Tommy Sowers‘ (D) campaign is airing this latest ad:
Tommy Sowers: When I served in Iraq I wasn’t alone. I had my fellow soldiers and this combat Bible. I’m Tommy Sowers, a veteran running to bring new blood to Congress.
Announcer: Jo Ann Emerson sold us out.
[Jo Ann Emerson]
Voted for job killing trade deals and the Wall Street bailout.
[Bad Trade Deals, Wall Street Bailouts]
Now Emerson is backing another one hundred sixty-five billion dollar bailout scheme and taking money from big city special interests in return.
Vote Sowers and stop Emerson’s latest bailout.
[Shotgun]
Tommy Sowers: I’m Tommy Sowers and I approved this message.
[Sowers, SowersForCongress.com
Aaproved by Tommy Sowers, Paid For By Sowers For Congress]
The airwaves campaign in the 8th Congressional District race has started:
When I served in Iraq, I wasn’t alone. I had my fellow soldiers and this combat bible. I’m Tommy Sowers, a veteran running to bring new blood to Congress. Jo Ann Emerson killed our jobs with bad trade deals and bank bailouts. She’s just been there too long. I will force Congress to fix the bad trade deals, and I won’t vote for bailouts like Emerson. I’m Tommy Sowers, and I approve this message. Together, you and I can bring new blood to Congress.
[Sowers Congress
Sowersforcongress.com
Approved by Tommy Sowers. Paid for by Sowers for Congress.]
…This week, people close to the Emerson campaign crossed the line in mudslinging too. In a paid election letter to this newspaper, a writer who once worked for Emerson’s husband called into question Sowers’ sexuality. The innuendo used was repugnant…
“Too?” Rust spends the first three paragraphs blaming Tommy Sowers’ (D) campaign for the tone of the 8th Congressional District campaign, without citing any examples, before he gets to condemning a paid political letter which appeared in his paper written by an individual associated with Jo Ann Emerson (r), the republican incumbent. The subject? You guessed it:
…The second point — the innuendo — is unfair and inappropriate. I will admit: I don’t see that sexual orientation has anything to do with whether a person is qualified for Congress…
You’d think the publisher of the paper would cite a specific example of a “distortion” by the subject of his first three paragraphs. You’d think. Nah, it’s just easier to wrap yourself in a false cloak of impartiality and dismiss one party’s egregious behavior with the condemnation and excuse that “everybody does it.” And then wring your hands.
I wonder if that letter by the Emerson supporter had anything to do with this?:
The White House issued the following statement on yesterday’s votes in Congress in the process of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”:
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release May 27, 2010
Statement by the President on Votes to Repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
I have long advocated that we repeal ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’, and I am pleased that both the House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committee took important bipartisan steps toward repeal tonight. Key to successful repeal will be the ongoing Defense Department review, and as such I am grateful that the amendments offered by Representative Patrick Murphy and Senators Joseph Lieberman and Carl Levin that passed today will ensure that the Department of Defense can complete that comprehensive review that will allow our military and their families the opportunity to inform and shape the implementation process. Our military is made up of the best and bravest men and women in our nation, and my greatest honor is leading them as Commander-in-Chief. This legislation will help make our Armed Forces even stronger and more inclusive by allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to serve honestly and with integrity.
Incumbent Representative Jo Ann Emereson (r), facing one of the most serious and credible campaign challenges in her insider Washington congressional career, took time to “diss” challenger Tommy Sowers’ (D) military career – right before Memorial Day. All because of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”:
Democratic congressional contender Tommy Sowers, a former Army officer, on Thursday endorsed plans to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military. Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, however, said she opposes repeal and opposes allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces….
….In addition, Emerson said her opposition is based on comments from field commanders “who have said that in very difficult situations in Afghanistan and Iraq, in combat jobs, that it is beneficial to have knowledge of that because there can be distractions. Since Sowers has never commanded anybody, he might have a different perspective….”
[emphasis added]
A video on Tommy Sowers’ service – from his campaign:
Now, Jo Ann Emerson’s remark doesn’t appear to be very accurate, does it?
As for wedge issues – in 1993 I asked my father, he of twenty-two years of service, about gays in the military. He told me (paraphrased), “There always have been, there always will be. Nobody cares as long as everyone does their job.”
…Among the names that have been mentioned include California-Nevada Credit Union League President Bill Cheney, Massachusetts-New Hampshire Credit Union League President Dan Egan, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) and Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.). None of them returned calls seeking comment…
Emerson was elected to the House in 1996, succeeding her late husband Rep. Bill Emerson. She has not been active on financial services issues and although she voted for the most important credit union bill in recent years-H.R. 1151-which passed 411-8, she wasn’t a co-sponsor. If she is chosen, she would be the second consecutive CUNA president with ties to the insurance industry. She was senior vice president of American Insurance Association from 1994 to 1996 (and before that a lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association)….
…The Times said Emerson, among others, had been interviewed by an executive search committee hired to assemble a job description for CUNA’s top post and some candidates for it.
Emerson chief of staff Jeffrey Connor said today that he could not comment on the Times report. But he did note that she was still running for re-election….
