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Friday, April 16, 2010

"Reed continues to have strong support within Minnesota, with 90% of all donations coming from within the state. In addition, she is heavily supported by individual donors, with 98.5% of all contributions coming from individuals, not PACs or special interests."

REED, CLARK, IMMELMAN, ANDERSON, Bachmann. All in the hunt to one degree or another.

Clark's most recent theme is she's topped a million dollars in fund raising - with yet to be online FEC filings showing sources and sinks, so far, with the end of the month approaching so that Clark and the rest of the Sixth District candidates will need to report.

Reed's latest supporter emailing - press release, source of the headline quote, is an indication that in seeking the DFL nomination she will not be outspent, nor run under by the regular party insiders. As an outsider myself, I respect the committment, including putting two hundred grand of Reed family wealth into play, as and if needed, so that institutional contributions to others can be countered if spending capacity is to be equated with quality, or success in the primary and general elections. It should not be that, but it might.

In an ideal world, Immelman should have equal access to public awareness as Reed, Clark, Bob Anderson and that other one. Most by now know we live in a far-from-ideal world.

The Reed item is a short page long, clearly saying:

Congressional Candidate Maureen Reed announced today that she raised over $204,000 in the first quarter of 2010, ending with $433,000 cash on hand. Reed has raised $779,000 total for her campaign. In addition to the fundraising numbers, the Reed Campaign announced that it will receive a $250,000 loan from the candidate, which will increase the cash on hand to $683,000 and mark over a million dollars coming into the campaign to date.

“This amount levels the playing field between Maureen and her democratic challenger. Maureen is encouraged by the wide support she’s received, and this action shows her commitment to this race, dedication to presenting primary voters with a real choice, and defeating Michele Bachmann,” said Jason Isaacson, Campaign Manager for Reed’s Congressional Campaign.

“Maureen’s continued fundraising strength without any high-profile endorsements illustrates that voters want to elect a candidate with extensive real-world experience. Maureen is a political outsider with an incredible background in health care, job creation, and public education. Donors and voters alike know that government is not working for them and that Maureen is the candidate who will work collaboratively and get things done,” said Isaacson.

Isaacson added, “At the DFL Convention we were less than 5 votes away from blocking the endorsement, and in last 4 days of the quarter following the convention, we raised over $68,000, indicating that people are not tied to the preferred candidate of DFL activists, but are drawn to a political outsider who can defeat Michele Bachmann in November.”

The campaign will file its official results with the Federal Election Commission on April 15.

Reporting is that Michele Bachmann has accumulated a ton of cash to flood the channels with her brand of political "information" and we can anticipate it will be offensive - what else could it be, from Bachmann.

The hope is sane voters in the Sixth District will ask themselves two questions. "Is the stuff Michele Bachmann says on FOX my thinking, and what she says on the Jesus networks my view of how people should regard the rights of one another?" That's a first question. The second, "Is my life better or worse since Michele Bachmann has gone to Congress and if worse, what has Michele Bachmann done to make the outcome at all different?"

Each of us has answers, mine being she is a divisive bigot and does not speak for anyone but the ruling elite wanting to delude those easily misled; while my second answer is my life's been okay, and that means I've been luckier than a lot of people because life in general in the Sixth District has worsened with Michele Bachmann a big part of the problem; and not any part of any sane person's solution.

If Michele Bachmann has said "Tax the rich" I missed it.

My only problem is that the competing candidates are more moderate than I am, none, to my knowledge having said "Tax the rich." Yet none other than Bachmann is a Hemsley, or an allay or tool of the Hemsleys of our nation. Any of the four, Reed, Clark, Anderson, or Immelman would be an improvement over the divisive and crass status quo. That said, Reed, Anderson, and Immelman each can be viewed as an outsider to the flawed two party system we live under and are controlled by. The distinction, to me, is relevant.

Each of the two parties has its special interest regulars. Neither party, in my view, benefits greatly from how those interests have regarded the rest of us beyond their own objectives. With organized labor becoming a lesser and lesser percentage of the people, their interests have narrowed rather than broadened in an effort to attract greater percentages of the work force. The employers have won that battle and the response has been to circle the wagons more than to open the process.

I do not think the teachers union and the bureaucrats union has a great concern for the rest of us, not nearly enough, and each instead is steadfast in not seeing their own ox gored even if that stance might be counterproductive to what's best for the nation or for the bulk of the populace.

Weeding out bad teachers and shrinking the bureaucracy and making it more responsive to average citizen needs and expectations, and more productive in ways the private sector work force faces day in, day out, are areas where union leadership has been perhaps more intransigent than is best for everyone else.

Now, one clear caveat. In stating my dissatisfaction with the two party system (and noting now that of the two parties, one, the GOP, is beyond all hope); these are personal views. I do not attribute any such thinking to any candidate for office - each being quite able to speak for herself or himself. I only note that other things being equal - and the capabilities and proven success of Clark and Reed while in different spheres of activity have been largely shown equivalent - my preference in so close and promising a balance is the one less tied to a party insider status quo. However, with the two individuals so excellent, I will vote as I think best in the DFL primary and be exceptionally satisfied with the quality of the winner, should that winner turn out to be Reed, or Clark. Either is in my view an exceptionally promising candidate for the job.

___________UPDATE___________
Besides feeling the Hemsleys of our nation should be more fairly and heavily taxed; I favor single payer and the candidate who has come closest to that policy position is Reed, who has not endorsed single payer, but has at least noted that public option would be a step toward holding the fiscal rapaciousness of the Hemsleys somewhat at bay. Bless Maureen Reed for the courage to at least say that. I await the other three challengers, Clark in particular, to state a position on single payer and/or public option. She seems to want only to agree with her friends.

Immelman and Anderson, each also should speak up on the healthcare issue because it is far from fixed by what's been done with both houses of Congress and the Presidency in a "pass anything" mode after much fussing with little progress to show. Clearly, those wanting repeal of what's been passed do not want it to fix things better, but only to restore the flawed status quo - with either the bill as passed or the before-passage status quo being far, far, far too friendly to the Hemsleys we have among us, feeding off the denials of coverage, the cancellations, the spending caps, and all the other abuses the insurance-industrial complex has, in its rapacious greed, inflicted on the nation.