the streets of Los Angeles who aren't part of the airport traveling world, and -- this ought to help things -- Lynn Woolsey came to this city yesterday to support Jane Harman.

Marcy Winograd Forms a Winning Team

In California’s congressional district 36, stretching from West LA south to San Pedro, community leader Marcy Winograd has announced the hiring of two professional campaign staff members who are joining the Winograd for Congress campaign

Daniel Tamm, who worked on staff for the winning campaigns of Obama For America, State Senator Fran Pavley and the newly-elected Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz, will direct the campaign. Winograd For Congress also has begun working with Mona Sanchez, a professional fundraiser, who helped raise over a million dollars for Wendy Gruel's successful race for Los Angles city controller.

Candidate Marcy Winograd said “I am very exited to be working with both Daniel and Mona. They bring valuable professional campaign experience. They know what it takes to win.”

A Few More Thoughts About Single-Payer and Medicare

By Dave Lindorff

Some critics have written, in response to my article
calling for extension of the single-payer plan called Medicare to all
Americans, that actually Medicare is a badly flawed program that leaves
America's elderly without coverage for many important health services,
and which requires them to pay for supplemental insurance, or to go on
Medicaid, too.

A Progressive Challenge to Jane Harman

By Norman Solomon

There are many reasons why progressives will mobilize behind the campaign of Marcy Winograd, who announced on Monday that she’ll challenge incumbent Congresswoman Jane Harman in the 2010 Democratic primary.

Some will speak of Harman’s pro-war record. Some will recall her support for warrantless wiretapping, followed by her irony-free indignation when it turned out that NSA snoops had taped her own phone conversations. Some will recount Harman’s long public silence after being briefed on torture by the U.S. government.

And then there’s the extensive evidence that Rep. Harman has gone over the top to do the bidding of the Israeli government and some of its most extreme supporters in the United States.

Wanted: House Primary Challengers for 2010

Look out Bush Democrats - here comes Accountability Now. But its success depends on our ability to find more primary challengers. If you know one, tell them!

Jane Hamsher writes,

Primary challenges work.  The threat of a primary challenge in 2010 will change behavior in 2008.  The question is -- how can we create a system where we aren't dependent on chance for a Donna Edwards (or Ned Lamont) to emerge?