Please endorse Clint Curtis for congress in FL-24

UPDATE: A debate between Clint Curtis and Suzanne Kosmas was held by WMFE, the PBS affiliate in Orlando, last Friday, August 8th. Watch it here.

Congratulations, Clint, on a terrific performance. There's no doubt who is the better, and more progressive, candidate!

UPDATE #2: The FEC has filed charges against Kosmas:

This has caused the state party to step up campaign activity for her and has resulted in Federal Election Commission charges being filed against the Kosmas campaign for deliberately misrepresenting themselves to the primary election voters. Paid campaign staffers were using state party offices and phones to place calls to registered Democratic primary voters, identifying themselves as representatives of the Florida State Democratic Party, and urging them to vote for Kosmas. This is a violation of FEC rules and a charge has been filed.

Check it out here and here.

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I got an email from the Clint Curtis campaign a couple of days ago. Clint's running for congress in FL-24 against incumbent republican, Tom Feeney (tied to Abramoff) and he has an opponent--Suzanne Kosmas--for the primary.

I met Clint Curtis in Washington, DC, just after the 2004 election, when people gathered to protest the the acceptance of the electoral college vote, and again at a DFA conference in NH in June of 2007. He is smart, dedicated and committed to serving his district in Congress. He knows more about election integrity and electronic voting machine issues than most members of congress. He is a former computer programmer and whistle blower, who testified at a 2006 congressional hearing (see video below) held to investigate election fraud in Ohio in 2004. He came very close to winning the 2006 general election against Feeney, despite being outspent 26 to 1!

From Clint Curtis for Congress blog

In 2006, Curtis launched his first congressional bid — as a Democrat — taking on Feeney himself for his FL-24 seat. A pre-election Zogby poll showed Curtis in a statistical dead heat with Feeney — despite Feeney’s big-money smear campaign against Curtis (‘CrazyClintCurtis.com’ featured doctored photos of Curtis wearing a tin foil hat.) But on election night, Curtis took a double-digit drubbing. Problem is, those election results didn’t make much sense based on the Zogby poll, exit polling or Curtis’ own internal polling. So Curtis did something remarkable. He filed a Congressional election challenge.

His team went door to door collecting signed affidavits from FL-24 voters testifying as to how they voted. The results were shocking. The official results were wildly off, by double digits in places. Despite this evidence, the Democratically controlled House committee summarily dismissed his election challenges (along with several others.)

But I digress...

Suzanne Kosmas, wealthy real estate developer and owner of Prestige Properties of New Smyrna Beach, served in the Florida state legislature from 1996 to 2004, where she co-sponsored a resolution to support GW's invasion of Iraq. She announced her candidacy for US Congress on January 31st of this year. This is Kosmas' opening statement on her website:

Welcome

I am running for Congress to change the priorities in Washington and bring a moderate, common sense, and fiscally responsible approach to government.

During my time in the state legislature, I worked hard to focus on people over politics. I frequently voted across party lines, because it was my job to represent Florida families - not a political party.

Suzanne Kosmas

Wow.

So, guess who the DCCC has endorsed?

Now, in order to tell this tale, I need to add US Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, FL-20, to the cast of characters. Considered one of the "brightest stars" of the current Democratically-controlled house, Wasserman Schultz has mightily angered the left, as demonstrated by the following quote which was taken from the popular blog, Down with Tyranny:

Wasserman Schultz, the sorry chairperson of the DCCC's very compromised Red to Blue program, virtually endorsed 3 extreme right South Florida Republican incumbents-- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart-- with the clear intention of sabotaging the campaigns of the three Democrats running against them-- Annette Taddeo, Raul Martinez, and Joe Garcia-- and making it impossible for them to get serious institutional money in Florida. She angered enough people, who pressured the DCCC, so that she finally made nice with Raul Martinez and Joe Garcia. She is still doing everything in her power to undercut Annette Taddeo, the challenger in the least Republican-leaning of the 3 districts.

So, the congresswoman refused to endorse the Democratic challengers to Republican-held congressional seats in south Florida, and the DCCC made her the chairwoman of the Red to Blue program. What am I missing here?

One of the candidates Wasserman Schultz has endorsed for Red to Blue is Suzanne Kosmas. Her PAC, DWSPAC (Democrats Win Seats/Debbie Wasserman Schultz) has given Kosmas $4,378. The main tactic Wasserman Schultz and Kosmas have used against Curtis, a viable candidate who came close to beating Feeney in the last election and who announced his candidacy long before Kosmas thought of running, is to ignore him. Kosmas runs against Feeney. Period. Curtis has asked for debates; she hasn't responded. No one ever mentions Clint Curtis. And, because Curtis doesn't have the machine backing him up, he struggles to stay in the public spotlight.

(More about Wasserman Schultz from the Huffington Post here and here.)

This is from Curtis' email:

My opponent has received lots of media attention and money – most of it from out-of-district donors who can write big checks – but for what? She can’t win. The polls prove it. Even a poll by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Emily’s List puts her far behind the Republican incumbent: http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/congress/florida.html

Here are a number of posts about Clint at Brad Blog.

Here's Clint's website. And, while you're there, don't miss his blog.

Help Clint Curtis by going to DFA and add your vote urging them to endorse him!

And, if you are able, please contribute to his campaign.