Weekly Update (8/31/07)

DAPAC Endorses Two Progressives in Open and Winnable Districts
This week, DAPAC made its first endorsements for the 2008 Congressional election. We are happy to announce our endorsement of Mary Jo Kilroy in Ohio's 15th district, and John Laesch in Illinois' 14th.

DAPAC endorsed Kilroy in 2004 when she narrowly lost the election by just 1,055 votes. The district is trending Democratic and the incumbent, Deborah Pryce, has announced she will not be seeking another term. This leaves the seat wide open for Mary Jo Kilroy to win.

John Laesch was also a 2004 DAPAC candidate, but lost the election to veteran Republican Dennis Hastert, who is not seeking reelection in 2008. Laesch is already running an aggressive campaign for this open seat, and hopes to use his experience as a military veteran and intelligence analyst in Congress.

Both candidates have pledged to support progressive causes once elected, such as pro-choice legislation, ending the Iraq War, supporting publicly funded universal healthcare, gay and lesbian rights, environmental protection, working families rights, and many others.

Financial Crisis Illustrates Republican Failings
News of financial difficulties continue to grow, and this week Freddie Mac, the second largest buyer of home mortgages in the country, reported a 45% decrease in profits for the second quarter of this year. This is especially telling because Freddie Mac buys what are considered high quality mortgages, illustrating that defaults are spreading beyond the subprime market. The subprime market continues to be a major focus of the financial discussion though, especially as mortgage companies like Countrywide have been exposed for granting mortgages that were largely designed to fail.

Overall, the credit crisis shows that the deregulation of business that Republicans have been pushing for years has failed to protect Americans. Representative Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Service Committee, stated, “The financial markets have outgrown the current regulatory systems, and we need to do something about it.” The best way to do this is to gain back Democratic control of the White House, and increase Democratic power in Congress. DAPAC's candidates will fight to guard against big business abuse and protect all Americans. In fact, we screen candidates for endorsement on this basis – we ensure that our candidates will support loan restructuring programs to help avoid foreclosures, and will support legislation to end predatory lending practices.

This Week's Polls
The most recent presidential polling data from Gallup shows that Americans continue to prefer Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side, and Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nominee. First, Gallup asked Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents about their presidential preference. Here are the results:

Clinton: 48%
Obama: 25%
Edwards: 13%
Kucinich: 2%
Richardson: 2%
Dodd: 1%
Biden: 1%
None/no opinion: 6%

Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, the results were as follows:

Giuliani: 32%
Thompson: 19%
Romney: 14%
McCain: 11%
Huckabee: 4%
Paul: 3%
Hunter: 2%
Hagel: 1%
Brownback: 1%
Tancredo: 1%
Other: 1%
None/no opinion: 11%