It's incredibly difficult to run for office, especially lower ticket where very few people even know that there are local elected offices. So I want to give a mention to a few candidates that are part of this wave of progressive change, and if you have any others, you should add them in the comments.
I just got an email from Andy Barr at the Franken campaign. Franken is strongly for net neutrality, having talked about it on his radio show, and he's putting up a position on his website to that effect.
Mathematician and IL-17 State House candidate Daniel Biss sent me this email about his experience door-knocking.
conversation at a door today (talking to a 25-ish man)
Me: Hi, I'm running for State Rep and I wanted to introduce myself. [brief bio redacted] What issue is most important to you?
Other guy: Well, I'm not really all that into politics. None of this matters to me. Except for net neutrality.
Wifi on Steroids: The fight over freeing the airwaves is going to heat up later this summer, based around something called 'White Spaces'. Basically, white spaces are parts of the public airwaves that are going unused but could be a mobile broadband network unregulated by any telecom or cable company. It would be wifi on steroids and let you use any phone with any network, or even design your own phone. It means jobs, innovation, and a mobile economy. The broadcasters and telecom giants are fighting tooth and nail against it, the major tech companies are beginning to get serious about engaging.
Alliances are beginning to form around open internet issues, the progressive base with the technology space. For politicians, white spaces means jobs jobs jobs, for us, white spaces means unlocked iphones and cheap neutral internet access, and for the telecom and media companies, it means that they lose their cartel status.
Update: The Kleeb and Noriega campaigns have written in to say they are both for net neutrality and will have statements up soon.
"This is the new Democratic team and the new Democratic Party in this part of the country! And people better start getting used to it!" - Mitch Kates, aka 'Jason the Terrible' after state Senator Charlie Justice's victory
I met the most wonderful people in Florida yesterday, and though I've become immensely cynical of late, the people-powered revolution quietly sweeping through the party was clearly in evidence. I spoke at the netroots component of the Florida Democratic Convention, in Orlando in the middle of the state. Orlando is a swampy humid area dominated by hospitality workers and vacationing Midwesterners. It's a beautiful area with a natural swampiness, the kind of tropical Everglaes-esque foliage I love.
cross posted from DailyKos
Chicago OpenLefters, on Thursday, September 20th, we are having a Chicago Meetup at the Blue Agave. The guest of honor is the candidate for the Illinois State House District 17, Daniel Biss!! Daniel is a true people-powered candidate, having reached as high as #2 on the Actblue fundraising list, behind only John Edwards for a week. His campaign kick-off rally several weeks back was attended by over 150 people! Standing room only!
One of the fundraising methods that I have exploredbefore on the ActBlue Blog is integrating online video into your fundraising appeals. This works best with an pre-existing community with whom you have a relationship, but is by no means the only way in which the medium can be used to leverage an appeal for campaign contributions.
Today, I'd like to promote the work of Hank and John Green who have quite the following on the Internet with their Brotherhood 2.0 website in which John and Hank swore off all textual communication with each other for 2007. Instead, they are making public video blogs back and forth every weekday for the entire year. You can read their FAQ to learn more but to really get a flavor of their style and their devoted community of viewers I'd suggest viewing a few shows.
Below, I've provided a condensed 2 minute version of one of the shows where John makes his pitch for their friend Daniel Biss who is running for the 17th State House District in Illinois. It's quite humorous so watch it below.
Pretty cool right? Here are some things this video ask does right.
Present the Problem- John introduces the segment talking about the current state of affairs in Illinois and certain problems that exist which need fixing.
Present a Solution- He then goes on to talk about how supporting Daniel Biss will help solve this problem. Electing him will install someone with progressive values which would improve Illinois.
Be Specific- John focuses on one candidate to support as part of this effort. By narrowing the focus, he's able to increase the power of his ask. The more direct the solution to the problem, the more effective the fundraising effort will be. (This is not to say that multi-candidate asks are bad- some of them are highly effective- but the slate of candidates must have a specific point of commonality to encourage donors to give to an entire slate.)
Make it Personal- John is asking his own readers to donate as part of a very humorous challenge. There is an existing relationship and a degree of trust built up. Potential donors are more likely to give when asked by someone they know.
Make it a Narrative- Through the week, John followed up on this initial post with this spot and this one where he carried through some of the actions as a result of the number of donors.
This is a perfect case of leveraging existing personal connections to make a fundraising ask and because the medium of communication for the ask (video) is the same medium through which readers are used to being entertained, it's that much more effective.
By the way, the brothers have raised $3,273 from 213 donors which puts John in the "find a cat, lick it, wax two limbs of your choice, while drinking a throughly blenderized happy meal from McDonald's category" level.
STATE BLOGS
