Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Brian Keeler, a/k/a, NY Bri, and we are very fortunate to have with us today four excellent candidates for the Congress this year. And I want to pick up on something real quick that Governor Dean was talking about last night. And that is he was grading us as Democrats. And he said – and I don't mean to repeat the whole thing – he talked about how those of us who go out and vote as a "D;" those of us who go out and vote and give money get a "C;" those of us who go out and give money and vote and actually work on a campaign, we get a "B." But those of us who go out and vote, and give money, work on a campaign, and run for office get an "A."

And these four people up here, in my mind, get A-pluses, because I've been following each and every one of their races. What I'm going to do today is I would like to make this a very informal talk between you and us. So I'm going to give each candidate an opportunity to introduce themselves, talk a little bit about their district; a little bit about their race, and then I'm going to ask a couple of questions. And then I want to open it up to the floor.

Now, we are live streaming here, so I will repeat the questions when we get to the floor questions, okay? First of all, from Florida, Florida's 18th District, we have Annette Taddeo. And I would like to introduce you to her, and have her talk about her race. Annette?

Annette Taddeo

Thank you. Thank you very much. Again, my name is Annette Taddeo, and I am running in Florida's 18th District, which runs from South Beach, City of Miami, all the way down to Key West – the entire Florida Keys. When I tell people what district I represent, they're actually quite surprised that it is not a democratic district. Most people have visited South Beach or the Keys, and yes, I am running against a Right-wing Bush Republican, and so it is very surprising to most people when I tell them that.

And honestly, my district does not really truly understand who they're being represented by, because she's never really had an opponent in eighteen years. She got elected during a special election, and since then has barely had any opposition. So here I am, eighteen years later. After that special election, her district was redrawn in 2001 to include South Beach and the Florida Keys, which is why there are three districts in South Beach that are being targeted, and mine is the most Democratic and the most progressive of the three.

But I want to tell you more about me, and why I'm in this race. I'm in this race because I really believe that our country is headed in the wrong direction, and that we're headed down a cliff. And we need leadership – new leadership – all the way from the President all the way down throughout the entire leadership in our Congress. And when I, through the years, have been looking at the representation that I’ve been getting in Congress, I'm quite appalled at her record, and how she votes against the best interests of my district.

I'm a small business owner, I'm a mother, I'm obviously a woman. I'm running against a woman and a Latina – I'm the only Latina challenger in the country. And when I see that she actually votes against the best interests of our district, it is appalling to me. And as a community leader, I got very involved and would very often go up to Washington and talk to her about how we would need her to vote for different votes that were important to our community, and she would never do that.

But this fall, she did the ultimate straw for me, and that was when she actually voted, with President Bush every step of the way, against children: children's health insurance, SCHIP Expansion. She voted against expanding it, and then she voted to rubber-stamp him on his veto. So when she supported him on the war in Iraq and all the other things, I was extremely upset, and rightly so. But when she then went on the back of our children – we have 250,000 kids in South Florida in my area on a waiting list to get health insurance; 500,000 of them in Florida – I was appalled.

Because you see, I was born in Columbia, South America to an American father who fought in WWII and Korea, and a Columbian mother. And I was born with a cleft lip. So throughout growing up, I had nineteen surgeries. My last surgery was when I was 22 years old. So I know what it's like growing up having to go to the doctor all the time.

And to know that I live in the richest country in the world, and that I'm being represented in Congress by someone that believes that it is okay – it is okay – for a mother to have to pick between paying the rent and taking their kid to the doctor is absolutely not okay. A And I could no longer stand by and let her represent my community and my country.

So I'm running for Congress not just to make a difference in my community, but to make a difference in the world, and to make a difference for all the children who don't have health insurance, because we have a huge problem with health insurance. And if we don't start covering our children, we're never going to cover all our residents. So thank you very much. [Applause.]

Brian Keeler

Thank you. Next, we're going to move north a little bit to Illinois' 10th District, and Dan Seals. Dan?

Dan Seals

Thank you. I ran first in 2006, some of you may know, as a Democrat who didn't have the support of the Democratic Party or the respect of the Republican one. But the Netroots were out for me early, and it made a huge difference. And as we continue to work, what we saw is that our gatherings had started with house parties with ten or fifteen people; grew to thirty, grew to fifty, grew to 100. And by the end, we had brought out 2,600 volunteers, raised just under two million dollars, and won 47% of the vote, which I'm very proud of, although I could have been about three points more proud, to be very honest with you.

And we've only seen the desire for change in our area grow. It's been this war, which was unnecessary, cost too many lives, too much money, weakened our military, and actually left us less safe. It's been this immoral health care system that leaves 47 million Americans without insurance, and almost twice that number who are underinsured. It's been an economy where prices are skyrocketing and wages are stagnant or in decline. And of course, we have an administration who's calling card has been arrogance, div-isiveness, and above all incompetence.

And yet I think there's hope. For one, we know that there are only 186 days left in the Bush administration. [Applause.] Yes, applaud that. That's vital. But I also see, both in my community, and from what I gather across the country, people who have never been involved in politics volunteering; people who have never written checks writing checks; people who have never voted getting registered, and quite honestly, people who have never had hope with hope that we might actually move on in a new course and in a new direction.

And so I want to start by saying thank you to everyone here who has raised their voice, who has volunteered, who has written a check, or done anything to see the change in this country that we so badly, badly need. But I also want to say, very honestly, let's not blow it. Democrats have blown it in the past. We have seen opportunities come – you can think back to 1992 where we elected a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president – only to see it dashed in 1994. Because we didn't just elect candidates, we should have elected a movement to rally around a vision for this country. And I think we need more of that in the Democratic party.

So rather than get relaxed, rather than to sit back and think that we've got it, I would encourage you to do the exact opposite: to double your efforts. Write bigger checks, write more blogs, volunteer more, put more time in so that we can get the change that we deserve. We only have four months to bring it home. Thank you all very much. [Applause. ]

Brian Keeler

One of the nice parts about having this job of talking to candidates in campaigns is that I get to talk to people all over the country. And now we're going to go out west to Nevada's 2nd District, and Jill Derby.

