Back in college, I did a lot of organizing around the 2004 Presidential election. In particular, I organized large out-of-state canvass trips to Pennsylvania and Ohio for America Coming Together. The logistical barriers were enormous in terms of cars, class schedules, and so forth, but none as large as money.
At the University of Rochester, like many colleges, everything revolved around "Flex" money, which was money you or your parents/guardians put on your ID card. Flex purchased you anything from textbooks to food to concert tickets on campus. It was frequently the only kind of currency any student had. We set up tables to sell anti-Bush merchandise to raise money for our trips, and the first question out of students' mouths were whether we accepted Flex or not. If not, the population to which we could sell literally plummeted.
Because political travel out of state wasn't a U of R-sanctioned activity, we could not raise money for our trips via Flex. Students did not have checkbooks, many did not have credit cards. Many had parents willing to donate online, but we had no place to accept such a donation. Sending checks in the mail took time. I'm not even sure if PayPal was around then, but it was unheard of. Fundraising was an enormous barrier.
I'm writing about all of this because ActBlue, partnering with TravelForChange.org (the organization that helped Obama volunteers travel to swing states last year), has a new tool that allows you to create a personal fundraising page to cover your travel expenses to Maine. This may seem simple, but I actually consider it an amazing leap forward. Much of the population willing to travel are young people, particularly college students willing to miss a week of class, and more spontaneous (no children, fewer hard commitments, etc.) In my organizing experience, young people have the most willingness to go, but the fewest resources in terms of finances to support travel. This helps break down that barrier. And it's not just for young people. You can set up a page and blast it around to friends, family, etc, utilizing Facebook and other means we didn't have five years ago. TFC.org cuts you a check, and that's that. No questions asked. Spend it on gas, food, interstate tolls, any other travel expenses. You can also do a joint page with friends if you want to carpool.
Here's Shai Sachs (of MyDD fame) and Ben Gonzalez, both of whom came up to volunteer. Ben explains how he used TFC/ActBlue to raise money to support his travel here from Southern California.
Talking with campaign staff here, the biggest need we have for the remainder of the campaign is volunteers. The polls are still tight. We're two weeks out today. If you're up for coming to Maine, but need a little financial help, get in touch with either myself (adambink at gmail dot com) or fill out the form here to get started.
The last day of the third fundraising quarter of 2009 (whoa, time really flies!) is this Wednesday, September 30. Our Democratic candidates for Senate need to make as big a fundraising splash as possible in the third quarter to help refute the growing conventional wisdom among the traditional media pundits that 2010 could be a Republican year.
Please, please, please consider making a contribution today to our Democratic candidates for Senate via the Expand the Map! ActBlue page. I've set some lofty, pie-in-the-sky goals that, if we were able to meet them, I'd be wonderfully surprised and gratified and blown away by your generosity.
Democrat
Currently At
Goal
Distance to Goal
Robin Carnahan
$681
$1,000
$319
Paul Hodes
$780
$1,000
$220
Joe Sestak
$758
$1,000
$242
Charlie Melancon
$193
$400
$207
Please click on over to the Expand the Map! ActBlue page and make a contribution to help stop ongoing Republican obstruction in the Senate. Every contribution makes a real impact whether it's $100 or $25 or $10 or, well, any amount. Want to rebel against multiples of five and contribute $63 or $39 or $27, knock yourself out!
Remember, the fundraising quarter ends this Wednesday, so please contribute today if you can. Thank you SO much!
ACORN continues to face virulent attacks from Glenn Beck and Company, but, unfortunately, diarists have not been asking the netroots to pony up financial support, despite the fact that raising large amounts of small donor dollars is one of the netroots greatest strengths.
Follow me below and I will make my case for a large scale netroots fundraiser.
Stand For Marriage Maine, the right-wingers trying to repeal same-sex marriage equality in Maine, just sent out this awesome mailer:
For many of us, this week marks the start of the new school year. So in honor of back-to-school season, let's try a little pop quiz. Which of the following does not belong in the same group as the others:
(A)History
(B)Mathematics
(C)English
(D)Homosexual Marriage
If you guessed ''D'' - you're right! Mainers firmly believe homosexual instruction has no place in the classroom. Maine's public schools should focus on reading and writing, not mandatory gay sex education.
There's only one problem: an irresponsible piece of legislation known as LD1020. If allowed to take effect this law would throw to the trash heap our decades-old interest in promoting traditional marriage. It would legalize homosexual, genderless marriage. And if marriage is redefined to be genderless, then same-sex marriage must be taught as being the same as traditional marriage. This has profound consequences for your child's classroom education.
