Robert Cruickshank’s Ten Reasons to support Melissa Fox

from Robert Cruickshank at Calitics. Sorry, gericault, this is worth copying and pasting:

Earlier this week the LA Times noted that Democrats are on the offense in Assembly races. Anthony York’s article noted the strong defense of Alyson Huber in AD-10 and Dr. Richard Pan’s campaign against right-winger Andy Pugno in AD-5 as examples of this trend.

But he neglected to add one very important and compelling pickup opportunity, and that’s Melissa Fox in AD-70. It’s a district that Obama carried by 4 points in 2008, part of the broader trend that is turning Orange County blue. I was born and raised here, in Tustin, and my family still lives there. I’ve always been ashamed that right-wing whackos like Chuck DeVore (mis)represent that district, and I know that residents there care about good schools, jobs, and quality of life instead of the latest crazy right-wing freakout of the day.

And we also have a fantastic up-and-coming progressive leader running for the seat in Melissa Fox. You’ve probably seen her posts here at Calitics. What you may not know is she has a very real shot at surprising the pundits and winning this election.

With just over one week left until Election Day, I thought I’d offer 10 reasons why I support Melissa Fox – and why I hope you will too.

1. Melissa Fox is a strong progressive who doesn’t waffle on issues like marriage equality, education, or the need to move to single payer health insurance. You’ve seen that here at Calitics, including this powerful defense of a woman’s right to choose.

2. Her opponent, Don Wagner, is a fringe Tea Party candidate, a leader in the Federalist Society and the Education Alliance, who boasts of support from Arizona’s anti-immigrant sheriff Joe Arpaio, Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, and lists Michelle Malkin as a “community leader.”

3. Don Wagner disappeared after the primary, which he won with only 32% of the vote against three more moderate Republicans. No candidate statement. No mail. No appearances except for a few Tea Party rallies. He’s arrogant, lazy, and unknown. He communicated only with Republicans six months ago, and 2/3 of Republicans didn’t like him. Even his website’s news page hasn’t been updated since May. He clearly takes voters for granted.

4. As I said above, this is a district that Obama won by 4 points, and has been becoming more progressive as the demographics change – including as my own generation starts to assert itself in the community. It’s much more progressive than registration numbers indicate. These are exactly the kind of districts where we need to play offense.

5. The largest employer in the district is UC Irvine with its 34,000 students. This has always been a huge untapped resource, dating back to my one year as a student there in the 1990s. The Democrats of Greater Irvine have done a great job of registering students this cycle, and there is a strong, multi-level program to use social media and texting to turn them out to vote.

6. There are a lot of other races going on in this district which will help turn out progressive voters – a battle to protect the progressive majority on the Irvine City Council, the Capistrano Unified School District’s recall of regressive school board members, the very effective Beth Krom for Congress campaign, and grassroots progressive city council candidates in Tustin and Newport Beach.

7. Your money won’t be wasted. Melissa’s campaign is disciplined and spends its advertising money efficiently and smartly Every dollar you give now will go into printing and mailing one of the best contrast pieces I’ve seen — “The Invisible Man” which exposes the extreme positions of her far-right opponent. And all of the work has been done without overpriced and ineffective Sacramento consultants, so you’re supporting progressive infrastructure as well.

8. It’s a lot more fun to play offense than defense. If we want to make California more progressive, we need to take the fight to the right in the purple districts they now control.

9. Because it gets us closer to a 2/3rds majority. Really, what more do you need?

10. Because I don’t donate very often. I’m very stingy with my campaign giving. In the 2008 cycle I only gave to two candidates (Darcy Burner and Debbie Cook). But I gave to Melissa Fox because she is the future of progressive leadership in California. Will you join me?

Click here to support Melissa Fox for Assembly!