Jill Derby

Thank you. I'm Jill Derby, and I'm running in Nevada's 2nd Congressional District. Nevada has three congressional districts. Two of them are located in Las Vegas, and the one I'm running in is all the rest of the state. It's one of the biggest geographical districts in the country, actually, behind only the at-large districts of Alaska and Montana. Like Dan, I ran in 2006. I had never planned to run for Congress, but I was recruited in my district at a time where we were waking up as Democrats, and noticing how bad things could get.

The district I'm running in has been Republican since it was initially established in about 1980. We've never had a competitive race in it, but in 2006, I made it competitive for the first time with something like a thirteen percent gap between the Republican and Democratic registration. I came within five percent Actually, I had pulled dead even – I was in a dead heat with my opponent; it was an open seat when he called in President Bush, who came in twice for him. And in '06, it still was playing in Nevada, particularly out in rural Nevada, and it tipped the race in his direction.

So in the meantime, I was elected Nevada's State Chair of the Nevada Democratic Party, in a year where Nevada was selected to be in what was called the "pre-window," an early state in the primary process. And Nevada's a caucus state, so as State Chair, we organ-ized an enormous effort to organize Nevada so that we could essentially do the caucuses at a precinct level. It required an enormous organizational effort, but it was an extraordinary party-building opportunity that we took full advantage of.

We had to identify leadership in every precinct in Nevada – 1,754 – which we did, and trained them. So out of that, we built an incredible network of Democratic activists, leaving us an infrastructure that we've never had before. So as I was coming to the end of my year as State Chair, I was really looking at that; thinking of the record of my opponent, who is also a right-wing Republican.

Although he had been Secretary of State in Nevada, and people thought maybe he'd be more moderate, he ended up being a Bush clone, voting over 92% of the time with bush – voting against SCHIP health care for children; consistently against alternative energy incentives, where Nevada is poised to be a state that could benefit enormously with our sun, wind, and geothermal energy; and against... I could go through a litany of things that he voted against, but you know the Bush record and his record is comparable.

So that put me back in this race. The other thing that's very significant about my district is the enormous shift we've seen in registration in Nevada. In '06, Nevada was a Republican state, although statewide, they maybe had a 6,000 majority. We now have more than a fifty, 55,000 majority. That's been the shift in registration that happened. A lot of that happened out of the early caucus opportunity – our organizing as a state Democratic party, but all the candidates being active in Nevada, and canvassing and bringing so many people into the fold of participation.

So Nevada's a new and different state. In my district, what we've seen is the Republican advantage in registration has shrunk by forty percent – way more than I lost by last time – and we expect it to be fifty percent by the time of the election. So it's a new landscape in this district now, running against a Republican with an incredible record. He actually was ranked in the Congressional Quarterly 435th out of 435 in power and influence in Congress. [Laughter.] So we think that's a record to run against.

Just a word about me and my background: I had come from serving eighteen years on the Nevada Board of Regents. In Nevada, it's an elected board that governs all our colleges and universities. I served three terms – eighteen years – and been the Chair of the Board, so you can hear out of that my commitment to education. But something else you should know about me is that when I was out of college, I took a job in the Middle East, and lived there for three years; traveled widely all around the Middle East and the world. That had always been a goal of mine growing up as a kid reading National Geographic.

But I learned to speak Arabic. I got a sense of a different culture and the difference that culture makes in trying to weave together a world that can communicate across cultural differences. So I came back; went through a program that led to a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology with a specialty in Middle Eastern cultures. You can imagine how I felt about 2003 and our invasion of Iraq, knowing the Middle East as well as I do; still having many friends there. It's just been appalling to me to see what we've done. So foreign policy is an area of great interest to me, and great distress.

On top of that, watching what's happened with the erosion of the Constitution – almost illegal expansion of executive powers, erosion of civil liberties, and all of it, the whole litany, I felt, and I'm sure my colleagues felt that if I could play a role in getting this country back, then I was willing to take a chance in a difficult district.

So I'm running in Nevada's red district that's turning blue – not nearly as red as it used to be – and planning to turn it blue, and looking forward. And it's so important, as far as I'm concerned, that we grow our numbers both in the House and in the Senate. So no matter what happens, we really have the muscle and the numbers that can bring about the significant change that this country desperately needs. Thank you.

Brian Keeler

One of the measures of a fast-acting – [audio cuts out momentarily] – of a campaign’s effectiveness is it's ability to be able to react to things on the ground. So I'm sitting there this past spring watching the State of the Union address, and when it's over, I'm blogging away; I've got my computer open. And I'm watching the screen with the sound turned down. And there's Congressman Chris Shays reaching over the railing, and oh, my god, he's kissing George Bush on the mouth. And I thought, "I hope Jim Himes' campaign has gotten that down on tape."

So I knew the campaign manager's email address, I emailed and I said, "Did you see that?" She said, "Yes, I've got it. Wait a minute." And within five minutes, it was up on YouTube. That is a fast-acting campaign. From Connecticut’s 4th District, Jim Himes.

Jim Himes

Thank you, thank you. I am Jim Himes, and I'm running in Connecticut’s 4th District. That night, I think the campaign at that point had about seven people, and there were seven whoops that went up in the district that night at exactly the same moment.

Brian Keeler

There was one coming from New York, too.

Jim Himes

I was going to introduce myself to you by saying that I think I am from the most diverse congressional district in the country. I don't know that to be true, but this is a district that includes, on one hand, Greenwich and Darien and New Canaan, and at the other end, socioeconomically and geographically, the city of Bridgeport, which is one of the poorest cities in the country. And so we have got it all. I was going to introduce myself as the person from the most socioeconomically and culturally diverse district in the country, but I've been to Key West, so Annette, I'm giving you that one.

I am running against a guy who has an increasingly tattered reputation as a moderate, and I just wanted to bring that up for a second. Because many of us who count ourselves progressives, or sometimes the community is maybe sometimes tough on our own moderates. But we need to look at what it means to be a "moderate," because in Chris Shays' case, it means to be an enabler.

