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March 23, 2008

A progressive's progressive candidate

(Editor's Note: I just posted this as a comment to a Sarah Lane diary at the new EENR Progressive Blog and thought I'd repost it here since there's probably not a big overlap in readership.)

One of Jeff Merkley's most impressive endorsements came from the Council for a Livable World who summed his candidacy up thusly,

Merkley will be an important progressive leader in the Senate. His background on nuclear weapons, his knowledge of national security issues and his political experience clearly indicate that we need him in the U.S. Senate.

What an incredibly timely background of knowledge and experience! And yes, that would be the very same Council for a Livable World which also endorsed Congressional candidate Darcy Burner (one of only 15 total endorsements by the Council), the chief sponsor of the recent A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq which Jeff Merkley was proud to be the very first Senate challenger to sign onto

But Jeff's far from a one-trick "foreign policy" pony.

From his website bio:

Jeff's passion for creating opportunities for working families led him to join Habitat for Humanity as its local executive director. In this role, he coordinated community volunteers to build homes for sale to low-income families. He also started the Walk for Humanity, launched development of the Habitat Home Building Center, and initiated a pilot project for "YouthBuild," in which gang-affected youth learn life skills while building homes in their own neighborhoods.

His work at Habitat led him to serve as Director of Housing Development at Human Solutions, where he helped create affordable housing, a real need in the community. He founded Oregon's first Individual Development Account (IDA) program to help low-income families save money to buy homes, attend college, or start businesses.

And even that is but one tiny corner of his awesome progressive resume.

Posted by Kevin at March 23, 2008 11:16 AM