Throwing the Kitchen Sink at 'Politics as Usual': Please Help

[waiting for hope]

Edwardians! Here's a progressive in the Edwards tradition:

Diary from Daily Kos - cross posted with permission from nannyboz

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/28/9524/00685?new=true

Throwing the Kitchen Sink at 'Politics as Usual': Please Help
by nannyboz
Fri Mar 28, 2008 at 02:17:34 PM EDT

Kossacks, we here in North Carolina need your help. You see, we are trying to unseat Elizabeth Dole in the coming elections and we have a terrific progressive candidate who we believe can do that but guess what? Good old Chuck Schumer stuck himself and the DSCC smack in the middle of things and convinced a centrist, corporatist state Senator, Kay Hagan, D-Guilford, to run even though she didn't want to! Apparently our progressive candidate Jim Neal (http://jimnealforsenate.com/) who stepped up and announced his candidacy, something Hagan wasn't willing to do, isn't who Chuck "Mukasey is OK" Schumer and the rest of the old guard think should face Dole in November so they "enlisted" Kay, an establishment Dem.

I went to Kay's website to "meet" her and hooboy, in her video on the main page she talks about how every morning she wakes up and the first thing she thinks of is how to help North Carolina that day. Trust me, my first thought is about coffee. But in fairness, I'm sure Kay is a nice lady who does a good job in her current seat. However we don't need Dole-lite, a country club maven who is proud that her club, the Greensboro Country Club is "integrated". We need Jim Neal and we're working hard to get him!

By way of introducing Jim I'm blockquoting his bio from his website.

Seven generations after his working family joined others to help shape North Carolina, Jim Neal’s energy, economic expertise, and middle-class values make him uniquely qualified to help shape the next generation.

The grandson of a carpenter, public school teacher and two mill workers, Neal was born in Greensboro in 1956. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978. Following graduation he joined Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst. He returned to school at the University of Chicago where he earned an MBA and worked a series of part-time jobs to pay his way through school. As an investment banker at Salomon Brothers he earned a reputation for leadership and innovative strategies while advising Fortune 500 companies on how to play successful roles in a changing global economy.

Neal worked as a senior investment banker with E.F Hutton and Bear Stearns, serving clients that ranged from Bank of America and American Express to Lincoln National Corporation and Transamerica.

For the past two decades, Neal has focused his career on information technology and healthcare companies, including serving as chief executive officer of RxMarketplace.com, a start-up firm that helped pharmacists offer patients prescription drugs at more affordable prices. Since 2000, Neal has led several private companies prior to founding The Agema Group, a financial advisory firm based in Chapel Hill.

Neal has continued his active involvement in nonprofit groups and political initiatives. A member of the Board of Governors of the New School from 2002 to 2006, he also served as a national finance committee member for Wes Clark for President and the Kerry-Edwards campaigns, as well as acting as a national fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles in 2004.

Neal has served his community as an overnight volunteer at a homeless shelter, a lay minister to mentally ill residents of an assisted-care facility, and a sponsor of a post-war Vietnamese refugee family in alliance with the International Rescue Committee.

Neal lives in Chapel Hill with the younger of his two sons, Winston. The older, James, is currently working in New York City.

In addition to all of this, Jim has been endorsed by the Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg (jimnealforsenate.com/press-releases/us-senate-candidate-jim-neal-receives-key-endorsement/) and his candidacy was written favorably about just today at Talk Politics.


A staunch supporter of and believer in the Internet Jim feels certain that while it won't happen this election cycle, the next one will belong to the netroots. He's a grassroots candidate all the way who has reached out to all 1200 precinct chairs in North Carolina (http://jimnealforsenate.com/press-releases/neal-reaches-out-to-thousands-of-grassroots-democrats-at-march-11-precinct-meetings/).

Jim and we progressives in North Carolina need your help Kossacks. He and we are up against the establishment, a truly daunting group to overtake. But we must succeed in order to begin to weed out "Republican-lites" from Congress.

Here's where you come in. Jim calls it "pocket change for positive change", grassroots fundraising at it's finest without being beholden to lobbyists and PACs. Even if it's $5 please contribute (http://jimnealforsenate.com/contribute/) and help North Carolina replace Elizabeth Dole with a true progressive. You've helped so many, will you help one more?

Thank you!

http://jimnealforsenate.com/wp-content/themes/neal/images/jim_neal+graham-small.jpg

I meet him last night at a Meet and Greet and I have to tell you, I was very impressed. Please take a moment to check out his website, and as I found last night, he has more detailed answers on his platform that is posted. If anyone has a chance, try to make one of the Meet and Greets or upcoming rallies - they are posted on the site:

Saturday, March 29
All day Young Democrats State Convention
Monday, March 31
6:30pm Jim Neal Meet and Greet at Helios
Thursday, April 3
11:00am Chapel Hill Employees Forum
Sunday, April 6
6:00pm Chapel Hill Wine Tasting Event
Saturday, April 12
11:00am Catawba County 10th Congressional District Rally
Tuesday, April 29
5:30pm Carteret County Democratic Women
Showing events until 6/29.

We need to elect more progressives into office, and Jim Neal is the Real Deal. Elizabeth Dole needs to go and Neal would be a great asset to the State of North Carolina.

Cross posted in the North Carolina Forum: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=170x9819

[LiveLiberally]

1. Waiting for Hope: did you see...

the diary posted on DKos today about Neal's confrontation with James Carville at the NC Young Democrats Convention? Apparently, he stunned him into silence. :toast:

Here's the link: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/1/12345/82883/914/488257

[waiting for hope]

2. Thanks for the heads up!

I rarely go over to the Obama orange these days - it's like GD-P all over one website!

[Greylyn58]

3. Jim Neal is definiately my candidate to unseat Dole

I want someone that will work their butt off for NC. He has really impressed me.

[waiting for hope]

4. You should try to attend:

Sunday, April 6
6:00pm Chapel Hill Wine Tasting Event

All the info is on his site. I really really enjoyed meeting him last week, I have my Jim Neal bumper sticker on, along with my son's Terrific Kid, John Edwards 08 and DU. If you are ever in the Wilmington area and see a red Chevy Venture van with all those stickers, HONK ME!

[bobbolink]

5. This is the same stuff that Dems have been doing repeatedly, state after state, for years now.

They are determined to have a corporatist party, and I doubt we can stop them.