Mike's Election Guide (21 page)

NEW YORK’S 26TH DISTRICT

Jon Powers

New York State Democrats are rallying behind Iraq war veteran
Jonathan Powers
, a former Army Captain looking to take the seat vacated by powerful Republican Tom Reynolds. Moved by the war’s impact on the Iraqi people, Jon Powers returned home and founded a non-profit organization called War Kids Relief in Baghdad to help Iraqi children deal with the aftermath of war. Powers has the support of Vote Vets, Vet Pac, and many local labor unions. Captain Powers is an Eagle Scout, and is currently a high school social studies teacher. His opponent is Chris Lee, a wealthy Republican businessman who has the backing of the retiring Rep. Reynolds. His agenda is built entirely around cutting taxes and loosening government regulations or eliminating them altogether. He is not an Eagle Scout.

NEW YORK’S 29TH DISTRICT

Eric Massa

Republican incumbent Randy Kuhl has been a big supporter of the Bush/Cheney war and their foreign policy. He has welcomed both of them to fundraisers in his districts, and before the 2006 elections was one of the few Republican candidates to hold a public event with Cheney, who used the opportunity to blast Democrats who have spoken out against the war. If that wasn’t bad enough, his divorce papers, leaked on the Internet, accused him of endangering his wife’s mental and physical well-being, once threatening to shoot her with two shotguns at a dinner party they hosted. Finally, Kuhl was arrested and charged with a DUI in 1997 and refused to seek counseling for his alcohol abuse. You might say the guy has “issues.”

Eric Massa
is another military veteran running for Congress as a Democrat. He spent 24 years on active duty for the Navy, and his biggest assignment was as a special assistant to General Wesley Clark in Panama when Clark was NATO Supreme Allied Commander. Like Clark, Massa was against the Iraq war from the beginning, which is one of his reasons for getting involved in politics. He’s also a cancer survivor who knows what it’s like to “get sick, lose your job, and have bills you can’t pay.”

OHIO’S 15TH DISTRICT

Mary Jo Kilroy

Democrat
Mary Jo Kilroy
came within 1,062 votes of winning this seat in 2006. Her opponent then, Deborah Pryce, is now retiring after 8 terms, creating a great Democratic opportunity in the unfortunate bellwether state of Ohio. A county commissioner who is making the Iraq war one of her top issues, Kilroy says that “It’s time to bring our troops home. It was a mistake to invade Iraq and it’s a mistake to stay there now.” While Kilroy served as County Commissioner, Franklin County was named one of the five best-managed counties in the country by
Governing Magazine
. While school board president in Columbus, she helped create the Columbus Franklin County Affordable Housing Trust Corporation to promote home ownership and increase minority home ownership. She also helped create Access Health Columbus to provide healthcare for uninsured and low-income families. She also helped implement the Quality Contractor Policy which rewards or penalizes county contractors based on whether they pay their workers livable wages and with good benefits.

“Lobbyist” just might have replaced “liberal” as the dirtiest word in Washington, as evidenced by her opponent, Republican candidate Steve Stivers’ clumsy attempts to dodge the label. While vice president of government relations at Banc One Ohio Corp. from 1995 to 2002, he was registered as a lobbyist with the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee. When asked about this on the campaign trail, Stivers spun himself in circles, claiming “I was never a lobbyist per se.” After being pressed on the issue, he finally acknowledged that he was registered as a lobbyist, but then added, “it’s interesting that everybody wants to talk about my past. I want to talk about the future.” Funny, that’s what most Republicans I’ve talked to have been saying this year.

