Why Debbie Holmes should get your vote in November:

Until recently, I had never seriously considered the option of a political career; I am a trained chemist, who has been working as a real estate agent in the Boise metropolitan area, and was quite happy with my career. But in the course of my job, I saw too many wrongs being done. People were advised to take, and were given loans to buy houses that should not have been offered. Home prices were pushed up by speculators run amok. And when my clients' houses had toppled down over their heads, there was no protection for them.

I've tried to help solve this crisis going house to house, client to client. But it isn't enough; this crisis is bigger than I, or any other individual, can solve without facing the bigger picture. During the long Republican dominance of Congress, regulation of the financial sector was slowly chipped away, until there were little to no protections left for consumers. Mike Simpson was in lockstep with his party as this was going on and doesn't deserve re-election.

Congressman Simpson is wrong on so many issues. He thinks Medicare and the current health system aren't broken and shouldn't be changed, and that negotiated drug prices are a bad idea. I assure you, I and most Idahoans know better. He thinks that we don't need an exit strategy in Iraq. I know that any solution in Iraq will have to be diplomatic, rather than military. I know that we need labor unions to have some collective bargaining rights if Idaho's workers are to prosper; Mike Simpson has done everything in his power to block worker's rights.

If the progressive movement is to mean anything in this state, we must not allow Congressman Simpson to pass himself off as a moderate. If we can force him to run on his record, we can win.