Readers not on the campaign mailing lists: there are two ways you can win a free trip to the convention, accommodations included.

From the Obama campaign:

If you make a donation in any amount before midnight on July 31st, you could be selected to travel to Denver for the final two days of the convention -- including the huge event at the open-air stadium on the final night.

Ten supporters will be selected from all over the country, and each will be able to bring one guest. We'll provide airfare, accommodations, and two days of convention activities -- including a private meeting with Barack before his historic speech....

https://donate.barackobama.com/...

It's well known around these parts that the past few years have seen me change form a frequent critic of the DCCC to one of its biggest supporters. Chris Van Hollen has proven himself to be an aggressive chairman and he is not satisfied to sit back and defend the majority we already have and is working to expand it. They have raised a lot of money and recuited strong candidates all over the country, even ib some of the more Republican parts of South Florida. The only problem is that Red-to-Blue Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz continues to undercut challengers to three right wing Republicans, epsecially Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Via the Associated Press, the DCCC has reserved $35 million worth of ad time in 31 districts nationwide.

The list of districts (minus two) is below. Most of these races are top-tier, so there are few surprises here. There's certain to be more action, in several other districts, as the campaign rolls on. So if your favorite race is not on this list, don't cry, and don't sweat; it doesn't mean the national party is ignoring it.

In fact, there are no guarantees that all these districts will actually see DCCC ad buys. The DCCC is reserving September and October air time in advance, so as to get discounts on ad time. They may not end up using it.

So without further ado, here is the list, compiled by Swing State Project:

Republican-Held Seats
AK-AL Young
AZ-01 Renzi (open)
CO-04 Musgrave
CT-04 Shays
FL-24 Feeney
MI-07 Walberg
MI-09 Knollenberg
MN-03 Ramstad (open)
MO-09 Hulshof (open)
NC-08 Hayes
NM-01 Wilson (open)
NM-02 Pearce (open)
NV-03 Porter
OH-01 Chabot
OH-15 Pryce (open)
OH-16 Regula (open)
VA-11 Davis (open)

Democratic-Held Seats
AZ-05 Mitchell
FL-16 Mahoney
IN-09 Hill
KS-02 Boyda
KY-03 Yarmuth
LA-06 Cazayoux
NH-01 Shea-Porter
OR-05 Hooley (open)
PA-04 Altmire
TX-22 Lampson
TX-23 Rodriguez
WI-08 Kagen

Per the Associated Press, open-seat races in New Jersey and New York are also targeted.

Again, none of these names are especially shocking; MO-09 is a bit of a (pleasant) surprise, but not a big one. The absence of a couple of high-profile races, like MO-06 (Graves, Republican) or PA-10 (Carney, Democratic), is somewhat notable, but again, just because a particular race isn't on this list doesn't mean there won't be a lot of DCCC action there.

So this would appear to be the starting point for the massive attack planned for the fall elections.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has produced a radio ad for broadcast in 13 Republican held House districts. In the Philadelphia district served by Jim Gerlach KYW-AM is refusing to air this ad:

Brought to you by...
News Corpse
The Internet's Chronicle Of Media Decay.

Yesterday, June 30th, 2008, was a fantastic day for the Jon Powers For Congress camp.  Here is a look at what happened:

It appears as though OH-7 Republican Steve Austria didn't get the memo as today he is having NRCC Chairman, Tom Cole come in to campaign with him.  Someone may want to clue Steve in that Cole hasn't really been bringing the magic to his candidates.

Sharen Neuhardt's campaign took this as an opportunity to point out that today is the kick-off of Austria's "Failed Policies, Failed Politics" campaign.

Here is a quip from Neuhardt campaign manager, Jim Alexee:

As we prepare to celebrate our freedom, this upcoming July 4th, our thoughts are also with the soldiers and their families who are unable to be together and enjoy the day too.
Even though the Iraq War does not enter most people’s minds, on a daily basis, you should think about the many ways it does affect your life.

Inspiring words from the NRCC:

Speaking privately, numerous Republicans have long conceded they are well on their way to additional, possibly significant losses in November, given President Bush's low approval ratings, opposition to the war in Iraq and polls that show a large majority of Americans wanting change.

Karen Hanretty, communications director for the NRCC, reacted to the private report by acknowledging the difficulties confronting her party.

