The Accountability Now PAC announced its arrival today:

"We need members of Congress to leave the bubble of Washington, D.C. and stand with their constituents," said Jane Hamsher, founder of Firedoglake.com and co-founder of Accountability Now. "We need members of Congress to ask the tough questions about continued Wall Street bailouts that reward the donor class, two wars without seeming end, the ceaseless assault on our civil liberties, and other issues that separate the citizenry from the DC cocoon."

"Accountability Now is an organization built around a single guiding principle: challenging the institutional power structures that make it so easy, so consequence-free for Congress to open up the government coffers for looting by corporate America while people across the country are losing their jobs and their basic constitutional rights while unable to afford basic health care," said Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com and co-founder of Accountability Now. "Accountability Now believes that members of Congress in both parties need to hear from their constituents, and that nothing focuses the mind of a politician on listening to citizens better than a primary."

"Accountability Now PAC will recruit, coordinate, and support primary challenges against vulnerable Congressional incumbents who have become more responsive to corporate America than to their constituents," said Accountability Now's new Executive Director, Jeff Hauser. "By empowering the grassroots, Accountability Now will help create the political space needed to enable President Obama to make good on the many progressive policies he campaigned on - such as getting out of Iraq, ensuring access to affordable health care for every man, woman and child, restoring our constitutional liberties and ending torture."

In 2007, grassroots activists banded together to oust Al Wynn out of office, and it shook House Democrats to their core. Similarly, we learned in 2006 how even a primary challenge that does not win could change behavior, as Jane Harman has been more accountable to the concerns of her constituents after a tough primary race against Marcy Winograd.

Out of these recent lessons, diverse and politically powerful groups have decided to support Accountability Now's efforts, such as MoveOn, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), DailyKos, ColorOfChange.org, and Democracy for America, 21st Century Democrats and BlogPAC.

On principle, I agree with the goals of this PAC. Like some guy once said, "the system in Washington is rigged and our government is broken. It's rigged by greedy corporate powers to protect corporate profits. [...] We cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats [...]"

However, I won't get excited about the Accountability Now PAC until I learn more about the criteria it will use to determine which Democratic incumbents are "bad enough" to be primaried, and which primary challengers are "good enough" to be endorsed.

To my knowledge, Democracy for America was the only organization in the Accountability Now PAC that helped Ed Fallon in last year's primary in Iowa's third district (a D+1 district represented by Blue Dog Leonard Boswell).

How would someone thinking about a primary challenge know whether he or she is likely to get full support, like Donna Edwards in MD-04, or almost nothing, like Fallon?

Speaking of Democracy for America, they have announced the 2009 schedule for their acclaimed two-day training academy. I've never attended one of these, but I have heard great things about the program. My fellow Iowa blogger noneed4thneed has signed up for this weekend's DFA academy in Des Moines.

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It's election day in Iowa, and the Democratic primary between Congressman Leonard Boswell and Ed Fallon is one of the highest-profile races in the state.

Both campaigns have expressed confidence about the outcome--Boswell's because of an internal poll reportedly showing him way ahead, and Fallon's because of direct voter contacts by the candidate, his staff and volunteers.

In this diary I will discuss Boswell's closing argument, as expressed in broadcast media advertisements as well as direct-mail pieces.

I will also go over the main rationale for Fallon's campaign and the key events during the final days before the primary.

Join me after the jump for more.

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I wish I could say I saw this one coming, but I was pleasantly surprised Tuesday morning to read the Des Moines Register's editorial urging Democrats in Iowa's third Congressional district to give Ed Fallon "a chance to unleash some of his ideas and energy in Washington."

That's right, the same editorial board that endorsed Hillary Clinton five months ago because of her experience, readiness to lead and hard work in the Senate has determined that Congressman Leonard Boswell "falls short."

Join me after the jump for more on this endorsement and other recent developments in the campaign.

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In just a few minutes, Iowa state legislator and candidate for Congress Ed Fallon will be joining us for a live blog at 1pm et over at the EENR Blog. Get your questions ready and let's get the conversation going!

