George Gollin

You're probably aware that we're getting into the final stretch of our Alan Grayson Jimi Hendrix fundraiser. Because of the Memorial Day holiday, we've extended it until Tuesday-- one extra day.

Friday, Alan Grayson endorsed particle physicist George Gollin for Congress from Illinois' 13th congressional district. He began his endorsement with a simple statement you can hear all too often from the more educated members of Congress-- Grayson has three graduate degrees from Harvard: "I’m really getting tired of listening to people who don’t know what they’re talking about.

Tuesday is primary day in Illinois and the contest we're concentrating on is the swing district stretching from Champaign to the St. Louis suburbs, IL-13, currently held by weak Republican backbencher Rodney Davis. The Dick Durbin Machine and hapless DCCC chairman Steve Israel picked some mystery meat "moderate," Ann Callis, who refuses to tell anyone where she stands on any issues if, indeed, she stands anywhere on any issues.

Tuesday is primary day in Illinois and progressive George Gollin's insurgent campaign in IL-13 won two big endorsements yesterday. Early in the morning the biggest local paper, the Champaign News-Gazette came in for him, following the lead of the other two most read newspapers in the district, the Chicago Tribune and Springfield's State Journal-Register.

This year's Congressional Progressive Caucus alternative budget, the Better Off Budget, was developed by Mike Honda (D-CA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Donna Edwards (D-MD), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). Obviously, it's a complex document.

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.

Earlier this month we introduced our newest House candidate, Illinois particle physicist George Gollin. Above is the TV ad he's trying to get up on stations across the sprawling district that goes from Bloomington and Champaign, straight through the Illinois farm belt to the northern suburbs of St. Louis.

I don't expect lazy Beltway reporters to dig this deep, but the real story of yesterday's DCCC Red-to-Blue announcement was less about a bunch of lame recruits like Blue Dog Gwen Graham (FL) and "mystery meat" no issues candidates like Domenic Recchia (NY) and Ann Callis (IL), than it was about which candidates and which districts got left out again.

Last week, U.S. Trade Rep Mike Froman made corporate America's case on behalf of the Obama Administration for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the hated fast track legislation to ramrod it through Congress. Almost all House Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, and even some Republican corporate whores oppose fast track authority.

Sunday, as part of an introduction to Blue America's latest endorsed candidate, George Gollin in central Illinois, we mentioned in passing that the mediocre Republican incumbent, careerist Rodney Davis, has a primary to worry about next month.