Gay sex education?! They teach that now?! Where can I sign up?
Jokes aside, the haters will lie and smear their way into victory during this campaign. Conflating marriage equality into "mandatory gay sex education" is insulting and a horrific exaggeration, but that's what they do. These are real families with real children being raised just like other kids. Nowhere in the legislation are there any kind of required classes. The right-wing has always used fear as a weapon, and it's fear of instilling values here.
Our side needs to counter it with the truth. This new ad launching after Labor Day is the way to do it. Sam Putnam, the teenager with two moms in this new ad from the No On 1 campaign, does not look like he has gay sex horns growing out of his head.
Maine residents will start to vote in mid-October. That's just six weeks away. The race to define this thing is on, and as I've heard from all my Maine contacts, it needs to be "live and let live." That message is up for grabs. With mail like this, the right-wingers are pushing their own version of that. We have to push ours.
Last night, No On 1 was added as the very first race on the Orange to Blue page from DailyKos. Jesse Connolly, the campaign manager of the No On 1 campaign, posted at DailyKos today about the campaign, thanking the netroots, including us, for helping raise the money to put ads like this on the air. Please rec and comment. Let's tip our hat back to him from OpenLeft and define this fight for Maine residents first, before the other side does.
Like you say, it is easier to get the progressive Dems because they are our ideological cohorts. I want to rephrase this in another way, which is that we start every piece of legislation with John Tanner with him being in a "culture of caution" type of mentality, and we have to flip him. With a Keith Ellison, we start from a position that he will likely tend to agree with the position we would like him to take, and need to ask him to withstand pressure.
My question is what kinds of pressure are needed to get members to "stand firm" "hold on" against pressure from the leadership, corporate interests, etc. It seems to require re-learning pressure tactics, with some exceptions like a call to a House office would be phrased likely the same way.
For example, I just saw PCCC's ad on TV last night trashing Snowe, Nelson etc. for taking insurance industry money. What would our ad asking Ellison and Woolsey to maintain their position refusing to vote for a bill without a public option look like? I can see a number of possibilities, including a more generic ad on why the public option is important. But I think the tactics may be different.
I want to think a little bit about the pressure tactics we've used for our own side so far. The successful campaign to raise over $400,000 to thank Progressive Block members was, I think, the first major effort to help support the Progressive Block. It used a carrot rather than a stick. My thought experiment is what would happen if we took the carrot approach to the airwaves. I only see the ads aired on local TV, but so far, they range from ads from organizations like PCCC trashing Ben Nelson to AHIP and other front groups vaguely asking for Congress to slow down/find a bipartisan solution, to conservative groups threatening death panels and cuts to Medicare with images of worried seniors. But the ads are united in one fact- they are universally negative.
What if, as a change of pace, we aired a positive ad. Seabrook has a good start in a reply to my comment. What if we showed a smiling Earl Blumenauer, lauded his commitment to a strong public option that will reduce costs and cover the uninsured, etc., and asked constituents to call and thank him? The theory behind pressuring members to change their position is to incite anger and angry phone calls to the member to get them to flip. Is there any less use behind doing the opposite? Is money raised to give to campaign accounts on ActBlue better used to go on TV and thank Democrats who are most likely to betray the public option? It would obviously cost more than what's been put into most members' accounts, but perhaps it would be more effective to get them to stand firm.
And I believe that constituents eventually get turned off by relentless stream of negative ads, muting the TV, changing the channel. A positive ad might grab attention and make them look at the public option a different way. It could carry over to, say, pressure on Ron Wyden. Perhaps constituents would start asking him why he isn't supporting it like Blumenauer is, if they can be convinced that it's a good thing.
I don't know the answer, but I thought I would put it out there for some thoughts.
Last cycle, I started an ActBlue page specifically for Democratic Senate candidates working to pick up seats held by Republicans. I named it the Expand the Map! ActBlue page because the goal was to expand the map of competitive Senate seats. The effort was a big success, achieving over 300 contributions and $40,000 for the Democratic Senate candidates included on the page.
Today, I kicked off the 2010 edition of the Expand the Map! ActBlue page with three Democratic candidates for Senate: Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, New Hampshire Congressman Paul Hodes, and Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak.
