John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, said 2 years ago:

"Today, the Employee Free Choice Act has 208 co-sponsors in the House, including 10 Republicans, and 42 in the Senate -- and we will pass it while George Bush is in office." John Sweeney at National Press Club 1/18/2006

Since then the EFCA, which adds penalties for labor violations, has passed the House, but has stalled in the Senate over a Republican blockade over a small change in "card check" organizing campaigns and has been abandoned by Democrats and Unions until 2009.

Currently employees can optionally organize or decertify a union using signature cards instead of secret ballots. Business groups only want to be able to decertify unions using card check, calling organization by signature cards "undemocratic" and condemning the entire EFCA as "Orwellian named." If the Republican position sounds like a double standard, thats because it is.

Sweeney and his Democrat allies in the Senate could easily shift the debate to just enforcing current labor law. Instead, they are letting the Republicans have a free ride this November by keeping the general public confused about technical aspects of forming a union.

After another day on the ground in Pennsylvania, this occurs to me: the 50 State Strategy should be abandoned in favor of a One Million County strategy. I picked "one million" as a ballpark figure only because Wikipedia won't tell me how many counties and parishes we have in these United States.

Pennsylvania Democrats are working on the county level for a legislative majority in the capital of Harrisburg. At a rally this afternoon in the Chester County town of Downingtown, State Senator Andrew Dinniman told the crowd of the dark days when Chesco (as the locals seem to call it) was once considered so Republican that neither Al Gore in 2000 nor John Kerry in 2004 would show his face there. But in a May 2005 special election, Dinniman trounced his Republican opponent by 13 points.

Then there's Tom Houghton, running for State Representative in Chesco. Tom's hometown of London Grove Township is 3-to-1 Republican but still elected the tree-hugging Houghton to its Board of Supervisors. Tom today credited his success to talking to his neighbors about the building blocks of suburbia: health care, school funding, and preserving public spaces. It''s looking more and more like that Chesco might very possibly make the third time the charm for Lois Murphy in her re-re-match with Jim Gerlach.

The activist group, Expose Sweeney, has launched a new website, "The Real John Sweeney" at http://www.therealjohnsweeney.com in order to better expose Representative Sweeney's poor voting record, as well as his corruption and scandals to the voting population here in New York's 20th Congressional District.

This exceptional ad from Moveon.org is not being aired by WFEN in the Albany area because of a legal attack by the Republicans claiming that the information in the ad is false.  Sweeney's attack response, claiming that the ad was so dishonest that it was pulled, is running.  

When local affiliates won't run mainstream political ads funded by small donations of regular citizens because the other side doesn't like what they say, it's bordering on overt censorship.  One key piece of any progressive agenda has to be media reform.  We need to break the backs of the people engaging in these unAmerican tactics.  

Give us an honest argument, give us two sides, but no censorship.  That's wrong.

Oh, and this is a great ad.  Visually striking, thematically interesting, Iraq, Bush, Republicans, accountability, the works...

I just received word that a new online activist group, Expose Sweeney, has been formed at Yahoo groups. The purpose of new group will be for progressive activists to help share their knowledge/research of the troubled record of Representative John E. Sweeney (R-NY-20) with one another so it can more effectively be exposed to the public.

You may send an e-mail to ExposeSweeney-subscribe@yahoogroups.com in order to be added to the group's membership list.

Bumped from the diaries -- Jonathan... This is a great web ad, produced and put up almost immediately after GOP Rep. John Sweeney went even more strongly negative against Kirsten Gillibrand's family. David Straithairn, who actually lives in the district, reprises his role as Edward R. Murrow in "Good Night, And Good Luck". It's difficult to imagine a more memorable ad.

And the transcript:

http://www.gillibrand2006.com/node/350

I think this ad is pretty damned good.  I saw Good Night and Good Luck and it was one of my all-time favorite movies (I wish they'd show it in schools just for that speech at the end).  This ad has very much of that feel, asking John Sweeney, "Have you no decency?"  It directly challenges him on being a Republican rubber stamp and slams the Republicans for their bully tactics.

I think this is exactly the kind of thing we need.  Simple, direct, and unforgettably unique.  The only problem is it is presently web-only.  Apparently the media has taken quite a liking to it, though, so that may change.  I'd certainly encourage everyone to donate and help make sure this gets out there.

A great opportunity for a Democratic pickup is being overlooked by the progressive blogosphere.

We need your help! John Sweeney, the corrupt right-wing Republican incumbent has currently raised about $450,000 more than progressive Democratic challenger Kirsten Gillibrand. Already his attack machine is out in full force with a vicious new ad. The only way we'll be able to be able to successfully counteract his smears and attacks is by matching (or perhaps beating) his fundraising totals.

Do Democratic media consultants draw from the same stock music pile?  Apparently they do.  But first, let's get to the ad.

This one is made by well-known Clinton-allied firm Hudson Media Partners, which is the media arm of the Glover Park Group.  Glover Park's Carter Eskew made the Lieberman bear ad, though Eskew no longer works for Lieberman.  

Kirsten Gillibrand is running in New York's 20th against frat boy John Sweeney.  The ad is pretty good, associating Sweeney with Bush's failures in Iraq and promising change in Iraq if we get change in Washington.  Iraq is central to Gillibrand's strategy; she's constantly challenging her opponent on the war.  This ad fits in nicely here, though I wish she would mention party affiliation.  

There are a few negatives to the ad.  For instance, visual and audio cliches about 'our brave troops'.  It sort of smacked me of insincerity, boredom, and a lack of creativity around how to express a simple idea through imagery and sound.  A moderately pleasing generic candidate talking about the bravery of troops just sort of feels like a political ad.  That said, I'm relatively pleased with the spot.

One thing I'm going to try to do with adwatch is to start looking at a comprehensive ad strategy instead of just a one-off ad.  That's a very good suggestion that many of you made.  So let's do that here.  The other ads, which I can't pull down from Gillibrand's web site, are much worse than this spot.  They focus on issues rather than character, and are deeply policy-oriented.

This one titled 'back to school', for instance, talks about college tuition deductions, and sounds wonky.  This 'disagree' ad discusses big oil and Iraq, but again, there's no narrative flow, and the use of the term 'I respectfully disagree' shows more respect to Bush than the electorate is willing to accord.  At no point does Gillibrand mention she's a Democrat, or that Sweeney is a Republican; that's not a huge problem because she includes Bush in the ad, but it's not great in terms of her being able to distinguish herself as different than Sweeney.  Finally, I thought it was amusing that the music from both the back to school and the disagree spots is the same music used in this Corzine ad from 2005.  The Corzine ad was made by a different big Democratic firm, so there's probably some pot of stock music that is generically pleasant, sort of like being emotionally uplifted by committee, that Democratic consultants like to cut and paste from.

Anyway, Gillibrand's most recent ad is her best one, so that's a positive sign.