ACTION: Use It Or Lose It, 2008!

by: Chris Bowers

Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 15:00


The time has come. Use Or Lose It 2008 is ready. Now, it is up to you.

Last week, because House Democrats have as many or more pickups opportunities than we did two years ago, the DCCC took out a $15,000,000 loan to help stretch the playing field. However, 54 House Democrats who are cruising to re-election are $6,537,635 behind on their dues, and have not made up for this lack of fundraising elsewhere. You can see a list of these Democrats here:

Use It Or Lose It, 2008

We have less than one week before final media buys are made, and so we need to push these Democrats to make up their dues now. Call or email one or two members of Congress near you who appear on this spreadsheet, and ask them to pay their DCCC dues in full.

Be polite. Be encouraging. But also, be urgent. Mention how little time there is left. Mention how many great pickups chances we have, but for which we need more money. If it helps, check out my most recent House Forecast before you call or email to mention some specific examples. Whatever you say during your phone call or email, most importantly, be yourself.

Call or email a member of Congress who is behind on his or her dues now. If they agree to give more funds, leave a comment or send me an email, and I will taken them off the list. If your local member of Congress isn't on the list, if no one from your state is on the list, or if you simply want to see other people you can call, then check out this spreadsheet produced by volunteers on Open Left. It is not a list of Democratic members of Congress behind on their dues, but who simply have extra cash and token Republican opposition. If you call someone from that list, thank them for how much they have raised so far, but ask them if they can give a little more.

Let's do this. I will be calling my local Rep, Chaka Fattah, shortly. Make a call or send an email to a member of Congress near you. Here are the two spreadsheets again:

Democrats behind on their dues
Democrats facing token opposition

There is no time like the present. Final ad buys need to be made in less than a week. Call or email now.

Chris Bowers :: ACTION: Use It Or Lose It, 2008!

Tags: , , , , , (All Tags)
Print Friendly View Send As Email
ACTION: Use It Or Lose It, 2008! | 25 comments
FINALLY ... (0.00 / 0)
I was wondering when y'all were going to get on top of this!
I know, it took a while (0.00 / 0)
Should have been up seven days ago, but better late than never!
[ Parent ]
Done! (4.00 / 1)
Mine is McDermott in WA.  I laid it on pretty thick (and truthfully) about continuing to give as a senior facing this economic meltdown, giving beyond any comfort level because of this being the crucial election of my lifetime.  Hope it connects.

He's only paid one-fifth of his dues....

Excellent! (0.00 / 0)
Well done! Thank you so much!

Believe me, it will connect. Hearing constituents talk about process stuff like this is odd, and they will take note of it.

[ Parent ]
McDermott is in a special situation (0.00 / 0)
As I'm sure you know--Boehner's successful lawsuit against him, which he's still trying to pay off, IIRC. So he literally cannot afford to pay his dues in full. And McDermott's hardly a "bad" Dem--let alone a Blue Dog. I've no doubt that he'd love to hurt the GOP electorally.

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything...Mankind are forever destined to be the dupes of bold & cunning imposture" -- Alexander Hamilton
[ Parent ]
How much does he owe? (0.00 / 0)
I hadn't heard of that one. Do you have links and amounts? I could always revise.
[ Parent ]
There's a ton out there on this (0.00 / 0)
But his Wiki entry has a decent summary:

In December 2004, Rep. McDermott came under investigation by the House Ethics Committee when they had to determine whether he violated standards of conduct for leaking an illegally recorded telephone conversation during a committee investigation in 1997. At that time, the committee was investigating the conduct of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The illegal recording was made by a Florida couple, John and Alice Martin, who overheard a conversation between Rep. Gingrich and top Republicans on their police scanner inside their car. After listening to the conversation for several minutes they decided to record it, at first for posterity's sake and after listening further decided that it might be important for the Ethics Committee to hear.[5] It was at that time that they delivered the tape to McDermott, the senior Democrat on the committee at that time, and who was in town for a swearing-in ceremony. (No action was taken by the Ethics Committee against Gingrich, Boehner or other participants in the recorded conversation.)

Shortly afterward, McDermott leaked the tape to several media outlets, including the New York Times. Rep. John Boehner, who was part of the Gingrich conversation, sued McDermott for illegally leaking the tape; U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan concluded that McDermott was behind the leak and ordered him to pay Boehner for "willful and knowing misconduct" that "rises to the level of malice".

