EJ Dionne: Judy Feder is a "resolutely grounded mainstream thinker"

Somehow I missed this one by EJ Dionne, but it's a good one (albeit a bit late...wish he had written it a few weeks ago!):

In the case of Judy Feder, the other side is pushing the notion that she is some over-the-top liberal -- which doesn't square at all with how practical and careful she is in thinking through programs and policies. When I became a professor at Georgetown, I chose to make the policy school my home because of my admiration for Judy, who was then the dean. I got to know her over the years as one of Washington’s smartest people on health care policy and as someone who really understands how policy and politics come together.

She’s incredibly intelligent, which I suspect voters who have run into her know. But more than that: she cares about what works and about evidence. That’s why the idea contained in one of her opponent’s commercials that her views are “far out” and “extreme” is just wrong. She is a resolutely grounded mainstream thinker. She’s also an infectiously enthusiastic and genuinely warm person, who takes ideas seriously enough that she relates well to conservatives and moderates no less than to her fellow progressives. I’d love to see what she’s do in Congress with all her skills.

"2 Hours for Change"

From the Feder campaign, with just 20 hours until polls open!

You still have time to make a difference!

This past weekend, the Feder for Congress campaign knocked almost 40,000 doors in VA-10. That doesn’t include tens of thousands of additional knocks and phone calls made by the Obama and Warner campaigns in our district!

We’ve got an incredible ground game but we still have slots that need to be filled for Election Day.

Can you give up 2 hours of your time to change the direction of our country?

This is it. It all comes down to the next 33 hours.

Sign up to volunteer on Election Day today!

Thank you again for your support,

Luke McFarland
Campaign Manager

Reminder: Pre-Election Rally and Fundraiser today!

From the Feder campaign, with under 72 hours until polls open!

Please Join us for a Pre-Election Rally and Fundraiser in honor of
Judy Feder
To help fund our GOTV effort for November 4

From 4pm to 6pm

TODAY! Saturday November 1, 2008
At the Home of
Kristin Cabral and Joe Beaulieu
1869 Rhode Island Avenue
McLean VA 22101

Contribution Amounts:
$1000 Host
$500 Sponsor
$250 Friend
$100 Guest
$50 Individual

Only a few days left! Make a difference today by making your contribution online at www.judyfeder.com!

RSVP to Julia at 703-388-2813 or Julia@judyfeder.com

Judy Feder for Congress
6818 Tennyson Dr. McLean, VA 22101
www.JudyFeder.com

4 Days to Go

From the Feder campaign:

As Election Day nears, I am incredibly thankful for the overwhelming support I have received from you all since I have started running.

I cannot imagine where I would be without supporters like you, and I am asking you to stick with me for just a few more days.

We have put together an impressive Get Out The Vote operation for our final days and we need your help to make sure we can fund it.

Victory is within our reach! But we need to reach out to thousands of voters across the district to make sure that they know to vote for the Obama-Warner-Feder ticket on Election Day.

Help us reach our GOTV goal by making a contribution by Monday at 10 am!

We have just 4 days left and the race is closer than ever. Virginia is the battleground state for the Presidential race. The change this country needs will depend on what happens in Virginia and the 10th District on November 4th.

On Monday, Barack Obama will end his Presidential campaign in Virginia-10. He will appear in Manassas Park, just hours before the polls open, because he knows that the 10th district and the nation are hungry for change and that the Obama-Warner-Feder ticket will bring that change to Washington.

Your contribution today will make sure that on November 4th we finally get the change we so desperately need.

Thank you again for all you have done,

Judy Feder

P.S. Contribute today we need to make your help before Monday at 10am!

Obama To Hold Final Rally in 10th CD; Will it Boost Judy to Victory?

