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Caught
in the Webb:
Lowell
Feld
On
the heels of Jim Webb’s victory in the Virginia
Democratic Senate primary, Lowell Feld has seen
his profile raised among Virginia bloggers.
Originally known for helping create the Raising
Kaine blog and political action committee ahead of
the November 2005 statewide elections, Feld, a
former federal bureaucrat, helped lead the move to
“draft” Webb as the man to face popular
Republican incumbent Sen. George Allen. Speaking
on the impact of blogs on Webb’s electoral
success, “Mudcat” Saunders, a top Webb adviser
said, “The bloggers were driving this.”
Q: Lowell, what is your background - where you're
from, education, job, family?
LF: I was
born in New York City (1962) and raised in
Connecticut. I have a bachelor's degree in
international relations and psychology from the
University of Pennsylvania (1984). I have a
Master's Degree in Middle East Studies, with
concentrations in international economics and
national security policy, from the George
Washington University (1986). Until about 3 months
ago, I worked as a "team leader" at the
U.S. Energy Information Administration, running that
agency's most popular program on its website (the
Country Analysis Briefs) and also covering world
oil markets. I live in Arlington and have
been married for 10 years to a beautiful jazz
singing Scots-Irishwoman.
Q: You seem
to have a deep interest in politics. Do you have a
long history of involvement in it? You also
mentioned being supportive of John McCain in past
years, but now you are an active Democrat. How do
you account for this?
LF: I first got
involved in politics when I was 13 years old as a
Teenage Republican (TAR) - believe it or not! - in
Connecticut. As a TAR, I did volunteer work
(envelope stuffing, mainly) for Ford/Dole. In
1979, I attended former Senator Lowell Weicker's
one-week summer intern program in Washington, DC.
Weicker was definitely my kind of Republican,
unfortunately a dying breed these days. In 1980,
with the rise of the religious right and the
"supply side"/"trickle down"
pseudo-economists, I started moving away from the
Republican Party, casting my first-ever
Presidential vote for John Anderson. After that, I
moved more and more firmly into the Democratic
camp, in large part because the Republican Party
had left me as it became more and more extreme on
a wide variety of issues. I also came to realize
increasingly that my true political philosophy was
a sort of Teddy Roosevelt Progressivism, combined
with the best of FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, LBJ and
RFK.
While in grad school and as a federal
employee, I was only lightly involved in politics,
although I followed it closely. After Bush stole
the 2000 election from Al Gore, and then after
9/11, I became re-politicized. In 2003, I was
heavily involved in the Draft Wesley Clark
movement, running two grassroots websites (“Enviros
for Clark” and “Hispanics for Clark”) and
serving on Clark's "environmental leadership
council." When Clark lost, I volunteered for
Kerry/Edwards, started Raising Kaine, and finally
took the initiative with a few friends to get
Draft James Webb off the ground.
By the way, my
vote for John McCain in 2000 was based on my
feeling that McCain was a straight-talking, Teddy
Roosevelt Progressive. Unfortunately, it has
turned out that this is not the case.
Q: Where did the impetus for launching the Raising
Kaine blog come from? What influenced the decision
to create a PAC? What are the upsides/downsides
with that operational model?
LF:
Depression. I'm only half kidding. After Kerry
lost in November 2004, like a lot of Democrats and
Progressives, I was really, really bummed out. For
about 1 ½ months I wallowed in a major funk, kind
of going through the stages of grieving (Denial,
Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance). Except
I seem to have skipped the "acceptance"
part. Ha ha. Instead, I went back to anger and
decided I had to fight the right wing. I looked up
from my semi-depressive semi-stupor and said,
"Hey, there's an important election IN MY OWN
STATE next year. I talked to my good friend Eric
the Super Techie, and we decided to start up the
blog called "Raising Kaine." The goal
was to help elect Tim Kaine, but also to
"raise Cain" in a broader sense, taking
it to the so-called "conservatives" for
a change. I feel like we've certainly done that
the past 1 ½ years.
Regarding the state PAC, we
(Brian Patton and I) decided to try our hand at
raising money to help elect Virginia candidates.
We managed to raise enough money to run several
newspaper ads, but I wish we could have done more.
Honestly, I see no particular downside to having a
Virginia state PAC, except that it takes some time
and attention.
Q: Raising Kaine offers
itself as the "Voice of Progressive
Virginia" and refers to historic national
politicians such as Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, JFK and
the like in term of ideology. What is Raising
Kaine's vision of progressive politics? Are there
any Virginia politicians who typify this
perspective?
LF: It's hard to speak of
Raising Kaine's overall vision, since we are a
group blog with a mix of contributors.
Current participants in RK range from conservative
Democrats to traditional liberals to former
Republicans to "TR/RFK Progressives"
like myself. Personally, my goal with RK is
to elect strong, fighting Democrats, while pushing
for Progressivism as much as possible.
In my view, Progressivism transcends stale
"liberal" and "conservative"
labels, or any particular political party for that
matter. Historically, Progressives fought
against party bosses, robber barons, monopolies,
and child labor. They fought for good government,
women's suffrage, public education, progressive
taxation, direct election of senators, and the
environment. In general, I see Progressivism as
distinct from modern American liberalism in that
Progressivism is not based on narrow,
"interest group politics." Instead, it
looks towards a broad, sweeping vision for a
better and greater America – not just for the
rich, but for ALL Americans.
In today's politics,
I would say that Wesley Clark and Jim Webb both
fit the mold of strong "Progressives."
