Progressive Dems of America Set to Raise its Voice

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/25/758/

Progressive Dems of America Set to Raise its Voice
by James P. Sweeney

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The rabble-rousers, those asking the toughest questions of the presidential candidates at this weekend’s state Democratic convention in San Diego, are likely to be wearing green stickers and black lapel pins.The stickers demand an end to the “occupation of Iraq,” and the pins urge the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. 0425 05 1 2

Emboldened by the November national election and a public embracing a rapid end to U.S. involvement in Iraq, a new faction of the Democratic Party’s liberal wing is hoping to attract attention inside and outside of the convention hall.

Salvaged from the wreckage of Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign, the Progressive Democrats of America represents a leading edge of the anti-war movement with activists such as Tom Hayden, Cindy Sheehan and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, on the board.

A small band of the group’s organizers has been rallying the faithful up and down the state as they head to a convention at which they hope to send as many as 150 delegates determined to bolster the party’s liberal flank. That would likely amount to less than 10 percent of the delegates but officials with the organization predict there will be hundreds of other like-minded delegates.

Tim Carpenter, a former Orange County resident serving as national director for the Progressive Democrats, said the budding organization represents “the insurgency within our party.”

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