Billy Kennedy: This One Could Surprise Us

Posted by BlueAmerica on October 13, 2010

Dear Friend,
The most appealing things about the Dean tenure's 50 state strategy was the idea that you never know what might happen in any campaign so it was best to be prepared and at least nominally support candidates everywhere just in case the brilliant electoral prognosticators in DC might not always know ahead of time who is and isn't "unelectable." (I can't help but think that if these people were so damned good at picking winners, we wouldn't find ourselves on the brink of electoral disaster quite as often as we do.) So, it's been left to the progressive netroots and grassroots to try to give some of these candidates a little support to make up for the fact that the party refuses to even spend a penny to help them out.

Aside from the important work of spreading the good word and building movement politics for the long term, sometimes unexpected things do happen. For instance, Blue America candidate Billy Kennedy, who is challenging the intellectually challenged Virginia Foxx in NC-05, may just pull this thing out despite the fact that the DCCC has behaved as if the loony Republican is impossible to beat. The major newspaper of the district, the Winston-Salem Journal, which normally endorses Republicans, came out for Kennedy this past week-end and made a very good case for his election:

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Watauga County, has not achieved any great accomplishments for the residents of the 5th Congressional District, and has angered and embarrassed many with her sometimes wild statements that seem designed to provoke. It’s time for a fresh, progressive voice in the 5th District. We believe that Democrat Billy Kennedy, a Watauga farmer and carpenter who says he’ll work to reverse the high rate of unemployment in the district, is that voice. He’s the best candidate in the Nov. 2 election for the 5th District.

Blue America has raised money this year to run some ads against Foxx and they've upset the poor delicate hate merchant so much she sent out a letter to her constituents to beg them for help: Several liberal organizations have coordinated with our opponent’s campaign to run some personal attack ads against Congresswoman Foxx. You may have seen these disgusting ads. Instead of condemning these ugly attacks, our opponent’s campaign praised them and said that Foxx supporters don’t have a brain or a heart. These types of attacks really cross the line.

That's right, the woman who said on the floor of the House (in the presence of his mother) that the Matthew Shepard hate crime was a hoax is complaining that our ads "cross the line." 

Want to help us run some more?

So far our ad has only run in the suburbs of Winston-Salem. Help us raise the money we need to run it across the district between now and election day. Think of how sweet it would be on November 3 to wake up without Virginia Foxx's brand of rancid hate mongering in Washington. And the DCCC will not lift a finger to help. Will you?

It could happen.

Thanks again for doing what you can,
Digby, John, Howie and the Blue America team