A Fighting Dem in CT

Since it's Connecticut Week here on DKos, and I'm a DTC member in the heart of Lamont country, I thought I would introduce one of the other new candidates who's very much a part of the Democratic resurgance in the Quiet Corner of northeast Connecticut - Sherri Vogt. Running against entrenched Republican Assemblyman "Silent Mike" Alberts, Vogt is an Army veteran, a PTO mom, a former adult student who ended up graduating with honors, and exactly the kind of passionate, don't-you-dare-screw-with-my-kids'-futures Democrat that we need to be electing at all levels to get rid of the entrenched culture of privilege in Hartford as well as Washington. And now, Sherri Vogt is also a Kossack. Sherri will be liveblogging below from 10:00-noon, and dropping by after to answer additional comments.

Those of you who have met me in person know that one of my defining characteristics as a teacher, editor, writer, and political activist is in helping to draw connections that weren't intuitive to people before. One of the big forms those connections have taken recently is in getting politicians whose views I support connected into the netroots - not just as an ATM, but as the kind of vibrant community that keeps us pushing to make the world a better place - and showing the possibilities for doing so. (Another one is getting campaigns to use Instant Messaging, which hasn't gotten much traction yet.) I badgered the de Stefano gubernatorial campaign with data until they finally hired a full-time blogger and got Mayor de Stefano to do live blogging sessions. As I've gotten to know Sherri Vogt, it became pretty clear that she also could add a lot - and learn a lot - as a part of this community.

Why Sherri Vogt
As a member of the Pomfret DTC, I got to meet Sherri fairly early in her candidacy (the 50th District includes Pomfret, Hampton, Woodstock, Eastford, and Sherri's hometown of Brooklyn, CT) even though I've only been in the area for a decade or so. The first thing that struck me about her was her energy and passion. Her stump speech has gone from being a bit rough to pretty polished, but it's still her passion, her desire to improve the district (along with her knowledge, as a longtime legislative aide, of how to go about helping the district) that will make her a strong advocate in the Assembly.

Mike Alberts has a great attendance record, and he's mostly inoffensive - but he hasn't been an advocate for his contituency, either. And while the Bush administration has, I have to admit, taught us that there are much worse things than just doing nothing, I'm not willing to settle for an Assembly representative who doesn't push for open space; for brownfields remediation so we can grow while keeping the area's rural character; for education funding; for the restoration of the hugely effective tourism district that the state pulled the funding for. I want someone who will support the push for universal healthcare that's going to happen in the next legislative session.

Sherri Vogt is plugged into local and state politics without being a career politician. Her great-grandfather, Hugh Gorman Jr., was a local dairy farmer and State Representative from the same area district. Vogt herself has worked in Hartford for the Select Committee on Children and as personal assistant to House Democratic Leadership. She currently works for the Commerce Committees well as being a member of the Brooklyn Democratic Town Committee.

Sherri, meet the Netroots. Netroots, meet Sherri
After a recent Pomfret DTC fundraiser for Sherri and Joe Courtney, I got to sit down with Sherri for a while and finally convince her to join Kos. She poked her toes in for a few days, a little worried that she would inadvertantly offend folks because of her newness to the blogosphere. I talked about how friendly people are, and how much Kossacks love fighting Dems, but I think she got a look at a few GBCW diaries and wasn't sure quite what she would be getting into when she finally took the plunge.

So I offered to write a diary to introduce Sherri Vogt to the netroots. If she takes to it with the same energy and passion she brings to teaching, parenting, soldiering, running for office, or all of the other things she does in her life, she'll be a regular here in no time.

Please give a warm welcome to Sherri, then ask her any questions you like. If you live in the Quiet Corner's 50th District, there's a good chance that Sherri Vogt has already knocked on your door to say hello, introduce herself, and talk about how she's going to make Connecticut a better place. This diary is a chance for her to knock on some more doors, and say a few more hellos. (Feel free to give her money, too. And she's happy to have volunteers if you're local to the district. But she's here because she's one of us.)

Sherri Vogt Campign Website

(An Act Blue page for Sherri will be up shortly - her campaign sent the information to set it up but it isn't live yet.)

Note for readers of my Kossack's Guide to Book Publishing series. The long-awaited "How to find an agent" episode will go up Monday around noon Eastern time. At least one agent has agreed to drop by and heckle/answer questions afterward.