For me, before John Sarbanes, there was Jeff Smith, a young, political wunderkind out of St. Louis who dared to take on the Carnahan name for Dick Gephardt’s open seat in Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District in 2004. We got behind Jeff, after a great set of CQ responses and an interview with him conducted during the sweltering DC summer of 2004.

Jeff was an amazing progressive candidate who was only about 30 years old and took on the political apparatus with a grassroots campaign that would make any campaign extremely jealous. In Missouri, the Carnahan name is like the Kennedy name in Massachusetts. Jeff took on Russ Carnahan, and lost the primary by under 1%, extremely amazing returns. Jeff graciously supported Russ after the primary and we also got behind him.

This year, Jeff ran another grassroots campaign that he won, finishing ahead in the primary for the state Senate seat from St. Louis. With no official opposition in November, Jeff’s almost assured this seat.

A documentary film was made of his 2004 campaign for the U.S. House and it’s now playing in DC again, down at Landmark’s E Street Theater. Definitely worth checking out if you want to see a great grassroots political campaign! Click here to see what the Washington Post had to say. to the Washington Post’s quick snippet on the film:

Just to clarify, in case anyone missed it, I really liked Jeff. Of the 55 challengers I’ve worked with over two cycles (and the 300+ candidates I’ve helped to recommend an endorsement for), Jeff was one of only three candidates that I could personally say I would support, vote for, and even work for on the Hill.