I'd like to continue my rant about why primaries are so important, the one I started yesterday that got buried under an avalanche of posts.
One of the best progressive senators in Washington today was once written off in a primary race, where he faced a well-known congressman and a self-financed millionaire. But he overcame those long odds, and today he's one of the staunchest voices for progressive values in the Senate, the only senator to vote against the Patriot act, a senator who commands respect from both sides of the aisle. A man of sterling integrity, he refuses to accept PAC money in his campaigns; not surprisingly, one of his first acts in Congress was to put his name on the McCain-Feingold act.
It was on that drive to LaCrosse I talked about yesterday that I first heard Russ Feingold, interviewed by Wisconsin public radio. He was then a state senator, little known outside of Madison, running for U.S. Senate against a well-financed Republican incumbent. But first he had to win the primary, and no one, but no one, expected him to win.
I'd only lived in Wisconsin two weeks, so I didn't know all this. But I did like what I heard in that interview that morning. "Who is this Russ Feingold?" I thought. "What a smart guy!" Later I learned to my dismay he didn't have a chance against his better known, better financed opponents.
But conventional wisdom turned out to be wrong.
The other two candidates beat each other up, slinging more mud than a Wisconsin spring thaw. But Russ stayed above the fray, and voters showed their disgust with politics as usual at the polls that summer. Again, the pundits were proved wrong a few months later, when voters elected Russ over the Republican incumbent.
I've been a fan of Russ Feingold ever since that drive across the rolling hills of western Wisconsin, as well as his late colleague and ideological brother, Paul Wellstone. I see similar traits in dark horse candidate Chuck Pennacchio in Pennsylvania.
I don't live in Pennsylvania, and I can't vote in the primary there. I can't even volunteer for the campaign, since I live 5000 miles away. But I'm doing what I can, here on the internets.
Learn more about Chuck Pennacchio's campaign. Listen to his radio ads, then vote for your favorite. Read what other bloggers are saying. Contribute to the campaign. Add your two cents on your own blog. If you live in Pennsylvania, sign the petition to get Chuck on the ballot. And if you live in Pennsylvania, for god's sakes vote in the primary on May 16.
Because we need more Russ Feingolds in the Senate, not more Rick Santorums.
