FL-12
(Map)
Doug's wasn't a race the DCCC targetted in 2008 and it wasn't on any Inside the Beltway radar screens. Many of us first met Doug Tudor here at DWT early in July when he came out swinging against Bush's anti-Constitutional FISA bill which encompassed warrantless wiretaps and retroactive immunity for corporate executives who had been illegally spying on American citizens. What made Doug's stand doubly interesting was that he was running against the third ranking member of the Republican House hierarchy, Adam "Howdy Doody" Putnam, in a district centered on Polk County east of Tampa, Florida. Putnam was one of the foremost backers of Bush's FISA plan to strip American citizens of a right to privacy. The Blue America PAC sent Doug $1,000 for his FISA stand. Now that Putnam was kicked out of the GOP leadership and has decided to retire from the House altogether, there is a real opportunity to get a grassroots progressive into that House seat. It's either that or a tweedledee- tweedledum multimillionaire from one of the party establishments.