Heinrich Attends "Strengthening Our Majority" Boot Camp (So Does McCamley)

Martin Heinrich, Dem candidate for Congress in NM-01, has just returned from a special candidate training session in Chicago for top challengers from around the country. He reports on his experiences in a new blog post on his campaign website:

Wow! That's all I can say to describe the last few days. I just returned from Chicago where I attended an incredible candidate training. The "Strengthening Our Majority" Boot Camp was co-sponsored by AFSCME and the New House PAC. They invited the top challengers from around the nation and put us through the paces with two days of intense coaching on management, message, money and mobilization. I've been through a lot of political trainings, but this was in a class by itself. It was especially helpful to get to know some of the freshmen Congressmen like Ed Perlmutter who ran and won in Republican leaning districts.

In addition to being a great learning experience the conference also gave me great hope. This year's challengers are an amazing crop of candidates. They all had impeccable credentials and the fire in the belly to win. By the end of the weekend they all had an impressively polished message as well.

Believe me when I tell you that 2008 is going to be a great year for Democrats, a great year for change, and a great year for America. Watch for my classmates' names in the news:

John Adler (NJ-03), Kay Barnes (MO-06), John Boccieri (OH-16), Charlie Brown (CA-04), Darcy Burner (WA-08), Steve Driehaus (OH-01), Joan Fitz-Gerald (CO-02), Bill Foster (IL-14), Larry Grant (ID-01), Jim Himes (CT-04), Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15), Bill Kennedy (MT-AL), Bob Lord (AZ-03), Dan Maffei (NY-25), Betsy Markey (CO-04), Eric Massa (NY-29), Bill McCamley (NM-02), Bill O'Neill (OH-14), Gary Peters (MI-09), Jon Powers (NY-26), Mark Schauer (MI-07), Dan Seals (IL-10), Ron Shepston (CA-42), John Unger (WV-02), Dick Versace (IL-18).

I believe you'll see more than a few of them in Congress just over a year from now.

Heinrich was certainly in some top-notch company at the training, judging from the names above. We got to meet several of them at the YearlyKos blogger convention we attended in Chicago this summer, including Charlie Brown (CA-04), Darcy Burner (WA-08) and Eric Massa (NY-29). Very impressive. Many of those who attended the training session with Heinrich are grassroots-netroots favorites, so he was in very good company.

Also exciting that Bill McCamley, running for Congress in NM-02, was in the mix. TWO Dem candidates from TWO Congressional districts in New Mexico. This is gonna be one exciting election cycle, isn't it?