Fallon: Getting What We Need

Here are some articles about Ed Fallon running for Congress against Leonard Boswell.

First, David Yepsen gives a run down on why Fallon might just win.

Fallon can give him a real race for renomination, despite all the advantages Boswell should have. Like moderate Republicans who are vulnerable to conservative primary challenges, centrist Democrats like Boswell are vulnerable to attack from their party's left. The charged partisan atmosphere in the country doesn't help politicians in the middle.

Matt Stoller at Open Left looks at Boswell's voting record and shows there is an opening for Democrat with strong progressives values...

Boswell voted to fund the war with no restrictions on Bush, and voted to expand FISA wiretapping authority for Bush. He is a bad vote across the board on issues like choice, which is out of step with his moderate district. And the thing is, he knows it, since he switched his last vote on funding the war to 'no' after he heard rumors of this challenge. I actually talked to Boswell staffer about this, and she assured me that his patience had run out with the war, until I asked about this primary challenge. And then the staffer said well yeah, there's that. More to the point, Boswell doesn't understand that Congress is doing a bad job, and so he won't take corrective action without extreme prodding.

It is the craven behavior by Democrats like Boswell - nice middle managers with no moral perspective about what they are doing and who they are representing - that is increasingly out of step with the party and the country. When Fallon ran for Governor, he won Boswell's district, and Boswell never really gelled with the areas added in redistricting.

The question is if Fallon will be able to craft a message that resonates with voters. This article written by Marc Hansen in the Des Moines Register shows that Fallon might just be able to do it...

When Fallon talks about the two Americas, like his friend from North Carolina, he's living in a Sherman Hill apartment located a block from the America that isn't flourishing.

"The ultra rich have been doing pretty well," he said. "They've been getting everything they want. Now it's time for the rest of us to get what we need."Not a bad sound bite.

"I just made it up just now," Fallon said. "Please use that quote so I can remember it."