Fwd: Press Release on Best and Worst of the 2006 Candidates

This is a good source for figuring out which candidates deserve our contributions and which don't. They also have the the voting records of the Congressmen and women and Senators covering all major votes and their human rights percentages listed at the website. They are planning to add to their list of endorsements. There is an email address at the site if you want to send them information on a race they don't have on their list.

Press Releases
2006 Primary Endorsements Press Release (3/10/2006)

The Patrick Henry Democratic Club, one of the most active Democratic clubs in the United States, has issued a list of the best and worst candidates for 2006. These lists were based on an objective standard involving (for incumbents), high and low human rights voting percentages and receipt of American Hero Awards for service to the people of America beyond the call of duty and (for challengers) a questionnaire. For comparative purposes, some of the best of the incumbents were asked to fill out the same questionnaire sent to challengers in other districts and had similar responses to the challengers who were endorsed.

Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters and Cynthia McKinney had the highest human rights percentages in Congress. Of the Democrats in Congress, Ben Nelson, Boren, Cramer and Cuellar had the lowest human rights percentages.

So far, three non-Democrats are included on the best list. That is because the calculation was made objectively and without regard to party affiliation. It is important that those on the worst list be replaced by better – not worse - leaders. Because all but one of the Congressional Republicans have human rights scores at or below those of the worst of the Democrats, the PHDC supports replacement of the worst of the Democratic incumbents only by individuals with no connection to the Republican Party.

Endorsement/Best of 2006 candidates list.

(Unless otherwise noted, these are endorsements in Congressional races in order of state and district)
ARIZONA
Pastor, Ed (4th), Grijalva, Raul M. (7th)

CALIFORNIA
Woolsey, Lynn C (6th), Miller, George (7th), Lee, Barbara (9th), Stark, Fortney "Pete"(13th ), Honda, Michael M. (15th), Farr, Sam (17th), Watson, Diane E. (33rd), Waters, Maxine (35th), Winograd, Marcy, 36th), Sanchez, Linda T. (39th), Jim Brandt (46th), Young, Steve(48h), Criscenzo, Jeeni (49th), Busby, Francine (50th), Filner, Bob (51st), De la Libertad, Armando, (69th AD – assembly district), Saldana, Lori (76th AD), Brown, Edmund Gerald, Attorney General

FLORIDA
Hastings, Alcee L. (23rd)

GEORGIA
McKinney, Cynthia (4th), Lewis, John (5th)

HAWAII
Abercrombie, Neil (1st)

ILLINOIS
Jackson, Jesse L. (2nd), Haptonstall, John “Johnny Hap,” (5th), Cegelis, Christine, 6th), Davis, Danny K. (7th), Scheurer, Bill (8th), Schakowsky, Janice D. (9th), Zamora, Ruben (14th)

INDIANA
Carson, Julia (7th)

MASSACHUSETTS
Olver, John W. (1st), McGovern, James P. (3rd), , Frank, Barney (4th), Tierney, John F. (6th), Capuano, Michael E. (8th)

MICHIGAN
Conyers, John (14th), Kilpatrick, Carolyn C. (13th)

MINNESOTA
McCollum, Betty (4th), Oberstar, James L. (8th)

MISSOURI
Clay, Wm. Lacy (1st)

NEW YORK
Owens, Major R. (11th), Velazquez, Nydia M. (12th), Rangel, Charles B. (15th), Serrano, Jose E. (16th), Hinchey, Maurice D. (22nd)

Looking good: Tasini, Jonathan: U.S. Senate

NEW JERSEY
Pallone, Frank (6th), Payne, Donald M. (10th), Holt, Rush D. (12th)

NORTH CAROLINA
Watt, Melvin (12th)

OHIO
Kucinich, Dennis J. (10th), Jones, Stephanie Tubbs (11th), Brown, Sherrod (U.S. Senate)

TEXAS
Paul, Ron (14th), Jackson-Lee, Sheila (18th), Johnson, Eddie Bernice (30th)

Looking Good: Wright, Jim (8th)

VERMONT
Sanders, Bernard (U.S. Senate)

WASHINGTON
McDermott, Jim (7th), Wilson, Mark (U. S. Senate)

WISCONSIN
Baldwin, Tammy (2nd)

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DIS-ENDORSEMENT LIST / WORST OF 2006 DEMOCRATIC INCUMBENT CANDIDATES
(Unless otherwise noted, these individuals are running for Congressional seats in the district listed.)