In New Hampshire and Missouri, we have the strongest candidates available, candidates who will also make terrific Democratic Senators. In both races, however, fundraising will always be a top priority. Missouri Republican Roy Blunt will be able to tap his lobbyist buddies and corrupt cronies for cash ad nauseum. No doubt the NRSC will also make holding New Hampshire a top priority; and the D.C. GOP establishment has already begun fawning over Palin-esque quitter Kelly Ayotte. Carnahan and Hodes need our support! A few years back, all four of New Hampshire's and Missouri's combined Senate seats were held by Republicans. Wouldn't it feel great to have flipped all four?
In Pennsylvania, y'all know the deal. Arlen Specter was a Republican Senator for decades. Even though he changed his Party affiliation, he's still not a Democrat as far as I'm concerned. Joe Sestak is a real Democrat, and he - not Specter - should win the Democratic primary. But Specter has a significant edge when it comes to campaign cash; and, Ed Rendell will do all he can to shut off Sestak's fundraising. Let Specter, Rendell, etc. know that they can't shut down the netroots by supporting Sestak!
Please, please, please help kick off the 2010 cycle's Expand the Map! effort by sending these highly deserving Democrats a few bucks. $100 makes a huge difference, $20 makes a huge difference, $10 makes a huge difference! Hop over to the Expand the Map! ActBlue page and make your voice heard.
This is not just a contribution to these Democrats' campaigns. This is a contribution toward slowing and eventually stopping Republican obstruction in the U.S. Senate. Thank you SO much!
Collin Peterson is getting a lot of credit, both on Open Left and elsewhere, for holding up the Waxman-Markey climate change bill. However, it needs to be pointed out that Peterson is only able to do this through anti-climate change solidarity from every single Democrat on the Agriculture Committee. All 28 Democrats on that committee are refusing to pass pre-weakened climate change legislation unless the legislation gets even weaker.
Further, it needs to be pointed out that 13 of the 28 Democrats on the Agriculture Committee were first elected to Congress in 2008 or later, 3 were first elected to Congress in 2006, and 3 more were first elected to Congress in 2004. Still further, many of these are the same Democratic candidates who received the lion's share of Democratic Party Committee spending, and who also received the most progressive, small donor money from Act Blue.
In other words, the climate change bill is being held up by Democratic newbies in the House who received enormous amounts of donations from progressive activists. Here is a chart showing just how much money we are talking about: $18,508,225.
Agriculture Committee Democrats, Frosh and Sophomores
If there was ever a doubt that committed activists could shake things up and make a difference, let the recent grassroots PA-Sen Straw Poll stand as an example in your mind.
The problem: Political insiders were dominating the contours of the PA-Sen primary, trying to clear the field for Arlen Specter. The grassroots had no meaningful voice.
The solution: A Straw Poll supported by tons of national and state progressive actors -- where thousands of activists could weigh in on whether the most talked-about potential challenger was good enough to be drafted.
The theory of change: By creating one place where the public, political insiders, and the media could look to see the grassroots discontent with Specter and the level of support for Joe Sestak, progressives could alter the environment in which potential challengers made their decision about whether to run -- and alter the media dialogue to make the idea of a primary challenge less far-fetched.
Below are over 35 media stories and blog posts about the Straw Poll's launch and the final results -- personally, I'm most thrilled with all the local media coverage.
And John Morgan of The Pennsylvania Progressive (a Straw Poll partner) got some video of Sestak talking about our collective impact. Thanks to all who partnered and voted and believed that we could alter the political terrain together.
The grassroots Straw Poll has ended, and over 7,500 votes were cast!
The results: 85% in Pennsylvania and 86% nationally said YES -- draft Rep. Joe Sestak to run against Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary.
Joe Sestak just sent over this statement thanking all who voted!
"I am honored that so many of you took the time to vote in the recent grassroots Straw Poll. Let me tell you, I and many others were paying attention. If I decide to run it will be in large measure because of the grassroots energy of so many people like you. Until I and my family make that decision, please accept my thanks and my best wishes as you continue be active participants in our people-powered democracy. Thank you so very much!"
The goal of this Straw Poll -- sponsored by the PCCC in partnership with OpenLeft, Daily Kos, Digby, CrooksandLiars, the Pennsylvania Progressive, Keystone Progress, and many others -- was to allow the grassroots to have a meaningful voice in a process previously dominated by party insiders.
Not only does there appear to be grassroots energy for a primary -- but Sestak seems to be someone many folks could rally around.
Sestak obviously is paying attention to the voting results, and a big grassroots draft fund would also likely influence his decision even more.
