Lots of press coverage of the campaign lately-- there was an article on Friday morning (1/27) in the Bloomington Herald-Times on Gretchen's candidacy, along with a story and brief interview Friday morning on WFIU radio. Coming soon, there will be a story/interview on WFHB. Let us know if you see coverage in your local media!

Indiana Democratic Party Leadership

Please click here to read my diary on DailyKos (a political blog) about how the Indiana Democratic Party's leadership has decided that primaries aren't really necessary, and that they can save citizens the trouble of voting by picking candidates for us. If you're as outraged by this as I am, please take action. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper, write to, call, or e-mail Dan Parker, State Chair of the party, and support our campaign to return democracy to the people of the 9th district!

UPDATE: I'd like to state clearly that Baron Hill, our primary opponent, has nothing to do with the decision of whether to list Gretchen on the state party's website. If you're upset about this decision, you should contact Mr. Parker (see above). And by all means, you should be polite and respectful in your disagreement. We're all Democrats. And this is a positive campaign.

House Party

We had a good house party last night-- Gretchen gave a heartfelt speech about her reasons for running and what she wants to do in Congress. There were a number of excellent questions from the people in attendance, and a definite mood of hope for the future.


Lots more house parties are scheduled in the coming weeks-- let the campaign know if you want to do one!

Gretchen Clearwater interview

Click here to hear a podcast interview with Gretchen on a program called "Shades of Democracy." The podcast (what is a podcast? see here) is #21 on the website and the interview starts about halfway through.

Robert Shull, producer of Shades of Democracy, after interviewing Gretchen, said, "I think she would be a healthy change of temperment in the Congress."

Recommended Reading

Gretchen was very impressed by Al Gore's recent speech on the wiretapping scandal (and beyond). Gore really gets at the heart of what's wrong with the Bush Administration, as well as what's wrong with Congress. We need Congressional representatives who are not afraid to stand up for what they believe, and who are not beholden to the lobbyists and moneybrokers. The alternative is what we have now: an out of control Executive Branch, and a Legislative Branch which rolls over and accepts Presidential misinformation and bullying.

Gretchen Clearwater will be a Congresswoman who answers to no one except the voters of the 9th District.

You can read the text of Al Gore's speech here.

Travels in the 9th

The campaign has several tentative dates for events all across the 9th District.

The plan calls for us to be in Madison and Scottsburg in mid-February and in the New Albany-Jeffersonville-Clarksville area towards the end of February. It'll be on to Paoli, French Lick, and Jasper probably early in March, followed by Columbus, Nashville, Seymour, North Vernon, and Brownstown towards the middle of March.

Contact the campaign office if you'd like to help out or host an event, or if your town is not listed above and you'd like to host a campaign event.

And stay tuned for updates as we get closer to the events, and blog entries after each event.

MLK Day

Gretchen Clearwater celebrated the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on Monday, January 16th. She participated in a rally and march entitled, "What Would Martin Do?"

Gretchen also gave a speech at the end of the march at the Monroe County Courthouse. The speech was well-received, despite a malfunctioning bullhorn. I've posted excerpts of it below.

Ms. Clearwater’s remarks drew attention to Dr. King’s anti-war activities in the last years of his life, especially his speech of April 4, 1967, entitled “Beyond Vietnam.” Opposition to the Iraq War is one of the pillars of the Clearwater For Congress campaign. Clearwater spoke about how “eerily relevant” King’s words are today and how much this “great leader of this nation” influenced her as a child.

Just as King saw that the war in Vietnam “[drew] men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube,” so today Clearwater decried the “absurdity of sending the Louisiana National Guard to Iraq while not mending the dikes at home.”

Just as King said that he spoke then as “a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken,” so Clearwater objected to a “ruling elite [that] calls itself moral” while it “condones torture and cuts funding for social programs at home.”

Gretchen Clearwater stated that she believes Dr. King would have spoken out today in support of “the rights of all minorities” and against “the increasing gap between the rich and the poor.”

She went on to say, “I, like Dr. King, cannot be silent, and will not be silenced. We must bring this unjust war in Iraq to an end.” “Support our troops—bring them home!” Clearwater urged.

Clearwater closed her speech with a long quotation from Dr. King which rings as true today as it did 39 years ago: “And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace. If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Voices from the 9th

Here are some of Gretchen's thoughts on the conversations she's been having with voters of the 9th District (as part of the 9 for the 9th phone blitz):

"People are very concerned about the direction this country is going. One person was particularly worried about the telephone being monitored, about the Patriot Act and the demise of our country.

Another was very worried about the election process. He was in full agreement with what I want to do once I get to Congress. We must repair our wounded election process. We need a paper trail-- every vote must count. He and I chatted about how change must come from the ground level-- it must happen locally. I told him about how, once I get to Congress, I want to come back to the community to show just how much our election process really is in peril. I plan to hold hearings about this issue back in the 9th.

I also have talked about the war-- how endless resources are being thrown away in Iraq. We made a huge mistake going to war against the Iraqis. One fellow was particularly distraught about the number of innocent Iraqi women and children who have died. He had read in one paper an estimate that over 45,000 people have died. One person wanted us to quit spending all that money in Iraq and spend it back here in this country.

The Abramoff scandal was brought up a number of times. It will be interesting to see how many people he brings down with him. The level of corruption is perhaps the worst this country has seen so far, at least on the domestic front. Our 9 for the 9th campaign feels very good indeed.

One woman was concerned about the unfunded No Child Left Behind Act. She was a teacher, who has been rifted 4 times in the past few years. The administrators and other teachers support her but whether she has a job or not each year is always in doubt. She says it is very hard to keep up her morale.

Another person was very concerned about the Democratic Party itself. He said he loved the party and did not want to leave it but that it was becoming more and more difficult to tell the difference between the Republicans and Democrats. He was not alone. I heard this over and over throughout the evening."

OK, blog readers: if there are issues you want to hear Gretchen talk about, post a comment. Or if you want to say why you support her in her efforts to take back the 9th District, let us know that as well!

9 for the 9th!

The 9 for the 9th Campaign is underway!

Here's the deal: since one of the pillars of Gretchen's campaign is strengthening our democracy, and since we need to defeat the culture of corruption in Washington, this campaign is going straight to the people. And not just the lobbyists and elites who regularly influence campaigns, but to ALL the people of the 9th District.

That's why we're encouraging people to donate 9 dollars to the effort to take back the 9th district for working people in Indiana. 9 dollars-- probably the amount you spend per week on coffee, or less than the price of 2 movie tickets-- to return Congress to the people and to get progressive issues aired in this district.

Of course, if you have the means to give more, feel free to do so-- perhaps some multiple of $9.

The campaign has been a success so far, and we'll be posting updates on it here, so check back frequently.