Progressive PAC offers support to Kennedy’s campaign

Blue America, a grassroots political action committee, has spent nearly $5,000 on TV ads this fall in support of Billy Kennedy’s campaign.

Blue America decided to assist Kennedy, the Democratic candidate for US Congress 5th District, in his quest to unseat Republican incumbent Virginia Foxx after the group’s online poll named Foxx as the “worst Republican” in Congress.

“We made a video about Billy and Virginia’s race and we raised enough money to have it aired in North Carolina,” Blue America founder Howie Klein said. “Virginia Foxx is one of the craziest of the far right extremists in the country.”

Blue America is composed of three political blogs: Down with Tyranny!; Crooks and Liars; and Digby’s Hullabaloo, Klein said. “We’re a progressive PAC, not a Democratic PAC. We fight conservatives and reactionaries and we fight in favor of progressives.” The pro-Kennedy TV ads ran locally last month on Comedy Central, CNN MSNBC and FOX. The ads targeted the Winston-Salem suburbs, Klein said.

“We feel real strongly about Billy as strongly as we feel about her Klein said. “Billy impressed me tremendously. Even if Foxx was a run-of-the-mill conservative, we would still be excited to support Billy.”

Virginia Foxx’s campaign did not return phone calls for this story.

According to the Federal Election Commission website, Blue America has received more than $71,000 in contributions this year as of Sept. 30. The majority of those contributions have come from individuals, while $6,000 came from political action committees like the AFL-CIO COPE Political Contributions Committee. The FEC report reveals that Blue America spent $9,600 on billboard advertising supporting the candidacy of Justin Coussole — the Democratic opponent of US House Minority Leader John Boehner.