Jared Polis for Congress

If you haven’t read it yet, Howie Klein wrote about how my insider-backed primary opponent was invited to participate in a strategy conference with the Democratic establishment, while I was shunned.

Neither I nor the other non-establishment Democratic candidate running here in CO’s Second Congressional district were invited or even knew about this semi-official training which was apparently sanctioned by our party’s DC leadership; My candidacy is not a long-shot, I don’t need the establishment’s support; our campaign leads in money raised and cash on hand over the opposition so far, thanks to the netroots support of over 600 ActBlue donors so far and well over 1,000 donors overall.

I’m fine running against the way Democrats in DC have been operating. As I talk to Democratic voters across my district, I find that they are increasingly fed-up with the way Washington DC Democrats keep giving in to Republicans.

Whether it’s making it harder for working families to emerge from bankruptcy, ending the war in Iraq, leaving gender identity out of ENDA, or letting telcos off the hook for illegal surveillance, the Democratic establishment risks increasingly estranging itself from where our voters are, and more importantly where our values are.

You would never know that Democrats held strong values if you look at what comes out of the insular DC insiders. We are the party of values; let’s start living them and celebrate dissent and diversity.