Weekly Update (2/8/08)

DAPAC Endorses Jared Polis
DAPAC is proud to announce its fifth endorsement for the 2008 Congressional election: Jared Polis. He joins Sam Bennett, Jim Himes, Mary Jo Kilroy, and Victoria Wulsin as DAPAC's endorsed candidates running for the US House of Representatives in 2008. Next year he will be fighting for an open seat in Colorado's 2nd Congressional district. He will need your help to push him through the competitive Democratic primary.

The seat is currently held by Mark Udall, who is relinquishing the seat to run for senate. Udall has held the seat for ten years and it will almost definitely remain in Democratic hands, but it is questionable how progressive that Democrat will be. By securing the primary election for Jared Polis we will ensure that the Democrat who takes over for Udall will be a progressive one; someone who we can be proud of.

Polis is a truly progressive candidate, supporting all of the issues we at DAPAC champion, such as being 100% pro-choice, supporting same-sex marriage, taking immediate steps to end the war in Iraq, supporting publicly funded, single payer, universal healthcare, and many others. He has pledged to vote for these issues once in Congress. DAPAC is proud to add him as a newly endorsed candidate.

Jared Polis was born to parents who were active in the anti-war movements in the 60's. They instilled in Jared the ideal that one should try to make the world a better place. He has worked in both the private and public sectors and in both has fought hard to ensure that all have access to education and healthcare.

In the private sector, Polis founded several high tech companies that created hundreds of high-paying jobs and always included strong healthcare benefits for employees. He also founded the Jared Polis Foundation in 2000 which improves and expands access to education.

He has been a strong advocate for public education for many years. He served on the Colorado State Board of Education for six years, and was the first Democratic Chairman in over 40. He co-chaired a successful $300 million bond initiative to make repairs and upgrades to learning environments, and to improve energy efficiency. He also co-founded the Academy of Urban Learning to provide homeless youth an opportunity to earn a high school diploma, co-chaired the Colorado Commission on High School Improvement, and Chaired a National Association of State Boards of Education study group.

Polis also has significant political experience. He served as a member of both the Colorado and Boulder County Democratic Party Executive Committees from 2000-2007, volunteered for many campaigns, including the Clinton, Gore, and Kerry presidential races, and he spearheaded a coalition of major donors in 2004 to win control of the state legislature for the Democratic party.

Polis takes a progressive stance on political action committees as well, stating that, “there is a place for political action committees in the democratic process, but I believe that we can demonstrate the power of the electorate by answering to no one but the people. Our campaign is not accepting donations from political action committees and is relying on the support of individual donors. I encourage all individuals, whether you’re associated with a PAC or not, to support my campaign and message focused on bold, progressive change.” We, at DAPAC, respect this stance and will support Polis in other ways, such as free advice on running more effective campaigns, how to respond to attacks, running successful Get-Out-the-Vote operations, giving him lists of potential progressive donors, and much, much more. It is therefore crucial that he receives his contributions from individuals such as yourself.

Please help support Jared Polis in his campaign by sending a donation made payable to “Jared Polis for Congress” to us at DAPAC where we can forward it along to him.

You can find more information about our endorsed candidates for the 2008 cycle, targeted districts, links to candidates' web pages, the latest news, and more on DAPAC's new website: www.dapac.org. Please take the time to visit, where you can find additional information about Jared Polis, as well as all of our other endorsed candidates.