DU's Bruce Fealk Featured in Rochester Eccentric

[bfealk]

http://hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070315/NEWS17/703150524/1034

Liberal finds his voice in a conservative town
BY ANNETTE KINGSBURY
STAFF WRITER


Bruce Fealk is a man on a mission.

A Democrat in a county dominated by Republicans, he acknowledges he wasn't politically active until a couple of years ago. Now, he's demonstrating, blogging, campaigning, setting up Web sites and, most recently, hosting a local-access cable television show that can also be viewed on the Web.

(Please read the rest of the story and leave a kind comment.)
http://hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070315/NEWS17/703150524/1034

[gasperc]

1. Kerry won Oakland county

at the local level, representation may be dominated by republicans but as a whole, democrats and democratic leaners form the majority of Oakland county. The latter is an issue of incumbency and grassroots organizing to get voters to "hear" about progressive candidates at the local level. Champions like yourself and Phil Reid will make that happen.

[SharonRB]

2. I had an epiphany about Knollenberg

a couple of days ago. I think he's just acting as a placeholder until Marty is term limited out of the state house and can run for his seat with built-in name recognition. Why else would he not retire already? This may have been a big "duh" moment and I may just be slow, but it hit me like a ton of bricks all of a sudden.

We need to get rid of him in '08 and foil his little plan. Don't be surprised if Nancy runs again. She'd be crazy not to. She's the one who finally almost beat him and has him running scared. The second time out she can close the deal.

[bfealk]

3. I hope Nancy stays out of the race

We have better candidates that can raise more money. I'm hoping Gary Peters gets in the race.

[gasperc]

4. Nancy put her heart and soul into the race

and gave Joe a run for his money, as far as I can tell she helped bleed his war chest dry. Things like that in no small measure helped deliver a Democratic majority by anchoring Joe's money and preventing it from flowing to other candidates in weaker districts.

I urged her and her team to focus on the war in Iraq, that was the feedback I got from walking precincts. She spoke alot about the war but the ads she shot focused on the environment and other issues, it was the wrong choice. Better candidates? I'm not so sure, we had other "party picked" choices who spent boatloads of money and got no where near Nancy's numbers. ok, 2006 was a democratic year but in the end, a primary will decide who the best candidate for the MI-9 should be in 2008. Nancy has shown alot of local dem leaders that the MI-9th is a winnable seat. Joe and his registered lobbyist chief of staff look like they are going to dig in and ask the NRCC to help him out in 2008 to forge a strategy to re-gain the majority. The DCCC should target the MI-8,9 and 11th collectivly through a targeted democratic branding campaign to boost democratic voting in this tri-district area.

[bfealk]

6. That's the problem, she doesn't listen

I'm sure Nancy got lots of good advice. The sign of a good leader is that they listen. From what I can gather, Nancy doesn't listen to advisors. She certainly did spend her meager advertising budget on the wrong issues, in my opinion too. Nancy does lots of talking and very little listening.

[bfealk]

7. She did put in a good effort

By the way, I'm not questioning the effort she or her team put in. I do realize everyone on her team and her volunteers and Nancy worked very hard. I don't want to minimize the effort at all.

[SharonRB]

8. The DCCC has already said they were going to target the 9th

Nancy had limited money to spend on ads and she focused those on the issue most important to her. Next time out, with more help from the DCCC and, therefore, more money, she'll be able to put more ads on and cover more issues.

[SharonRB]

5. Don't count on her staying out of it

And I heard from a pretty reputable source last night that Gary is considering running against Brooks for Oakland County Exec.