Democracy for America has just announced that they will back Jamie Eldridge in the race to replace retiring US Representative Marty Meehan in the MA-05 race. From DFA’s press release:
DFA chair, Jim Dean says the endorsement was made on behalf of the progressive grassroots, due to Eldridge’s strong leadership as a State Representative and progressive ideals.
“Representative Eldridge is a true reformer,” says Dean. “DFA endorses him with great pride and enthusiasm of his belief in politics powered by people — his leadership and experience will move the country forward.”
Representative Eldridge enjoys the enthusiastic support of local groups, individuals and overwhelming labor union support. This endorsement displays the reach of Eldridge’s grassroots campaign…. Eldridge’s first action if elected to congress would be signing on as a sponsor of the universal, single-payer health care legislation.
Congrats!
70% of DFA’s local members voted in support of Eldridge – and that’s out of five candidates.
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I’d say it’s pretty obvious who the progressives in this district are lining up behind, which is no wonder when people consider his cogent thoughts on Iraq, health care and civil rights.
Jamie deserves these kudos.
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I came out a while ago with my endorsement, and I know Lynne and Ryan have done so, too (sorry, I don’t have the links — maybe they could supply them…).
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I imagine we’ll be seeing more progressive/grassroots/netroots endorsements in the days ahead.
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Will this be enough to put Jamie over the top against the “establishment” candidate? I don’t know. It would be tempting to draw parallels with the Deval Patrick campaign, but the timeline is so compressed here I’m not sure that’s valid. Point is, we’re going to have to work really hard to get our candidate elected. I like challenges like that!
Deval Patrick set records in campaign fundraising. Can Eldridge keep up with the big-money candidates?
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This DFA endorsement could really help with that. Some national attention to this race among the progressive activists could go a long way for Eldridge.
Congrats to Eldridge and the whole team. A DFA endorsement is a fine seal of approval! I’m really glad that the DFA team endorsed him.
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Full disclosure: I interned at DFA National last summer.
Congrats to Jamie and his campaign team, this is great news! And just a reminder, I’m matching the next $250 donated at my ActBlue page for Jamie:
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http://www.actblue.c…
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I’ve gotten $50 so far, and I made my entire matching contribution this morning – please donate if you can, thanks!