When I was working on the Badnarik campaign, Kevin Zeese was my counterpart in the Nader camp. Rumors have abounded for some time that he is running for US Senate in Maryland. They were confirmed today yesterday (I’m back in campaign mode and don’t realize what time of day it is) by the Baltimore Sun and the Business Gazette.
Zeese, 49, an attorney, is running as an Independent in the hopes of galvanizing support from the Green, Libertarian and Populist parties while attracting voters from the Democrat and Republican candidates.
He plans to make the war in Iraq a central theme of his campaign, and drew a parallel between the war and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.
“Katrina is the Iraq war coming home to roost. Instead of taking care of our crumbling infrastructure, misplaced federal spending priorities have made our entire nation vulnerable,” Zeese said in a statement.
He said anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, is going to headline an event for him at the University of Maryland later this month.
I’ve met with Zeese before (pertaining to a C-SPAN panel I was on, but mostly related to Ohio recount issues), and consumed a couple of cell phone charges with him, too. He’s a good guy, knows his stuff, is well connected, and presents himself well. I’ll be watching the fundraising, but an early prediction is that this may well be a race to watch closely.