Serious question. I know nothing about the woman or the Iowa district where she’s campaigning, but she is running against Steve King. Per Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly:
… King’s always been like this, but he’s picked a bad year to exhibit his fully resplendent wingnuttery. He’s facing by far his toughest general election challenge, in a new (if pretty strongly Republican-leaning) district, and against former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack, whose husband happens to be Secretary of Agriculture.
Vilsack, who’s probably as well-known in the district as King, and enjoys considerable personal popularity, has managed to achieve fundraising parity, despite King’s solid identity as a national Tea Party and Christian Right hero. The Cook Political Report rates the race as “Lean R,” and Iowa is not looking nearly as pro-Democratic as it was in 2008. Still, if anyone is capable of keeping this contest competitive, it’s King, who just can’t keep his more outlandish thoughts to himself.
That would be this Rep. Steve King (h/t Wonkette):
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When not fantasizing about sexual predation, Steve King also works tirelessly to gut animal welfare and food safety legislation, opines that America “worked better” when only white male propertyholders were allowed to vote, and believes that recognizing the role of slave labor in building the Capital — “yet another bill to erect another monument to slavery” — dishonors “America’s Judeo-Christian heritage.”
It would be hard to imagine a scenario where getting this guy out of Washington would not improve things, but I’m open to argument.
Snetzky
Being from Iowa, I can say without any hesitation that King is a bigoted asshole, who is a blight on the reputation of Iowans.
His old district was the left end of Iowa, which included Sioux City (there’s a reason most people call it Sewer City) and some very conservative counties. His new district is slightly more reasonable, since it includes Ames (Iowa State University) and less of the mouthbreathers, but from what I’m hearing it’s going to be a tough race.
numfar
I imagine if he loses, he’ll morph into a lobbyist and still be in Washington causing trouble.
Joseph Nobles
OT: New Doctor Who Season 7 trailer!
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R7YGoVyRSik
RevDave
as another resident of Iowa (Cedar Rapids), I will second what Snetzky says – King has much more of a challenge this year in his new district. Vilsack would be a massive upgrade, while not exactly deep in left field, Vilsack will bring much relief to Iowans and the country by beating King – she will need every penny as the Luddites will plow as much money into King as possible.
Joseph Nobles
On topic: if Vilsack would turn out to be a Blue Dog, I think a clearer example of why we need even Blue Dogs could not be made. Bring her on!
Joseph Nobles
Also, Paul Sadler here in Texas who’s running for Senate against Ted Cruz, the darling of Rand Paul and Joe Demint. With Obama’s coattails and Cruz’s bugstained craziness, Sadler has a better than average chance. Let’s get a ActBlue up for him too.
JPL
My donations tend to be small to individual candidates and the amount of snail mail I receive appears to negate that donation. Is there a way to note this is a one time donation?
geg6
@Joseph Nobles:
I feel the same way about Mark Critz. He’s a Blue Dog, but that’s better than Tom Smith, the asshole who’s running against him. Better a Blue Dog than a Teabagger
greennotGreen
I’m constantly reminded of something Kos says: More and better Democrats. If we can first have a goal of a solid blue map, then we can have a goal of a more sky-blue and less purplish map. Imagine if our entire political system were purged of the bat-shit crazies like King, and the Democratic party split into progressive and conservatives wings, then our country might actually be able to evolve into a “more perfect union.”
muddy
@Joseph Nobles:
But but, the liberal NYT said this morning that he had “intellectual heft”!
Grange95
As another long-time Iowan, let me just say that King has been a bigoted buffoon and an embarrassment to the state forever. King was Michelle Bachman before Bachman. I’d even vote for another Republican if it got rid of King.
RaflW
@JPL:
I’ve wondered about that too. I’ve given thru some of those ‘split it evenly’ ActBlue pages, so that each candidate gets like 10 bucks…and then I get what probably costs may more than that in mail over the next year.
Still, I think I’ll probably give to Vilsack since I live in Minnesota and I can feel the Steve King crazy from here.
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Well, we have crazy central about 30 miles north of my place, but La Bachmann is an epicenter all her own.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@RevDave: Thirded, from another CR resident and part-time CD 4 resident. I seriously pondered spending a few more months at our W. IA farmhouse this year, just so I could register to vote against King Crazy.
The Fat Kate Middleton
Forgot to mention – our local paper this morning reports that the Iowa GOP is going after one of the remaining state Supreme Court Justices who decided in favor of gay marriage. One political analyst says it’s “absolutely an attempt to rally the base that might otherwise not be enthusiastic about going to the polls for … Mitt Romney.” Link: thegazette.com/2012/08/01/iowa-republican-leaders-pushing-to-remove-supreme-court-justice/
liberal
The real question isn’t whether Vilsack would be enough of an improvement over Steve King—Attila the Hun would be enough of an improvement.
The question, rather, is whether she stands a reasonable chance of winning the race, or whether the dollars would be better off sent to other races elsewhere.
I grew up in Ames and my parents still vote there, but as I said on another thread about this, they say Vilsack is a very weak candidate.
I don’t know anything about her, but has she ever actually held elective office?
The one argument in favor of giving money to longshots that intrigues me is the possibility of forcing the opposition to keep dumping money into the race, just to stay on top. Short of that questionable rationale, though, you’d think the simple, naive, but perhaps right thing to do is funnel cash to close races.
liberal
@muddy:
Yeah, yeah, just like Paul Ryan. Or “the historian” (Newt). Or George Will (hey, he’s articulate and wears a bowtie!)
And this past weekend IIRC the Wash Post had some article on some Rethug federal House rep who’s done some serious work on how to make the tax code cleaner (like in 1986). Yeah, sure.
piratedan
@muddy: umm, that was a typo, they meant to say “theft”… correction, left side page 16…. :-)
muddy
@piratedan: lol!
Riilism
@liberal: Doubtful that there are good polls on this race (anybody know?), but it’d be nice to know if she’s within striking distance or if it’s a blowout. Course, the more money she has, the tighter she can make the race and the more resources the Repub’s have to commit.
Latest poll I find is from January,
Certainly makes King look like a weak incumbent….
Riilism
FYI, I was born and raised in Sioux City (been outa there since ’85, tank Gawd) and would love to see King go down…
Citizen_X
@muddy:
So does Ted Kaczynski.
liberal
@Riilism:
I wouldn’t be surprised if King were a weak incumbant; at least, not a strong incumbant.
But you don’t toss out a weak incumbant by fielding a weak challenger.
A few years ago, my dad made some comments on the race involving one of the IA fascists (Lightfoot, or maybe King). The challenger was a really smart guy, great on the issues. But also a total pussy who would in no way go for the jugular, according to Dad.
liberal
@Citizen_X:
When I was in academe, a colleague of mine worked on nearly exactly the same kind of math TK had.
Citizen_X
@liberal: Oh yeah. By all accounts, Kaczynski is brilliant. Or was at one time.
@Joseph Nobles: So how’s Sadler doing so far? I’d sure love to have some Dem representation in the Senate.
Riilism
@liberal: Not disagreeing with you, just wondering what the race looks like right now as opposed to January….
liberal
@Riilism:
Yeah, good point. I did some googling but haven’t found much and gotta get back to work (lol).
Sounds like there’s a fair bit more registered Rs than Ds.
Also something was said about King challenging Vilsack to a debate, and about how he never usually does that. That could cut many ways.