Randy "Rubberstamp" Kuhl, true to form, voted against the majority of New York Congressmen to uphold Bush's veto of The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 [H.R. 810, S. 471] that would have allowed stem cell research. Clearly Kuhl is more interested in pleasing Bush than upholding the will of the people in New York.

Meanwhile, John Hlinko of StemPAC, which has put up an ActBlue donation page for "Stem Cell Champions," has four candidates meeting their criteria: Eric Massa, Jim Webb, Patrick Murphy and Victoria Wulsin. The criteria are that these candidates "1) have been strongly and vocally supportive of embryonic stem cell research, 2) Have opponents who have not been supportive, and 3) Have a real chance of winning--with our help." You can donate to these Stem Cell Champions on ActBlue here:StemCellCandidates.org.

Florida is important. It is the state that sent Bush to the White House (with a detour through the Supreme Court). There is hope that this election will turn Florida more blue than red - let's say a royal purple at least! Six veterans are running for U.S. Congress in Florida and they need our help. This Sunday we are spotlighting the first three of those races.

The Problem: One of the happiest results that came out of the Texas Primary was the win by Fighting Dem Vet Ted Ankrum in TX-10 who led the poll in a field of four. But Ted had a problem. Ted polled the most votes in the primary against 3 other candidates by doing his job in on the ground campaigning, but he faced a runoff (held on April 4/11/06) against another vet, Paul Foreman who is a published author. An analysis of the primary votes showed that Ted did well in the urban areas of Austin and Houston, but fared less well in the rural red counties that ran in a strip between Austin and Houston in the gerrymandered district. Since Ted had been endorsed by all the Dem organizations and by the newspapers, it was clear that it was name recognition in these areas where the folks just did not listen to the radio or read newspapers.

The Fighting Dem Vets Diary this week will be reminding folks of the CA primary that we posted on last week (read here) and featuring the VA primary coming up a week from Tuesday. This Tuesday is also the NJ primary and our solo candidate from NJ, Rich Sexton, will be live blogging with us today along with any of the other vets who can break away from church or campaigning.

There are eight (8) Fighting Dem vets candidates running in six districts. DC Political Report has five blue stars for wide-open races in favor of Democrats for all the top offices of California (Governor, Lt Gov, Attorney General, Secretary of State, etc.). It is an historical opportunity to turn a state blue, blue, blue. This circumstance can help local candidates to a point, but some districts are blood red and they need out help here as elsewhere to raise a credible challenge to some of the worst of the worst (like Duncan Hunter, CA-52).
You can read about these candidates and the Fighting Dem vets on Fighting-Dems.com and below the fold.

On Tuesday, May 2nd, there are primaries in Indiana, North Carolina, and Ohio.

There are a total of nine (9) FDVets running for the House of Representatives:
 

 Two Fighting Dem Vets are running in Indiana (IN-03 and IN-04).  Both candidates face a field that includes non-vet candidates.

One Fighting Dem Vet is running in North Carolina (NC-03). Fortunately, Craig Weber is unopposed so he will be the Dem nominee. On the other hand, a great candidate, Tim Dunn (NC-08), dropped out earlier for personal reasons.

Six Fighting Dem Vets are running in Ohio (OH-03, OH-04, OH-13, and OH-18). In CDs 4 and 13 two Fighting Dem Vets face off against each other in large fields of candidates. Only one candidate, Richard D. Siferd in OH-04 is unopposed and is therefore the official nominee of the Democratic Party.
 

 
Please also join us in signing the Petition for the resignation of SecDef Donald Rumsfeld. It has been co-sponsored by about 50 Fighting Dem Vets and all FDs of any stripe are asked to join in. It is in the works to be hand delivered by a special person this week.

48-Hour Online Fundraiser for Netroots endorsed candidate Eric Massa.

We are now less than 36 hours away from the close of the first quarter, at midnight on Friday, March 31.  As you know, this is a crucial time for Congressional challengers to raise the funds that will allow us to move into the spring and summer months fully armed to take on our Republican opponents.

The Massa for Congress blogger team has been coordinating live-blogging efforts with other Veteran campaigns to give the netroots a chance to interact with these candidates.  The current plan is to feature Veterans in spotlight sections each Sunday. Tomorrow (Feb. 26, 2006) from 1-3pm eastern the Spotlight will be on Colorado Veterans Jay Fawcett (CO-05) and Bill Winter (CO-06).  Jay and Bill will be on hand to chat with you.  From 3-5pm Eric Massa (NY-29) will liveblog about the new port controversy.  Finally from 5-7pm the Spotlight will be on Florida Veterans Rick Penberthy (FL-05) and David Bruderly (FL-06), who will then be on hand to live-blog.