Some thoughts on 2008 and the Democratic Party [View All]

[Blue_In_AK]

I don't think we have the best people this country has to offer representing us today. Our politicians are working for themselves, not for the good of the nation and the world. We need to seek out, support and elect honest, ethical, diplomatic, PROGRESSIVE Democrats who aren't afraid to make tough decisions and do the right thing. AND THE PARTY NEEDS TO GET BEHIND THESE PEOPLE.

We had the experience in Alaska last year of having as our Democratic nominee for Don Young's House seat a charismatic, honest, straight-from-the heart, brilliant Alaska Native woman, Diane Benson, whose son lost both his legs in Iraq in 2005. She was mentored by Max Cleland who encouraged her to run. She has met our congressional delegation, and all of the members of the administration -- **, Darth, Rummy, the whole gang. They all came to her son's hospital room, except for Don Young. It was that experience that conviced her that she had to take on the seemingly impossible task of defeating the "Congressman for All Alaska," (except me and many others) and his $3 million campaign warchest fueled by lobbyists and outside corporate interests, VECO, Big Oil. We all knew he was corrupt to the core up here, but it wasn't widely known that a criminal investigation was going on.

After she won the Democratic primary, she asked the state Democratic party for financial help to run her campaign. They were all tied up trying to get Tony Knowles elected governor and didn't offer her any money. So we volunteered and we told our friends about her and went to hear her speak. Even before her son was injured and she decided to run, she was showing up at peace demonstrations. I remember her giving a very impassioned speech at a rally about how her son didn't have proper armor and they were having to send him supplies from home. Then we read that he lost his legs. It was horrible. She feels this war very personally. The good news is that her son has become a competitive hand cyclist and will soon be certified in scuba diving and is working to encourage other injured veterans.

Diane's mother was Tlingit, her dad Norwegian. She is a peace warrior of the best kind. When you hear her speak, she touches your heart.

We did everything we could to raise money for Diane from the grassroots, and the support began to swell. More and more contributions were coming in from individuals and tribes and then from progressive people Outside. Even Sarah Palin, who is now our new Republican governor (with a 90% approval rating!), said she would publicly support Diane if Diane would support her. Sarah's great and everybody loves her, but Diane stayed true to the party (even though she had once run for governor as a Green back in the '90s).

Meanwhile, she was asking the DCCC for some financial help. Alaska is a big state, and plane fare is expensive out to the Bush. You can't drive anywhere here, to speak of, and she needed to get out to meet people and buy TV and radio ads. Once they talked with her, even some old die-hard Alaska Republicans were throwing their support to her. She just needed to be able to reach them.

Don Young's machine was powerful. He agreed to debate Diane only once at a very structured public TV debate with all the other minor party candidates. At the end of the debate, in his closing remark the Libertarian candidate said, "I know I'm not going to win this race, so, please, supporters, vote for Diane." I'd never seen anything like that. Finally, the night before the election, our local NBC affiliate told Diane they would give her 10 free minutes on the 6:00 o'clock news if Don refused to show up for a debate. He had to come. We carried Benson signs to greet him upon his arrival. She kicked his ass, and a lot of people saw it. People were stunned. Democrats in Alaska didn't act like this.

We were so hopeful we could win, but in the end the money and the power won out. But Diane had done something that no one thought possible, taken on the mighty Don Young with only grassroots support here in "Republican" Alaska and gained 40% of the vote. Her campaign did some projections afterward which showed that with $80,000 and two more weeks she could have beaten him. The momentum was that great.

My point here is that a wonderful candidate got no help from the national party. They didn't think she stood a chance. She asked for so little and yet they poured millions into establishment races all over the country. It's disheartening.

But she is running again, starting early this time. People are paying attention. I saw her get a standing ovation a couple of days ago.

(A footnote -- Her campaign treasurer, who is also her ex-husband and father of her son, told me that they learned after the election that all three of our congressional delegation went out to the tribal leaders and told them if they encouraged their people to vote for Diane they wouldn't see another red cent. That is appalling to me, criminal vote suppression. The Alaska Federation of Natives were afraid to even invite her to their convention, but the People got her in and forced them to let her speak. The response was resounding.)

Anyway, either the national party MUST get more progressive or we at the grassroots need to really start working our butts off. Things have to change, and it's up to us.