This afternoon, New Mexico Democrat Leslie Endean-Singh ended her race to be the Democratic nominee against right-wing extremist Stevan Pearce. She graciously left the field to DCCC recruit Rocky Lara, another one of Steve Israel's "mystery meat" candidates who stands for nothing much and will inspire as many voters as Alex Sink did last night. Endean-Singh, running a totally positive campaign, never adequately made the case about why the centrist Lara isn't a winning choice for New Mexico Democrats. Her withdrawal guarantees another term for the anti-Hispanic extremist, Pearce-- in a congressional district where 47% of voters are Hispanic!This is from Endean-Singh's concession today:
In light of the results at last Saturday’s pre-primary convention, I will be formally withdrawing from the race for the United States Congress. The delegates to our pre-primary convention have made their decision, and, in the spirit of Democratic unity, I believe it is best if we unite behind our party’s nominee, and our next congresswoman, Rocky Lara.…Rocky Lara will be an excellent representative for all New Mexicans and I know she will be a great advocate for our party’s platform. I trust she will be a strong leader for Democrats all over the second congressional district. I am honored and humbled to have campaigned against a future member of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, and I congratulate her sincerely on her victory… Though my campaign has ended, I will not be ending the fight to bring progressive values to the people of our state.
Fair enough. I know she has a progressive vision for our people. Does Lara? I still honestly don't know what she thinks. And Endean-Signh never made the case that hiding behind DCCC platitudes isn't enough for any candidates for Congress. It's how Alex Sink failed too inspire enough support to propel her to Congress in FL-13 last night. In 6 days, another sad sack DCCC mystery meat candidate, Ann Callis, will face off against grassroots progressive George Gollin. It's a David and Goliath contest and Callis has the entire force of the Machine working for her. But if she does win next week, she'll lose the general election in November for the exact same reasons Sink lost yesterday. Gollin isn't withdrawing, not by any stretch of the imagination. And he has made the case about why he's a better candidate than either of the two Beltway Establishment candidates, Republican Rodney Davis or Democrat Ann Callis. Watch his TV ad up top. And the media has picked up on it.In recent days, both the Chicago Tribune and the State Journal-Register have found Gollin to be a better candidate than Callis and both have endorsed him-- explicitly rejecting the absurd DCCC "mystery meat" strategy.
When political candidates agree to sit with The State Journal-Register's editorial board ahead of an election and explain where they stand on issues important to voters, it's a unique opportunity for them to do just that-- explain where they stand.Of the three Democratic candidates for U.S. representative in the 13th Congressional District-- George Gollin, Ann Callis and David Green-- only one embraced the opportunity to offer evidence of being up to the task of going to Congress.Gollin, a physics professor at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, provided thoughtful, well-researched and understandable support for his positions. Callis, a former judge from Edwardsville who has the support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, seemed to lack a deeper understanding of national issues. And Green, a social policy analyst, went too deep and failed to connect.Gollin has experience in developing higher education policy and has strong interest in fairness and justice. He knows people are concerned about economic issues, job loss, college affordability and dysfunction in Congress. But he has ideas for addressing those problems.He supports fair trade, fair taxes and enforcement of laws that allow people to unionize. He wants to invest heavily in infrastructure-- roads and bridges, but also Internet access to households and farms. He wants to offer training programs to help people become qualified for a wider range of jobs, and he supports the idea of linking college accreditation to education costs.Saying health care is a basic human right, Gollin also supports a single payer system, “in which fees to health-care providers are based on outcomes rather than a list of individual medical procedures.”On immigration, he supports a path to citizenship, keeping undocumented families together and assigning more responsibility to employers for not hiring undocumented workers in the first place.He also indicated compassion for the less fortunate, explaining he did not appreciate how rough some people have it until he began volunteering at a soup kitchen in Champaign. He supports “livable” wages for all.“I would be out front serving people and see a mom with a couple little kids, and they're on food stamps and they need us to keep from starving. Holy cow,” he said. “These are not people who are coasting. These are folks who are scared. They are putting tremendous care into maintaining self respect, and they are very much in danger of having to choose between food, being able to feed themselves and being able to pay the rent.”Gollin, who is accustomed to identifying problems and collaborating with others to fix them, is prepared for the partisan environment in Washington, D.C., saying his plan is to find potential allies across the aisle to work with on specific legislative matters and build from there. That's how you get things done. Gollin is endorsed.
The Chicago Tribune was even more explicit about Callis'-- and the mystery meat strategy's-- shortcomings. As part of their endorsement of Gollin, they said that "in the Democratic primary… Sen. Dick Durbin's chosen candidate is carefully insulated from anyone who might ask her a tough question. Former Madison County chief judge Ann Callis sticks to safe talking points, occasionally name-checking Durbin. Her answers to our survey are carefully scripted, heavy on promises to protect seniors and middle-class families without explaining what she'd actually do. She would not agree to be interviewed by the Tribune." The conservative-leaning newspaper went on to say "Our pick is George Gollin… We disagree with many of his positions, but at least we know where he stands."And don't American voters deserve that? Let me predict again, if Nancy Pelosi doesn't fire Steve Israel as DCCC Chair November will see lots of repetitions on what we all watched last night in FL-13. You can still contribute to Gollin's grassroots primary campaign here. Get out the vote election day volunteers need pizza!