What a year it’s been! As the fall turns to winter (except that it’s still 70 degrees?!?!) and the madness that was Election 2006 subsides, we here at DoubleSpeak wanted to take a minute to thank you for your support, hard-work and dedication over the past year. There is no doubt that 2006 is a year none of us will ever forget.
After traveling to over 20 states in 50 days, we were all in need of some time to reconnect with family and tend to our “day jobs.†While we miss living out of a 1999 Toyota Sienna minivan, it is very good to be home.
We are incredibly proud of what DoubleSpeak accomplished in such a short amount of time. Thousands of activists downloaded the show, we appeared on numerous radio stations across the country talking progressive politics and grassroots activism, and we interviewed dozens of high-profile candidates for office all over the country. And, while doing our part to help America we had the time of our lives traveling as brothers-in-arms to help secure a sweeping Democratic victory.
While things have been slow on the website since the Election, we plan to hit the ground running in 2007 with a new look, new features, and video! We will continue to bring you quality interviews with decision makers and party leaders both inside and outside of Washington, D.C. Of course, we’ll also begin our coverage of the 2008 election, which is already heating up!
We had a fantastic year. We owe all of our listeners a debt of gratitude. Thank you for taking the time to listen and to share your ideas and your pennies as we look forward to continuing this journey with you in the New Year.
Finally, we want to dedicate the work we’ve done over the past year to our good friend Mike W. who is serving in Iraq. Mike is doing a hell of a job out there and we hope to have him back on American soil soon. We love and miss you, buddy.
See you down the road a bit,
Matthew Slutsky, Host
Peter Slutsky, Host
Joshua Skaroff, Producer
where it will be announced shortly that the race for Congress in the OH-15 between Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) and Deborah Pryce (R-OH) will be thrown into an automatic recount. This recount is mandated by Ohio law and any claims by Pryce of victory are both premature and false. As it stands, there is a 1,054 differential, or less than .05% in votes between the two candidates. There have been allegations of human error in the original count. Overseeing this recount will be Ohio’s Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. This is a very bad thing. More on this important race later. Update:Columbus Dispatch has the story.
Darcy Burner; the young, charismatic, smart woman running for Congress in Washington State’s 8th district has lost to her Republican opponent Dave Reichert. The election went into overtime, as it was too close to call on election night.
This really sucks for Team America. Darcy would have made an excellent Congresswoman. However, all is not lost. Our hope is that she will run again in 2008 and win!
Darcy appeared on DoubleSpeak a couple months back. Take a listen to our interview.
I had a bunch of individual posts cued up for every winning DoubleSpeak candidate, but since most of them are winning I’ll just sum it up now.
At 1:22 AM Eastern Time, Nancy Pelosi will be the next Speaker of the House with a pickup of at least 23 seats (with more pouring in literally every minute) and the Senate is looking tied at worse. We’re watching MSNBC at the bar and the Sec’ of State sites from Virginia and Missouri.
Throughout this trip, we have seen the gas prices jump all over the map. They started high on the East Coast and have come down significantly in states that have tight races in 2006. Surprise, surprise, the GOP is playing politics with America’s gas prices.
Right now, we’re driving through Missouri and have noticed that the prices have dropped big time! Why? Sen. Jim Talent vs. Claire McCaskill.
A message to the GOP: if you can manipulate the price of gas in the battleground states, why don’t you help the rest of the country? Just an idea.
-Peter
Check out this YouTube video of Ohio Senator Mike DeWine (R) greeting the voters at a campaign stop in Lorain County.
Sen. DeWine’s rubber stamp has just about dried out. It looks like Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) will defeat him on November 7th. The polls for Rep. Brown look good!
This is what a campaign with momentum looks like in the final days!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
We just arrived in cold, snowy Livingston, MT. It’s dark, so I can’t tell what the landscape around us is like but I can imagine we will be greeted with some amazing views at first light tomorrow morning.
We are staying at chez Reinhart and what a family they are! We met Michelle Reinhart a couple days ago in Missoula. Michelle is dating a good friend of mine from campaigns past and she is about to be sworn in as one of the youngest members of the Montana State Legislature. Michelle beat Lloyd Kilcrease in a June primary with 85% of the vote and barring the unexpected, she will represent the people of House District 97 the next time the legislature meets in Helena.
If you have anything else to give this cycle, please donate to Michelle’s campaign. She’s a great progressive and since her seat is now safe, she’s spreading out her contributions to other members who are in tough election or re-election fights.
Not only did Michelle, Kevin and Sarah put us up for the weekend and cook us delicious meals, but Michelle also arranged for us to stay with her parents who live right outside of Yellowstone National Park, which just happens to be our next destination.
So, here we are in Livingston getting a good night’s rest and pulling out our winter gear so we will be ready to hit the park early tomorrow morning.
We went out last night to celebrate an early Halloween. I met this nice old lady at one of the bars we stopped into. I couldn’t believe she was out so late and I was also a little put off by her facial hair. Oh well…
