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Last weekend when we launched this contest, who would have suspected we would take in over $33,000 for our 9 congressional candidates! Blue America decided to offer $5,000 to the candidate who got the most votes (in the form of online contributions) this week. The campaigns that worked their e-mail lists and their local blogs wound up bringing in thousands of dollars. In total over 1,300 donations came pouring in.
What all of these candidates have in common is that each is a solid progressive and that none are in the DCCC Red to Blue program yet. That program is a signal to wealthy and to institutional Democratic donors that the party bosses are taking the race seriously and it makes it much easier for the campaigns to raise money. We figured that candidates not on the list were the ones who need our help the most right now. Peterr from FDL, with some assistance from Jacqui, outlined just what the $5,000 would buy, media-wise, for a campaign struggling to get a message out.
All but one of our 9 candidates-- the exception being Jared Polis, who's running for an open seat in Colorado-- are up against entrenched incumbents. But each of the entrenched incumbents has been a dependable Bush rubber stamp and each is vulnerable on explosive issues like high gasoline prices, the war in Iraq, and substandard health care. Many of them-- like Dennis Shulman's, Annette Taddeo's and Barry Welsh's opponents, respectively Scott Garrett, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mike Pence-- are extreme right-wing ideologues, far beyond the mainstream and completely out of sync with the voters in their own districts. But none of our candidates' opponents are moderates and, although some try to portray themselves otherwise, each has a disgraceful voting record at great variance with their constituent's best interests. And each is massively well-financed, primarily by the corporate special interests whose business has been as well attended to as the district's has been all but ignored.
As of June 30 this is what each of our candidates and their opponents had on hand:
Sam Bennett (D-PA- $353,774) v Charlie Dent (R- $686,686)
Debbie Cook (D-CA- $97,392) v Dana Rohrabacher (R- $387,950)
Larry Joe Doherty (D-TX- $259,792) v Michael McCaul (R- $489,054)
Alan Grayson (D-FL- $344,793) v Ric Keller (R- $935,186)
Jared Polis (D-CO- $866,865) v Scott Starin (R- $5,775)
Dennis Shulman (D-NJ- $258,381) v Scott Garrett (R- $649,003)
Annette Taddeo (D-FL- $457,105) v Ileanna Ros-Lehtinen (R- $1,893,392)
Russ Warner (D-CA- $124,896) v David Dreier (R- $1,903,654)
Barry Welsh (D-IN- $7,533) v Mike Pence (R- $739,104)
You can see what each of our candidates has managed to bring in since last Saturday on our special contest page. Many overly enthusiastic donors gave more than once-- some more than a dozen times-- to the candidates of their choice. To determine the winner of our prize, only one donation per candidate is counted for any one screen name. The contest remains open until 12 noon (PT), so, by all means, please donate to the candidate, or candidates, of your choice. We have also gotten a generous donation of $1,250 to the Blue America PAC from an anonymous donor who has asked that we match it and donate $2,500 to the runner-up. So... if you'd like to support that proposition, by all means drop some cash into the Blue America PAC slot as well.
Meanwhile at 9AM this morning, we got this awesomely generous letter from Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Chairman of the DCCC. Before I share it with you, just let me remind everyone that when Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer beat up on a bunch of Democrats and led enough across the aisle to help the Republicans pass Bush's continuing occupation of Iraq and, a week later, his hideous FISA legislation, Van Hollen, was one of the few in the Democratic leadership who refused to join them on either. Like a majority of Democrats, Chris voted to end the war and voted against the FISA bill. His letter:
Please offer my thanks to the Blue American community for their continued help to our Democratic candidates. Mobilizing grassroots supporters is crucial in our campaign to strengthen and secure the Democratic Majority. The outpouring of support that the Blue America community has shown this week for our Democratic candidates for change has been particularly exciting. I am pleased to match Blue America's $5000 contribution to the winner of your "Vote For A Blue America
Candidate" contest. I thank you for your continuing support in securing a New Direction for America.Warm Regards,
Chris Van Hollen
Chairman
Translation: today's winner gets $10,000, not $5,000. And... futhermore there's a bonus for our donors today too! Anybody who contributes at least $25.00 before noon will be entered in a drawing to win two (2) fourth row center tickets to the Jackson Browne concert at the historic Orpheum theatre in Los Angeles on October 5th.