Barack Obama kicked off his general election campaign in Virginia's 10th CD (Bristow) on June 5, and will conclude his campaign in Virginia's 10th CD (Manassas Park) this Monday evening (November 3). Hey, do you think Barack Obama really REALLY wants to win Virginia's 10th CD (along with the rest of the Commonwealth) or what? :)

Barack Obama to Hold Change We Need Rally in Manassas Park Area Monday

Final pre-election campaign rally slated for Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. – In his final campaign appearance before Tuesday’s election, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama will hold a Change We Need rally in the Manassas Park area Monday night. It will be Obama’s 11th trip to the commonwealth since the end of the primary campaign. He began the general election campaign season with Virginia stops in Bristol and Manassas.

At the rally, Obama will lay out his plans to jump start the economy, provide affordable health care to Virginians and tax relief for middle class families and contrast his vision for America with John McCain’s plans for four more years of the same failed policies of the last eight.

More details about the event will be announced in the coming days.

Among other things, what this final rally by Barack Obama in the 10th CD indicates is that the Obama campaign is looking to win the district big time on Tuesday. Given that both Tim Kaine and Jim Webb won the 10th, the question is mostly how big is "big time." Another question is whether a big Obama victory in the 10th CD will provide enough "coattails" to boost Judy Feder to victory over Frank Wolf.

As the Falls Church News-Press' Penny Gross wrote the other day, Judy Feder "can win this year with her expertise on health care policy, an issue that Congress must deal with in the coming term." Combine that with changing 10th CD demographics in favor of the "blue" team, huge voter turnout this year, victories by Barack Obama and Mark Warner at the top of the ticket, concerns about the economy and the Iraq War, a strong campaign by Judy Feder, and Frank Wolf's increasingly...uh, erratic behavior, and you have the formula for Democratic victory on November 4. We'll see what happens, but anyone who thinks this one will be a "yawner" could be in for a big surprise.

Help GOTV for Judy!

From the Feder campaign:

The Washington Post got it right this morning when they said that, “Judy Feder’s credentials as a nationally recognized health care expert have never been so in demand.”

We all know that our broken health care system needs to be fixed, but it’s not just on health care that we need real change.

Frank Wolf has been in office for 28 years and though he may not be George Bush, he’s voted with Bush on the economy and Iraq 92% of the time.

Judy will work with Barack Obama to get our economy back on track, fix our broken health care system, and end the war in Iraq.

Thanks to your support we’ve had an incredible couple of days

We’ve bolstered our network TV buy – matching a 28 year incumbent dollar for dollar.

We’ve funded an outreach program to the 42,000 new voters in the 10th District.

Now we need to put the final piece in place.

Working with the Obama and Warner campaigns we’ve put together a fantastic Get Out the Vote operation. But we need to raise an additional $21,812 to pay it.

Contribute today to help us Get Out the Vote!

Thanks,
Luke McFarland
Campaign Manager

"New Voter Concerns May Aid [Judy Feder]"

The Washington Post editorial board may be a bunch of blithering idiots and total shills for Frank Wolf, but many of the reporters are excellent. Take this article, for instance, in today's Washington Post "Loudoun Extra," by Sandhya Somashekhar.

Much has changed since 2006, when Democrat Judy M. Feder made her first, unsuccessful attempt at unseating GOP Rep. Frank R. Wolf in Virginia's diverse and sprawling 10th Congressional District.

The economy has displaced the Iraq war as the nation's most pressing issue. Feder will share the ballot with Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former governor Mark R. Warner, two popular candidates likely to drive high Democratic turnout at the polls. And as the cost of medical insurance continues to rise, Feder's credentials as a nationally recognized health-care expert have never been so in demand.

Exactly, much has changed in the 10th district, in Virginia, and in the country since Frank Wolf ambled into Washington nearly 3 decades (!) ago. For instance, the population of Loudoun County ALONE has increased from 57,427 in 1980 to about 280,000 today. That's a nearly 5-fold increase since Frank Wolf was first elected, and most of those new voters are Democrats, as evidenced by both Tim Kaine and Jim Webb carrying the 10th CD in 2005 and 2006, respectively. This year, of course, we're going to see an enormous surge of Obama/Warner voters. The question is, will that be enough - combined with the continuing demographic changes and a much stronger campaign by Judy Feder this year than in 2006 - to push her to victory next Tuesday? We'll find out soon enough.