"This is a challenging environment," she said. "Any Republican running for office has to run basically on an independent platform, localize the race and not take anything for granted. There are no safe Republican seats in this election."

I wonder how their prospective donors feel about this wave of optimism for the November elections.

I wonder how their candidates feel, being told that they have to run away from the national party in order to have a shot at winning.

Meanwhile, the boys in blue are flying high:

The DCCC has reserved $2.1 million for advertising for a seat in New York City in which Republican Rep. Vito Fossella intends to retire. Fossella, who is married with children, recently acknowledged fathering a child out of wedlock.

Democrats also said they will spend $1.2 million in the Portland, Ore., area, hoping to hold the seat of Democratic Rep. Darlene Hooley, who is retiring.

The third target is the seat held by Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado, where Democrats said they had reserved nearly $700,000 in advertising time.

The GOP doesn't even have a candidate in NY-13. Anyone they might ask to run, at this point, not only has to face a top-shelf Democratic recruit in Mike McMahon, but a $2.1 million Democratic ad buy.

Good luck with that.

Stealing these from Singer, in millions:

Yowza! The RNC (and Bush) can sure raise money. If this was 2006, Republicans would be looking at near parity, given their ability to continue raking in those $28,500 contributions to the national parties (times two, including spouses). And if this was 2006, that RNC money could be used to bail out the weak-performing NRCC and NRSC and their crucial portfolio of congressional races.

But alas, this is not 2006, and the RNC's money advantage will need to be used to bail out McCain.

McCain got some heavy duty fundraising assistance from Bush, who of course skulked around in the darkness lest his stench further damage his party's nominee. McCain was also helped by lower spending, as Obama was still fighting hard in May to wrap up the nomination while McCain was fighting to put together his "green screen" speech at that half-empty senior center outside of New Orleans. Guess which one was the lower-budget production?

But the reality is that if you add up the money which will be earmarked for the presidential race -- the presidential candidates and their national party committee, we get this:

Things may look splendid at the congressional level, but we have a huge gap to make up to ensure Obama and the DNC are financially competitive this fall.

In other words, no complacency.

Give to Obama (and our endorsed candidates) at the Orange to Blue ActBlue fundraising page.

This morning the Dayton Daily News posted a column about how many seats Republicans could lose in Ohio this year.

There are a number of candidates that the insiders are watching, but Dave Wasserman of The Cook Political Report is already recognizing a "sleeper."

David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, however, calls the third open seat in Ohio — the 7th Congressional District, currently occupied by Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield, a possible "sleeper."

He wonders if apathy toward state Sen. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, combined with national Democrats' fundraising advantage, could help political novice Sharen Neuhardt of Yellow Springs.

"I think there's every chance that Democrats are polling the district to see if they may have a shot," he said, adding that part of the district includes Franklin County, a county where Democrats are expected to do "very well" this year.

John Mica needs to get with the future or get out.

Promoting oil industry interests at the public’s expense, is nothing new to John Mica.  And it's all in the family too, with his brother David Mica being a spokesman for the Florida Petroleum Council and his daughter, D'Anne being an industry lobbyist.

Not only does Mica continue to promote the oil industry agenda under false pretenses, he also completely misses the boat on viable strategies for reducing the impact of high oil prices on our economy.

Voter suppression is real. It takes more money to turnout Democratic voters than it does for the Republicans to turn out theirs. (Ours are more likely to not vote because of voter suppression. Ours are more likely to need rides to the polls. Etc.)

Compared to the reach of insidious chain emails and the MSM, the reach of the progressive blogosphere, while growing, is small. To expand the reach of the progressive community, you need to communicate with friends, family and your community, particularly in swing states. Remember that not everyone has the internet, and amongst those who do, many do not use the internet like you do. Many use it only for email and news.  I attended an event recently where Peter Daou spoke, and he talked about some of Clinton’s donors who used a credit card online for the first time when they donated to her. Neither of my parents have ever read a political blog. They use it for some news, email and keeping tabs on their stocks.  

Quite frankly, Obama and progressives everywhere need to expand the reach of our message and donor base beyond the folks who use the internet the way you use it.