And the technical characteristics of how you vote in Congress… And by the way, if you're going to be a Republican Congressman in Connecticut or New England, because now there's only one left, you had better have a reputation for moderation. But my point is simply this: that he can point to a couple of areas where in fact, he does break with his party. They're not areas, necessarily, where Congress has that much sway.

For example, he has a good record on reproductive rights, but as the co-Chair of John McCain's Presidential campaign in Connecticut – and John McCain, of course, is very clear about what he intends to do with respect to the Supreme Court and reproductive rights. But this is a guy who while maintaining a tattered reputation for moderation has been with the President lock, stock, and barrel on the Iraq war; consistently voting against timelines for a withdrawal, even though he promised in the last election that he would support such timelines.

And certainly, we’re feeling this in the District where more and more, and I see it every day from start to finish on the President’s economic policies – supporting the tax cuts of 2002, which got us into this colossal economic mess; supporting the privatization of Social Security. And so this is one Republican congressman with a reputation for some moderation who must go so that we can do what we need to do in 2009.

The race is going tremendously well. Connecticut is a fascinating place. It is, at the end of the day, the home of such people as Lowell Weicker, who founded his own party and was elected governor under such, and of course, Ned Lemont, who comes from the district – people who are not only really reflecting the moderation and independence of the district, but changing the country.

I'm very proud to count myself an early supporter of Ned Lemont's. [Applause.] I had been a supporter of Senator Lieberman when he ran for president; when he ran for vice president. But Ned stood up with a lot of courage and said something. And though he was not successful, he changed the politics in this country. And I saw a purity of thought and a clarity of message there that made me enormously proud to be an early supporter of Ned's.

We are going to win this race because the Northeast and Connecticut and this District is becoming much more blue over time. We are starting to see this come around but as the South got more red, my region of the country got more blue. And of course, we have been invigorated by a number of things. Obama won the state, and his candidacy is going to be helpful in that state to those of us running in the under-ticket.

And we have been invigorated, both by the incredible activist grassroots excitement that probably got it's organization out of Ned Lemont's run for the Senate, but also, frankly, by your classic Connecticut businessmen, and there's a lot of those in my district. And these are people for whom accountability and results are stock and trade.

And though they probably are naturally Republicans, they are looking at where this country has been in the last eight years and saying, "This is outrageous," and therefore leaning my way, realizing that this country needs to do some things very, very differ-ently. I'm a red-to-blue candidate. We've been identified as one of the best opportunities to pick up a Republican seat. The fundraising has gone terrifically well – we've raised just over 2 million dollars for the race now – so we're going to win it. And I'm just as excited as can be.

A minute or two on who I am and why I'm in this. I was in business for 12 years, and for the last six years, I've run an affordable housing nonprofit organization that looks to reinvigorate distressed inner cities through affordable housing. And I just watched, as all of the things that we wrap up into this notion of the American Dream – health care, education, opportunity – as all of these things were deliberately eroded, deliberately eroded as a matter of policy of the Republican Leadership in Washington, D.C., I was personally affronted by that.

I'm a kid who grew up in a single-mom working household, and I had a lot of doors opened for me because my mom had a job that came with health care, and we didn't worry about that. And because I got to go to a good public school, because the little town I grew up in had opportunity, and I could work every job in that small town. And you put all that together – you put together the underpinnings of the success of a kid – and every kid in this country deserves that. And at the end of the day, this is what we call the American Dream. It's a deeply personal thing for me.

That naturally leans us towards a discussion on economics, which we should get into, because we're in a really bad way in this country. And as a former banker, I've followed this with some disgust for many years. But it is also not just about economic things. The American Dream is about fundamental values. And I mention that because this is what gets me out of bed every single morning.

We, as Democratic candidates, we as a Democratic establishment, we as progressives, get to do something really amazing this time around. If you look back on our history, Democrats have always stood strong for justice and equity and opportunity. And maybe over time, the Republican party has more affiliated itself with fiscal responsibility and individual liberty. This year, we get the whole enchilada. We get it all. We get to stand for all of those values.

We get to say we're standing for equity, justice, for the rule of law, for the idea that we do not compromise on the constitution of the United States. [Applause.] It's all ours this time around. We get to be the standard-bearers of the traditional democratic values and every other American value. I'll tell you – that's not just political, that's patriotic, and I'm just so excited about that and delighted to be here with you today. [Applause.]

Brian Keeler

I think you can see that the title of this panel, "Future Leaders," is not a hyperbole. I want to ask a question that might be a little bit technical or a little like inside baseball. But Jill, you ran in 2006, and that was at a time when there wasn't a Presidential cam-paign going on. You're also in a state right now that is identified by many as one that could go from red to blue in the Presidential campaign. Do you notice any palpable difference between when you ran in '06 and in '08 in terms of excitement, or what kind of challenges having a Presidential campaign running on top of you presents?

Jill Derby

Oh, I think, in a way, it's night and day. Nevada's positioning in the pre-window really galvanized interest in the whole political process. And we were preparing to have 40,000 turnout, and 120,000 turned out for the caucuses. So there was so much interest and involvement, engagement, that happened over that whole primary period that it's created a whole different landscape.

Although Obama didn't win in Nevada as a state, he won in my district. He played very well in northern Nevada and rural Nevada, and so there's a whole organization that's already there still from all the organizing that he did. So Nevada's just a whole different place than it was in '06, out of the Presidential primary process. Not only were we in the early window, but it continued to cross the country to generate that kind of excitement, engagement, and numbers turning out. So I think it's an enormously different landscape than it was.

And I think on top of that, so many people are recognizing 2006 was really an election that was a mandate for change, and not very much change happened. And people are realizing that the hour is late, and this is serious stuff, and we better get it right in '08. So Democrats everywhere in Nevada are very energized, very committed, and going to play big in this whole process – much more so than they did in '06.

Brian Keeler

To follow up on what you said about the fact that '06 was an election where things changed, but not much has changed, Annette, when you're elected, what do you think about when you look at the way the present Congress is made up, and what kind of changes the Democrats can actually make going forward with a supermajority, or a great majority, in '08? Do you see anything that Congress may do differently in’08 going forward, or are you settled for what's been going on for the last two years?

