12 Key Progressive Politicians to Watch in the 2014 Elections

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/12-real-deal-progressive-congressional-candidates-2014-watch

***SNIP

1. Rick Weiland, South Dakota

Weiland, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Ton Daschle, state AARP director, and businessman, may be the 2014 version of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA; a candidate who unflinchingly tells the truth, starting with the way big money has corrupted the political process and must be stopped. The first bill he wants to introduce is constitutional amendment to give Congress power to regulate campaign finances—not leave it with the Supreme Court. He wants to close corporate tax breaks. He wants to allow anyone to enroll in Medicare, “the most efficient healthcare provider in the country.” As he told the Nation, “Today, our democracy is being bought by big money and turned against us. To feed their profits, we lose our jobs, our homes and our farms, our kid’s education, even our health, and the Congress they have bought looks the other way, or worse.”

***SNIP

2. Shenna Bellows, Maine

Shenna Bellows’ upbringing in rural Maine was austere. She didn’t have electricity or running water at home until middle school. She studied economics and environmental sustainability and then became a civil liberties organizer, working for the ACLU in Washington and then running Maine’s ACLU chapter for eight years, where she helped create a coalition that passed same-sex marriage. If Weiland echoes old-school prairie populists, Bellows is a Yankee who knows her roots. “I’m running for the U.S. Senate because I believe we need more courage and honesty in Washington,” she told DFA. “We need fresh vision of what’s next for America. People in Maine and across America are struggling. They no longer believe that their children and grandchildren will have more opportunities than they did. They feel that Washington is not listening.”

The other Senate candidates on these groups’ lists are incumbents seeking re-election.

3. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-HI.

Schatz was appointed to Senate in 2012 following the death of longtime Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-HI. He faces a Democratic primary opponent, state Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, on August 9. The race has divided Democrats, because Inouye wanted Hanabasa to take his seat. But Gov. Neil Abacrombie appointed Schatz, who has been endorsed by President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. During Schatz’s brief Senate tenure, he sponsored legislation to expand Social Security and require wealthier people to pay more into the program to do that. That point is the centerpiece if his first campaign video, also emphasizing that his wife’s parents, recipients, live with his family at their house.

4. Sen. Mark Begich, D-AK.

Alaska Sen. Mark Begich isn’t known as being in the same camp as Vermont’s Bernie Sanders or Massachusetts’ Warren. But his race is among a half-dozen nationwide seen as determining which party will control the Senate for Obama’s final years in office. Begich has made increasing Social Security benefits and adopting a new cost-of-living adjustment formula geared to seniors a key part of his campaign, while all the Republicans running favor benefit cuts. The Washington Post called his ideas “far outside the mainstream,” but he’s not backing away. “One in nine Alaskans receives Social Security in one form or another,” Begich replied. ”This is good politics and policy. It puts fairness back into the cost of living adjustments. It says to seniors, ‘We recognize adjustments do not recognize the cost increases that you have had.’ I will talk about it a lot.”

[newfie11]

1. Rick Weiland, South Dakota

I will be voting for him. However in my state I don't think he has a chance.
Here Fox News is king and if people hear anything political it's on Fox News.
Now I'm on the far SW part of the state so don't know about elsewhere.

[think]

2. Aberdeen is usually Dem leaning. Not that that will carry the state but it could help.

Larry Presser running as an Indy also adds an element of interest to the race. Though he was a former Republican he sounds pretty upset about his former party and hasn't said who he'd caucus with if elected. Hopefully he'll be a spoiler for the Republican candidate Mike Rounds.