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It's the end of the quarter, crunch time for political fundraising.
I'm sure many of you received the same email I did from Bill Hyers Campaign Manager for Jeanne Shaheen. They are expecting a nine million dollar race. Sununu has a $2.2 million head start.
The campaign in looking raise $45,000 from 4,500 people by Monday (10x what Sununu received from ExxonMobil).
What say you BlueHampshire are you good for 10 bucks?
A senate where ________________________ priceless? (use this thread to fill in the blank!)
Update (Dean): And don't forget to use ActBlue Hampshire for your donation to show that your support is coming from the local netroots (click the button):
Jeanne Shaheen visited the University of New Hampshire this afternoon, sitting down with about a dozen UNH students to talk about the cost of going to college.
UNH isn't cheap. The university estimates total in-state costs at $23,000 a year. Out-of-state students pay more than $35,000 annually. Family help, scholarships and part-time jobs rarely cover the tab. According to a financial aide officer who was at the meeting today, the average UNH graduate leaves campus owing more than $20,000 in student loans.
The students told Gov. Shaheen how it was getting harder and harder to find subsidized loans, how federal Pell grants were shrinking, how rising energy costs were blowing their tight budgets out of balance.
One estimated she'd be $35,000 in debt by graduation in May. Another said he had $7 in the bank to tide him over until he gets the next check for his part-time job.
The saddest aspect of the discussion was listening to the students talk about how their post-college plans were being shaped by their debt.
Several said they wanted to enter public service. They wanted to teach or work for a non-profit human service agency or work in politics. But they wondered how they could afford to with their loans coming due next fall.
One spoke of friends working in jobs of no particular social benefit with companies they didn't like just to pay off their loans.
No one ever said we should all get to do what we want all the time - paying the bills is part of life as a grown-up - but it was sad to see a group of bright and concerned young people wonder whether they'd have to choose between making a difference and making a living.
Gov. Shaheen said she had several ideas that would help make college more affordable: reforming the student loan system to reduce interest rates - one student said she was paying 9.1% on her college tuition loan this semester - and increase availability, increasing Pell grants, allowing students who enter national or community service to have some or all of their loans forgiven.
All of this, however, depended on change in Washington.
With a Democrat in the White House and working majorities in the House and Senate, she said, we can end the war in Iraq and bring both our troops and our billions of dollars home. We can work to restore the economy, begin to move toward energy independence and affordable health care and try to make higher education affordable again.
None of this will be easy, and electing Jeanne Shaheen to the Senate this fall won't be enough to make it happen.
But it will be a start in the right direction.
It's easy to get caught up in the hand-to-hand combat of political campaigns. Let's not forget, however, the purpose of all this tumult and shouting.
The winners get to make the rules we all play by.
And I bet the rules Jeanne Shaheen, Carol Shea-Porter, Paul Hodes, a Democratic president and working majorities in Congress come up with will be far fairer than anything the Republicans propose.
(Wonderful, but I'm not surprised, given the historic turnout we're seeing here and all over the country. The days of Bush and his enablers are ending. - promoted by Dean Barker)
See also favs/unfavs for Gregg, CSP, Bradley, Stephen, and Hodes....
Taken 1/18-27. MoE +/-4.2%.
http://www.unh.edu/survey-cent...
More (Dean): Here are some screenshots from the .pdf to help drive home this news. First, look at how flat this race has been for half a year now - John E. can't get no satisfaction traction:
Now check out the numbers, particularly how Shaheen is soundly beating Sununu among undeclareds:
The Young Demcorats had a great John and Robert Kennedy event last night in Concord. The special honoree of the evening was Mike Vlacich, former executive director of the NHDP, former campaign manager for John Lynch, former deputy chief of staff for John Lynch, former staffer for Governor Jeanne Shaheen, current director of economic development for the Department of Resources and Economic Development, and all around great guy, who received the first annual C. Arthur Soucy lifetime achievement award.
C. Arthur was the first president of the NH Young D's back in the 1960's, and he has been a mainstay of the party ever since. Those of us in Manchester are especially fond of C. Arthur!
What a great day October 3 was! A confluence of events; congress acting on Paul Hodes request for the Justice Department to turn over records on phone jamming, and the new UNH poll showing Governor Shaheen with a double digit lead over John Sununu! Not to mention the masterful pitching of Josh Beckett last night at Fenway in Game One of the ALDS.
This phone jamming mess rightfully continues to haunt New Hampshire Republicans, their national party, and Sununu. They have stonewalled on phone jamming from day one. I try not to be too much of a wild eyed conspiracy theorist, but I still want to know why Darrell Henry, the gas lobbyist who was in NH to help Sununu's campaign, took the 5th when we wanted to depose him in our civil suit. What else was going on?