Like John McCain, Stivers tries to portray himself as an independent-minded moderate, but his record in the Ohio State Senate hasn’t always lived up to this. He voted against stem-cell research in a bill supported by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. He’s also earned a zero rating from the Ohio League of Conservation Voters and Naral Pro-Choice Ohio, a 100 percent rating from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

NORTH CAROLINA’S8TH DISTRICT

Larry Kissell

Of all the inane comments made about the Iraq War, those made by Republican incumbent Robin Hayes rank right near the top. According to the
Charlotte Observer
, to stabilize Iraq Hayes proposed “spreading the message of Jesus Christ, the message of peace on earth, good will towards men. Everything depends on everyone learning about the birth of the Savior.” Maybe we should have thought of that
before
we started bombing the crap out of their country! During the 2004 election cycle, Hayes was the second largest recipient of campaign funds from the machine of Rep. Tom DeLay.

He’s also been a reliable Republican, voting the party line 91 percent of the time. He skipped out on voting on the FISA surveillance bill, but has voted against withdrawal from Iraq, and in favor of no strings attached funding for the war. He voted for the war, the Bush tax cuts, and the extension of the Bush tax cuts. He voted against a ban on “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment on detainees” held by American forces. And that’s just the icing on the cake for his cruel, inhuman and degrading career in the United States Congress.

Larry Kissell
came within 329 votes of defeating Rep. Hayes in 2006, and that was without much help from the national Democratic Party. After his strong showing and with the political winds blowing against the Republicans, this could definitely be another Democratic pickup. Kissell, a lifelong Democrat, is a social studies teacher and former textile worker. The top issue he’s fought for has been for a quick end to the war in Iraq. Since 2006 he’s said, “We staged our way into Iraq in one year, there’s no reason we can’t stage our way out in one year.” He’s also been endorsed by the North Carolina AFL-CIO and the North Carolina Association of Educators.

OHIO’S 1ST DISTRICT

Steve Driehaus

Republican Steve Chabot has held this seat since 1992. Early in his career in Congress, Chabot would rail against pork-barrel spending and government waste, saying “I wasn’t sent up here to bring pork back to my district.” After more than a decade in Washington, Chabot has changed his tune. In an article titled, “Chabot aims earmarks at places linked to donors,”
The Hill
notes that $1.6 million in earmarks in a 2007 appropriations bill were headed to organizations and projects linked to supporters and donors of Rep. Chabot. I wonder if it has anything to do with the upcoming election.

Chabot has been a reliable Republican vote in Congress—91 percent of the time he’s been in line during this congressional session. He’s voted in favor of the war. He voted against the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, against repealing tax cuts to oil companies, in favor of extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and against raising the minimum wage to a measly $7.25. Judging from his record, the only time he’s voted in favor of the less fortunate, needy, or hard-pressed is on a bill that applied to only one American—Terri Schiavo. So if you’re a citizen in Ohio’s first congressional district, the only way your congressman will show any compassion and fight for your healthcare (or Social Security or jobs or affordable housing or anything else) is if
you’re in a permanent vegetative state
!

Democratic candidate
Steve Driehaus
was elected in 2000 as a State Representative and was named “Rookie of the Year” and “Legislator of the Year” by the
Cincinnati Enquirer
and the Ohio Association of Election Officials. He volunteered in the Peace Corps and served in Senegal. Sadly, he’s an anti-abortion Democrat, but he has the backing of popular Democratic Governor Ted Strickland. In his time in the legislature, he was active in passing legislation to fight predatory lending which led Governor Strickland to create a Foreclosure Task Force.

OHIO’S 2ND DISTRICT

Victoria Wulsin

When we look back at Bush-Cheney and the Iraq war’s biggest congressional cheerleaders humiliating themselves in Congress, “Mean Jean” Schmidt’s November 2005 cheap shot on Rep. Jack Murtha ranks near the top of the list. It occurred after Murtha, who originally supported the war, realized that it was a huge mistake and supported legislation that would bring our troops home. During a debate in Congress, Mean Jean, allegedly quoting a veteran she had recently spoken to, said on the House floor, “He asked me to send Congress a message: Stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do.” Even though she mentioned Murtha, who served in the Marine Corps for 37 years, and she was quoting another marine, she claims she wasn’t addressing anyone in particular.