Friday, August 05, 2005

North by northwest


Congressman David Obey (D-1960s) has a challenger next year in Nick Reid, a congressional press aide for Kansas Congressman Jim Ryun. Reid's official bio looks pretty good,
In 2001, Nick and Beth were married and moved to Washington, DC to gain valuable experience in public policy. Nick obtained an internship at one of the leading national think tanks, the Heritage Foundation. Nick was quickly promoted to State Relations Project Coordinator, where he coordinated Heritage's outreach efforts to State Legislators and Governors. A year later, Nick was again promoted to Deputy Director of U.S. Senate Relations, where he became Heritage's liaison to members and staff of the U.S. Senate. Nick currently works as the Press Secretary to Representative Jim Ryun from Kansas.
With any luck, Reid might just be able to run a good campaign against Obey who is best known for his harmonica playing. It would be a major upset if Reid won given that Obey last won re-election with 86% of the vote.

Also considering running is Mike Miles of the Green Party. According to his website, in 2004 he was the top vote getting Congressional Candidate for the Green Party nationwide, and apparently he got 9% of the vote in his district. I love this analysis on his site:
Dave Obey won with the highest margin EVER against ANY opponent. According to the Stevens Point Journal, even Republicans were turning out in big numbers for him. Seems they didn’t want to take any chances that I would work to end war once and for all if I happened to be elected. After all, we need jobs up here, and war is THE growth industry.
Dave Obey, war monger. I've heard it all.

By the way, Miles has a survey on his site asking if he should run in 2006. So far, it's running eight to two in favor of running. It's a mandate! Run Miles run!