Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Donna Edwards Of The North?



Philip Munger, who comments frequently over at Firedoglake as "Edward Teller", wrote about Slobber And Spittle Blue candidate Diane Benson yesterday:

Which brings me to reason three [why PM is happy about Donna Edwards' victory]. As I've written here before, I've been volunteering for Diane Benson since the summer of 2006. Although I respect Jake Metcalfe and have a lot of respect for Ethan Berkowitz, I don't see them as agents of change for our future to the degree Benson could be. For several reasons - most of them outside the details of these three fine Alaskans' platforms.

MD-04 - Donna Edwards - The Most Important Potomac Primary Victory for Alaska Politics

I've never met Diane Benson, but she sounds like an amazing person. She spent her twenties driving cement trucks during the Alaska Pipeline project. She has been a community organizer and volunteer for most of her adult life, and she's the mother of a wounded Iraq veteran. The link about her son is to a video of her telling the story of her son's recovery:

Diane Benson, of Chugiak, Alaska, uses her skills as a Klingit writer, poet and storyteller to bring us into her life as her son grows up and leaves for Iraq (where he is severely wounded). We fly with her as she becomes the Mom for our wounded soldiers as they are transported back for medical care. She tells the story that is left out of our newspapers and TV. This is a powerful presentation told from the open heart of a mother.

Video:: Diane Benson: Mom of a Severely Wounded Soldier

I want more people like Diane Benson in Congress - people who live the life that we do, and who have a stake in what the government does.

If you do, too, I'd like to suggest that you drop some spare change in Diane's ActBlue account. In Alaska, a little campaign money will go a long way. So far, ActBlue has raised about $8,000 for her campaign. If we can double that by election time, it might be enough. It will certainly go a long way.

That's the good news. The bad news is that Alaska's primary isn't until August. Benson looks to have a strong challenger in the primary, and if she wins there won't be much time to campaign and gather financing.

So, use the convenient form to the left to donate directly, or follow the link. Remember, a little goes a long way here.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Donna Edwards is great, but equating her to Diane Benson in Alaska versus Berkowitz is totally off the deep end.

Berkowitz has been a champion of the "little" people as much or more than Benson has. Plus, Berkowitz is outpolling Benson vs. the hideous Don Young - even according to Benson's own internal polls. Getting rid of Don Young is priority #1, and Berkowitz has the best chance of doing so.

Finally - the Phillip Munger post you reference should be taken with a grain of salt. Phillip is working for the Benson campaign -= a fact he rarely discloses.

Cujo359 said...

Munger mentioned that he had worked on her campaigns for two years in that post, in fact, that declaration's part of the quote I took from it.

I'm not equating Edwards/Wynn to Benson/Berkowitz, I'm equating to Benson/Young. Although I'm noting that Berkowitz has managed to raise quite a bit of cash for "little" people. Benson's raised less than half that. He may be OK, I have no way of knowing, but he seems a rather conventional politician next to Benson.