Blue America howieklein@aol.com These five Blue America candidates are all solid progressives running for the U.S. Senate. These are the tough races against entrenched incumbents, not the low hanging fruit. These are the races that will make the difference between a Senate that McConnell and his ilk will be able to use to filibuster all of Obama&#39;s plans for change and a Senate that works in partnership with the House and the White House to clean up and move forward after 8 disastrous years of Bush-Cheney. Each of these candidates has proved himself worthy of progressive, grassroots support. public true 53325.56 1851 Tom Allen false ME-Sen allen 4800.00 137090.54 3473 http://www.tomallen.org/ https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/18023 5407.56 294 Congressman Tom Allen has represented southern Maine-- all that state&#39;s population centers other than Auburn-Lewiston and Bangor-- since 1996. Since then he has established a reputation as a solidly dependable progressive leader whose initiatives and leadership reflect the forward-looking, independent values of his fellow Mainers. After a great deal of pressure he has agreed to challenge deceitful rubber stamp Senator Susan Collins, who had vowed to step down this year. Lieberman is doing all he can to help her break that vow. You might want to help Tom make her keep her promise. Take a look at <a href="http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/06/09/blue-america-welcome-tom-allen-next-senator-from-maine/">Tom&#39;s q&amp;a session</a> at Firedoglake on June 9. Your donation could go to getting <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpOJb-5eRew">this TV spot</a> on the air in Maine. Mark Begich false AK-Sen mark begich 4800.00 286420.34 10849 http://www.begich.com https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/19109 2764.71 271 Finally an independent-minded Democrat who can bring the long-stale career of Ted Stevens to a well-deserved end! Just by campaigning he&#39;s already pressured Stevens into looking out for Alaskans for a change-- instead of just for his campaign contributors. With Mark pushing for Webb&#39;s GI Bill, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=12855914&amp;postID=9157260648616158057">Stevens backed down</a> from his 100% rubber stamp support of Bush on vets matters and voted for the vets for a change. Now that Stevens has been indicted on multiple corruption charges even the most gullible voters are re-thinking their support of this self-serving kleptomaniac. In July Mark <a href="http://firedoglake.com/2008/07/12/blue-america-welcomes-back-mark-begich-sen-ak/">visited with us at FDL</a> and talked about his vision for Alaska. Your donation could go to getting <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMChVkH5YUA">this TV spot</a> on the air in Alaska. Jeff Merkley false OR-Sen merkley 4800.00 601262.18 9083 http://www.jeffmerkley.com https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/18219 10447.72 681 Jeff Merkley has a long and distinguished record as someone who fights effectively for working families. His record in Oregon is as long as that of Senator Gordon Smith&#39;s but otherwise the two have little in common. Smith, a typical rubber stamp Republican who tries voting like a moderate a few months before he has to face the voters, has been as consistent a champion of special interests as Jeff has been of ordinary Oregonians. After Jeff won the Democratic primary in May, he <a href="http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/22/blue-america-welcomes-jeff-merkley-winner-of-the-oregon-senate-primary/">stopped by FDL to introduce himself</a>. Since then he&#39;s been running one of this year&#39;s most grassroots-oriented senatorial campaigns anywhere. Your donation could go to getting <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-aEXqF7yow">this TV spot</a> on the air in Oregon. Meanwhile, watch Jeff Merkley putting the Wall Street bailout/giveaway into perspective: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzRjbHg2l5w">Absolutely No Blank Check To Secretary Paulson</a>. Rick Noriega false TX-Sen noriega 4800.00 1787764.55 23738 http:// https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/18187 21416.31 973 You want someone who combines core progressive values, proven competence and demonstrated strength of character in Washington? How about someone like that replacing the single worst Republican in the entire U.S. Senate? <a href="http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/11/blue-america-welcomes-rick-noriega-d-tx/">Meet Texas Rep. Rick Noriega</a>. Rick is deployed in the Texas Army National Guard right now and his campaign is basically diverting all its energy to helping with the recovery from the devastating effects of Hurricane Ike. They haven&#39;t done a TV ad for us so <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvwe3L5cO3w">we found this one</a> that the campaign used to respond to one that John Cornyn ran a few months ago. (And here&#39;s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzh9bpzrTd0">another</a>.) Andrew Rice false OK-Sen rice 4800.00 335211.71 9838 http://andrewforoklahoma.com https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/18228 11466.55 597 Andrew Rice, a progressive leader in the Oklahoma state senate, is taking on the giant of that state&#39;s extremist politics, James Inhofe. And as bad as Inhofe is, that&#39;s how excellent Andrew is! We&#39;re not talking about some barely-better-than-a-Republican red state Democrat. We&#39;re talking about a real leader for all of America. And we&#39;re talking about the Oklahoma here which gave us Woody Guthrie, Will Rogers and Bill Moyers. Andrew has been very active in engaging the netroots in his campaign. This was my very <a href="http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/05/andrew-rice-populist-hero-to-take-on.html">first take on him last May</a>. And here&#39;s his first <a href="http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/10/06/blue-america-welcomes-andrew-rice-d-ok/#more-12089">live session at FDL</a> on October 6, 2007. Your donation could go to getting <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KShl3xFwUVs">this TV spot</a> on the air in Oklahoma. Blue America PAC false blueamericapac 5000.00 605661.15 14974 http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2006/08/have-you-had-enough-song-for-change.html https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/11689 1822.71 226