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So the contest started really exploding this morning. Hundreds of last minute donations are pouring in. We’re over $35,000 now from over 1,500 donations. And DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen matched our $5,000 for whoever the winner is. And now we have a pair of Jackson Browne concert tickets for a drawing for everyone who donates over $25 today! I love that it’s helping fill the campaign coffers of our candidates. On the other hand, counting the legitimates votes… oy. There are people voting by donating $50 as 50 individual votes of one dollar each using 50 different names (all on the same screen name). Of course that just counts as one vote… just its hard feretting all that out. I was up ’til 2AM counting last night.
Howie, that’s great news about the letter from Van Hollen. Maybe you can shame Rahm and Steny and DWS and others into matching as well?
Naw, what am I thinking. Those folks have no shame…
Oh man. Fantastic news! Way to go Van Hollen!
And on top of all that– and this is important– a generous anonymous donor gave the Blue America PAC $1,250 to use as a runner-up prize IF we can match it so that it grows to $2,500. So far we’ve taken in $1,600 in the PAC on the contest page so… if you decide to donate to a candidate, please donate some to the PAC while you’re there and someone will get a consolation prize of $2,500.
Great contest Howie!
Howie! Chris! way to step up to the plate, Van Hollen… what a great gift for thek candidate, too!
Blue America Rocks.
LOL… believe me, I tried. Van Hollen just wants to see as many Democrats win as possible. And since he’s personally a progressive, he’s happy to see we’re pushing progressives. Remember, our candidates all want to get the U.S. out of Iraq– NOW– unlike Rahm and Hoyer, but just like Van Hollen.
I have been so floored to see how hard some of these candidates’ campaigns have worked with local blogs and with their donor lists to make this contest successful. Russ, Debbie, Annette have kept those e-mail blasts going.
Russ Warner (D-CA- $124,896) v David Dreier (R- $1,903,654)
I’m so glad the winner gets double.
I was invited by mommybrain a while back to hear Howie and Russ Warner speak to a small group of Democrats in Monrovia. It was warm, inviting and educational.
David Drier doesn’t really represent the citizens. He represents the Pockets. (Just read this to Mr. Demi and he said Dreier is a hypocritical f***t.)
I’m left thinking…follow the money. The Best Democracy (cough) Money Can Buy, indeed.
One of these days Rahm/Steny/DWS will realize that the old days of hiding and back room deals are dead and gone.
About the time a Progressive takes them out in ‘10 should really hammer the point home.
Nine white faces.
Wonderful.
Looks like a mini-GOP convention.
Thank you Howie — and jacqrat!
please please please:
Annette Taddeo, wax Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s ass
sorry could care less about teh Jackson Browne
And, remember, these are all the TOUGH races. None of these are the easy ones that the Cook Report claims are toss-ups or that “lean Democrat” (except for Jared Polis). These are all races where a Democratic victory would be looked at as miraculous– just like we were able to help with in 2006 with Jon Tester, John Hall, Patrick Murphy, and Joe Sestak. These are the tough one that the Democratic leadership usually doesn’t help with. That’s why I was so excited when Chris Van Hollen said he’d match our $5,000. His help for one of these candidates is a big deal and hopefully they be able to go to other institutional donors and leverage it for even more.
Is Taddeo Cuban? And we couldnt include our dearest BA candidate, Donna Edwards, because we already helped her get into Congress.
If you have people we should be considering for the next election we would love to hear your proposals.
