email from John Kerry, raising money for 4 RATS

This morning, Republicans are making laughable claims of momentum in the 2006 elections. They poured over $5 million dollars of national Republican money into a California special election to hold onto a seat that they've held since it was created by the GOP, for the GOP 15 years ago.

Their claims of momentum are as phony as their claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Help make today a day of defiant determination by personally joining in a remarkable display of grassroots support for four key Democratic challengers locked in tight House and Senate races in historically Republican districts that are at the tipping point of electing Democrats.

Show them that, come November, we're going to win these elections, and we won't be denied.

The Republicans expect us to roll over after yesterday's special election. They're in for a big surprise. This fall's election is about removing the power to control America's agenda from their hands. And we won't stop working until we get it done.

We're fully committed to standing by Democratic candidates locked in tough races every step of the way. That's why today I'm asking you to help Keeping America's Promise give immediate urgently needed support to four impressive challengers who are running in tight House and Senate races in Republican bastions.

We've helped Tammy Duckworth before, raising over $150,000 in grassroots support to aid her aggressive, upstart campaign to pick up the open seat in Illinois' 6th District, which has been held by Rep. Henry Hyde (R) for 32 years. An Iraq war veteran, who lost her legs when her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade, Tammy launched her candidacy just days after her release from Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Tammy is running an impressive issues-based campaign emphasizing health care, energy independence, and the need for congressional reform. She's ready, willing, and able to challenge the status quo.

And her opponent, Peter Roskam, is a Tom DeLay protege who has staked out extremist positions that are even to the right of Henry Hyde's ultra-conservative record. They're running neck and neck right now. But, you can help Tammy break this election open.

Harry Mitchell, the hugely popular former mayor of Tempe, Arizona, is taking on Republican J.D. Hayworth, one of the most divisive leaders of the "Republican revolution." You name the issue and, chances are, J.D. Hayworth has been -- loudly -- on the wrong side of it. That includes supporting reckless GOP spending and leading the effort to cut education and veterans' benefits.

But now, J.D. has a problem. He has to face Harry Mitchell, a highly-revered local political figure, in this year's elections. And Hayworth is apparently the leading congressional recipient of campaign donations associated with the Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

A Democratic win in this critical race would be a double victory. We'd bring a powerful new voice to Congress and we'd send packing one of the more wrong-headed GOP politicians of our time.

In another critical race, Mary Jo Kilroy is running in Ohio against Deborah Pryce, a member of the House Republican leadership. Pryce has supported the disastrous policies of the Bush Republicans up and down. She's never faced serious opposition for her House seat -- until now.

As Franklin County's top executive, Mary Jo Kilroy already represents 87 percent of the congressional district and she's a proven vote-getter. What's more, Pryce's district, historically a Republican stronghold, is changing. We battled George W. Bush to a tie in the district in the 2004 presidential campaign, and Mary Jo Kilroy is running in a deadlocked race. With your support, she's going to win. By helping her defeat a long-time member of the Republican House leadership team, we can send a powerful message this November.

The fourth candidate we're focusing on today is Jim Webb, the former Secretary of the Navy and proud Vietnam veteran. I am honored to have endorsed this Democrat in the crucial Virginia Senate race. Jim is a tireless advocate for veterans, and like the title of his book Born Fighting, he will not be afraid to stand up to this Administration -- no one pushes around a Marine. George Allen, his opponent, has stood with George W. Bush 97% of the time. In this critical election, we don't need to elect another rubber stamp.

Jim understands the many challenges facing Americans today: skyrocketing health care costs, the outsourcing of jobs and the lack of a level playing field. Jim knows President Bush has no plan in Iraq, and Jim will fight every day for real national security, unlike George Allen who says he's bored in the Senate, bored at a time when America's soldiers are caught in the crossfire in Iraq. Time magazine reported that Jim is "George Allen's worst nightmare."

Please help George Allen's nightmare come true by supporting Jim Webb in this crucial Senate race.

Today is a test. Do we yield to the ridiculous notion that Republicans have gained momentum in these elections? Do we buy their hollow spin? Or do we refuse to let them back in the game by working night and day to support strong, winning Democratic campaigns every step of the way?

You know what the answer has to be. Demonstrate our determination by rushing donations to the four key challengers I've just told you about. Thank you.

