Sal Pace is running for the House seat in CD3 against the generally incompetent Scott Tipton:Tipton has also been dogged with a campaign violation, revelation that a "sham front group" gave him an award, an investigation and apology to a House ethics committee and accusations that he selectively informed Republicans and mining industry interests about a public meeting over a wilderness proposal in the San Juans while excluding others. Pace has had a couple of good fundraising quarters:
In the most recent fundraising quarter, Pace raised over $280,000 and a spokesman says he will report over $520,000 in cash on hand, "demonstrating his ability to compete this November." For the quarter, Pace had over 1,400 individual donors, with 90 percent of those contributions coming from in state.
"Our fundraising shows that people are fed up with the partisan politics that have gridlocked Washington..."
Does their fundraising really show that people are fed up with partisan politics? Even the campaign admits otherwise:
After Tipton voted to cut Medicare benefits "to pay for a special interest tax break for multimillionaires," contributions began pouring in to Pace's campaign, according to his spokesman. People are fed up with Republican partisanship in Washington and are horrified when Republicans implement policies which had been unspoken - except in ALEC legislation memos - prior to their election. That's what the spokesman should know and should have said.
Democrats like Pace need to understand this and take the appropriate steps to 1) make sure voters know that both sides don't act the same way towards enacting common-sense policies, 2) Republicans will not allow - under any circumstances - even the slighest tax increase on the most elite workers to help fund vital programs and pay down the nation's debt, and 3) the delays and obfuscation over what's needed to fix the economy have mostly come from Republicans.
Paul Krugman put the phony bipartisanship and "both sides do it" b.s. in perspective recently: These are people whose whole pose is one of standing between the extremes of both parties, and calling for a bipartisan solution. The problem they face is how to maintain this pose when the reality is that a quite moderate Democratic party -- one that is content to leave tax rates on the rich far below those that prevailed for most of the past 70 years, that has embraced a Republican health care plan -- faces a radical-reactionary GOP. You don't have to be a fire-breathing blogger, or a falsely accused socialist, to make the case for more fair taxation and a more progressive budget. John Salazar played the "independent" card, tried to pretend he wasn't a Democrat and got promptly kicked out of office. Sal shouldn't use the same failed tactics and shopworn desire for a phony and counter-productive bipartisanship that cost Salazar and Betsy Markey their jobs and persistently hobbles both our Democratic Senators.
The voters don't want it, Republicans won't allow it, and the urgent and necessary goals of our current policies can't survive it. The Krug-man reiterates for the hard of hearing:The truth, which is obvious from every day's news, is that there is nothing, nothing at all, that Obama could offer - other than switching parties - that would get him any GOP cooperation. |
