Veterans in the congressional elections

General Wesley Clark, former Senators Robert Kerrey (D-Neb.), Max Cleland (D-Ga.), and Jon Stoltz, Chairman of VoteVets.org, held a conference call today on the state of veterans running in the elections. Stoltz said “with our races this cycle, not only do we feel that we’re going to defend all our incumbents, but we feel we have a great shot to pick up 5 or 6 seats.”

General Clark emphasized fully funding veterans health care and education, “particularly at a time when so few of us are paying any price in this war… and there’s a declining number of people who’ve have military experience in Congress.” Clark said, “we need to do a better job at bringing younger veterans into the political process, and especially giving them a chance to run as democrats.”

VoteVets.org has endorsed several candidates who are veterans, raising thousands of dollars for their candidates running for U.S. Congress. The group’s endorsed candidates are: John Boccieri, Ohio-16, Charlie Brown, California-4, Mike Lumpkin, California-52, Ashwin Madia, Minnesota-3 , Eric Massa, New York-29, Walt Minnick, Idaho-1, Jill Morgenthaler, Illinois-6, Gary Peters, Michigan-9, John Murtha, Pennsylviania-12, Steve Sarvi, Minnesota-2, Jim Martin, Georgia – U.S. Senate, and Rick Noriega, Texas – U.S. Senate, as well as incumbents Reps. Patrick Murphy, Joe Sestak, Chris Carney, and Tim Walz.