Annette Taddeo

Oh, no, I won't settle. [Laughs.] I think we have a lot of work to do. And I hope we – I not only hope, I trust, and the numbers I see in what's considered a district like mine that is turning blue by the thousands on a monthly basis, registering Democrat in South Flor-ida, I think that that's going to a be a tsunami of wins across the country, and certainly in Florida. So I think we're going to have an opportunity to really make a difference, and I think it's going to take leaders such as us to stand up; stand up to those who have and had the guts to go to Congress and actually say, "It's not okay."

You know, it's really important to stand ground, and to stand firm against terrorism, but we don't have to derail our Constitution in the process. So there are so many things we need to do, I certainly spoke about how health care is a major issue, and we need to take care, first and foremost, of our children. And the fact that we haven't been able to expand SCHIP without a veto-proof majority is really sad. And I think that we're definitely going to be able to do that right away. Because whether or not – and god forbid – but whether or not we win the presidency, we will have, I believe, a veto-proof majority to do that.

And that's something we should vote on immediately as we get there, because that's something we've already set in stone and very doable. And kids are already on a waiting list in my community. So there are so many things that we can work on But more importantly, I think, is the leadership, the lack of leadership that we have had of our representatives really willing to stand up and to do what's right, and to have the guts to do it.

Brian Keeler

Dan?

Dan Seals

Yeah, I just wanted to add on both of those comments. So it has been a dramatic differ-ence between running in an off-Presidential year, and an "on" one. There's a bit of co-optition that we are seeing in my race. So I'm in Illinois, running in the suburbs just north of Chicago, and what we find is that a lot of our volunteers were going to Iowa – I, myself, went to Iowa – for Obama, or Indiana, or maybe Wisconsin. And as things have sort of solidified with his candidacy, we're seeing those volunteers come back.

And conversely, turnout – you know, normally what you'd have seen in my district on primary day is roughly 40,000 Republicans and 40,000 Democrats come out and vote. Instead, what we saw on Super Tuesday was 44,000 Republicans and 91,000 Democrats. I mean, the difference has been historic in terms of what has come out. So it's magnifi-cent.

But to your second question, there is a lot of frustration out there because people voted for change in 2006, and we just didn't have the numbers in Congress to really deliver it. So while we have seen some good measures presented in the House, getting them through the Senate and past a presidential veto has been a problem. But I don't see the thirst for change declining as a result of that; I think it has only gotten stronger as people really want to see those ideas put into law and made a reality. So I think that's part of why we're seeing more people come out.

Brian Keeler

Jim?

Jim Himes

Well, just an observation on that – on the question of what can get done. As I campaign around the district, I come across a lot of skepticism, frankly. When you start talking about universal health care, when you start talking about completely changing the way we use energy in this country so that in our lifetimes we radically cut the amount of carbon we put into the atmosphere, when you start talking about urban education and the challenges – all these issues are really hard issues. And of course, we're coming off of a period here where we couldn't even get the easy things right. So there is a lot of skepticism on the part of the general electorate, I would say, about what we can do here.

But here's my answer on that, and it's important for all of us to keep in mind. In the last fifty years, there was one other time when we had increased majorities in the Congress and the Senate, and a Democratic president; that was 1964 under Johnson.

And if you think about what this country did – and if I were a betting man, I'd say we were going to find ourselves in that position – we shouldn't by any means take it for granted, but we are going to find ourselves in that position again – 1964 – right after that, Medicaid gets established. All of the underpinnings for the civil rights legislation gets put in place; the underpinnings for environmental legislation. I mean, we changed this country dramati-cally after 1964, even though through much of that we were burdened by the weight of the Vietnam War.

Now, that's sort of an interesting question – whether we'll have that same sort of burden this time. But that shows you, I think, as you think about the challenges and the magni-tude and the complexity of the problems, we can do it because we're going to have that kind of alignment in Washington for the first time since 1964.

Brian Keeler

I want to turn and open it up to the floor here. Do you have any questions for these four candidates? Yes?

Audience Member

[Beginning of question inaudible.] ...also promote a fundraising ____. It's challenging to have this $350 million gorilla in the room _______. And in the swing states, how are you coordinating ______ Obama _________ to help the Presidential race, and how are you using money ____?

Brian Keeler

I'm going to repeat the question for the _____. Let me know if I get this right. What you want to know is, how is the cooperation in terms of volunteers and energy? And sometimes with the blue states, are they going to other places where they need it more? And also in terms of the fundraising the competition among the fundraising dollars – how are you dealing with that? And Jill, why don't you take a first crack at that?

Jill Derby

Well, let me say that I see it nearly all positive because the amount of energy that Senator Obama has brought and is bringing as a candidate is palpable all of my district. And it's interesting for me in this race that last cycle when I ran, it was a busy ballot with really four constitutional officers running and a Senate race and a gubernatorial race. And this time, it's really in my district – the top of the ballot is the Presidential race in mine.

So we're finding that a lot of the resources, a lot of the volunteers, are really very focused on our race. The Obama folks are just coming in. You know, Nevada's going to be a battleground state. But the number of people that they have energized and brought into the process is really going to serve us very well. And it's just a different landscape out of that.

About the fundraising: I think that it's a challenging time in fundraising just because the economy is so bad. And I'm certainly finding that people who want to be more generous sometimes aren't able to be. But still, we've done well, and I think that's out of people's commitment and the sense that we can really do it this time, and we really must do it this time.

You know, I just have to throw in, being in Nevada, with the Majority Leader Harry Reid from our state, and I often am with him or hearing him talk about his frustration of having such a narrow, razor-thin majority in the Senate, and really not being able to bring about the kind of change that's needed, just in terms of the last question. It's often been very frustrating to him. And that's why I think so many people realize that the White House is vital to us, but growing our numbers in the House and Senate – we've got to do it.

Dan Seals

I commented earlier about some of that “coopatition” that is going on in Illinois. But you are still seeing great candidates. You've got Scott Harper, who's in this room, who is a great candidate, who's new in Illinois and he's running a great campaign, and he's getting support. We're also seeing, though, that the money is there. I mean, let's be honest: it was like a hurricane that came through Illinois with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The amount of money that was coming up. And you talk to donors and there's a tremen-dous amount of fatigue there for all the reasons that you're describing.