If he runs, he automatically gets all draft donations, giving him a boost. If he doesn't, funds in that account go to ActBlue -- a vital piece of progressive infrastructure that has revolutionized people-power campaigning by making online contributions to Democrats easy. (Thanks, ActBlue!)
"I believe candidates with strong, sound stances deserve our support, and this is a race where your dollars can make the difference. Please make a contribution to this critical cause."
Sound familiar? If you have any experience with our fundraising pages you will have seen this (and perhaps fallen asleep to it) a few too many times. It is the default text for ActBlue's fundraising pages. As you've seen here on Open Left's Better Democrats page, ActBlue's customizable fundraising pages allow progressive activists to raise money for the best Democratic candidates out there easily and effectively. But while the original blurb did help Democrats use our pages, we're in year 5 of ActBlue, and this is definitely year 3-4 material. We'll be working with thousands of new fundraisers this cycle, and we want to make sure they have the best language. And, well, this isn't it.
So, we need ideas.
We know you're best equipped to know what language will appeal to your friends and neighbors, so we wanted to give all of you an opportunity to create the next fundraising page blurb. If we pick yours, it will show up automatically on almost every fundraising page created on ActBlue. To show our appreciation, we'll send the winner and two runners-up an ActBlue Ice Cream Scoop! (No, we're not kidding. And trust us, it's a high quality scoop - The Original Zeroll.)
Okay, here are the guidelines:
The blurb must be fewer than 50 words.
It has to be fairly generic (no specific issues or names), but still get across the basic reason for the fundraising page. This is something our current text does fairly well, if you are looking for an example.
If you can make it apply to pages for candidates and/or committees, all the better. If not, at least make it appeal to people looking to donate to candidates.
We are Democrats, and our pages are for Democrats. If your message would appeal to Democrats, that would probably earn points.
Humor is a big plus, but only that universal humor that works for everyone.
Effective fundraising is personal. Think about what kind of language would help you be a better fundraiser, and think about why your friends and family might feel compelled to give.
ActBlue is active in all 50 states, helping Democrats raise money for their chosen candidate from the comfort of their living rooms and offices. We believe that your voice should be heard everywhere from your state capitol to the Senate floor, and we're working to make sure it is. Please support our work with a $15 recurring contribution today!
Michelle Bachmann has turned into quite a hot topic here in the netroots after her disgraceful performance on Hardball that that you can watch for yourself here.
It's hard to even begin on how horrifying that McCarthyesque, hateful interview was. But a lot of us Minnesotans have known about Michelle Bachmann and her hateful, extreme ways for years. Thankfully we've got a real shot at beating her this year, and you can help send her and her hateful brand of politics packing. Keep reading to find out how!
Ok, Actblue was down for a few hours, but now it's time to kick in. Watch this video of Donna Edwards going off on the American Banker's Association and introduce a real rescue plan. Let's get their back. There are three hours left, and you guys have been amazing. We only need 22 more people to put a little something in and show progressive leaders we're here to support them.
Bush gave a speech this morning and here's what he said.
"Yesterday, within the course of a few hours, the failure to pass the economic rescue plan in Washington led to the single largest decline of the stock market in two decades.
"While I, like others, am outraged that the reign of irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has created the current crisis, I also know that continued inaction in the face of the gathering storm in our financial markets would be catastrophic for our economy and our families.
"At this moment, when the jobs, retirement savings, and economic security of all Americans hang in the balance, it is imperative that all of us - Democrats and Republicans alike - come together to meet this crisis.
Oh, wait, that wasn't George Bush, that was part of Barack Obama's statement in response to the failure of the bailout package. I think Obama can be forced to do the right thing, to be progressive, but it's going to take an aggressive Congress to get him there because he is first and foremost a vote counter. So we need to get the votes in there. The anger over this plan is clear, as is the consensus that the government needs to do something. But what gets done over the next five years is largely going to depend on how much political space we can create for politicians to be progressive.
So throw in a few dollars and help us get to 100 donors. Today's the end of the quarter, let's get some Better Democrats in there.
One of the primary ways to Expand the Map of competitive U.S. Senate seats in 2008 is to empower with resources Democrats in states that Republicans hope to take for granted, so that they can focus on more traditionally battleground states. Four such red states in 2008 are Mississippi, Kansas, Georgia, and Tennessee, where former Governor Ronnie Musgrove, former Congressman Jim Slattery, former state legislator Jim Martin, and former Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Bob Tuke are running to oust ethically questionable Roger Wicker, Bush-cover-up-artist Pat Roberts, Shameless Saxby Chambliss, and Lamar!, respectively.