Mike, you’ll be happy to know that our biggest victory this year– one that took three years of concerted work to accomplish– was the election of Congresswoman Donna Edwards, who is the exact polar opposite of a GOP convention. In fact, she is the ONLY member of the House of Representatives with a 100% progressive voting record and she personally neutralizes every single vote John Boehner casts. Hopefully we’ll watch her rise through the ranks and one day be Maryland’s first African-American U.S. Senator.
Annette isn’t Cuban-American but Colombian-American. After she wins her race against Ileana Ros-Lehtinen she’ll be the first member of Congress with South American heritage in Congress.
The important thing is that they won’t vote like a mini-GOP convention, IMO.
Yeah I’m sure the openly gay man and the blind rabbi will be just like the Republicans.
Diversity is more than just color and heritage.
wow! We just crossed the $36,000 total! And 1,555 donors!! It is totally neck and neck between Annette, Russ and Debbie right now. And all three have such thoroughly disagreeable opponents. Can you image Russ replacing that pompous, prissy closet queen David Dreier or the Taliban’s best friend (not to mention Big Oil’s) Dana Rohrabacher being ousted by Debbie Cook? Or what about a psychopath like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen– who says if a young girl is raped by her grandfather and could die in child birth she still has to have the baby!– being retired by Annette!
Hey, we have a shit-disturber again this week! Howie and Blue America must be doing something right to garner attention from those who don’t want to contribute, just shit on whatever others are attempting to achieve.
[Edited by moderator to remove personal comment]I had to tell the ACLU I couldn’t afford to join them last night - and it’s only a one-time donation of $22 bucks. But I stepped up and gave five bucks to Blue America PAC today, because I have had ENOUGH of the BULLSHIT and ENOUGH of Lying Thugs and Bullies in our government. Watching the Convention last Wednesday lit a fire in my belly to do whatever it takes to bring them down. It isn’t much, but combined with other’s five bucks, eventually it adds up to SOMETHING, which is a lot more than you’ve contributed today.
What are YOU going to do about it?
Very exciting news about Chris Van Hollen and the runner-up mini-match.
I sure would like to see Rahm Emanuel, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Jim Clyburn and Nancy Pelosi chip in from their corporate-laden PACs with a match to the hard-earned money Blue America candidates have raised from grassroots Democrats this week.
Extraordinary work, everyone. Thanks for all you do, Howie!
By the way on Page 1 of ActBlue, our contest page is today’s #1 hot page– and as far as the candidates pages, #1 is Obama, #2 is Annette Taddeo, #3 is Russ Warner, #4 is Rick Noriega, and #5 is Debbie Cook!
And if you’re waiting to vote, you’ve only got 15 more minutes for it to count. But please don’t forget to stick some money in for the Blue America matching prize so we can give the runner up $2,500. We need $820 more in the PAC for that, not likely, but not impossible.
Great contest!!
Changing the occupant ofthe white house will help ,but that alone won’t affect the changes this country needs.
We need progressives, at all levels of politics, to make the plan work!
Good luck to the candidates!
Billy, great point! We shouldn’t lose track about how great these 9 candidates are and what an amazing impact they could all make on our country if they get the opportunity– and it isn’t just because they would replace lockstep neo-fascists like Mike Pence and Scott Garrett. Each one of these people has a dream, a dream for a better U.S.A., a dream we can all share in.
put in some $ for Debbie Cook. I know California can do better than her opponent.
Not at all. 1/3 are women and none of them look like they’re ready to kick.
Go Dennis Shulman! Whoohooo!
Alan Grayson’s opponent is a very nasty scumbag, in my view.
Oh, you mean the GOP convention where John McCain felt free to give the back of his hand to the Fundies and pick a Jewish guy to be his running mate? Oh, wait, that’s the exact opposite of what actually happened.
don’t know if this link is workinh:
http://www.orlandoweekly.com/b.....?perm=1471
I know this country is alot greater than what we’ve seen in the past 8 years(longer actually )
There is still some a ton of hard work to do,but I believe we can reshape this country into something that works for all of us
Did ya see the picture of Palin holding up the t-shirt that says “Nowhere, Alaska 99901″ ? She’s still using that bullshit line “i told tem we’ll build it ourselves.’