But people also see the opportunity here and the need to reverse course. And so we are seeing folks still give. I've been able to raise just about $2.2 million thus far. So people are being forthcoming because the need is so great.

Annette Taddeo

I'd just like to add, I'm in South Florida, and in order for Obama to win Florida, really, he needs to win South Florida. South Florida is the most Democratic area. From Broward down is essential to win Florida. So to have strong candidates in South Florida is really both – it goes both ways. I'm very happy to have him on the ticket because he's bring-ing out the youth vote; he's bringing out the African vote. And that's actually something that we have not seen, and I've studied the turnout, and it has not been there in my district in the past – at all. And I have the University of Miami in my district. So that's extremely exciting.

Now, he also needs me as much as I need him in the sense that I'm a non-Cuban Hispanic who's also Jewish in South Florida. [Laughter.]

Brian Keeler

You fill out the other diversity that he doesn't.

Annette Taddeo

So I think if anything, I help him very much by being on the ticket, by being out there speaking about Democrats and our ideals, and getting out the Democratic vote as well. And also, speaking on Spanish radio constantly – almost on a daily basis – and speaking to the non-Hispanic community and the Cuban community as well.

Cubans are a lot harder to swing our way because they mainly vote Republican, although this year they're showing that they're definitely, if they're of the younger generation – fifty or under – they are definitely eager to vote Democratic. However, the non-Cuban Hispanics, which is actually a larger community in South Florida than Cuban Americans – non-Cuban Hispanics have surpassed Cubans in voter registration. So that is actually where the key is.

And so as the only Democrat on the ticket who is a non-Cuban Hispanic in Florida, I really am delighted to be helpful to Obama, and wish that some of the donors would be helpful to me. [Laughter.]

Brian Keeler

Yes.

Audience Member

All four of you are running in districts that _____ Democratic ______________. And all of you, because I'm _______ a lot, fundraised beautifully in the last couple quarters. Are you [frightened?] that's because it's the Democratic base who's suddenly [feeling] __________, or is it more ___ independence of Republicans who have quite enough within the leadership of their own party _______?

Brian Keeler

The question is, there are traditionally races that have not even had opponents in the last three or four cycles, but the fundraising numbers seem to be there. And he's speculating as to the reason for the great fundraising numbers. Jim?

Jim Himes

Sure. I'd say it's...

Brian Keeler

Other than the fact that you're just really good at it.

Jim Himes

[Laughs.] And it's so much fun.
Brian Keeler

So much fun, yes, I know. Call time is your favorite time, I'm sure.

Jim Himes

Yeah. You know, in my district, you've got certain concentrations of wealth that are used to donating to Presidential campaigns for a long time, and it's not hard... Particularly my predecessor, Dianne [Farrell], who ran two very good races against Chris [Shays] and almost beat him, got them acculturated to helping out at the local level. They really got turned on two years ago when the urgency was around taking control of Congress. That brought a lot of people into it.

And then, yes – I wouldn't say it's a huge factor, but I absolutely will dial the phone to somebody who has a long history of giving to Republicans, and I'll do it with a lot of trepidation. And some of them will say, "I'm just so sick of this. Tell me where I send the check."

Brian Keeler

Any others? Yes, Jill.

Jill Derby

Well, I would only add to that. I think it has a lot to do with – people are very energized over the opportunity to win in a district such as mine where we haven't before. And, that I made it so competitive last time really proved my – I have a track record, and people just see the light here of victory at the end of the tunnel that it really is possible this year. So I think that people are very energized over the opportunity, and also by the recognition that there's so much at stake, and where 2006 didn't work as we thought it would in terms of bringing the real change. Now it's pretty serious and we need to do it.

Brian Keeler

[To an audience member:] Yes. I'm sorry, could you speak up, please?

Audience Member

[Inaudible.]

Brian Keeler

The question is regarding the FISA bill recently. Where do you stand, and will you work when you are elected to fix this particular bill? Dan.

Dan Seals

Yeah, I was talking to a friend of mine about the reforms in Iraq for their Constitution, and he pointed out that we should just give them ours because we don't seem to be using it. And he's got a point. The assault on our civil liberties has been consistent and corrosive. And yes, we caved on the FISA vote that just happened.

Yeah, it should not be okay to have the phone companies or anyone else eavesdrop on anyone without a warrant. There's a reason why you have that system of a check and balance to make sure there isn't an abuse of power. And whether you look back at history at the abuses of FBI, at the internment of Japanese Americans, there's no shortage of people taking advantage of power when no one's looking. So we have to get back on point with that, and I absolutely agree with you and would commit to that.

Brian Keeler

Jim?

Jim Himes

Yes, we had a FISA system that was functioning just fine before the administration decided to break the law and go around it. You could put a wiretap on someone and go BACK to the FISA court for permission to do so retroactively, so where we are now...we never needed to get here.

On the question of immunity, there is a place where we resolve questions of facts and law, and the President's men went to the telco's and said, "Do this," and they did it. There are questions of facts and law there, and we have an institution that is designed to adjudi-cate questions of facts and law, and that is the Judiciary, and that's always where this should have been resolved. And we never should have compromised with an administra-tion that has absolutely no standing to negotiate with us on the Constitution. [Applause.]

Brian Keeler

Jill, he wants to know – all four of you.

Jill Derby

Yes, absolutely. My opponent voted for the FISA law. I would have voted against it. I will vote against it. I think it's one of the most serious things that has happened is the erosion of the Constitution and the infringement on civil liberties, and I thought it was an outrage, and so disappointed that we caved in Congress and voted for it.

Brian Keeler

Annette?

Annette Taddeo

Ditto. I am actually – I think I sort of said it earlier, where my opponent, as well, voted for it. And I am extremely disappointed at the lack of leadership. And I just think that there's a difference between fighting terrorism – because that's the excuse that's being used. I think we can fight terrorism and we can still stand up to terrorists without having to undo our Constitution in the process. That's, I think, where we faltered completely, and that's what I think we need to go and fix when we get there.

