Elections 2010: Why You Must Get Involved!

Because I am not much of a Facebook or Twitter type guy (I know relying on e-mail makes me a dinosaur—I might as well be writing letters. Do you remember letters?) so I need help from those of you who are more thoroughly socially networked. I need you to pass the word to your network—and ask them to pass the word to theirs—to carefully evaluate the candidates in their home districts and to vote (OK its 11 words). If we don’t do that, if we don’t independently evaluate the candidates and vote, the conservative forces in this country are going to buy this year’s election.

That is not an overstatement. Since the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” Ruling opened the floodgate for corporate political spending, enough money has poured in for television ads supporting conservative candidates to drown conventionally funded Democratic candidates.

Last night Rachel Maddow profiled one such effort by an unknown group of donors (they are hiding behind the name “Concerned Taxpayers of America.” This name sounds like it might be a legitimate interest group, but part of Rachel’s report shows Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio trying to contact the group at the address listed as its headquarters where he was stonewalled.

[This is one of Rachel’s overly long winded pieces but it can be seen here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#39449958. Rachel’s story is the most inclusive, but if you don’t like Rachel, articles on this situation can be found here, http://thedemocraticdaily.com/2010/09/27/secret-campaign-cash-in-oregon/, and here, http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/archives/222858.asp.]

The “Concerned Taxpayers of America” is of particular concern to Congressman DeFazio because they have spent about $166,000 on false and misleading television ads attacking DeFazio and supporting his opponent Arthur Robinson. (I must note that the two reference articles which list the cost of the ads as $86,000 were written before second $80,000 ad buy was made.) This is more than the Robinson campaign itself has spent, and exceeds the resources available to DeFazio.

Further investigation shows that the “Concerned Taxpayers of America” so far exists solely for the purpose of making these ad buys and masking the identity of the contributor or contributors.

This is not the only conservative organization pumping money for false and misleading ads for conservative candidates. The non-partisan group FactCheck.org has detailed the falsehoods in attack ads run by American Crossroads “super PAC” attacking Democratic Senate candidates in Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Nevada, Missouri and New Hampshire.

[You can read the complete FackCheck article here: http://factcheck.org/2010/10/crossroads-jam-up/. It includes corrective information about all of the false and misleading claims made in these ads. I highly recommend it even if you do not live in one of the states where these ads are running, similar falsehoods are apt to be appearing in the ads you are seeing. Concerned Taxpayers of America and American Crossroads are not the only groups doing this!]

 There is a low-cost way to combat the unprecedented amounts of money from the wealthy being pumped into this year’s elections. As DeFazio states in his interview with Rachel Maddow:

I‘m going try and inspire average people to fight back against this. And we need to do that across the country, kick a little sand in their gears and say, “No, you‘re not going to buy the fourth district of Oregon. You‘re not going to buy Oregon. You‘re not going to buy the United States of America and the Congress

And that is why you have to get involved! We need person to person, word of mouth contacts and you don’t have to say “vote Democrat!”—although that would be nice. But if people independently evaluate these candidates, I think the majority will vote Democrat.

For example, the Concerned Taxpayers of America ad states that Congressman DeFazio and Nancy Pelosi made a mess of our economy (not true, remember how were narrowly avoided falling into another great depression following 8 years of President Bush?) and it posits Art Robinson with having a plan to “promote private sector job growth.” If you go to Robinson’s website you will find this assertion again, but not a hint of a plan (maybe the Republican plan of tax cuts for the wealthy—been there, tried that, doesn’t work.)

DeFazio and Marcy Kaptur (D- Ohio) offered Democratic leadership a compromise on tax cuts that would help small businesses and encourage job growth in the U.S. This compromise would extend the tax cuts for small businesses earning over $250,000 a year if the businesses can certify they are creating U.S. jobs or directly benefiting U.S. industries. This encourages job growth and cuts out small businesses that are really individuals, such as Doctors and Lawyers, who will not use the tax cuts to hire more employees.

One guy has real plans; one guy has empty air. Who would you vote for?

To defeat big political money: examine the candidates running in your state, make a definite commitment to vote, and ask others to do the same. Pass it on.