I’m going to count the votes a few times and hopefully make an announcement soon
Yes, I agree! That’s the hard part - dana or david drier? hmmmm they are both pond scum, which to try to knock out first? That was my great quandry.
Blue America performs another great function: GOPs who thought they’d have a cakewalk don’t. They have to keep their money at home, fighting off pesky progressives who are telling their constituents the truth about their rubber-stamp records. That means these suddenly frightened GOPs are less able to share their money with other GOP congresscritters or challengers to endangered Democrats. Which means the table is more level for progressives than it was previously.
Every one of our Blue America Democrats deserves to win, but every single one of them also deserves a big thank-you for keeping the rubber-stamp incumbent — and his/her money — home campaigning for re-election.
This means other Democratic challengers have a clearer shot at their rubber-stamp opponents.
The Democratic leadership should see this clearly, too. They should support our Blue America candidates if only for the money we keep out of districts the DCCC wants to win.
Rahm?
Debbie?
Jim?
Nancy?
I think you’re getting a busy signal from Rahm, Debbie, Jim and Nancy. Call back later - like maybe December.
Btw, I watched Fox News right after the Obama speech,(so you didn’t have to) and they had Frank Lunz on. He admitted on camera that Teddy’s latest call-to-arms, “ENOUGH!” was the most effective message Barack and the Democrats can use against four more years of the Republicans.
I say we start using it more often, but don’t forget to use the “™” for Teddy!
I want everybody to win, so…
Debbie Cook (CA-46) $20.00
Larry Joe Doherty (TX-10) $20.00
Blue America PAC $20.00
Alan Grayson (FL-08.) $20.00
Russ Warner (CA-26) $20.00
Sam Bennett (PA-15) $20.00
Jared Polis (CO-02) $20.00
Dennis Shulman (NJ-05) $20.00
Annette Taddeo (FL-18.) $20.00
Barry Welsh (IN-06) $20.00
ActBlue Federal Tips $10.00
Total $210.00
Feels good, people!
P.S. Thanks for your hard work, Howie.
~
What a great thing to do ! Clapping for you.
Hey sorry it to so long but here is the link to the open DiGG IT
Clearing throat… we have a winner
Yes?
I just finished couting the over-votes. There’s a family who voted so many times in the L.A. area– and not even just a dolalr a time!– that if they can get that many absentee ballots, Dreier could start packing his bags and move back to Kansas City now.
(drumroll)
In any case, the winner is… Annette Taddeo
Ah poor Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Whatever will she do without her bestest friend forever in the House when Annette takes Ileana out?
Congratulations to Annette, and also to all the other candidates who, while not coming in first; made some nice cash along the way!
A Siegel upstairs on the environment
Well now, Debbie has to pony up or risk looking terribly embarrassed. Didn’t she make a statement favoring Annette to the Florida delegates in Denver?
Time to put your money right there, Debbie. Your own PAC money and some Red-to-Blue money, please. A personal donation wouldn’t hurt either. Say, $10,000 total?
Annette Taddeo –Yay! Had the opportunity to meet her at the Convention, she is one very determined candidade. Congratulations Annette!
What kind of district is DWS’? With all the new registed voters in Florida, is it possible to primary her? Or are efforts best spent elsewhere?
I don’t think she has ever faced a challenge. She won her initial primary uncontested, and has faced hapless GOP opponents. She has no personal experience campaigning for office, which is why she’s a silly choice to head Red-to-Blue.
So, yes, a 2010 primary challenge is certainly an excellent idea. A five-figure Annette Taddeo match from Debbie, from Red-to-Blue, and from DWSPAC would be a good first step to avoid such a challenge, I would think….