Why David Esrati for Congress?
Congressman Mike Turner has spent the last eight years in Washington taking care of the people who fund his campaigns. He took money from NCR, ABX, GM and then they left the region and took good jobs with them. While we suffered, his wife accepted no-bid contracts from the Dayton Development Coalition to create "Get Midwest" - did work for the Army Corps of Engineers (she held a GSA schedule) while he was on the Defense Appropriations Committee, she even did marketing work for the Home Depot PAC- to skirt campaign donation laws. You can't depend on the media to report on this, but, if you've read www.esrati.com this is all old news.
It's time that OH-3 had a representative that represented the people and actively engaged them in leading the fight to make Congress accountable to us.
Campaign Finance Reform
One look at Mike Turners campaign donations and you'll understand why you aren't first on his agenda- you didn't give him $2,200 (several times). We've got the best politicians money can buy in America today. It's time to put a stop to it.
I'm not accepting money from PACs, Special Interest Groups, Labor Unions, Corporations for a good reason - I think it's time to put a stop to selling out to special interests. But, in light of how expensive elections have become, I think it's time to re-examine and re-invent our campaign process.
Close the Wall Street Casino
How did we get in this financial mess? It's complicated, but anyone with common sense would know that you can't buy insurance to go to Las Vegas to guarantee you'll win- but that's exactly what we've been letting the wizards on Wall Street to do- with disastrous results.
We need to put Glass-Stegall back on the books. And it's time to redefine what the word "investing" means. 70% of stock trade volume is 11 seconds or less today- that's not investing - that's playing games with the numbers- and those numbers included your pension funds, your 401K, and your mortgage. That's not good for you or this country.
Jobs for Americans
If we really want to talk about National Defense, let's start looking at all of our high-tech gear- starting with the computer or cell phone you are reading this on. Made in America? By Americans? By American Companies?
Fat chance. In the meantime, we've been letting CEOs make millions while laying off Americans and off-shoriing jobs. I don't think our country will last very long as a superpower when we owe all our money to China.
The OH-3 Dem Candidate Forum
On June 30, 2010 the League of Women Voters held a candidates forum at the Motgomery County Democratic Party Headquarters. As I've done before- and because I believe informed voters will make the right decisions, I videotaped the session and put it on YouTube for all to see. I also wrote a post about it- immediately after, because I believe open and honest government requires a great deal of 2-way communication between the represented (you) and your representative (hopefully me).
Here is the video, it's about an hour and a half. I hope this helps you make up your mind which candidate is best suited to take on Congressman Turner in November.
The candidates are David Esrati (me), Guy Fogle, and Joe Roberts with links to their position sites.