Brian Keeler

Before I get on to the next question, Dan had mentioned there's another candidate here. Scott Harper is running, and I'd like you to acknowledge him as well. [Applause.] Another A+. Yes, right here.

Audience Member

Hi. I'm wondering about ______ and ___ approach __________. What can online communities do, and __________?

Brian Keeler

Question is, when they win and they're approached by the blue dog caucus, what kind of online communities do they use in order to have somebody cover their back, is what I'm assuming is your question.

Annette Taddeo

That's a great question, and I notice that...
Brian Keeler

[Laughs.]

Annette Taddeo

No, I'm serious; this is a great question. And I notice that already, online communities are trying to do things about it. For example, I noticed that the online community would like Hilda [Silice] move up the ranks of leadership, and I couldn't agree more. And I notice that they're trying to help her do that by helping her raise the runs the funds that are necessary. And she's helping my candidacy, and I can tell you that that's exactly what we need to do because that's the problem: to get up the leadership.

They raise funds. they need to raise funds and support other candidates in order to get the votes. And so it becomes a vicious cycle. So I already see the online community waking up to the need to do that, and I think that's wonderful. And I'm seeing it with Hilda. And I think when we get there, if we can continue doing that with the right kind of progressive leaders, then I think we'll be able to continue having those kinds of leaders move up the rank. Great question.

Brian Keeler

Jim? Online communities?

Jim Himes

I would just say educate and advocate. You know, look, this is a discussion we have. I'm proud to call myself a progressive, but I promise you I'm going to do things in Congress that are going to irritate certain wings of the progressive party. And that's probably true of anybody. I'm certainly not going to do it on issues of the Constitution.

But we've got a real discussion to be had about what the future of our health care economy looks like. And that's great, that's great. We're going to argue about who pays for it over what period of time, and we're going to agree and disagree with each, and that's great. That's what the whole point of a democracy is.

So my best suggestion is, educate us and advocate, because we have to be informed and we have to be accountable. And if we reach that tipping point where you feel like we've gone too far astray, vote us out of office.

Jill Derby

I think I could only add to Jim's comments by saying how much we'll need you. You know, there's an old expression that says, "When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is quit digging." And we certainly are in a hole. And I think as we start to work ourselves out of this hole, we're going to need a popular support and all of you, not to lose a lot of ground in the following election. I think we're all aware of that – that we have a great shot; that there's just very serious change needed.

And there's going to be some tough decisions to be made, and we'll need the kind of support that you bring, the online community can bring, in communicating the message and relaying the support.

Brian Keeler

Yes, right here.

Audience Member

[Inaudible.]

Brian Keeler

That brings up a point. Joe Garcia is here at Netroots Nation. He's not here in this room.

Audience Member

________ phone calls.

Brian Keeler

Yes, he's doing phone time. But this evening at six-thirty over in the Governor's Balloom in the Hilton, there's a candidates event, where all of these fine candidates will be, and Scott will be there, and Charlie Brown, and Darcy [Burner], and a lot of others. And we'd love to have you all come by and celebrate these fine candidates and other Netroots candidates. Yes, right over here.

Audience Member

[Inaudible.]

Brian Keeler

All right, let's take those one at a time. First of all, the first question was health care. The end game is single-payer health care. Shall we start with Dan?

Dan Seals

Sure. So on health care, I guess the way you'd set it up, I'd be an incrementalist. I have three principles that I think we should be following with regard to health care. Number one is, if you have insurance and you like it, then we should not take it away from you. You should keep it and let's leave you alone. What we should have is an affordable alternative for those who do not have insurance or who are underinsured. And it has to be an organization with a nonprofit motive. So whether that's taking something like the Medicare system and expanding it, or having a nonprofit institution that's created, we need to have that.

I would also go further and say, three, that we need to have health care become portable. I know too many people who are stuck in jobs just for the benefits. And frankly, I know too many businesses who are being crushed under the weight of providing health care. So I'd like to separate the two out in the long run.

Do you want me to go into the second question, or...?

Brian Keeler

No, I want to do health care here, still, with Jim.

Jim Himes

On health care, I'm probably where Dan is on this. I think if you were creating out of scratch a health care system, you probably would create a single-payer system. But as a businessman for twelve years, conscious of sort of how sticky the economy is and conscious of the fact that our health care system is now – what? – 17% of our GDP? I mean, we're talking about a massive structure.

I am supportive of more hybrid models that I think actually may push us in the direction of single-payer health care. Because if you look at Medicare, or if you look at the whole structure of our health care system, turns out it's a bizarre corner of the economy where public structures like the VA or Medicare are actually more efficient than the private. So I'd like to see us migrate in that direction. But as a businessman, I'm not comfortable saying we're taking 17% of our economy and we're revolutionizing it overnight.

And by the way, I also agree with the principles that Dan put forward. I think that's a smart way to think about it.

Brian Keeler

Jill?

Jill Derby

And I fall into the incrementalist camp as well. Not that I don't think a single-payer system could work and work well, but in terms of the importance of being able to move forward on it, I worry that there would be a reaction to it that would make it difficult to get the kind of reform and change that we need. I think we need to work towards it incrementally because I think there's an appetite for that. I think the health care system isn't working for anybody. It brings everybody to the table. But I think we have to work with what we have.

I think one of the principles that it's important to me will be that people have choice and get to choose their providers in any kind of a system that we put together.

Brian Keeler

Let's move onto the second question that you had, and that is equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians. Annette.

Annette Taddeo

[Laughs.] I never answered the other one. I'm also an incrementalist on the health care issue, and I spoke about SCHIP, and I really believe we're never going to get to talk about health care for all Americans if we don't take care of our children first.

On LGBT, I will be representing a very large community, and I'm someone that actually is, right now – [our] Florida, we actually have a vote coming up in November that's a very important one, where they actually want to bring about a change to our constitution in Florida. And I'm on the Advisory Board of saying no to... It's a change to an amend-ment, and they actually want to make it, you know, an amendment on our constitution [than] a marriage just between a man and a woman – which already is legal in the State of Florida, or illegal for anyone except a man and a woman, according to whatever.