In Virginia specifically, I certainly see Mark
Warner and Tim Kaine as fighting for good
government, the environment, public education, and
a "forward together" viewpoint in
general.
Q. Your blog was given some
credit for helping Gov. Kaine win last November.
Can you identify specific ways in which RK made a
difference?
LF: I have no empirical
evidence that Raising Kaine helped (or hurt) Tim
Kaine win his election last year. However, what we
TRIED to do was to constantly put out the good
word about Kaine, to counter misinformation and
distortions from the Republicans, and to get the
truth out to the media and general public about
who Jerry Kilgore was and what he stood for. In
addition to the blog, we produced flyers that were
distributed at Metro stops and other public
places/events. And we used our PAC to publish
several newspaper ads in favor of Tim Kaine.
Q: These days, RK is best known for being the
leading blog in favor of the Jim Webb Senate
candidacy. Top campaign officials and political
observers acknowledge the bloggers played a major
role. What was it that drew you to the Webb
effort?
LF. After Tim Kaine's victory
in November 2005, my thoughts – and several of
my friends and colleagues – turned to 2006, an
important mid-term election year. One of the top
priorities, in my mind, was for the Democrats to
find someone who could seriously compete with, and
possibly defeat, George Allen. In late October
2005, Jim Webb said in a newspaper interview that
he was thinking about running as a Democrat for
U.S.
Senate from Virginia. When I saw that, I
immediately started researching Webb, and was
extremely impressed with his background and
political potential. I e-mailed him in the hopes
of setting up an interview with Raising Kaine.
Instead of an interview, I ended up corresponding
with Webb through late December, when I finally
had the opportunity to sit down – along with
Josh Chernila and Lee Diamond – and talk with
him for about 1 ½ hours.
All three of us, from
different wings of the Democratic Party, were
extremely impressed with Webb's character and
politics. However, we were concerned that he
might not run if he didn't believe he would be
welcomed by Democrats. To help remedy this
situation, within a few days we started the
"draft" movement as a means of
convincing Webb that there was significant support
for his candidacy. In a little over a month, we
collected around 1,000 online
"signatures" and $40,000 in pledges, all
through blogging and other "word of
mouth." I personally believe that this
show of support helped encourage Jim Webb to throw
his hat in the ring (Webb himself said that we
"got him into this"), although obviously
there were many other influences and factors at
work.
Q. While it was clear that RK was leading
the "Draft Webb" effort, what role did
RK play with respect to the campaign once Webb
declared?
LF. Once Webb declared [his candidacy],
the vast majority of RK members ratcheted up their
efforts even more in support of Webb. Of course,
we kept blogging on RK, Daily Kos, etc. In
addition, most of us volunteered dozens or even
hundreds of hours of our time phone banking,
canvassing, "tabling," marching in
parades, talking up Webb to politicians we knew,
etc. We also gave money, of course, to the Webb
for Senate campaign. I believe that all this
"offline" activity was at least as
important, probably more so, than the
"online" activity. This is a key point:
We are not just "bloggers" floating
ethereally out in cyberspace; we are citizen
activists who are willing to get out there and get
our hands dirty in the "real world" as
well.
Q. During the campaign you and
RK took a lot of hits for your actions from
Democrats and Republicans alike. What do you make
of these criticisms? Did they affect your work on
behalf of Webb?
LF. Actually, I feel
like we received far more praise than criticism,
although sometimes the critics were the loudest
(unfortunately). I believe that SOME of the
criticism stemmed from people who were upset about
a challenge to their "chosen" candidate,
Harris Miller. Sad to say, but it appears that
SOME establishment Democrats feel threatened by
the rising influence of the "netroots,"
instead of embracing it as a tremendous
opportunity for growing the party. Others might
not have liked our tone at times, which overall
was wildly enthusiastic about Webb and not at all
friendly towards Harris Miller (especially after
his campaign started attacking Webb as anti-women
and anti-African American). In general, although
there may have been a downside, I feel like our
efforts helped the Webb effort. I also
believe that if you asked everyone who was
involved, the vast majority would do it all over
again in very much the same way.
Q.
Now that the primary is over, what will RK's role
be for the general election campaign? How will you
and RK respond to the low turnout numbers outside
of Northern Virginia and Webb's under performance
in locales with a significant African-American
presence?
LF. Tough questions. On RK's
role, I'd say that we will attempt to do what we
did last year with Tim Kaine and Jerry Kilgore,
but now with a much larger readership base. Much
of what we do or don't do will depend on the
resources we have at our disposal. We are always
looking to expand our reach into groups that
traditionally don't get their news online, but
that's easier said than done. We also are always
looking for contributors from different parts of
Virginia, from different walks of life, and from
different ethnic/racial groups. Regarding Webb's
"under performance" with African
Americans, I believe that largely stems from
negative mailings by the Miller campaign, and a
financial inability by the Webb campaign to
respond effectively. My own view is that Jim Webb
will be a great friend to African Americans –
and all Virginians, for that matter - when he is
in the US Senate.
Q. What does the
future hold for Lowell Feld? For RK? Are you
attempting to be the "DailyKos" of
Virginia or do you plan to "go national"
on your own?
LF. What does the future
hold for me? I have no idea. All I know is what
I'm going to keep fighting against - "conservativism"
in all its guises – and what I'm going to keep
fighting FOR - Progressive values and turning
Virginia "blue." For now, I think that's
enough of a goal, in addition to helping elect Jim
Webb and as many Democratic Congressional
candidates as possible this year. And paying
attention to my wife, cleaning the house once in a
while, going out for a beer with friends
occasionally, etc.
--
June 26, 2006
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