Sunday, July 09, 2006

Maxine "the Machine" Moul

by Kyle Michaelis
This year's First Distict Congressional race is shaping up to be a hard-fought contest, with Democratic challenger and former Lt. Governor Maxine Moul proving that she means business with her impressive fund-raising prowess. The Moul campaign website reports:
Former Lt. Governor Maxine Moul has closed the critical second quarter fundraising period by setting a new fundraising record for a Democrat running in the Nebraskas First Congressional District. In just under six months, Moul has raised over $520,000, a feat none before her have accomplished.

The most raised prior to this deadline by a Democrat running for this seat was around $330,000 Moul said. The most from a Democrat running for the House of Representatives in Nebraska was roughly $466,000. And both of those were in the 2004 cycle which set the old records for the state.

The Moul campaign also reports $360,000 in cash on hand. When you have more money in the bank than the 2004 candidate had even raised at this point, that's a damn good sign that the campaign is on the right track.

Still, it's important to keep a cool head about this report. While the numbers are impressive, it's clearly going to take more than remaining financially competitive to defeat Republican first-term Congressman Jeff Fortenberry. Remember that the previous Democratic fund-raising record-holder, State Sen. Nancy Thompson, ended up with only 36% of the vote in her 2004 challege against 2nd District Congressman Lee Terry - who even though he's more entrenched in office probably does not have as strong a base of support as Fortenberry's.

The stakes are too high this year and Moul is too great a candidate to allow such history to repeat itself. Since I seem to have appointed myself armchair campaign strategist this weekend, I say it's about damn time someone starts taking Fortenberry to task. For starters, what's he going to do about the $125,000 being unjustly withheld from Nebraska by the Department of Education? What's he going to do about the price of oil? Hell, what's he going to do about any of the issues affecting Nebraska voters? When is he going to stand up and do something as a member of this "do-nothing, good-for-nothing Congress"?

Seriously, I want to know, and so do the people of Nebraska's First District. Too many of them just don't realize it yet.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is totally unrelated to your post on Maxine, but there is a post up on dKos that talks about a PAC in Montana that is funding various petition efforts in certain areas. Money has been sent to Nebraska. Could be a source of the mysterious funding for the budget spending cap.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/7/10/122238/418

7/10/2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I anticipate a strong fight for this seat from both parties. Moul is the strongest candidate from the Democratic aisle in a long time. Holding elected representatives accountable for their actions and even more importantly, their votes is critical, but why you want to blame a Congressman for the price of energy products is beyond me.

7/11/2006  

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