Who is that handsome devil in the newspaper? It’s Minnesota’s own Ash Madia in a USA Today writeup of Iraq war vets running for congress. Ash gets his own bullet point as a targeted house race featuring a vet
•Minneapolis suburbs: Democrat Ashwin Madia, a Marine, will take on GOP state Rep. Erik Paulsen, a former aide to retiring Rep. Jim Ramstad. Madia, a lawyer, worked with Iraqi officials to develop the country’s justice system.
Ash maybe the most dynamic candidate in the state right now, he’s been raising crazy bank and preparing for what looks to be a bruising campaign against Erik Paulsen.
Sadly Steve Sarvi isn’t mentioned anywhere in the writeup — it’s alright though as he the subject of a glowing write up from Paul Demko at MNMonitor.
Sarvi argues that Kline’s bedrock conservative ideology is out of synch with the district. A National Journal analysis of voting records earlier this year determined that he was the 20th most conservative member of the House of Representatives, the highest such ranking for a member of Minnesota’s Congressional delegation. “He’s really gone to Washington to support the agenda of the Bush administration,” Sarvi says. “His voting record supports that.”…
It’s also widely believed that DFL’ers have failed to mount credible, well-run campaigns against Kline in the last four years… In 2006 Democrats believed they had the ideal candidate in former FBI agent and Time Person of the Year Coleen Rowley. But she flummoxed political observers by failing to raise sufficient cash to seriously threaten the incumbent. “Rowley deliberately ran a sort of unusual campaign — and not the sort of campaign that usually wins elections,” says Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College, which is in the district.
Colleen Rowley spent several hours a week holding a sign protesting the Iraq war on an overpass. True story. This is not the kind of campaign that wins elections. But what we’re hearing is that Steve Sarvi has been running the kind of campaign that does win elections and that his call time is going very well — here’s hoping for a good quarter (a quarter that you could make better by donating a little bit of money to him).
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I was at the house party the MNMonitor mentions, my first time meeting Steve. He is one of the most genuine politicians I’ve ever met. I’ve never asked a politician about his stance on an issue only to have them turn the question back to me; Steve is truly interested in his future-constituents’ opinions on matters. This was replicated many times during the Q and A that happened later. It isn’t that he doesn’t have his own views on the issues, he certainly does and always shares his opinion, he simply wants to get a feel for how the people he will represent feel, which is something that has been severely lacking in John Kline’s representation of CD2.
Coleen Rwoley still spends time on a bridge, holding a sign, voicing her opposition to The War Of Choice.
Coleen Rowley walsk the walk.
That said, the work her campaign did, exposing Kline’s shoddy treatment of veterans (remember the bookmarks?), etc etc etc sotened Kline up.
Kline is as vulnerable as an incumbent GOPer could be.
Here’s a recent article by Coleen, about that vulnerability: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/05/exposing-john-kline-and-devious-tactics.html
Sarvi’s campaign staff is his problem. His old campaign manager Eileen W. is abrasive and dismissive, toward both potential funders and volunteers. That doesn’t leave you with a very strong or consistent foundation.
It took Colin Peterson three times to get there and Kline a couple. It may take Sarvi another go round if he doesn’t ramp it up this summer.
Walz did not garner attention until August of the election year although he’d been on the trail for 15 months.
So there is still hope.
“At least 10 Democratic and 20 Republican Iraq veterans are running for the House, and none for the Senate.
Key races include several open seats:”
The USA Today article highlights the open seats where veterans are running.
Steve Sarvi is running against an incumbent Republican.
All those donations to the Sarvi Campaign will help inform the voters of the Second District that Steve Sarvi will be a Representative of the People of MN2.
The media has been doing a good job of highlighting MN2 incumbent’s negatives, so the campaign needs to spread their positive message so people will see the contrast in their electoral choices.