Judy Baker applies for DFA endorsement

Over the last ten years, the Missouri 9th Congressional district has been represented by one of the strongest supporters of the Bush administration policies of economics and war. This election year, Kenny Hulshof will not be running for Congress and instead decided to enter Missouri 's gubernatorial race. This leaves the 9th open for anyone who has at least attended a social studies class in junior high. Now over the years, the Democrats put up candidates against Hulshof, but it usually ended up that our candidate getting close to the Democrat base vote in each of those elections. This was due, for the most part, to the lack of fund raising and support these candidates received.

However this election cycle was different. With Hulshof still in the race, Judy Baker decided to challenge him. In a matter of a few weeks, she raised over $100,000 before the New Year. She was a serious challenger and was going to take the fight to him. We all knew what happened next. Kenny decided to run for governor and 3 primary challengers joined Baker in vying the Democratic party's nomination.

So why should DFA endorse Judy for Congress, there are 7 main reasons

1. Judy has amassed at least 250,000 dollars in this race.
2. She is a unabashed progressive and served in the state legislature
   
3. She is running for an open seat.
4. She has received the endorsement of Emily's list, a rather large and influential PAC.
5. Being married to a pastor, she will have appeal to those independent rural swing voters.
6. She is one of ActBlue's top ten fundraisers
7. This one is the most important, she entered the race when the fight was on. Her challengers entered the race when it was easier.
   

To me, the 50 state strategy of leaving no republican unchallenged is the credo of Howard Dean and DFA as well. There is no other candidate that illustrates this more clearly than Judy Baker

Follow up on the Iraq Forum

As expected, Kenny Hulshof was a no show at the Boone County Government Center. Over a 150 people were in attendance in the standing room only forum. there were many different excuses that the Congressman gave that he couldn't attend. One of them being that only people in Columbia care about the Iraq War. There were many people from Columbia, this is true, but we had people from Moberly, Mexico, and Fulton in attendance. The congressman needs to learn that he represents all of the district, not just the "friendly" ones. There were many different walks of life that made the forum. The most riveting speech was given by a wife of a veteran that suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome. She told a story of him waking up in the middle of the night screaming or getting jumpy during a thunderstorm. After she was done, the entire room gave her a standing ovation. I felt that any problems I might have to face, paled in comparison. Not only is she raising kids, she's dealing with a husband that the Bush administration has forgot. The VA does not offer help to those family members. This is the hidden cost to Bush's failed Iraq policy. We have a generation of men and women that will be scarred for their entire life due to a lie.

It was a great forum, kudos to Pro-vote for pulling it off :)

Will he or won't he?

Representative Kenny Hulshof has been invited to a town hall meeting about the War in Iraq. He was offered to name his date and time, but Pro-vote, which is sponsoring the event, was told that his schedule was full and he wouldn't attend anything that Pro-vote had its name on.

Mr. Hulshof, you are all the constituents' representative, not just your big dollar donors and the paid lobbyists. I'm sorry if you need a marketing consultant to have a focus group and hand pick your audience. You need to face the music on your record of supporting this increasing unpopular war. It's time to stop hiding behind the moniker that only Columbia liberals care about this war, it stretches all across your district