Newsflash:
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Jerry Brown: California’s Mystery Man One of California’s great mysteries is the state’s governor, Jerry Brown. In a time when America’s politicians strive to be everywoman and everyman, Brown goes his own way. While a nation frantically chases youth, the 75-year-old governor who glories in his age and experience, is at the top of his game. Read the Full Story
No Koch News: A Movement to Unsubscribe After years of mismanagement, the Tribune Company newspapers -- including the Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times -- are up for sale.  And one of the potential buyers? The Koch brothers.  And wow are people outraged! Read the Full Story
image IMF Sounds Warning on U.K. Austerity
image Congresswoman Lee Introduces “No More Ghost Money Act”
image Reject pipeline's jobs pipe dreams
image An Answer to Unemployment: A Jobs-for-All Bill | Commentary
image How America Became a Third World Country
image Child poverty is the real scandal
image Inoculating Our Children Against Fear and Hatred
image Pentagon officials ask Congress to shift $9.6B
image Syria: the threats, costs, claims and lives
image Pentagon Said to Seek $80 Billion for War Amid Withdrawal
image Jerry Brown: California’s Mystery Man
image No Koch News: A Movement to Unsubscribe
Tuesday, 24 July 2012 00:00

U.S. House District 1: Lesli Messinger says she speaks for middle class

Written by  Larry Peterson | Savannah Now
U.S. House District 1: Lesli Messinger says she speaks for middle class

Lesli Messinger moved to Skidaway Island four years ago, she says, to escape the “dark and dreary” environs of New Jersey. But Messinger says she found darkness and dreariness near the tranquil community where she and her husband, Nathan, relocated. She says she met women who couldn’t afford cookies for their grandchildren and people whose jobless benefits were expiring.

She adds that she encountered families of military personnel and veterans who aren’t getting the help they need from the government.

“It was all very upsetting to me,” said Messinger, who owns an interest in Wright Square Antiques.

Not surprisingly for someone who’s volunteered for Democratic candidates, she sees such issues through a partisan lens.

She blames Republicans in Congress in general and U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah in particular.

She says he has an “extremist” voting record that hurts “working families, the jobless, ... veterans and the eroding middle class.”

His campaigns, she added, are funded “almost exclusively by large corporate interests” and his voting record shows “he is working for them, not the people he represents.”

Messinger decided to run only a few weeks before the late May qualifying period.

“I kept waiting to see who would step up to challenge Kingston,” she said. “When there was no one who I thought could do so effectively, I decided I had to do something.”

Despite her late start, she quickly built a campaign staff and garnered endorsements from several prominent Democrats.

“I think she’s a person who will listen to her constituents,” said Miguel Camacho of Savannah, a vice chair of the state Democratic Party. “A lot of candidates just give you their spiel. She listens.”

Camacho stressed that he’s backing her as an individual, not as a party official.

Supporters say she has a compelling narrative that can resonate with voters.

Messinger traces her roots to a Midwestern farm worked by her family for 125 years.

Her grandfather won the Bronze Star during World War II, and one of her sons is a Teamsters union member. Another son died at 24 from a prescription drug overdose.

That led her to become a drug abuse counselor and advocate and speaker on the issue. She’s lobbied Congress and federal agencies for greater funding of related programs in schools.

She’s also helped public schools, a parent-child group, hospitals and efforts to feed and clothe needy children.

“She has some life experiences that make her a good fit with the 1st District,” said Bill Gillespie of Savannah, the party’s nominee in 2008. “The death of her son made her an advocate for good parenting.”

Charles Hill, a St. Simons Island office designer, also says she’s in sync with her prospective constituents.

“Being a mom and a small businessman,” Hill said, “gives her a good feel for the middle class.”

Link to original article from Savannah Now

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