McDermott challenged that ruling in a federal appeals court, arguing that since he was not the one involved in the recording, "his actions were allowed under the First Amendment, and said a ruling against him would have 'a huge chilling effect' on reporters and newsmakers alike. Lawyers for 18 news organizations - including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The Associated Press, the New York Times and the Washington Post - filed a brief backing McDermott.[6] But on March 29, 2006, the court ruled 2-1 that McDermott violated federal law when he turned over the illegally recorded tape to the New York Times and other media outlets. The court then ordered McDermott to pay for Boehner's legal costs (over $600,000) as well as $60,000 in damages.

On June 26, 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the earlier judgment, and decided to re-hear the case with all nine judges in September.[7] However, that decision also went against McDermott.[8]

On December 11, 2006, a report released by the House Ethics committee concluded that McDermott "violated ethics rules by giving reporters access to an illegally taped telephone call involving Republican leaders a decade ago."[9] The report stated, "Rep. McDermott's secretive disclosures to the news media ... risked undermining the ethics process regarding" former Speaker Gingrich. It said McDermott's actions "were not consistent with the spirit of the committee."[9]

On July 6, 2007, McDermott announced he would ask the Supreme Court to review the appeals court decision in favor of Boehner.[10] On December 3, 2007, the Supreme Court declined his request for review, so the decision of the appeals court stands.[8]

On March 31, 2008, Chief Judge Thomas Hogan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered McDermott to pay $1.05 million to Boehner, covering attorney's fees, costs and interest. McDermott also has had to pay over $60,000 in fines and close to $600,000 to his own lawyers. McDermott said he would not appeal further.[11]

He's in his 70's, he's done a world of good in his career, this is a huge burden for him, for doing what he thought was the right thing at the time, and I'm not about to ask him to make his ability to repay this fine even tougher. In any case, I'm guessing that he's paid and donated more than could be reasonably expected of him under the circumstances, and I'm sure that there are plenty of Dems sitting on a heap of cash that are much better able to chip in than McDermott at this point.

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything...Mankind are forever destined to be the dupes of bold & cunning imposture" -- Alexander Hamilton

[ Parent ]
What about calling on primary challengers like Kevin Powell? (0.00 / 0)
He still has $57,000 dollars left in his campaign coffers.  What the heck is he going to do with all that money now?  If Powell didn't beat the incumbent Congressman in Brooklyn who supported Hillary even thought the district overwhelmingly went for Obama in a primary brought to you by the word change, will never unseat Towns.  He's run twice and shouldn't run again.  Even Mark Green knows better than that.

Any other well-funded primary challengers who are sitting on pots of gold right now?

I don't know (0.00 / 0)
"Well-funded" and "primary challengers" don't tend to go together in the same sentence very often. :)

It is an interesting idea. One problem though: it might be impossible to reach them. Unlikely that they have active campaign offices right now.

[ Parent ]
If we contributed to the Congresscritter in the past, do we mention it? (0.00 / 0)
I'm leaning against mentioning it because I cannot find a way to say it that seems polite enough (best formulation: "I contributed a very modest amount to your first Congressional campaign in XXXX, and have never regretted it.").  Still seems a bit sleazy.  Plus, unintentionally hilarious---I gave you $50, now hand over $120,000.  

Thoughts?  Better ways to mention it?  Don't mention it?

Saxby Chambliss  

Hmmm... I lean against mentioning it (0.00 / 0)
For the reasons you mention, I'd lean against mentioning it. Could sound like a quid pro quo.

There might be a way to make to work, though. Something like "I know Congressman X has already given some. I have already given some, too. But we need to pile it on, because opportunities like this don't come around very often." Or something like that. You know, encouraging.

[ Parent ]
Thanks, didn't even think about the quid pro quo issue (0.00 / 0)
I'll just avoid mentioning it.

Saxby Chambliss  
[ Parent ]
I live in the WA 7th CD (0.00 / 0)
And anyone who knows anything both about McDermott's progressive record and his financial troubles stemming from Boehner's successful lawsuit against him realizes that he's not the right Dem to be hitting up for cash right now. He'd give if he could, I have no doubt. No one wants to crush the other side like McDermott wants to.

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything...Mankind are forever destined to be the dupes of bold & cunning imposture" -- Alexander Hamilton
Some quibbles and a comment (0.00 / 0)
Bill Jefferson is certainly not unopposed in LA-2.  