(Obviously any response from the Buckey campaign will be given equal space - the goal here is as clear and straight a record as possible - promoted by Laura Clawson)
Today I received an email solicitation from Jay Buckey that claims the "Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is sending out fundraising e-mails that direct you to donate to just one New Hampshire senate candidate-and it's not [Jay Buckey]"
I am certain that the DSCC has NOT sent out any fundraising emails that direct people to donate to Jeanne Shaheen's US Senate campaign. It is my understanding that during the summer at some point the DSCC sent out a email newsletter that included a link to Kathy Sullivan's Draft Shaheen website. Draft Shaheen and the Jeanne Shaheen for Senate Committee are independent committees. Jeanne Shaheen had nothing to do with Draft Shaheen. Perhaps the author of Jay Buckey's email solicitation was just confused. That's my hope anyway.
About 8 p.m. last night I realized I had totally forgotten to go to the Dress for Success fundraiser in Concord, even though I had paid for a ticket! In addition to the fact it is a great cause, author Jodi Picoult was the featured speaker, and the format included an interview of the author by Jeanne Shaheen (the event was scheduled before the she decided to run for senate). So, I talked this morning to some people who had been there so I could hear what I missed, and they tell me it was an awesome, rousing event.
Both Jodi Picoult and Jeanne Shaheen entered to standing ovations from the 500 people in attendance; during the interview, they talked about the latest Picoult book, 19 Minutes, which is about a school shooting. They both interacted about being teachers, and the impact on students of these horrific events.
Chris Bowers of Open Left and previously of MyDD has a very interesting take on the Shaheen annoucement. I had posted a comment on Gavin's diary about Jay Buckey staying in the race which I will repeat below the break.
Jean Shaheen has entered the Senate race in New Hampshire. From what I am told, I am pretty sure this means both Katrina Swett and Steve Marchand will drop out. As for Jay Buckey, I honestly don't know, but I hope he stays in. Not only do I like Buckey, who is both an astronaut and a progressive (two of my favorite things), but the last thing Shaheen needs now is an uncontested primary. While polls show her ahead of Republican incumbent John Sununu by anywhere from 16-28 points, I do not have a lot of confidence that those enormous leads will hold. At the very least, Shaheen needs to be pushed to become a better campaigner in the primaries. Hopefully, such a primary will also force her to adopt a more progressive outlook.
It has been nine days since the Draft Shaheen committee was able to announce that we had met the goal of obtaining 1000 supporters a month ahead of schedule. Since then, the number of supporters has continued to grow: we are closing in on 1,200 New Hampshire supporters of our petition asking former Governor Shaheen to run for the Senate nomination!
When this effort started back in June, I stressed that I wanted this draft movement to be a New Hampshire driven, grass roots effort, so that we could show Governor Shaheen that people wanted her to run. In reading some of the messages sent to our web site, it is apparent that is what Draft Shaheen has become - a vehicle for the grass roots of our party to voice their support for Governor Shaheen, as well as their concerns about the direction of our country.
As Dean noted elsewhere, the Draft Shaheen Committee has announced that we have met our goal of obtaining the names of 1000 Granite Staters who want Jeanne Shaheen to run for the United States Senate. I was hoping to get 1000 names by the end of August, but we actually passed the threshhold over the weekend!
I am happy about this milestone for several reasons. First, in addition to support from three state senators and 33 members of the NH House, the overwhelming majority of supporters are not elected officials or state committee members. This list represents a real grass roots base of New Hampshire support for Jeanne Shaheen.
Hello, Blue Hampshire!
In order to facilitate the growing draft Shaheen effort, we now have a web site up at http://www.draftshah.... You can sign an on line petition, and you can send a message about why you want Jeanne Shaheen to be our next United States Senator! There is information about Governor Shaheen's great record, and some information about John Sununu's less than great performance. So, please visit the site, and join up. Thank you, and try to stay as cool as possible in the least carbon producing manner possible!
According to a recent study by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, New England has the highest increase in income disparity in the nation. In the last decade, household average real income declined for the lowest income families. ?Income disparity increased in New England more than in any region in the nation.? Meanwhile, mid-range incomes grew less than national counterparts. In short, working families are struggling to keep up while the rich are getting richer.
So, the PR attack on unions for being Anti-American and against freedom is surprising and disingenuous. In a state where working families are quickly becoming working poor, the people opposing this bill should know that unions created the middle class in this country. (In all likelihood they do know this fact, but their greed prevents them from giving proper credit when it is due).
Sixty million of America?s workers say they would form a union tomorrow if given the chance. After all, a union card is the single best ticket to the middle class in this nation. Workers with a union earn 30 percent more than those who don?t, and are much more likely to have employer-provided health care and retirement benefits.
The share of private-sector workers who have unions has fallen to an historic low. The decline in the percentage of people in unions corresponds directly to the erosion of the value of work. Young working people can expect to make less today than their parents did at the same age. High-school educated workers aged 25-29 just entering the labor force in 2000 earned about $5,000 less real income that year than similarly aged and educated workers in 1970 and face slower earnings growth than their predecessors.
