In particular I have had some personal contact (or at least campaign contact) with John Hall, Dave Loebsack, and Jerry McNerney. All three are exceptional people who came straight from the grassroots. All of them had been written off by the DCCC and mainstream media, but heavily supported by groups like Democracy for America. I know some people who worked for John Hall and were amazed not only by him, but by how he managed to run a grassroots campaign that was exceptionally effective. I had a personal discussion with Loebsack's people about some of the Iraq measures and they were very open, interested and intelligent about the issue...even though I was not in his district. Jerry McNerney came to my attention thanks to one of the most dynamic and dedicated progressive activists I know, the head of Democracy for NYC, who was blown away by him. He is someone who resigned from West Point to protest the Vietnam War, got his Ph.D. in engineering, then dedicated his career to developing wind energy.

Had a conversation (by email) with Jerry McNerney's brother at one point and he got me looking at Joe Courtney. I know less about him other than his voting record, which is great. But Jerry's brother made a good case for supporting him.

But my main reason for focusing on these freshmen is because their voting records have been excellent since taking office and each of them has been passionately vocal about issues that are important to me. When the FISA vote came down, I was worried that some of them might have voted against the Constitution...I as happy to learn that they all held to their values and voted the right way.

Sadly, can't say the same about some Senators.