An All-Dem Suburban Philly Congressional Class of 2006 Would be a Beautiful Thing

It's my turn to chime in with a description of the PA for Democracy/Philly for Change meet-up last night at Yards in Philly.

Chris, who organized the event and rallied the crowd with a speech reminding us that it's good to be a Democrat in or around Philly, continued that theme in his post.  Susie wrote about why it's good to be a progressive blogger in Philly.   Albert  was distracted by the heat.  He wasn't kidding - it was hot.  The room is essentially a very big attic and although it's cool from an architectural/historical perspective, it's also an oven.  BooMan attended and was inspired to run for office himself.   Kyle says the Dems have to pick a message and stay on it and Duncan warned the field that the road to Washington runs through Drinking Liberally.

I think I'm the only blogger who went and didn't make any new blogging friends.  What is it with me?  I did tick off a very pleasant Paul Scoles supporter who wanted me to believe that Bob Casey had a snowball's chance to beat Santorum.  (You heard it hear first: the over/under on Casey's loss in '06 is 15 points.)  Next time I'm going to open every conversation with "Do you blog?"  That way I'll only tick off bloggers.  On the bright side, I met Eric Loeb, who's started up Good Works PAC.  These are the opening sentences of the site:

Wouldn't it be great if politicians stopped lying for a living and did something helpful for a change? Wouldn't you rather see all the money politicians spend on phony TV ads go back into the communities they are supposed to be serving?  Shouldn't politicians be showing us what they want to accomplish instead of spouting a whole lot of empty promises?

Amen, brother.  This is an idea similar to the Dean Corps - or the idea for Dean Corps is similar to this one.  Either way, it's a good idea to start being the change we want to see in the world.

Good-Works PAC is currently targetting deeply red districts in swing states, i.e. PA-10.  Where Republicans run unopposed one of the goals is to get a huge Dem field in the primaries then get all the candidates out doing good works and competing to earn/fix/donate the most.  It's free press and good karma and most of all it reaches out to the traditional Democratic base.  It's one thing to show up and beg people to register to vote and the show up on Election Day and beg them to get to the polls.  It's quite another to show up with voter registration forms and a team ready to clean a playground or earn money for a local food pantry. 

In my accidental isolation sitting way up front in an airless spot of the room that I swear reached 102 degrees, I was able to hear all the candidates' speeches. 

Lois Murphy (PA-06) went first and reminded everyone how close the race was last year.  She typically took the high road and didn't mention the last minute money Gerlach dumped into incredibly negative ads that linked Murphy with the Taliban and instead thanked the group for they support in '04. 

Lois Herr (PA-16)  Talked about being inspired by Howard Dean to run for Congress in the first place.  She uses an effective acronym to set out her campaign goals.  Rights, Opportunity, Security for Everyone.  It might sound silly when you first hear her mention "ROSE" but you don't forget her message.   

Patrick Murphy (PA-08) started his speech by invoking Paul Hackett's campaign. "I am this year's Paul Hackett!"  He reminded the crowd of the lies BushCo told to get the war in Iraq started. 

Ginny (PA-08) thanked the crowd for last year's support and then hit on the issue that's going to win Dem seats in '06 when she talked about the lack of oversight from a Congress that unfailingly chooses party over country.  Election reform, federal spending, BushCo's War in Iraq - Washington has no answers. They don't even ask the questions.  She also took on health care.

That opened the door for Paul Scoles (PA-07) who's running against the embarassing Curt Weldon.  Paul sounded a lot like a stand-up comic describing some of Weldon's antics, but it's hard not to sound that way when you're talking about Weldon.  He closed strong by pivoting off of Ginny's health care comments and calling for universal coverage.

Kyle made the observation that Dems have a problem staying on message because there is so very much to choose from when asked to explain why Republicans should be thrown out of office.  I liked last night's format because each candidate was able to pick something and stick to it and the short speeches kep the night moving. The trick for the candidates is to stand out in the crowd. 

Comments

[Riggsveda]

So you were there! You may have met my husband, Kevin. A young-looking 50, beard and shoulder-length reddish hair tied back in a ponytail. He's active in PA for Democracy (started and runs the blog), and in Montco DFA. He works in tandem with Anne for things with Philly For Change, and he's been one of the main folks setting up the upcoming 70th Birthday Party for Social Security on Aug.14 at Ft Washington State Park. He said they ran out of glasses for the beer and ended up having to pass it out in those teeny little paper cups.
Bummer.

[eRobin]

I don't remember not meeting or seeing a Kevin so maybe I did see him. I wish I had known and made a special effort to say hi. If he's part of that 70th Bday party for SocSec, I really wish I had met him so I could tell him what a great idea that is.

[Kyle Shank]

Hey! No idea you were there. I guess it was because you weren't wearing a giant eRobin/Fact-esque sign atop your head :) We should "meet up" next time at one of these events.

Cheers!

[eRobin]

Jeez, I left the hat in the car ONE time and that's what happens. I can't believe you didn't see my sandwich board though ...

[albert]

Sammich board? Missed that too. But I did see you. She was there, I can vouch for that. I saw her speaking to Liz and didn't want to disturb them, but I couldn't find her for the rest of the night. And it was oppressively hot. Like the Neo-Cons were pumping hot air into that place or something. They're on to us!

[Eric Loeb]

Man, I missed the sammich board too. Where was it?

Thanks for the nice mention of GoodWorks-PAC eRobin. I don't know if it's quite fair to break the news right here right now but you were standing there when another candidate committed to trying out the concept. We need to iron out the details, but hopefully we'll have a press release to send you pretty soon. :)

All of which means: THANK YOU!

It was also, by the way, very nice to meet you. Plus I'm really not a blogger, so you were true to your policy by doing the opposite of pissing me off.

[eRobin]

Eric: breaking news here is very safe if you're trying to keep it quiet. I look forward to the press release.

It was nice to meet you too :)