In keeping with its strategy of delicacy, of never clearly stating its philosophy, of burying its motives in the cat box of history, the Democratic Party has concocted a pile of acronyms designed to befuddle even the most dedicated among you.  They form groups with different purposes but confound their existence.  They blend "D's", and "C's", and even the occasional "S" or "N", in a salad bowl, dressed with piety, tossed with abandon, and designed to serve as a shorthand that conceals both the intent, and the function, of organizations whose sole reason for beings is to raise money to further their goals.  I refer, of course, to the DNC, DCCC, and the DSCC.

This would not be of serious concern if these groups shared goals.  The problem arises when the careful and attentive reader can not discriminate between these groups, and subsequently assigns the vices of one to them all.

I have already posted about the NY 13th Congressional Race and how the DCCC is endorsing in a primary and someone who is pro-Iraq war but now they are spreading rumors about the candidate who is not their annointed one.

There was an interesting paragraph in a well-worth reading TNR profile about Obama that came out a couple of weeks ago:

"But there may be some fragility to the public fervor that has occasionally envelops him. Crowds and cults can be fickle, and if some of his decisions disappoint, or turn out badly, his support will diminish. Some people think it might even collapse."

I have heard that same concern anecdotally, both here and elsewhere, and not just from an ideological standpoint, but pragmatically:  experienced campaign volunteers noting that it seems harder to get commitments from some of these newcomers now that it's time for the really hard work to begin.   While it is minorly worrisome, I have largely dismissed it.  For too many reasons to list here, this time is different.  

But the hand-wringing and finger-pointing over Obama's failure to have prevented the House vote on the FISA issue with one Messiah-like wave of his hand is extremely distressing to me.

And I wonder if we are going to have a problem with fickle supporters- just not the one we had anticipated.

You wanna fund the war and give up your principles on FISA.  Well, we've told you plenty of times.  What's it mean?  No cash from me, and probably a lot of other people.

The most recent additions to the DCCC's Red to Blue List:

Ethan Berkowitz (AK-AL)
Paul Carmouche (LA-04)
Gerry Connolly (VA-11)
Joe Garcia (FL-25)
Martin Heinrich (NM-01)
Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01)
Frank Kratovil (MD-01)
Bob Lord (AZ-03)
Betsy Markey (CO-04)
Raul Martinez (FL-21)
Mike McMahon (NY-13)
Glenn Nye (VA-02)
Harry Teague (NM-02)
Dina Titus (NV-03)

Most of these are top-tier races, or very strong second-tier races, and none are especially surprising except perhaps for MD-01 (where there's a real opening for Democrat Frank Kratovil, but still, its PVI is just under R+10).

They have also listed 20 "emerging races", perhaps a preview of future instalments of the Red to Blue list.

Sam Bennett (PA-15)
David Boswell (KY-02)
Colleen Callahan (IL-18)
Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03)
Jill Derby (NV-02)
John Dicks (FL-09)
Judy Feder (VA-10)
Nick Leibham (CA-50)
Dan Johnson (NC-10)
Mike Montagano (IN-03)
Jill Morgenthaler (IL-06)
Tom Perriello (VA-05)
Bob Roggio (PA-06)
Steve Sarvi (MN-02)
Dennis Shulman (NJ-05)
Josh Segall (AL-03)
Michael Skelly (TX-07)
Annette Taddeo (FL-18)
El Tinklenberg (MN-06)
Vic Wulsin (OH-02)

This list is a mix of surprisingly strong candidates running in exceptionally difficult districts, and of slightly less high-profile candidates running in favorable, winnable districts. It's a solid list as well, and I'd look for at least a few of these candidates to move up.

Race tracker wiki: AK-AL LA-04 VA-11 FL-25 NM-01 AZ-01 MD-01 AZ-03 CO-04 FL-21 NY-13 VA-02 NM-02 NV-03

There have been a number of diaries by kimw, and most recently by dengre making the case why Florida Congressman John Mica must go. I will often be adding to the many reasons we need John Mica out of power.

This diary isn't about that, or even about all the reasons I decided to run for US Congress myself.

Instead, I want to share with my supporters, and anyone else reading this diary, one issue that's really got me fired up right now. An issue that's been a cornerstone of my campaign all along, and an issue that's about to get some major national attention today: Single-Payer National Health Insurance, also referred to as an improved and expanded Medicare for All health care system.

See how my authenticity in supporting Single-payer National Health Insurance ( HR 676) was clear, long before I decided to run for US Congress.