$100 makes a huge difference. $10 makes a huge difference. We're now less than two months from Election Day. Supporting these red state Democrats at this critical juncture expands the map, makes the NRSC sweat even more, and increases Democrats' chances for overcoming historic Republican obstructionism in the U.S. Senate. Let's keep that momentum going!
Senate Guru is on strike! What are the Guru's demands? To get the Guru back to blogging, we need to raise seven twenty-dollar bills each for red state Democratic Senate candidates Jim Martin, Jim Slattery, and Ronnie Musgrove on the Expand the Map! ActBlue page. Your Andrew Jacksons will go toward a great cause: dislodging Shameless Saxby Chambliss, Bush-cover-up-artist Pat Roberts, and ethically questionable Roger Wicker from the U.S. Senate. So, please, this weekend, send your twenties to these competitive Democrats in red states via the Expand the Map! ActBlue page and get the Guru back to blogging!
On Tuesday, Utah Democrats were surprised by something many of you may take for granted, but for us was a sure sign that at least one of our congressional candidates "got it."
Via a press release, we learned that Morgan Bowen (Democratic Candidate for UT-1) had announced that if he had been a member of Utah's federal delegation, he would have voted against any bill that encouraged granting retro-active immunity for Telco's. This was huge news for any Democrat in the state, let alone the underdog of the underdogs, so surrounded by Republicans parroting Bush's every word. But the real story behind Bowen's press release is a much grander tale than a simple announcement to local media.
Look, it's obvious Obama's going to be on a muddled centrist course, now and after November. Whether he is tacking right because he is a conservative or because he's a savvy politician who has read the tea leaves doesn't really matter. If we want to end the war, deal with global warming, enact health care reform, change our tax code, and protect the internet, we're going to need our own people in Congress to do it. And I'm not talking about Jerry McNerney or John Barrow or Chris Carney or any of the other wankers who were elected in 2006 and decided to spend their time voting for expanded wiretapping authority and money for Bush. Our people.
There's a huge amount of chatter about Obama's remarkable fundraising apparatus, most of it themed around the idea of, well, '$&*@$# that's a lot of money'. And consultants are licking their lips, thinking about how to get their hands on a slice of it. Yet Jose Antonio Vargas in the Washington Post gives a glimpse into the reality of what this fundraising means, which is not about cash totals but about participation. Vargas tracks a Food network watching mother who gave a few dollars online to the Obama campaign, and then rose to become a local organizer, an Obama delegate, and soon-to-be candidate for office.
This kind of participatory increase is widespread and, while not unrelated to Obama, is part of a larger cultural shift. Just as Google and Facebook did not create the search engine or the social network, the Obama campaign is sitting on top of a network that is, as Joe Trippi told me last week, "five times as big as it was in 2004". In fact, the Obama campaign's massive centralized bottom-up fundraising apparatus is unusual not because it is such evidence of a 'new' way to raise money - Barry Goldwater in 1964 had more than a million donors, Dean raised huge sums online in 2004 - but because it alone is being noticed because of the enormous sums involved (Update: Actually, this probably isn't quite right - it has to do with his elite and mass organizing.)
I put up a picture of Actblue crossing the $50M threshold, because that, along with what Vargas put out there, is the missing part of the story. Actblue is a clearinghouse for Democrats on a state and Federal level, providing a neutral platform for thousands of candidates who use innovative and milquetoast strategies to raise online. These are the candidates who don't have the media glare, who have to scrabble for attention, press, and hope to fill small rooms with a dozen people to listen to their state educational plans. To put it in web terms, it is the 'long tail' of candidates.
Democratic fundraising is surging across the board, as indicated by record-breaking EOQ totals at the Democratic fundraising hub ActBlue. Fundraising on the site reached an unprecedented $24 million from more than 199,069 donors*, contributing to an all-time total of more than $42.35 million.
ActBlue broke a second record yesterday, raising more in one day than ever before ($799,827.60), and as much in a single day as in its entire first year in operation, when the group first raised eyebrows in traditional Democratic fundraising circles.
It's a stunningly heavy achievement. Online fundraising is a very powerful model for engagement and organizing, and Actblue broke barriers for thousands of candidates across the country who didn't know how to get started. It's easy to point at Obama and say that he's changing politics, but the transformation was already seriously underway by the time he got going.
