Josh Reed Can Eat

Like that swimmer in the Olympics, Josh Reed can eat. With all the door knocking and hard work from Reed this election, he is back to his high school football playing shape (well, almost).

When he sat next to me at the Missouri delegation meeting this morning, I was still taken aback by the amount of eggs and pork this young man put away. I think the voters in his district will be impressed.

Compare a hard working farm boy to a current Republican state representative that just left his wife and kid. Which one represents Missouri's values?

Kay Kicks Butt

Here's an email I got from Mayor Kay Barnes Chief of Staff, Corey Platt:

Yesterday, something incredible happened. Our campaign reported virtually the same amount of money raised for the first fundraising quarter as Congressman Graves. This is the same quarter that Congressman Graves had George Bush in town to raise money for his struggling campaign. Many of you answered the call to stand up to the Bush/Graves money machine, and your voices were heard.

Kay Barnes has taken away the incumbent advantage from Congressman Sam Graves. Having raised the same amount of money, in a quarter that should have been Graves' easiest, shows that Kay is in the driver's seat. This past quarter, Kay reported raising $402,068, her highest total to date, bringing her total raised in only 10 months to more than $1.4 million and our cash on hand to over $950,000.

In just the first three months of this year, over 1,100 individuals contributed to Kay's campaign. Compare that to just 137 people who contributed to Congressman Graves-- I'm not joking; Kay has ten times more donors than the incumbent Congressman. It is now more clear than ever that Congressman Graves is relying on his special interest friends to send him back to Washington, including another $5,000 this quarter from Exxon. Luckily, we have over 4,000 people who have joined Kay and donated to the campaign. There is no way that Congressman Graves, George Bush and Exxon Mobil can compete with all of you.

Thank you for all you have done and will continue to do. I'm honored to be working with all of you.

Corey Platt
Campaign Manager
Kay for Congress

This is a huge deal. Taking on an incumbent is hard work. Graves/Roe is the only campaign in the entire nation to have both Cheney and Bush do fundraisers.

Let's be real honest, Kay Barnes for Congress could be the final nail in the coffin for Congressman Graves/Roe. Graves took this spot from a Democrat and then used it as a spring board to 1) build Jeff Roe's company and 2) run the Democrats out of office in Northwest Missouri. Well, folks in that part of the state have had enough.

Sen. Claire McCaskill and State Auditor Susan Montee had great performance in the 6th District. Other things are happening, like Sandra Aust being a strong candidate for state senate in the Clay County area. How about Rep. Ryan Silvey (R) being in bad shape with a very strong Josh Reed running the best grass roots campaign for a house seat in the entire state.

Up and down the ticket, Democrats are looking great in the northland and Kay Barnes is going to win.

Silvey in the Corner - Reed landing Blows

Here's the blow by blow - Ryan Silvey is in the corner, he's bleeding and he can barely keep his gloves up. Challenger Josh Reed has strong legs and can take this the full distance.

KC Blue Blog does a great job of pulling together the evidence that Rep. Ryan Silvey is buckling to Billionaire Sinquefield pro-voucher efforts. Silvey took $30,000 from Sinquefield groups.

The reason he needs this huge push out of the corner is Josh Reed is attacking from the left. Josh Reed is one of the best candidates that our party has right now. He grew up north of the river, he ran the grass roots for Obama, he's busting his butt in the district. Here's a sample of Josh Reed taking Silvey and Blunt to task:

Gov. Matt Blunt, Rep. Ryan Silvey from the 38th District in Clay County and the state Republican leadership have taken Missouri in the wrong direction on health care.

In 2005, the governor cut coverage and services for more than 400,000 Missourians. There are now 127,000 kids in Missouri without health insurance. As Gov. Blunt’s poll numbers continue to slide, he and other Republicans have been unable and unwilling to fix this mistake. A new report released by Families USA details the failures of Gov. Blunt’s new plan, “Insure Missouri.” This new program does not even come close to undoing the damage done. Nor does it restore coverage and services for all of the people hurt by these cuts. More than 1,071 children have lost coverage in Clay County since Rep. Silvey voted for Gov. Blunt’s Medicaid cuts. Expanding health care should be the priority in Jefferson City. We want real health-care reform that guarantees quality affordable health coverage for every Missourian.

The basic coverage and services that were cut in 2005 should be restored.
It is time to take Missouri and health care in a new direction. All of our children deserve coverage.

Joshua L. Reed

KC Blue Blog is correct that there are lots of rumors floating around about Silvey. All I know is that Josh Reed is a powerfully strong candidate, that this district was held by a Democrat for years and that 2008 is a Democrat year. With Silvey voting for corporate tax cuts, being pro-voucher and bad on health care, this could be the #1 race in Missouri for Democrats to take a seat from a Republican.