I sure wouldn't give a dime if I was Charlie Rangel.  The NY Times has a crusade on trying to remove NY's most powerful congressman from the last 40 or 50 years.  I don't know who is behind it but they don't stop.  Spitzer already was pushed out.  If I was Rangel, I'd keep the money for lawyers, etc.  Creeps.  (probably either the real estate lobby trying to make examples of people following usual NYC practices or the Wall Street crew)

A lot of NY congressmen report suspiciously high expenses.  Any clue?

There are lots of targets to choose from (0.00 / 0)
If you don't want to call one or two, feel free to call others.

Not sure about the New York money situation. Maybe they are just good at raising money?

[ Parent ]
Careful of being trigger happy (0.00 / 0)
For example,
John Salazar CO_03 Token Republican 719-587-5105 202-225-4761 $636,474
Ed Perlmutter CO_07 Token Republican 303-274-7944 (202) 225-2645 $720,222
are both kicking in to the combined campaign in Colorado which helps Obama and Udall as well as, I believe, Markey

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b...

Will update (0.00 / 0)
Will update and be fixed by tomorrow.
[ Parent ]
Chris may have done things differently (0.00 / 0)
But the token opposition list doesn't account for extenuating circumstances, of which there could be many. Not everyone listed on that sheet is a bad person, but when putting it together I didn't think it was up to me to decide for everyone else.

John McCain opposes the GI Bill.
[ Parent ]
Posted re: Ohio, and sent messages (4.00 / 1)
Thanks for doing this. Contacted Rep. Kaptur and Rep. Sutton.

Kaptur has almost a million in cash on hand. Sutton, on the other hand, is not in a position to pay more than about a third of the $100,000 she owes.

Here's my post:

http://ohiodailyblog.com/conte...

We have a candidate here in Ohio who is on the cusp of becoming competitive, Sharen Neuhardt in OH-07, and Vic Wulsin looks like she needs all the help she can get in OH-02. (If Mean Jean Schmidt wins again, she may be in there until she decides to retire.) I'd love to see this result in some more help for them.

Great! Well Done! (0.00 / 0)
Very well done. Thanks for partcipating in the campaign. Great work!
[ Parent ]
Sutton's Chief of Staff Called Me Back (0.00 / 0)
The main point he wanted to make is that Rep. Sutton has done a lot of fundraising activity outside the context of DCCC dues. He didn't have exact numbers but he said that she has either contributed or raised $350,000 for various congressional races, including $100,000 for Red-to-Blue candidates. Also, she just contributed $25,000 to the Ohio House Democratic Caucus, which is extremely important here because the Democrats are only 4 seats away from taking control of that chamber.

He also said that Sutton does not owe $100,000 in dues. He said that she has paid over $130,000, and he thought that her dues might be $150,000 rather than the $200,000 shown on the list. So she may owe as little as $20,000 or so, or at worst $70,000 or so.

[ Parent ]
John Larson CT-01 (0.00 / 0)
i just called John Larson in CT-01, who's on the "facing token opposition" spreadsheet, and spoke with his campaign manager.

Larson has already (yesterday by FedEx, apparently) contributed $30-$35,000 back to the DCCC on top of his dues, which he's paid in full.  he also has held fundraisers for Jim Himes in CT-04 and maxed out in donations to Himes, Murphy and Courtney, also in CT.

so he's really doing his part to pitch in.  he probably ought to be removed from the list.

i'm still trying to reach Rosa Delauro...

Rosa DeLauro CT-03 (0.00 / 0)
okay, i reached DeLauro's office.  they say they've already contributed $450,000 back to the DCCC this cycle and also fundraised/maxed out for Himes in CT-04.  that sounded like a large chunk of change.

the rep also let it slip that the leadership this week has embarked on their own campaign much like Use It Or Lose It.

[ Parent ]
Cool (0.00 / 0)
I'm happy to take them off the list.

Thanks for the calls you made. Much, much appreciated!

[ Parent ]
Emailed all the NY people (0.00 / 0)
And I'll update if/when I hear anything back.  (Had to email because my toddler thought the (full) bathtub was a good place to drop my cell phone.  Waiting to see if it will dry out and work ...)

Republicans can't fix our country; they're too busy saddlebacking.
ACTION: Use It Or Lose It, 2008! | 25 comments
USER MENU

Open Left Campaigns

SEARCH

   

Advanced Search

QUICK HITS
STATE BLOGS

Home | RSS/XML Feed | Register | Contact

  © OpenLeft 2007-2010, Powered by SoapBlox

Powered by: SoapBlox