And Tommy Sowers (D) campaign pointed out via e-mail today:
St. Louis Beacon, 5/3/10: Jo Ann Emerson is “among several big-name individuals who may be under consideration to become the new president of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), the industry’s national trade association…The [Credit Union] Times said Emerson, among others, had been interviewed by an executive search committee… Emerson chief of staff Jeffrey Connor said today that he could not comment…”
This proves our insurgent strategy is working. If she’s planning her exit strategy already, she must be really scared of us. She’s scared of the buzz we’re building. The press we’re getting. She’s scared of the money we’re raising. According to our intelligence (some of her friends are really ours…) the thing she’s most scared of is that we’re somehow doing this by bringing together lots of people.
This could be a tipping point moment in our campaign and we need to a make sudden show of force. So… we’re launching an emergency offensive. Our goal is to raise 25,000 dollars FAST from tons of grassroots donors. Why? Because she can’t. (And she knows it.)
Please click here and donate to help us launch this emergency offensive.
Make this decision easy for her — chip in to Jo Ann Emerson’s retirement fund:
Tommy Sowers‘ (D) campaign posted the following CNN story on his campaign today:
[….]
…The great thing about running in twenty-ten is there is so much demand for new blood out there…
[….]
…Everywhere I go I introduce myself, I’m Tommy Sowers, I’m a veteran running for Congress. I’m running to get some new blood in D.C. And everyone shakes their head and says, it’s about time…
[….]
…I wrapped my car like a NASCAR truck, I’ve got my dog in there, and we did this thing called boots on the ground where there’s twenty-eight counties, I spent a day and a night in every county…
[….]
…So you’ve got a Republican incumbent being challenged by a tea party candidate in the Republican primary. There is an independent tea party candidate that’s collecting enough signatures to be on the general election ballot. I’m unopposed as the Democrat…
[….]
Barbara Starr, CNN:
…Senators like John McCain and John Kerry campaigned very successfully on their war records…
Yes, that’s why they’re both President of the United States. Well, or at least why one of them is always on the Sunday cable television talk shows.
You’ve got to wonder about how much of Tommy Sowers’ interview ended up on the cutting room floor.
Of course, CNN had to do “an equal and opposite view” treatment to the story. As if the Faux News Channel ever would.
Congressional Republicans rallied Tea Party activists to oppose the health-care legislation on the verge of being approved by Congress…
…As a group of several hundred protesters on the lawn of the Capitol shouted “No! No! No!” “Nancy, you will burn in hell for this!” and “Kill the bill!” rank-and-file Republican lawmakers came out to the balcony off the House floor in the midst of a series of procedural votes. Two different trios of GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Tom Latham (Iowa) and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (Mo.), waved signs with the words “Kill” “The” and “Bill” as the crowd cheered….
As Tommy Sowers, the Democratic Party candidate in the 8th Congressional District has pointed out, “Our district has over 22% uninsured.” You’d think the incumbent republican would care about that, wouldn’t you? Unless they had friends elsewhere.
As we were putting together this post we received the following statement from Tommy Sowers’ campaign:
Sowers demands Jo Ann Emerson apologize for encouraging hateful protest
Yesterday, Congresswoman Emerson was involved in encouraging protesters at the Capitol. Instead of contributing to the debate, she offended her office and the people she claims to represent. This supposed moderate chose to incite the same voices that used racial slurs and spat on lawmakers (including Emanuel Cleaver, a fellow member of the Missouri delegation) on the steps of the Capitol.
Sowers said, “I call on Congresswoman Emerson to issue a formal apology for inciting these protests. As an 11-year veteran, I defended the Constitution and the right to protest, but lending support to a group that has spit on and called lawmakers racial slurs is beyond defense. This may make sense to a DC politician trying to grab headlines and score political points. But this is not the kind of representation that the Founders intended, nor what the people of Missouri and America expect.”
Shortly after Emerson’s protest, Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen told reporters: “I think it is bad taste for people to go and encourage them. I can see this crowd getting out of control and they are being encouraged.”
The Sowers campaign couldn’t agree more. Congresswoman Emerson must immediately apologize and disavow association with protestors that use hate and racial slurs.
I had the chance to see Tommy Sowers last night. Sowers is an Army veteran and a political science professor, and is currently running as the Democratic candidate for the 8th Congressional District seat currently held by longtime incumbent Republican Jo Ann Emerson. I enjoyed his talk, which centered around his can-do, results-oriented attitude. He emphasized the fact that the same people have been representing the district over and over again, with the same poor results. And I do mean literally poor – the 8th District is one of the poorest in the country, and is the worst for median income for females.
Ever since I first heard of Sowers through some of my VoteVets friends, I’ve liked what I heard. I would like to hear more specifics as he rolls out policy proposals, but if nothing else, he’s going to give Emerson a very strong run for her money, much stronger than any of her challengers for the last decade.
Aside from having a common sense veteran representing Missouri’s 8th District instead of a lobbyist turned congressman’s wife turned congresswoman, there’s another upside to a strong Sowers candidacy. Because Emerson is essentially unchallenged every two years, she’s free to rake in big bucks from outstate PACS, then funnel the money into Republican campaigns all over the country. For example, in 2004, she sent $3000 to Sen. Jim “Obama’s Waterloo” Demint (R-SC). In 2008, her $4600 helped Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer top Democrat Judy Baker in Missouri’s 9th District. If she had to actually contest her own seat, she’d have to spend her corporate-fueled contributions on her own race, not on her pals around the country.
Which reminds me – tomorrow is the end of the quarter. If you like what you see (and I know that you do) – drop Tommy Sowers some coin right now.