So the point is, this amendment is a huge mistake, and I am totally against the amend-ment that they're trying to propose. And I'm on the Advisory Board and have been very vocal about it in my community. So as such, that's what I'm concentrating my time on – just making sure that this amendment in Florida does not pass, because we need to leave it the way it is so we can actually allow the courts to handle the issue as it comes about, just like it did in California...for the opportunity.

All Americans should have the opportunities, to any opportunity that I have. And Americans should not be given any less opportunity than anybody else.

Brian Keeler

Dan.

Dan Seals

Yeah. For me this is an easy one. The Constitution cannot be applied selectively. Every American has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, period. And I don't see how you could try to parse our who that applies to. We just commemorated the ruling of the Supreme Court decision – the Loving ruling, which is wonderfully named, although it's a coincidence. People like me wouldn't be here if that were not allowed. So I see this as a civil rights issue, plain and simple.

Brian Keeler

Jill?

Jill Derby

Yeah. The district that I'm running to represent includes a huge part of rural Nevada, as well as sort of the Reno-Tahoe-Carson, which is the urban concentration. There aren't any issues, I'm happy to report, on the Nevada ballot around this. And as far as I'm concerned, I'm happy to allow the states to make their rulings on it, and I'm a supporter of civil unions.

Brian Keeler

Jim.

Jim Himes

So I'm an elder in the Presbyterian church, so I understand people who have value- or faith-based concerns with the idea of gay marriage. But on this topic, I'm not an incrementalist, I'm a libertarian, which is that government that has no damn business discriminating between any of its citizens when it's allocating rights and privileges. If we're going to have something called marriage and if that is going to be a concept in law to which we attach rights and privileges, government doesn't get to discriminate. [Applause.]

Brian Keeler

All the way in back.

Audience Member

[Inaudible.]

Brian Keeler

Anyone want to take that on? The question is, right now, if you were elected, would you vote to repeal the defense?

Audience Member

[Inaudible.]

Brian Keeler

Right.

Audience Member

[Inaudible.]

Brian Keeler

If you're elected, would you vote to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which has all of those particular caveats the control state law?

Jim Himes

Listen, I haven't read the bill; I don't know every detail OF it. But the answer's the same as before: equality for everybody. Period.

Jill Derby

My answer is yes.

Annette Taddeo

My answer is yes, and I actually criticize my opponent for supporting it. And much of my community doesn't know. And she claims to be a supporter of the gay and lesbian community, and she is not.

Dan Seals

Ditto.

Brian Keeler

[Laughs.] Total agreement among the panel. Any other questions here? Well, I've got a question. We've seen recently that there have been a series of subpoenas coming out of the House Judiciary Committee concerning various and sundry activities by officials of the White House. And they have been seeming to hide behind the executive privilege claim – that is, the administration has put on.

And it seems to me that – or it seems to a lot of people in the blogosphere that this particular subpoena power is being sort of diluted or ignored by the very people who are entrusted to carry out these subpoenas. Where do you stand in terms of the power of the House to be able to actually have teeth in a subpoena power to call people in front and make them go ahead and actually testify in front of various committees? Dan?

Dan Seals

That's a very leading question. [Laughs.] Of course you want the subpoenas to have teeth. And this administration has just been a prime example of this sort of backdoor usurpation of power, whether it's the signing statements, whether it's failing to show up, even when subpoenaed – i.e., Karl Rove. There's no shortage of examples of the arrogance, and quite frankly, the ideology that this administration has demonstrated. So you'd have to have to teeth to be able to enforce the law, and that's what it's about.
Brian Keeler

Mm-hmm. Jill?

Jill Derby

Yeah, I think one of the things that's at stake in this election is growing our numbers so that we can... I think one of the great disappointments to everybody, certainly me, is the way the Congress seems to have just caved and not stood up at these pretty outrageous sorts of acts: the President's signing statements, for example. I mean, where was the Congress? Why didn't they stand up and say, "You can't do that – that violates the Constitution, the separation of powers"?

And I think it's because they felt they didn't have the numbers – they'd lose. Whatever. But I think that's one of the important things about this election in growing our numbers, is that so this Congress can stand up for what's right and what's the rule of law, and not allow this kind of erosion that's gone on over these last years that I think has left us in a [sorriest/serious] place.

Brian Keeler

Jim?

Jim Himes

Yeah, I'm on the same page. I mean, we all understand the terrible need for accounta-bility. And I'll make a slightly different argument, which maybe in the long run is as important as accountability. Twenty years from now, we're going to look back on this period of our history and we're not going to be proud of it. We're not going to be proud of this period in our history. And I don't know if it rises quite to the level of shame [relating to] the internment of the Japanese in World II, or the McCarthy hearings – that's for the historians to decide.

But if we don't dissect what happened, if we don't take testimony, if we don't understand the dynamics that allowed an administration to run amuck, we've failed our obligation to history. Because if we don't dissect it, we'll do it again. And so quite apart from the accountability, we as a country have an interest in really understanding how we got off the rails. And the only way we're going to understand that is if we get to talk to everybody about it.

Brian Keeler

And I can't believe that we've had a discussion with four congressional candidates in 2008 for an hour and ten minutes, and the word 'Iraq' has not been brought up. In 2006, when we had the same panel, every single question had something to do with the war in Iraq. Is that because, necessarily, it has been taken off the media's screen; or is it because legislators and candidates don't find that it's necessarily they want to discuss; or… Could you please tell me where your particular attitude is about the war in Iraq, and how would you implement your particular ideas? Annette?

Annette Taddeo

I think the war in Iraq is very important and is actually partly to blame for a lot of the situations that we're in. And the reason why we probably don't bring it up as much is because we're in a horrible economic situation. And we're in a horrible economic situation because we got into a war that's costing us over $450 million a day, and with no end in sight, and nobody having the leadership or the guts to get out.

And I think we definitely are talking about it; I'm certainly talking about it on a daily basis because I'm running against someone who refuses to stand up to the President and just keeps rubberstamping the President every step of the way in the war on Iraq. Not only that, but the shame that he was just speaking about, the shame of the fact that…

I do find it shameful that we have done things that we never thought we would ever do, such as torture. And I've actually...I'm running against someone who, when she first got to Congress, she actually, very eloquently, spoke against torture, because it was being done by Cubans against Americans. And now, when it's being done by Americans, she defends it and says it's okay.

