It's the beginning of the end for Karen Minnis
Kari Chisholm
As I'm sure you have figured out by now, it matters a lot who is in charge down in Salem.
Karen Minnis and her right-wing gang worked very hard to abuse power in favor of big corporate special interests. They were the best friends of Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Corporate Polluters, Predatory Lenders, Tax Cheats... the list goes on.
Well, the Oregon House Democrats are already launching their campaign to win back the majority from Karen Minnis and her not-so-motley crew.
So, my fellow BlueOregonians, it's time to put our money where our mouths have been. With the session over, it's legal to raise money again. So, let's do it.
Dive in and read Democratic Leader Jeff Merkley's nine-part indictment of the Minnis Gang - and then make a real difference: make your own small financial contribution to turn this thing around.
Every dollar counts. It starts now.
[Disclosure: I built the website for the Oregon House Democrats.]
 |
More Recent Posts | |
Albert Kaufman |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
Kari Chisholm |
Final pre-census estimate: Oregon's getting a sixth congressional seat |
Albert Kaufman |
Polluted by Money - How corporate cash corrupted one of the greenest states in America |
Guest Column |
|
Albert Kaufman |
Our Democrat Representatives in Action - What's on your wish list? |
Kari Chisholm |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
connect with blueoregon
12:39 a.m.
Aug 9, '05
[Off-topic technical note deleted.]
Aug 9, '05
The way to defeat Karen Minnis is to have an excellent opposing candidate (Rob Brading hopefully?) and excellent candidates all over the state. If Democrats win 31 seats, Minnis's power will be over. But maybe the Rural Caucus knows more about how to win rural seats than FuturePac does?
And please spare us the "we looked at the ratio of R to D and decided not to target a district which seemed to be an R district" as some have defended the decision not to target Doyle last year. Just as some Democrats were angry that the DCCC didn't get more involved in Paul Hackett's Ohio almost-victory (what other election was going on at the time?) so it only creates cynicism when consultants or caucus employees have a "we know what is best" attitude. This is not a new problem--for a decade there have been some in politics with the attitude "you're just a volunteer, what do you know?".
Blue Oregonians, are you willing to do what it takes to reach out to those who do not register with a major party? Even someone like Vicki Berger who won by 6000 votes lives in a district with about 8000 not registered to a major party.
Financial contributions are necessary but not sufficient. Voters need to be convinced that the Democratic candidate will do a better job, and that sometimes takes a person they know telling them "I support---because...". No amount of money can buy an enthusiastic word of mouth campaign.
So many House elections were SO close last time. Seems like it is time to look at all those near-victories and decide what needs to be done differently. And look at all the districts where a Democrat replaced a Republican and decide what they did right which might be replicated in other districts.
1:06 p.m.
Aug 9, '05
donated!
1:18 p.m.
Aug 9, '05
LT, you may or may not be right. Certainly, the Rural Caucus is an excellent addition to our political ferment.
That said, there will always be a legislative caucus organization - certainly, anyway, in the 2006 election cycle. They're the ones doing the candidate recruitment, staff recruitment and training, etc.
I agree - quality candidates are critical. One way to ensure that is to build the warchest necessary to encourage quality candidates to get into the campaigns.
7:36 p.m.
Aug 9, '05
Over at DFO Action, not only will we be supporting the candidate who runs against Minnis, but we will also be supporting progressive candidates across the state.
We'll be seeking input from DFO supporters as well as groups like the Rural Caucus on which ones they think we should be targeting before those decisions are made. Just because a district appears to be an R district doesn't mean we shouldn't help out the progressive who is running against the R.
Sure, it'll be great if many of our selected candidates win. But if some don't, that's ok too. As Howard Dean has said, it sometimes takes a couple elections before you can win a seat. It may take a couple elections to win those R seats. But if done correctly, over the next few election cycles we can beat out all these right-wing conservatives and replace them with progressives.
11:40 a.m.
Aug 10, '05
Kari, Why waste money and energy trying to personalize this thing? Shouldn't we identify the most likely districts currently held by Republicans and focus our efforts there? Is Minnis really beatable?
It would be a great symbolic victory, I admit, but it shouldn't detract from the more important goal of retaking the House (and holding the governorship).
11:53 a.m.
Aug 10, '05
Paul--
She's very beatable. The district has more Ds than Rs. Rob Brading was outspend heavily in the last election (she had something like $200,000+ to his less than $50,000). Even so, he was able to cut her lead from over 20% in 2002 to under 7% in 2004. That was with very little help, with the exception of the Mult Dems who did some work and donated some money.
All it takes is some work out there to show Ds that we do care about them. That we are listening to them. They have a large number of unaffiliated voters because they are so fed up with the Democratic Party. They've been ignored for so long that they've stopped voting. We need to show them we care every year-- not just in November of the even years. It's the same thing that's been happening to rural dems for years now.
DFO Action picked her as our first target. We'll be adding more candidates we'll be helping/opposing in the coming months. But we have to be rid of her as well.