Who's Freed Up By Vilsack's Departure From The Race?
Now that ex-IA Gov. Tom Vilsack (D-IA) put the kibosh on his presidential race, here are some of the free agents he's leaving behind. Iowa Democrats: no longer can you hide behind Gov. Vilsack as a reason for not taking Sen. Hillary Clinton's phone call. No more excuses.
Sen. Tom Harkin -- we bet he'll remain neutral. And why not? He's up in '08 anyway.
Teresa Vilmain -- a legendary political operative and field organizer who almost never talks to the press and is known as a miracle worker inside the party. If she doesn't join Clinton's campaign, be very surprised.
Jerry Crawford -- Vilsack's close friend, a top Des Moines lawyer, Kerry's former Iowa chair, a former DGA finance chair, one of the Democratic Party's top fundraisers. He's blessed with a political mind and a massive rolodex.
Jeff Link: a former Harkin re-election mgr, former Gore state director, former ACT state director and state party strategist, he was "senior communications adviser" to the Vilsack campaign. Link has close ties with senior members of Sen. Barack Obama's campaign.
Link's partner in consulting is Matt Paul, a former dep. chief of staff for Tom Vilsack, mgr for Mike Blouin, and dep. state director for Hillary Clinton.
Travis Brock -- a young veteran of state and national campaigns in Iowa.
Other names: Vilsack's Iowa state director Dusky Terry... campaign manager Craig Varoga.... and communications director Josh Earnest.
What a disappointment. His campaign was probably doomed from the start by the obscene amounts of money it takes to run a national campaign. But I believe he's right - in 6 months all the Democratic candidates will be saying the US must get out of Iraq and will be copying his blueprint for a national energy program.
This demonstrates the shortcoming of our obsolete Presidential Public Funding Law. It seems like the abiltiy to raise money is more important that the ability to lead in how we chose our candidates. Updating the current public funding law and adding the Senate and House of Representatives can be done for Just $6 per person. Isn't democracy worth more than that?
how much fed. tax money did he get?