I live in Chico, a truly lovely town – nice park, lots of trees, great farmers market, good music.  Everything one could ask, except for one thing – our congressman.  This is deep red Northern California – the northern Sacramento Valley and a bunch of lightly populated mountain country up to the Oregon border.  All represented by  Wally Herger.  One of the worst of the worst.  Far right and stupid besides.  The proverbial empty suit.  12 terms in Congress and never written a meaningful piece of legislation -for which we should be thankful, since if he had it would be terrible.  Each election the Dems put up a sacrificial lamb.  Some nice person, devoted to the party, who allows their name to be put on the ballot so there will be a Democrat there.  And each election, they raise no money, get no support and sink without a trace.

This year, things look a bit different.  We actually have a candidate who means it.  A candidate who has held elective office.  A candidate who is campaigning, raising a bit of money.  And, in a wave year like this, who knows?  There will be big voter registration efforts up here, the Republican brand is in bad shape.  Maybe this is the year?

Jeff Morris is a supervisor in Trinity County, – Think Weaverville. I had made a donation to him earlier, but the one reservation holding me back was the question of whether he really planned to run a serious campaign.  A couple weeks back I ran into him at our local farmers market and he reassured me on that score.  As he said “I’m not doing this for my health”.

Another little anecdote: A few days later, I ran into a patient of mine who is a long time Republican activist, former member of the Republican County Central Committee.  he saw my Morris button and said – “Yeah, I’m voting for that guy.  Hergers been around too long.”  That was a big surprise for me, and I think it may be a hint at the mood of the district up here.  Medicine is a big industry in this area too, with hospitals being among the largest employers in several of our cities, and Herger upset a lot of people with his stubborn no vote on the recent Medicare bill – lost a lot of conservative doctors on that one.

So I would not call Jeff a top tier candidate yet, but I think we have a real chance this time.  It just may be that some time in my life, I may get to have a representative I can actually feel good about.  Now if we could only do something about Rick Keene.

Anyway, take a look at Jeff’s campaign site, and maybe leave a few bucks so one poor Democrat can have hope for the future.

   http://www.jeffmorrisforcongre…