Meanwhile, as far as the "Loudoun Extra" articles is concerned, it clearly demonstrates that Feder represents a perfectly reasonable alternative to Frank Wolf. It also points out how loooonnnngggg Wolf's been in office, and how Wolf favors the McCain health care plan, which just the other day McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin admitted would provide inferior health care to what they're currently receiving from their employers. It would be hilarious if it weren't so serious. Maybe Frank Wolf can send his staffers out to give Holtz-Eakin a good "caning" or something? Ha

$3.987 to Go

From the Feder campaign, please help if you can! Thanks.

Yesterday we told you about the 42,000 new voters in our district and asked you to help us reach out to them. Thanks to the quick response from many of you, we have raised $20,860 of our $24,847 goal. I have to wire the money to our phone firm by the end of the day, so it is important we raise the last $3,987 before then!

Reaching out to these voters is incredibly important during these last days of the campaign. These new voters registered because they know they can bring change to the 10th district and our country in only 6 days!

Can you help us reach our goal of $24,847 to contact 42,000 newly registered voters?

First time voters can make the difference in this election. Many are new to the 10th District while others are simply fed up with the way Washington has been run for the last 8 years. They want change, but we have to make sure they know to vote Obama-Warner-Feder on November 4th.

Your contribution today will help us get to our $24,847 goal before the end of the day.

Your support has driven this campaign. In less than one week, the voters in the 10th district are going to vote for change in Washington and send Judy Feder to Congress!

Thanks,

Luke McFarland
Campaign Manager
Feder for Congress

When Congressman Wolf's Goons Attack: Part 2

Gary Lofton is a member of the Frederick County Board of Supervisors. Lofton is a Republican, elected in January 2008, who represents the Back Creek area. Here is what Lofton had to say about the incident the other day, in which he pinned a Judy Feder campaign staffer against the wall of a hotel.

Lofton, a member of the Frederick County Board of Supervisors, denies he pinned Goodman against the wall.

"I was merely trying to engage him in a dialogue that might disengage him from his disrespectful behavior, as well as try to determine if I could help him get an answer to his questions," Lofton said, adding that he offered to buy the young men lunch or coffee to try and talk to them in a calmer setting.

Now remember, Gary Lofton - the guy who is totally in the Feder staffer's (Matt Kent's) face, yelling and badgering him in a threatening manner - is a sitting, elected official on the Frederick County Board of Supervisors. Can you imagine if a Democratic elected county official, let's just say Gerry Connolly for the heck of it, did this to one of...oh, Keith Fimian's staffers? That's right, the Republicans would be going apes***, blaring this to kingdom come.

In sum, the Feder staffers, Matt Kent and Josh Goodman, were simply trying to get answers from Congressman Wolf following a debate, in a public location. Meanwhile, one Wolf staffer - Ben Dutton - assaulted Matt Kent with a cane, while a close Wolf ally - Frederick County Board of Supervisors member Gary Lofton - held Josh Goodman against the wall and also got in Matt Kent's in an extremely aggressive manner, as you can see in the video above. For more, please see the full video (at the bottom of this post), presented simply so that everyone can see that the Feder campaign isn't trying to hide anything here, that all this was sequential, and to give the complete picture of what happened.

The bottom line here: apparently, if you try to ask Frank Wolf questions, his goons verbally and physically assault you while Wolf stands by and does nothing. This is not acceptable behavior for anyone, let alone a member of Congress. After this incident, not to mention his nearly lockstep voting record with George W. Bush, it's time to make Frank Wolf a FORMER Congressman on November 4.

WJLA-TV: "Wolf Aide Raises 'Cane' with Opponent's Videographer"

The Wolf campaign continues to melt down, as the story of his campaign's violence against two Feder staffers spreads from the blogs to the print media to TV. Couldn't have happened to a nicer campaign. Ha.

By the way, I believe more video may very well be coming soon, so stay tuned. :)