Similarly, it was around the 1970s that the steady erosion of legal protection for workers who want to form unions really escalated. Combine a weakened law with intimidating and illegal tactics and the pattern becomes clear. A recent review of 113 cases, which the corporate-backed HR Policy Association claims involved fraud or coercion in the signing of union authorization forms, found that there were actually only 42 cases since the Act?s inception in 1935 in which there was such coercion or fraud. That?s less than one case per year. Compare that to the 31,358 cases in 2005 (one year alone) in which employers had to pay back pay to workers in connection with cases involving illegal firings or other discrimination against workers for exercising their federally protected labor law rights. That?s a ratio of over 30,000 to 1.
Simply put: Workers don?t form unions because in reality they are not allowed to. The law is helpless to intervene.
The Employee Free Choice Act, a bill currently being debated in the Senate, would enact new penalties when employers roll rough shod over workers? rights. It puts teeth back into labor law by providing real penalties for illegal acts by employers. It also gives workers the choice of how they will vote for their union -through a majority sign up process or through a National Labor Relations Board-sponsored election. Today, it?s the employer, not the worker, who gets to make that choice.
Working people want unions. Our communities ? and our country -need them. We need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to restore workers? freedom to form unions to bargain for a better life. The 2006 elections showed how fed up working families were with the anti-worker, anti-middle class, pro-big business, pro-big oil agenda of the last six years. Working families expect their representatives to listen to what we need. The Employee Free Choice Act will help turn the tide for working families. Senators Sununu and Gregg should show their support for it instead of siding with their political donors.
This much is certain, both union and non-union workers have come to the realization that the best path for regaining a place in the American dream and to breathe new life into the once vibrant middle-class is through the voting booth. The next elections will be very interesting, indeed.
What is left of the hungry dog working middle-class is reason enough for Sununu to give a serious try at breaking away from the tight lease and choking collar the fat cats have around his neck.
The Valley News has a good article about the possibility of former Governor Jeanne Shaheen running for the United States Senate, with some analyis by Linda Fowler of Dartmouth about the difference in the current climate as opposed to 2002. It mentions the support of Peter Burling that Dean Barker diaried about, as well as another well known Upper Valley legislator, Rep. Sharon Nordgren. I hope I get this to link correctly:
http://www.vnews.com...
Who would you vote for ? This 100% arbitrary selection of candidates was based solely on prejudices...they are either Declared,Undeclared,Drafted,Rumored,
... or I want them for my Fantasy Team.
(As Kathy notes, this was a pretty popular topic yesterday. - promoted by elwood)
Good afternoon, everyone! I know a lot of you are at Democracyfest today; unfortunately, I can't be there, but I did want to take just a couple of minutes to respond to some of the comments that were posted to the first Draft Shaheen diary.
First - WOW! 105 posts in about one day! In addition, in the last 24 hours there have been at least another 50 people who have called or e mailed to say they want to be part of this draft movement. And they are telling their friends. Thank you!
Second, I did see that not everyone was 100% positive, but I would expect people at Blue Hampshire to ask questions. So, here are a couple of answers:
First off, in real life I am a Steve Marchand supporter, and endorsed him publicly. After reading about the 'Draft Jeannie" effort by former Chair Kathy Sullivan, I got to thinking. If elect-ability is what this is about, then what about John Lynch for Senate ? Who cares if he has not declared, there are some quite close to him who (rumor has it) think he should do it. Let me be clear again. John Lynch is not among them. But hey can we tawk ??
Who won the Governor's race with 76% of the vote ?
Who has been the most popular politician ever, of either party in New Hamsphire ?
Who did not support a Sales Tax ?
Who has not lost an election to Johnnie E. ?
Okay Judy don't get apoplectic...I am talking theoretical here... I didn't think he would ever run, or even consider it until yesterday. But in politics you've got to know when it's your time, and Lynch has generally had an exquisite sense of timing. I have always supported him, as I did Jeannie, with my effort, time, and available cash. They are both more cautious, and more successful in politics than I'll ever be. But I can't help wondering about this. My gut says Jeannie would not have a cakewalk, that Marchand can do it, Katrina might be a good Senator but she's not a good candidate, and Buckey is too new to judge.
In my virtual election, Lynch would flatten Sununu, and get us a very important Senate seat, and Marchand could run for Governor...But again I am Blue Skying it here, cuz he ain't running.
According to the Political Wire, Shaheen may seek a rematch with Sununu:
Former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen (D) said she "has not ruled out" running for Senate in 2008, "which would set up a re-match between her" and Sen. John Sununu (R), reports the Boston Globe.
Thanks to DavidNYC for the heads-up.
Me, I'm still really interested in the Dayton Duncan idea...
