Let's help this brave soul at least defray his costs!

Does he have website yet ?

It's post #5.

What a shame. He sounds very interesting, and capable.

But surely, it must cost SOMETHING just to get on the ballot, no?

Is he on ActBlue?

Go Richard Grayson!!

7 Hrs Ago / Politics

Wyoming's Democratic 'Hip Hop Candidate' Just Launched the PPLZ 4 GRAYSON CREW

Arit John


[font size=1]
Richard Grayson, discussing his 2012 presidential campaign with ABC News. (ABC) [/font]

In most Republican states, marketing yourself as a "hip-hop candidate" and making a Tyler, the Creator track your campaign song wouldn't be a good campaign strategy. But in Wyoming, the only Democrat who volunteered to run is Richard Grayson, a 63-year-old Arizona resident and self-proclaimed "hip-hop candidate."

Grayson, a political activist, satirist and on-and-off college professor, has been running destined-to-fail campaigns for years. In 1984 he ran as a Democrat against Ronald Reagan and asked the president's first wife, Jane Wyman, to be his running mate "because she has experience dumping Reagan," People reported at the time. In 2004 he wrote a daily diary for McSweeney's about his experience running as the only Democrat in Florida's 4th Congressional District against Rep. Ander Crenshaw. Crenshaw is still in office.

This time around Grayson is running against incumbent Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis, and recently filed his campaign committee PPLZ 4 GRAYSON CREW. When Business Insider asked about the name, he explained in an email Friday that he picked the committee name "cuz I'm a hip-hop candidate, I guess," adding, "It's partly a homage to 2 Live Crew, whose 1990-91 fight against obscenity charges in Miami both turned me on to music I hadn't considered as a 40ish baby boomer and inspired me to go to law school." (In 1990 their album As Nasty As They Wanna Be was legally declared obscene for being "an appeal to 'dirty' thoughts and the loins," in a ruling that was later overturned.)

Grayson is aware of how unlikely this all is. "It is not within the realm of possibility," he told Wyoming's Tribune Eagle. He's not taking campaign donations because it would be a waste of money. The point is to make sure someone's running. "I think it's important that two sides are represented," he said. "It might sound kind of corny, but I don't think it's good to have elections where someone is not opposed. That smacks of elections of dictators like Saddam Hussein in Iraq." The head of the state's Democratic party, Robin Van Ausdall, is pretty unimpressed. "I am not thrilled with it," she said of his candidacy last month.

More:
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/06/wyomings-democratic-hip-hop-candidate-just-launched-the-pplz-4-grayson-crew/372767/

Arizona man the only Democratic challenger to Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis



Cynthia Lummis

Wyoming Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis drew just one Democratic opponent by Friday's registration deadline: an Arizona man who says he entered the race with no hope of winning and only wanted to spur Wyoming Democrats to field a candidate of their own.

Richard Grayson, of Apache Junction, Arizona, said Friday that he's run for Congress several times before in other states. He said he's a writer who has worked as a college professor and lawyer and now divides his time between Arizona and Brooklyn.

As the clock wound down Friday afternoon with no other Democratic candidates coming forward, Grayson expressed surprise that he could have the party's congressional nomination to himself for no more effort than sending in his candidacy papers.

"I'm not going to get elected, obviously," Grayson said. "Otherwise somebody from Wyoming would have run. I assume somebody else will file."

Robin Van Ausdall, director of the Wyoming Democratic Party, said Friday that the situation shows it's tough for the minority party to recruit viable candidates.

More:
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/arizona-man-the-only-democratic-challenger-to-wyoming-rep-cynthia/article_8de2bdff-f5d1-5104-9206-220016a37619.html

Hey, election experience is election experience. You get good folks at the city/town/county levels and you build them up. OK, this is WY, likely the reddest of the red states, but you still get them out there. There should never, never be unopposed races. Particularly here. This Representative has more effective weight than a senator, this position is the ONLY rep the state has.

More power to Mr. Grayson.

... she reminds me of Nurse Noakes from Cloud Atlas



Or as my refreshingly liberal centenarian grandmother used to say (with disgust): "She has that Republican look!"

(By the way, Nurse Noakes was played by Hugo Weaving.)

run in every Congressional district in the US.
I think Howard Dean was behind that effort.
If all districts were not contested, there were darn few that weren't.

Even if the Republican win is by a margin of 60/40.

Sure, many of them would be sacrificial lambs.
But they give the Dems, however few they may be, a chance to vote.
And, occasionally, even if rarely, something changes in the situation, that would mean a Dem. victory.
It also gives a chance for Dem. views to be heard.
And the Dem. voters who are cultivated can then be counted on for Statewide and national elections, where those Dem. votes may be more important in a larger election.

I do understand money is always an issue, and, if the powers that be believe that money would be better spent in a closer election, that's understandable.
But I do believe that the DLC, or some Dem. body, should guarantee that basic filing fees will be paid for a Dem. candidate in every Congressional district in the US.

I didn't want to come right out and say "death", but it has happened.

People actually voted for the dead man on the ballot over Ashcroft prior to Dubya appointing him to be Attorney General.

The first act that singing religious psychopath did was to cover up the breast on the Statue of Justice. Kucinich at the time said it was to underscore that there was no chance that Justice would expose itself in that administration.

Could NOT have been more accurate.

I can only imagine the blue links that would be required to refute his clear litany of how our Constitutional rights were -- and continue to be -- flagrantly violated.

Of course, he's short, has big ears, and his wife has a stud in her tongue. Little did we realize that these criticisms were just an earlier version of the boxes-in-the-garage, stripper-girlfriend approach to civilized discourse.

If he continues telling the truth, he's going to be in deep trouble with the right-wing dominated government.

He has a lot of courage.

to see a Cantor-esque upset here. Since he's bothered to run, why not lay out a BOLD agenda and see what happens. At worst it could be no crazier than NO ONE running!

that no office should be filled with unopposed candidates. Whether that is two D's running for it or two R's. It is the main reason I support the jungle primary system used here in CA. I don't particularly care how we come to two folks running for one office, I simply refuse to accept that one person is "entitled" to the office. This is an office that serves the public, not the ego of one individual.

They act like having a Democrat in the dog catcher office is a threat to the Republic. (When in actuality it's all about granting the loyal followers a cushy job for high pay and increasing the size of their echo chamber.)

GO GO GO Grayson

...between the Old Democratic Party I once knew and the facsimile posing as the Democratic Party now:

- Principles.

As in they ain't got any.....

K&R

and you get a +1 for the McKenna quote.

There are a few gems in the Democratic stratosphere, but they all have a flaw or three, no matter how shiny they seem.



K&R

...Perhaps Mr. Grayson can find an opportunity to get a similar message resonating.