Climbing up the Hill

This election year is a little odd, in that I know two people runningfor Congress. Both are running as Independents, and both face incumbent Democrats. The first is the father of a friend from college, running in Maine's 1st District; I stayed with the Kamilewiczes for many a Thanksgiving, Fall Break, and random weekend, and Dexter's bid for a seat in the House was fueled by Ben getting shipped to Iraq. The second is a friend from various civic engagement projects, running in Washington's 7th District; her campaign is all about fresh blood, fresh ideas, fresh approaches to politics.

Linnea's ad campaign is sheer brilliance. Called The Daily Report, it's a parody of The Daily Show and the Colbert Report. With a significantly smaller pocket than a candidate backed by a political party, the Daily Report is airing not on TV stations but on myspace and youtube. There are five parts: the intro, a "field report" on ineffectiveness, a hilarious segment called "Where in the hell is Jim McDermott?" (Seattle's 17-year Congressman), part 1 of the interview with Linnea, and part 2 of the interview. It's a creative, awesome way of reaching an ignored demographic.

Linnea's campaign resonates with me not just because I know her and she's cool and intelligent and super-savvy and fun, but because I don't like the party system. Hell, I'm up on Dem party happenings, especially locally; I root for most Democrats in their races and end up going to their election day celebrations. I fully understand the role of political parties in American democracy. But understanding a system because you have no other choice but to work within it doesn't mean you have to like it. I've only donated money to one candidate in my nine years of political participation (not to be confused with legislative interest, that's entirely different), and that was the '04 primary candidate seen as a political outsider. It's weird, but everyone always assumes I'm ardently pro-Dem simply because of my left-of-center stances on issues. But issues don't translate to party loyalty for me. There are good ideas and policies and legislative pieces out there that need to get passed, and for the most part I think partisanship gets in the way. My voting record is actually pretty independent: depending on the office and the race and other strategic factors, I've voted Democrat, Republican, and Green before. And this year I'll vote for an Independent. =)

Dexter and Linnea are both running to make statements. More power to them!