Looks like we’re set for a Democratic primary contest next year in the second congressional district. Two fine candidates, Byron De Lear and Mike Garman, hope to challenge the political dinosaur currently holding the office.
Mike Garman is a St. Charles resident with deep roots in that community, a member of the St. Charles Ambulance board and a district director of the St. Charles Ambulance District. Because his job constantly forces him to see the suffering of people who lack health care, he is above all concerned with that issue.
The kitchen table issues of jobs, social security, and education concern him greatly. For example, he wants the labor laws enforced again as they have not been since Reagan’s tenure, and he feels that the lack of government health care is costing Americans their jobs because American companies cannot compete with foreign companies who don’t have to offer their workers health care.
Garman has a good deal of support from the St. Charles Democratic organization, and already has a fundraiser planned for December 17th. You can check out his website here.
Byron De Lear was raised in St. Louis, but has spent most of his adult life in California working as a producer in music, television, and radio. After 9/11 he became so interested in politics and world peace that he ended up running as a green party candidate for a congressional seat. His opinions are progressive down the line, but he focuses most often on Bush’s constitutional depradations and on the problems of the Middle East. (See one of his comments on this blog here.)
When he was in St. Louis for a visit last summer, Susan Cunningham, the president of the West County Dems, urged him to consider running against Akin. He thought that possibility over for a couple of months, checking out whether he could gain enough support to make a credible challenge, and decided to do it. He has moved back to West St. Louis County to lay the groundwork for his campaign and has been attending Democratic political events all over St. Louis and St. Charles counties.
Having Byron De Lear and Mike Garman as candidates is an embarrassment of riches, and we’ll have more to say about each of them in upcoming blog postings.
Still, knocking Todd Akin out of that seat will take some doing. It’s a district full of well-to-do, committed Republicans. Perhaps it can be done, though. St. Charles has more Democrats than it’s had in a long time, and plenty of swing voters are disgusted with Bush and his clones.
May the best man win the primary. The best man in the general will be the Democrat.
What about Boots Weber?
if you think that three Democratic primary candidates constitute such. It was exactly the problem as well since one of those candidates was Mr. Weber who, after the other two candidates split the vote, took the nomination with, if I remember correctly, a little over 5000 votes. I don’t wish to malign Mr. Weber–I know little about him personally and he may be a lovely person (I do remember reading his campaign statements and going Unhhh???), but he does not have a ghost of a chance against Akin.
We need (and pray for) a serious Democratic candidate and this news makes me afraid that we may see the same situation again–unless Weber is not going to run? I have been told that he is a perennial candidate although he does no real campaigning to speak of, but perhaps he has finally reached his limit?
and in 2006 the joke was all too real. The other two candidates may not have been fantastic, but they sounded reasonable on paper at least–given the realities of this district at any rate, and they did split the vote. Just remember, afterall, that this district has consistently given the office to a total imbecile like Todd Akin.
Those of us with close contact with Boots Weber have his solemn promise he will not run for 2nd cong again.
Check out Byron DeLear and Mike Garman. We can’t go wrong this time – either one is a solid candidate.