ALABAMA
Robert E. Cramer (5th), Artur Davis (7th)

ARIZONA
Ed Pastor (4th)

ARKANSAS
Marion Berry (1st), Mike Ross (4th)

CALIFORNIA
Dennis Cardoza (18th), Jim Costa (20th), Howard L. Berman (28th), Jane Harman (36th), Joe Baca (43rd), Dianne Feinstein (U.S. Senate)

COLORADO
John T. Salazar (3rd)

CONNECTICUT
Joe Lieberman (U.S. Senate)

DELAWARE
Thomas Carper (U.S. Senate)

FLORIDA
F. Allen Boyd (2nd), Jim Davis (11th), Bill Nelson (U.S. Senate)

GEORGIA
Sanford Bishop (2nd), Jim Marshall (3rd), John Barrow (12th), David Scott (13th)

HAWAII
Ed Case (2nd but also running against Daniel Akaka, who has a decent human rights record, for Senate)

ILLINOIS
Dan Lipinski (3rd), Melissa L. Bean (8th), Jerry F. Costello (12th)

IOWA
Leonard L. Boswell (3rd)

KANSAS
Dennis Moore (3rd)

KENTUCKY
Ben Chandler (6th)

LOUISIANA
William J. Jefferson (2nd), Charlie Melancon (3rd)

MARYLAND
C.A. Ruppersberger (2nd), Albert Wynn (4th), Steny H. Hoyer (5th)

MICHIGAN
Debbie Stabenow (U.S. Senate)

MINNESOTA
Collin Peterson (7th)

MISSISSIPPI
Gene Taylor (MS 4th)

MISSOURI
Ike Skelton (4th)

NEBRASKA
Ben Nelson (U.S. Senate)

NEW JERSEY
Bob Menendez (U.S. Senate)

NEW MEXICO
Jeff Bingaman (U.S. Senate)

NEW YORK
Carolyn McCarthy (4th), Brian M. Higgins (27th), Hillary Clinton (U.S. Senate)

NORTH CAROLINA
G.K. Butterfield (1st), Bob Etheridge (2nd), Mike McIntyre (7th)

NORTH DAKOTA
Earl Pomeroy (At-Large), Kent Conrad (U.S. Senate)

OKLAHOMA
Dan Boren (2nd)

SOUTH CAROLINA
John M. Spratt (5th)

SOUTH DAKOTA
Stephanie Herseth (At-Large)

TENNESSEE
Jim Cooper (5th), Bart Gordon (6th), Harold E. Ford (9th, running for Senate), Lincoln Davis (4th)

TEXAS
Silvestre Reyes (16th), Chet Edwards (17th), Charles A. Gonzalez (20th), Solomon P. Ortiz (27th), Henry Cuellar (28th), Gene Green (29th)

UTAH
Jim Matheson (2nd)

VIRGINIA
Rick Boucher (9th)

WASHINGTON
Norman D. Dicks (6th), Maria Cantwell (U.S. Senate)

WISCONSIN
Ron J. Kind (3rd), Herb Kohl (U.S. Senate)

http://patrickhenrythinktank.org/PressReleases.html#primend06

I regularly review the voting records here to see how my Representative and Senators are doing. The PHDC uses the alerts from all civil rights organizations to analyse its voting records and it has the most complete list of scores. What I like about this site is that it's ratings are objective and accurate and more complete than any other source of information. They have also taken the lead on the impeachment issue and on opposing any military action in Iran.

They are also one of the best sources of action alerts. I get their emails all the time.

I love the site. I was looking around it and it has really great information on all the issues.

They're even backing Mark Wilson and Marcy Winograd. Way to go!