From Red to Blue

Yesterday, Congressman Chris Van Hollen from Maryland (MD-8) came to New York to announce the following:

Democratic Congressional candidate John Hall has pulled even with Rep. Sue Kelly in 19th District polling, and the National Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced it now considers the Hall-Kelly contest in the “Red-to-Blue” class of districts moving from Republican to Democratic control.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who heads up the DCCC Red-to-Blue effort, told a noontime news conference at Croton Point Park that national Democrats believe John Hall is within sight of victory on Election Day.

The news conference was called by the Sierra Club to announce its endorsement of Hall. The 750,000-member environmental organization joins a host of others in supporting Hall, including unions representing two million New York wage-earners.

“The DCCC recognition of our campaign is no surprise to us,” said Tom Staudter, Hall’s press secretary. “Our own polling shows this election to be dead even.”

Staudter attributes the Hall campaign’s success, despite Kelly’s 3-to-1 financial advantage, to its grassroots nature. “Our hundreds of volunteers throughout the
district are knocking on doors and phoning people by the thousands each week,” he said.

“We are taking on Kelly’s ‘air war’—her incessant and entirely negative on-air commercials paid for by special-interest big donors—with our ‘ground troops’, ordinary middle-class and working people who live in the district and want change from the Bush-Cheney-Kelly policies,” Staudter said.

If blogger would allow (dang them anyway) I would put up the picture I have.