Jim Ogonowski went to Washington this week on a mission to raise his profile among high ranking Republicans and to secure funding for his campaign. The mission seems to have been a success. The Lowell Sun had this to say about Jim's trip:
Ogonowski is calling Kerry "one of the country's most notoriously liberal senators" in an online fundraising plea placed in Human Events, a conservative publication. He says he needs at least $8 million to win.
"Kerry's liberal friends in Washington will stop at nothing to keep him in the Senate," he says in the letter to potential supporters.
Ogonowski is using similar themes from his last campaign, saying Washington is broken, wrought with overspending and corrupt.
Also like last time, he's turning to national Republicans for help. On Monday he met with Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is working to establish a GOP majority in the Senate.
He also said he arranged interviews with a litany of Washington press bureaus, sweeping through traditional giants like The New York Times and CNN.
Ogonowski also met with insider publications like Politico, The Cook Political Report and the Rothenberg Political Report, which cater to the politicians he's tapping for campaign donations.
The Weekly Standard seemed particularly impressed with Jim.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Jim Ogonoswki, a Republican candidate who's seeking to face off against John Kerry in his Senate re-election bid this year. Last year Ogonowski waged a surprisingly strong special election campaign in Massachusetts' 5th Congressional district -- strong enough that state and national Republicans eagerly sought his entry into the Senate race this year.
The plain-spoken Ogonowski will offer a strong contrast with the patrician Kerry, whom Massachusetts voters seem eager to replace. Further, Ogonowski makes a strong case that Kerry is more a resident of Washington than of Massachusetts, and that he's ineffective and out-of-touch. He points out that Kerry wouldn't take a position on the Cape Wind project out of fear of alienating Ted Kennedy. Ogonowski says voters complain that they never see Kerry in the state, and rarely hear back from him on issues of concern. How effective is Kerry in getting things done for the state? In his 24-year Senate career, he has gotten 8 bills signed into law (two of which were World Population Awareness Week).
Ogonowski's message seems well-catered to the prevailing political climate. He complains that Washington doesn't work, and is unresponsive to the needs of the people. He tells me that when Kerry endorsed Barack Obama, and cited the need for change in Washington, he realized "there's one thing I agree with John Kerry on." He stresses the need to achieve energy independence ("35 years ago I sat in gas lines with my dad, and we still don't have a plan.") He believes that we went into Iraq with insufficient troop levels, but that the change of course is making a difference. He says we need to let our troops do their job, then bring them home. He stresses the importance of achieving border security. And only when I bring up the war on terror does he talk about how September 11 touched his life directly.
This is going to be a fun election cycle. |
