After every election cycle, there's usually one race where I think, damn, if we'd only focused more attention, we could have defeated a bad Republican. I got early training in that back in 1990 when State Rep. Patrick McGowan came within 5,000 votes of defeating then-Congresswoman Olympia Snowe. Imagine how different the world would be if she ended her political career back then.
One race that seems to be on that potential list is in North Carolina's Fifth Congressional District. The incumbent is renowned homophobe Virginia Foxx. This week, her opponent, Billy Kennedy got endorsed by the major paper in the district, the Winston-Salem Journal:
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.Three of my favorite people, Pam Spaulding, Digby, Howie Klein are big fans of Billy. That says a lot to me.
Digby has an excellent post titled, This One Could Surprise People:
Aside from the important work of spreading the good word and building movement politics for the long term, sometimes, unexpected things 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. In fact, 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:And, Pam hosted Billy in a live chat last month, which we also posted at AMERICAblog Gay.
In this week that we mark the twelfth anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death, let's remember what Foxx said of him:
I also would like to point out that there was a bill -- the hate crimes bill that's called the Matthew Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay. this -- the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.A hoax:
Blue America is raising money for Kennedy and running their own ad in the District. Their ActBlue page is here. We know November 2nd could be a tough night. But, defeating Foxx would be a nice silver lining. Every little bit helps.
And, finally, a snippet of the Foxx-Kennedy debate last night:
No contest.
