Matt Stoller of OpenLeft asks Donna about her campaign.  Huge thanks to Matt for sending this along... 

Jane's surgery went well yesterday, so everyone can breathe a sigh of relief and know that she is doing really well and woke up as feisty as ever.  So much so that the first thing she asked about was how things were going with Donna Edwards.  If you missed our Blue America chat with Donna the first time around, do take a little time to read it -- her answers are thorough, forward-thinking and just what we need in Congress these days.

As Jane said the other day:

So it’s up to you. Donna is a fantastic candidate. If you want to mitigate the effect that people like Pelosi and Reid have on keeping Bush Dogs like Al Wynn in office and in power, please consider giving to her campaign.

If we want change, we are going to have to make it happen. What we get from inside the Beltway is a strategy to perpetuate more of the same. The leadership has to depend on incumbants for votes while they are still in office.  It's a practical, short-term stop-gap approach that sticks to the status quo.

Honestly, that just isn't good enough for the long haul.

If we want more and better Democrats, we are going to have to do the work to get them.  Any Maryland readers out there?  Donna's campaign is looking for some volunteers.  Anyone who can do so?  We're definitely looking for some donors -- because early numbers in a campaign have a big impact, and we'd love to help Donna shake things up any way we can.  As a local MD newspaper shows, keeping up with the PAC money pouring in to incumbant Al Wynn's coffers is a big job:

...Seventy of Edward’s 89 contributors had addresses outside of Maryland, according to her report. For Wynn, 88 of his 124 donors were not from his state.

Wynn’s campaign also relied heavily on donations from trade groups, unions and major corporations. Wynn reported that $66,450 – a little more than half of his quarterly donations – came from political action committees. To date, more than $293,000 of his campaign funds have come from the groups.

Wynn’s donor groups included the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) labor unions, the tobacco company Altria, cable giant Comcast and both Coca-Cola and Pepsi, as well as numerous doctors....

That's a whole lotta PAC money. To help Donna be competitive, we need to step up. We've seen that aggregated donations in the $10s and $20s from people who want change can be more powerful than a fat cat PAC.  So far, we've raised $17,845.25 for Donna's campaign -- just in the last few days from 369 donors.  And a rough total of donations from across the blogs reaches $50,608.25, according to Howie, over the same time period (including our total).  You guys are amazing!  We are over halfway to our goal of $100,000 for Donna -- excellent!

Your donation today can make a difference for Donna -- and for our goal of more and better Democrats. 

One race at a time, we are going to make the Beltway a better place.  Plus, big totals for challenging progressives scare the bejeebers out of the Beltway Brahmins.  If you need more incentive, this is it.  I can't think of a group of people more in need of a good, wake the hell up shake.  Can you help today?  Go Donna!