UPDATE: It has been confirmed that the voting deadline has been extended for the first round of the DFA Grassroots All-Star contest. You can now vote until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, January 30. Nancy is currently in first place. Let's keep her there and help elect a true progressive -- this contest will go a long way to helping her achieve her goals. Please vote if you haven't already and spread the word to all of your contacts! You can vote once per e-mail address.
Nancy Skinner, a strong environmental candidate and a true progressive, is a talker and a doer -- and we need both in Congress.
For anyone who cares about the environment and slowing down the effects of climate change, Nancy Skinner is an ideal candidate. Nancy is running for Congress in Michigan's 9th Congressional District. In 2006, she came within 5% of beating 14-year incumbent Joe Knollenberg despite being outspent 7:1.
In 2006, the cornerstone of Nancy's campaign, in the heart of the auto industry, was to take away the subsidies being given to oil companies and to give that money to the auto companies to help them develop cleaner technology -- fuel cells, hybrids, etc. If this could be accomplished, it would help the environment, the economy and homeland security and would be a win-win-win. As we've seen the administration continue to drag their feet on solving the global warming crisis, this has become even more important, and Nancy continues to hold this position in her 2008 campaign.
Here's a clip of Nancy talking about green collar jobs during her run for the Senate in Illinois in 2004.
Nancy's professional and political life have been shaped by Al Gore, beginning after she read his first book, "Earth in the Balance." Through his influence, she has been passionate about finding solutions to solve the crisis of climate change since long before it became the important issue it is now to so many people around the globe.
After the floods in the 1990's Nancy realized how great it would be if some of the destroyed towns could be rebuilt off the floodplain in a sustainable way. But Nancy didn't just think about it -- she DID something about it. She called the White House and after spending a couple of weeks being referred to agency after agency, she found herself sitting around a table at the White House with people from many government agencies. Nancy presented her plan and it was approved. Experts from many fields (architecture, planning, environmental sustainability, etc.) were brought in and two entire towns were totally rebuilt off the floodplain from the ground up using environmentally sustainable methods.
Also during the 1990's, Nancy realized there were many conservative voices on the radio, but that we needed more progressive voices to get our message out. Somehow, rather than starting at some station in the hinterlands, Nancy got a progressive talk show on WLS in one of the biggest markets in the country, and she eventually was syndicated to 400 stations around the U.S. One day she received a call from two of her listeners, Anita and Sheldon Drobny, who told her we needed more Nancy Skinners on the radio. This eventually led to the creation of Air America.
While on the air at WLS, Nancy spoke out against the war in Iraq before it even began. The day the war broke out, she was told to stay home because she was the only anti-war voice, but when she came back on the air, she continued to speak out and didn't back down from her beliefs even though she knew what the consequences might be. That's because she has the courage of her convictions.
(Check out some video of Nancy on TV speaking out about the war before it started, as well as other issues at the "Nancy's Videos" link at her website. )
After being encouraged by her listeners and some positive polling, Nancy decided to run for the Illinois Senate. However, one of the other six candidates in the primary in that race was Barack Obama. Enough said.
Then Nancy came home to Michigan and did a morning talk show on the local Air America affiliate. In 2006, she decided to run for Congress against Knollenberg and, as stated above, came very close to winning. It is said by many experts that it takes two cycles to win -- one to establish name recognition and one to win. Well, Nancy has established name recognition, has a lot of support in the district and has shown that she can win by coming as close as she did. Now Joe is vulnerable, and it's time for her to win.
As you can see, Nancy is both a doer and a talker. She gets things done and knows how to get her message out. She is media savvy, which is very important in a modern-day campaign. She is authentic and has passion, courage and creativity, and once in Congress, she will vote her conscience and do what has to be done to bring about the real change we so desperately need -- not more of the same. She will be an independent thinker and not be beholden to corporations and the establishment, and if voting her conscience leads to her not being re-elected, then so be it.
Please check out Nancy's Web site and consider voting for her as one of your top three in the DFA Grassroots All Stars Contest -- she came in second in 2006 and as of this writing is in third place. When you go to vote, you can read more about how progressive Nancy is at the DFA site. Please consider voting for her and keeping her in the top three now. Voting ends at 12 a.m. on January 28.