Got one today from Howard Dean, it's a doozy (notice how they call Algore...Vice President, LOL)

Hurricane season has arrived -- and two fresh studies point to a link between global warming and an increase in the number and power of storms like Hurricane Katrina.

What are Republicans doing about it? They're smearing former Vice President Al Gore.

One right-wing pundit compared Gore to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist. Another right-winger, who's been on the payroll of corporate special interests, likened Gore's pursuit of solutions to global warming to Adolf Hitler's pursuit of genocide.

I'm sending Al a note this week telling him to keep fighting, to keep standing up for the truth no matter how vicious the attacks. I thought he might like to hear from you, too. Sign on to this note of thanks, and add your own note of encouragement here:

http://www.democrats.org/keepfighting

Facts are facts. Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence. But it also presents a historical opportunity to rise above politics and act boldly. Despite right-wing efforts to silence him, Al Gore has articulated one of the great moral challenges of our time and tried to move people to act.

This should not be a political issue. We need a conversation about climate change and its consequences. But special interests in Washington have a tight grip on the Republican leadership, and an entire network of corporate-funded front groups has emerged to deny reality and attack the messenger.

They hope that scorched-earth political tactics will cover up the reality that the scientific debate is one they've already lost.

Vice President Al Gore deserves our thanks for his courage and leadership. Let him know you appreciate his stand by signing on to this letter of thanks before this week is over:

http://www.democrats.org/keepfighting

Did you know the National Academy of Sciences joined academies in the other G8 countries last year by concluding that global warming requires "prompt action"? Or that insurance companies are fleeing coastlines and charging huge premiums to avoid taking more losses from massive hurricanes? How about the fact that climate researchers have a new worry: that we could cross a tipping point that sends sea levels rising by 20 feet by the end of the century?

If you didn't know, that's by design. Corporate special interests are deeply invested in keeping us hooked to the status quo -- high gas prices, inefficiency, and dependence on foreign oil.

That's why last year, in the middle of a record-breaking hurricane season, Republicans in Congress and the White House gave oil companies $6 billion -- even as those companies ran away with the largest corporate profits in American history. And that's why we still have yet to see the Bush administration stand up and do anything to stop global warming.

Enough is enough, and people know it. Al Gore is demonstrating exactly the kind of courage and moral clarity that Democrats will bring when we take back Congress and win elections up and down the ballot this year.

The inconvenient truth is that global warming exists -- and thanks to Al Gore, it's now more likely that America will come together and do something about it.

Sincerely, Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

A second Kerry email, same subject, dated 6/8.......

Over at their posh headquarters on First Street -- just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol -- they're sitting around scratching their heads. They just had to spend over $5 million in national GOP money to hold on to the California House seat vacated by Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

They eked out a "victory" by pouring in close to $100 for every vote cast in favor of their candidate -- in a district so Republican, they shouldn't have had to lift a finger.

Looking ahead to 435 House races, 33 Senate races, and hundreds of state and local contests, the strategists at Republican Party headquarters know that their $100 a vote formula just doesn't work.

They can't buy their way out of this one.

There aren't enough heavy-hitting Bush Pioneers left on the planet to help 2006 GOP candidates overcome their Iraq mistakes, their Katrina incompetence, and their miserable record of failure on everything from homeland security to health care to the environment.

But we've got a formula that works.

Act now to support four key Democratic candidates

We're throwing the entire weight of our online community behind strong Democratic candidates running in the closest, most critical races of 2006. And we're not letting up until we see them through to victory.

Can we count on you to act right now? Support Tammy Duckworth, a proud Iraq war veteran running a tough, spirited campaign in Illinois. Stand with Harry Mitchell from Arizona as he takes on J.D. Hayworth, so out of the mainstream that he even stands out in a GOP House packed with extremists.

Help Mary Jo Kilroy win a critical race in Ohio against a high-ranking member of the GOP leadership. And put it on the line for Jim Webb, a tough Marine running an all-out Senate race in Virginia.

Act now to support four key Democratic candidates

Strong, committed candidates like these are going to give the Republicans fits on November 7th. And then they're going to help you and me move America in a new, more promising direction.

Pick one or two candidates to help. Or, better still, give all four of them a donation right now -- at the point in the campaign when your gift can make an enormous difference.

Let's get it done.

On to victory,

John Kerry

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