On Saturday night, I helped throw a party to raise some coin for the No On 1 campaign in Maine. Just before Joe Sudbay spoke about the importance of the campaign, I was chatting with a friend about the speech. Something she mentioned that really got to me. She pointed out how 30 states have had votes on marriage equality since 1998. The right-wing has won all 30 of them. With the exception of our side winning a 2006 vote in Arizona (which we lost two years later), the haters are batting have won every single one. All thirty. Batting 1.000. A perfect streak.
That, she said, was just as critical as Obama at the HRC dinner talking about his plans to sign a federal hate crimes bill, or hope to repeal DOMA. Funders fund success, and nothing says success like a perfect record on marriage initiatives. Winning breeds more funding and excitement among the base, which breeds more success.
We have to break this streak.
I'm telling you all this because October 15th is the final stretch in Maine. It is both the first day voters can vote in-person as well as the final campaign finance deadline. Thanks to you, I'll be arriving the evening before to cover part of the final stretch.
Like any campaign, or family, No On 1 relies on a budget, and needs to know how much it will take in before doing final field organizer hiring, buying ad spots, and so forth. We can see how much the other side has raised, which is important. And a less-than-expected showing for us also can get right-wingers to dump more in, spotting a chance at victory. That, along with early voting starting, makes October 15th the second-most critical day of the campaign.
If you are going to give at all during this campaign, I urge you to give now. Like campaign manager and straight ally Jesse Connolly wrote here at OpenLeft, Maine is a cheap date state. Their finance director sent me a list of costs- you wouldn't believe it. We raised $1,300 on Saturday night, enough to buy 100 yard signs, 70 cell phones for volunteers to talk to voters, produce a radio ad, and pay a field organizer for an entire WEEK. It's a bargain.
Your contribution of $24 can buy 20 yard signs. Your $36 can fund field supplies for one entire canvass. $125 can buy all of that AND twenty $3/day cell phones for volunteers to call voters. You can help break the streak.
If we don't ante up here, the haters will get all the funding they need to go into other states where we are poised to win legislatively, and file ballot initiatives. We will find ourselves being asked to put resources into more states and be spread thin. This 30/30 streak has to stop, and it has to stop in Maine.
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