One of the first candidates the bloggers of EENR decided to endorse was state legislator Ed Fallon running for Congress in Iowa's 3rd c.d. It wasn't a difficult choice. Ed Fallon is a progressive's progressive. In his 14 years as a legislator in Iowa's House, he never accepted PAC/lobbyist money. Fallon had his values in place long before it was the progressive thing to do to refuse lobbyist/PAC money. Here's a statement from Fallon about why he's running for Congress:

Our country needs and wants change.  I'm ready to take on the corporate interests who have corrupted our federal government.  I'm ready to give working families and the poor a voice in national politics.  I'm ready to do what I can to see that environmental issues are taken seriously inside the beltway.  I'm ready to apply what I've learned during 23 years of public service in Iowa and be a part of the solution in Washington.

More below the fold....

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More background on this race can be found in my previous diaries here or at the Iowa progressive community blog Bleeding Heartland.

A little more than two weeks before the Democratic primary in Iowa's third Congressional district, Ed Fallon has challenged Congressman Leonard Boswell to shift his support as a superdelegate from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.

It's a shrewd move for several reasons.

First, Iowa's third district went for Obama in January, as today's press release from Fallon underscores:

Fallon says, "Even though Hillary Clinton finished behind Barack Obama and John Edwards in the Third Congressional District, Congressman Boswell continues to ignore the will of the majority by saying he will cast his superdelegate vote for Clinton."

Fallon worked with John Edwards through the Iowa Caucuses and then endorsed Barack Obama in February. Fallon says, "Both Obama and Edwards are people whose principles reflect my belief that we need to get big money out of politics and stand up to the special interests to accomplish real change in this country. It's time to come together and focus on defeating John McCain in November."

Most of the Iowa Democratic Party establishment is backing Boswell (including many of Obama's high-profile endorsers). However, the activists who are strong Obama supporters clearly lean toward Fallon.

As I've written before, Fallon yard signs are often seen in the same yards as the Obama "HOPE" signs, while Boswell's yard signs are frequently paired with Hillary signs. Just last weekend I was with a friend who has both the Obama and Fallon signs in her yard on a busy corner. She was an Obama captain in a large Des Moines precinct. Her job takes her to many neighborhoods in the metro area, and she told me she hasn't seen any yards with signs for HOPE and Boswell (I have heard of a couple of those) or yards with signs for Fallon and Hillary (I have seen that combination only once).

Any further publicity that aligns Fallon with Obama, and Boswell with Clinton, can't hurt the challenger and may even sway some undecided Democrats.

Second, Obama is coming back to Des Moines this Tuesday for a victory rally on the night when he is expected to win a majority of the Democratic Party's pledged delegates. This will surely be a big media event.

Fallon spoke at a Nation for Change rally supporting Obama in Des Moines last month. Although Fallon will probably not be able to address the crowd this coming Tuesday, Obama's visit may generate some media coverage about which prominent Iowans are supporting Obama, and which are still with Clinton.

Third, since Boswell has rejected all invitations to debate, Fallon will not have many more opportunities to trip up the incumbent before the June 3 primary. Today's challenge is a way to shift the media narrative toward a subject less favorable to Boswell.

Speaking of debates, Boswell has said he could not spare the time for them because he is too busy working on the farm bill and other legislation. But Congress has already sent the farm bill to President Bush and is likely to be in recess during the last week in May. It's too bad that Boswell can't be straightforward about his reasons for not debating Fallon.

A final note before I end this post: after trying for more than a week, I have so far been unable to get any comment from Boswell's campaign or his Congressional office on whether Boswell was the Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee who on May 8 supported a Republican effort to add the Senate version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (which includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies) to the fiscal 2009 Intelligence authorization bill.

I am still trying to get someone who works for Boswell to confirm or deny this speculation and will bring you up to date on this in my next post on the IA-03 primary.

Meanwhile, I welcome your comments and questions.

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