So it is absolutely appalling and embarrassing that we're at this point in our history and our country where we turn the other cheek and we say it's okay for us to do it because it's us. It's not okay. We are going through a very difficult time, and I think the war in Iraq is something that is at the forefront – certainly in my community – my community wants us to get out, and I think we need to. We need to get out.

And what's worse is now we're seeing that in the process of being in Iraq, we haven't been paying attention to where the real terrorists were [harvesting], and al-Qaeda was getting stronger and stronger, and that's Afghanistan. So that's everything that we've been saying all along, but tremendously, unfortunately, coming to fruition.

Brian Keeler

Jill?

Jill Derby

I signed onto the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, one of the early signers. [Applause.] And if you're familiar with that, you know where I stand and what you can count on me for.

Brian Keeler

Jim?

Jim Himes

The administration learned the lessons of the Vietnam War, and it should be an article of faith that any time our young men and women – when I say young, these are kids half my age – are in harm's way, it ought to be first and foremost in our minds. And it's not, because the administration learned the lessons of the Vietnam War. Vietnam was problematic for a bunch of reasons, and of course, came to an end when the middle class and everybody was getting drafted.

Now, we don't have that; we have an all-volunteer force. And they've taken this a step further, which is not only are the costs and sacrifices, the horrible costs and sacrifices of this war being borne by a very, very small number of military families, we're not paying for it; we've put it on the credit card. So now we have a war where the horrible costs and sacrifices are concentrated in our military families and nobody's paying – frankly, that's not true. My daughters are paying for it. That's a real, real problem.

So the point you make is a real threat, because if we can fight wars and not know about it, we're going to do it more.

Dan Seals

Let me pick up where Jim left off, because you hear from some soldiers that they feel like they are an army at war rather than a nation at war. There is a disconnect, actually, between the support that they're feeling and the support we're being asked to give. There is no sense of shared sacrifice. In fact, this administration has asked us to go shopping in order to show our patriotism, and that's an awful message to send.

The war is still an issue. My opponent didn't just vote for the war; he was one of the folks who crafted the language the authorized it, and has voted nine times to keep us in the conflict. He had the opportunity to talk with the President about the war, and he didn't go there to say, "Mr. President, let's change course on the war," or even, "Let's stay the course on the war, " but that this was killing his real election chances. And he's right, of course. It is. Because people still care very deeply about this issue.

I think the fatigue that's there is frustration – that we haven't been able to extricate ourselves from it. But make no mistake – we have spent $535 billion, committed to spend another $168 billion, and there is no end in sight. You know, when you look at the opportunity costs that come along with that, whether it's the tens of thousands of new teachers we could've had, or police officers, or if you prefer, a tax cut, or to have a tax cut for our kids, there's a tremendous cost that's still being borne. People absolutely want to see us get out.

Brian Keeler

One more question. Right over here.

Audience Member

[Inaudible.]

Brian Keeler

The question is, cab you all talk about how your opponents are pretending to be Democrats? Jim, since you have one of the biggest pretenders, why don't you take that first?

Jim Himes

Sure, and I'll give you two examples. That's exactly right. And Chris Shays, who culti-vates a brand as a moderate Republican – I talked about this a little bit before – it is a purely political maneuver. And he does, in fact, sort of make soul-searching noises and hair-pulling and gnashing of teeth in even-numbered years. And he did this to my predecessor. He said in August of '06 that he supported timelines for a withdrawal of our troops, and then voted against them in Congress three, four, five times. You don't get to do that on issues of national security. You say what you mean, and you mean what you say.

Another example – you asked for other examples – 21 years in Congress, absolutely no interest in universal health care, but six months ago, signs up to cosponsor the John [Langoven] bill that would basically expand the federal health care program to all Americans. Now, the interesting thing about that is, that's when he's a minority Congressman, and he neglected twice, when that same bill came before Congress when the Republicans owned the place, and his cosponsorship actually could have made a difference to take any notice of that bill. So that's another example of all of a sudden election year conversion on an issue that the polls say are very important to people.
Annette Taddeo

I want to mention because mine is ______. She actually loves to send Franklin mail with a picture of her with Pelosi being sworn in. Doesn't say anywhere, of course, that she's a Republican. And on the back of it, she always sends us a picture of her with kids – and African American kids, especially; and really trying to put up the image that she's a Democrat. And talks about her vote for SCHIP. Of course, that just talks about the vote to reauthorize it, not the vote to expand it. Talks about any vote that she can think of that is just barely reauthorizing anything at all, but not in any way being there in any of the Democratic votes or any of the Democratic ideals.

However, since I got in the race, I have gotten her to vote with Democrats on a few issues, so I feel that I'm already doing my job even though I'm not there. [Applause.]

Brian Keeler

Jill, how is your opponent pretending to be a Democrat?

Jill Derby

Yeah, my opponent isn't actually pretending to be a Democrat. And I find that very refreshing. [Laughter.] He's voted over 92% with the Bush administration and continues to do that.

Brian Keeler

Sounds Democratic.

Jill Derby

A misread of my district. Yeah.

Brian Keeler

Dan?

Dan Seals

I have a similar situaiton in that my opponent has always portrayed himself as being moderate. What he's actually doing now is moving further to the right. For example, he doesn't have anything on the Iraq war on his Web site. He won't even talk about it. Pretends it's not there. If you want to see something fun, go on YouTube and look at Mark Kirk on the war on Iraq, and you'll see a veteran asking him for his position on the war, and you'll see about two minutes of him running from this guy asking him. It's amazing to see.

He has similarly said that Barack Obama has united the Kerry/Dukakis coalition, which I guess is a jab, in his view; and that the problem with Dan Seals is he backs the Obama agenda, to which I say, guilty as charged. So it's been interesting to see the true face of my opponent as he has started to really show his colors on these issues.

Brian Keeler

I want you to join me in thanking these fine candidates here. [Applause.] And don't forget their ActBlue page. That's even a nicer way to thank them. And thank you all for coming and being part of today's conversation.