Taking the Hill: New Doc Chronicles War Veterans On the Campaign Trail

One sub-plot of this year's mid-term elections was the more than 50 candidates who once served in the armed forces. A new documentary premiering tonight on the Discovery Times Channel chronicles five of these candidates as they hit the campaign trail -- Rick Bolanos of Texas, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Andrew Horne of Kentucky, Eric Massa of New York and Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania. Their range of experience runs from Vietnam to Iraq -- but they all ran as Democrats in opposition to the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war.

The documentary is called "Taking the Hill" and it's by the filmmaker brothers Craig and Brent Renaud, our colleagues here at the Downtown Community Television Center. Their last documentary, "Off to War" followed members of the Arkansas National Guard as they deployed to Iraq.

* Craig Renaud, co-director and producer of the documentary "Taking the Hill" which premiers on Discovery Times channel tonight.

Tammy Duckworth is one of the Iraq war veterans who ran for Congress in November. She served as an Army helicopter pilot in Iraq. She lost both her legs and damaged her right arm when her helicopter was shot down in an RPG attack north of Baghdad. Tammy Duckworth ran for Congress on the Democratic ticket in Illinois" sixth district. She lost by just two percent of the vote. She was recently appointed the director of the Illinois Veterans" Affairs Department by governor Rod Blagojevich. She joins us on the line from Chicago.

* Tammy Duckworth, Iraq war veteran and former congressional candidate.


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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/12/1459227