The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is naming 11 candidates Wednesday in the first round of its Red to Blue program, which highlights strong Democratic recruits. The list of 11 candidates, obtained first by Roll Call, includes recruits running in 10 competitive Republican-held seats and in an open seat Democrats are hoping to keep blue.
Being named to Red to Blue opens doors for candidates who can tout their inclusion on the list to donors. Candidates also benefit from guidance and staff resources from the DCCC, which has been in contact with all Democratic House candidates who have been willing to collaborate and communicate with the committee this year. The DCCC evaluates candidates’ fundraising, grass-roots engagement, local support, ties to the community and campaign infrastructure when deciding who makes the cut for the program.
Of all the Dem Congressional candidates who have been popping up over the last couple of months, Dan has emerged as (by far) the best fundraiser, approaching 3/4 of a million already. He's also a veteran and a renewable energy supplier, which would have me supporting him even if the DCCC wasn't involved. It's still a tough race to win, but if anybody could do it, it would be Dan.
Please take just a few minutes to help Larry Kissell win the DCCC contest running today. Larry won last cycle and the DCCC sent out over 3 million fundraising emails for Larry. In 2006 the candidates had a month to plan their day of action. This cycle, they've had under a week. The winner is expected to raise over $100,000 on the fundraising email.
We can do our part and it will barely take any time out of your day.
You have two choices:
1. Go to www.helplarrywin.com and sign up to do virtual phone banking from your home. Spend just 20 minutes making phone calls and your efforts count.
Somebody get Robin Hayes a change of knickers. I think he just wet himself. What has Robin Hayes flat out running scared?
It isn't what. It's who. It's Larry Kissell, that's who.
Larry Kissell, his campaign team and his enthusiastic supporters from 2006 have finally been joined by the DCCC and many Democrats throughout the district who held back their support last cycle because they didn't think Larry could win. People are scrambling to jump on the Kissell bandwagon and the only thing to say to that is, "Thank you!"
On a conference call with supporters and 8th District Dem party officials, Rep, Chris Van Hollen committed DCCC support to Larry Kissell and according to pollster Marc Silverman of Anzalone Liszt:
Hayes is facing an electorate that is as dangerous to his political career as it was in 2006, if not worse.
A few days ago, Larry Kissell wrote a diary on DailyKos titled No Confidence in Politics as Usual. Tucked away in that diary was this little morsel:
The Washington folks seemed shocked that we recently polled and it showed my opponent is in big trouble and the district agrees with me that we've had enough.
That's right. There's a poll. Unfortunately, I can't get my hands on it, but what I've heard so far is that Robin Hayes is in more trouble than he's ever been in and Larry Kissell hasn't lost momentum. From what I hear - and I promise to produce the poll if it is ever released - on the uninformed poll question, the two candidates (Kissell v. Hayes) are neck and neck.
Finally! The DCCC has Recognized the most innovative campaign of this cycle if not the past 20 years. Larry Kissell has been added to the Red-to-Blue list of candidates. It's about damn time.
Everyone who has been here for a while knows how hard we, as netroots activists fought to get our fellow bloggers and activists to add Larry Kissell to the Netroots Endorsed Candidates list. We wrote, recommended, commented, jumped, danced, cheered, jeered and pretty much made fools of ourselves and it was all for a calm, quiet, honest, humble man who still can't believe how passionately a group of strangers feels about his candidacy.
When nominations were opened the first time, I wrote a piece lauding Larry as the perfect Netroots candidate. I posted it on the threads made available and asked folks to go comment on those threads. That time we didn't get the nod. It was OK. There was time. Larry's campaign was just starting to bubble and simmer. It was getting exciting, but hadn't reached a full rolling boil.
This is somewhat of a public service announcement for the Kissell campaign, so please forgive me. I was very excited to see national interest in the Kissell campaign on the rise after the recent $1.22 gas event. Now, that the interest is picking up we can probably expect a few more events like this.
On Friday Aug. 25th Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama will be in Charlotte to speak and support the Kissell for Congress Campaign. Congressman Davis is a rising star on the National level. He is an influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus, is Vice-Chair of the DCCC, and serves on the House banking committee. The event is free and open to the public. It will start at 6pm and be at Veterans Park, located at 2136 Central Avenue. For more information please contact Kissell for Congress at 1-877-454-7735.
A few days ago, Larry Kissell wrote a diary on DailyKos titled 
Latest reader comments