Swing State Project

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Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Swing State Project Candidate

Posted by Bob Brigham

A lot of people have commented that we need more great candidates like Paul Hackett. Indeed.

Swing State Project has already added one candidate to our actblue page. His name is Jon Tester. I first met him in 1998, I was doing legislative races for the Party in Montana. Tester decided to run in a district the size of a New England state -- red as can be and rural as you can find. He took on an incumbent and he won.

In 2004, Tester lead the Democratic sweep of both state houses and became state Senate President.

He gets post-broadcast politics and he's going to win. Instead of wasting his time making fundraising calls, Tester rented one of the biggest venues in the state and is going to fill it at $50 a head, raising a little money from a whole lot of people and having a great night with Pearl Jam.

I gave Tester $50. Watch this race, it is going to rock.

Please use the comments to recommend which candidates are kick ass enough to join Jon Tester on the Swing State Project Official Candidate List.

Posted at 12:15 PM in Netroots | Technorati

Comments

Is the concert going to have a webcast? I may support the guy but we all can't fly in from California on political business (plus the $250.00 airfare might serve the candidate better in the GOTV costs).

If there is a decent Concert-T I might go there and it might create some awareness. If there was a good shirt design you could pre-sell and it wouldn't cost the candidate anything. Of course PJ would have to sanction so that might be a separate issue.

Thanks for the heads up on Tester. He was at 38 donors for 1250.13 on ActBlue--now 39 donors and $1300.14.

In for a dime in for a dollar and a cent.

Posted by: Bill Section 147 at August 3, 2005 01:06 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Tester Campaign Slogan:
Victory in defeat

Posted by: SI Conservative at August 3, 2005 01:22 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

My insurgent candidate:

Dr. David Gill for the 15th Illinois Congressional District.

He's a doctor AND he's for universal health care. He got 110,000 votes last time. Unfortunately the repub tries to act like a farmer and a moderate (even though he's a lawyer), so he's very popular, and slimy.

Dr. Gill ran a great grassroots campaign last time and he's looking to do it even better this time.

Posted by: nada at August 3, 2005 01:30 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Steve Kelley for Governor of Minnesota.

He's a metro/suburbs DFLer, but he's worked extensively on farm and rural issues and legislation in the state senate. He's known as the Education Senator, is much more personable than Mike Hatch, and has the moderate credentials to actually bring independents and moderate Republicans onboard, instead of brashly driving them away. On top of which, he's a genuinely friendly guy, and Tim Pawlenty is scared of him being a serious contender.

http://www.kelleyforminnesota.org

Posted by: JelloAbode at August 3, 2005 02:11 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Reminds me of the event we did for Howard Dean in NYC in June of 2003, on the last day of the fundraising quarter. We got an enormous space downtown and charged people just $25 a head to come. We have over 1,200 people. It was awesome.

Yeah, you can make more money if you do a $2000/person blue-plate dinner, but it's not nearly as much fun and you won't get nearly as many people involved. I know hundreds of people walked away from that Dean event with the desire to get more involved and stay involved.

Posted by: DavidNYC at August 3, 2005 02:24 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Nada,

Do you live in IL-15? I go to school at UIUC and volunteered on Doc's campaign. I'm starting up a Generation DFA group on campus, so if you're in the area and want to hang out with a bunch of college kids, you should join us! If you're interested, send me an email at francisco (at) comcast (dot) net.

Also, David Gill is a great guy and I'd recommend him as a candidate as well. Tim Johnson needs to go!

-Francisco

Posted by: Fran for Dean at August 3, 2005 02:37 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Francisco,

Sorry, I live in PA (going to school). I was born and raised in central Illinois (went to school at U of I too)and helped out the Gill campaign doing some oppo research and helped do a small amount of Ag advising.

That's great you're starting a DFA group though! Hope you can convince some know-it-all college kids to start thinking about progressive politics. I still plan to help out however I can from PA. Don't know the new campaign manager, but hopefully he'll be as open to input as Doc and John Laesch were.

Good Luck

Posted by: nada at August 3, 2005 03:04 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Yea, Johnny was great. The first time I met him, I had ridden my bike over to the campaign office to help set up a computer I lent them that I didn't need, and I needed a network cable to hook them up. So Johnny (whom I had met literally 5 minutes earlier) told me to take his Jeep to Best Buy and get a cable. I thought that was pretty funny.

The new campaign manager is Larry Perlman. Doc introduces him here: http://www.gill2006.com/index.html?option=com_mamblog&Itemid=45&action=user&id=65

Posted by: Fran for Dean at August 3, 2005 03:26 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Fran,

Have you met Larry? I read the intro, and my mom went to a meeting in Monticello where they were talking about him. I'd like to get in contact with him. Hopefully I can help again. I was glad to see that Doc's internet donations are now linked to ActBlue. We should get as many people as we can to do a monthly donation! (say $10 to $20 a month?)

I won't make any comments about Larry being deeply involved in the Dawn Clark Netsche campaign (wonderful person, but she really took it on the chin from Edgar!)

Posted by: nada at August 3, 2005 03:46 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I have not met Larry. I'm not in Illinois right now, but I'll be back at the beginning of the school year (3 weeks).

And about ActBlue - I helped Doc set up an ActBlue donation page towards the end of his campaign last year, since the system they had been using prior to that took a big chunk of each donation out for processing fees and such. I just read a post that he made on DailyKos today and turns out he is quite happy with ActBlue :)

Posted by: Fran for Dean at August 3, 2005 04:21 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

"And about ActBlue - I helped Doc set up an ActBlue donation page towards the end of his campaign last year, since the system they had been using prior to that took a big chunk of each donation out for processing fees and such. I just read a post that he made on DailyKos today and turns out he is quite happy with ActBlue :)"

Excellent! I knew that was a problem last year with them getting ripped off. Hopefully Blago won't F things up too bad in 2006 and make all Dems look bad.

Posted by: nada at August 3, 2005 05:07 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Pearl Jam?

That's just wrong.

Posted by: fxd at August 3, 2005 06:14 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Idealism vs. practicality. I know Jon Tester, he is a good guy and I really have nothing negative to say about him as a person. It seems that the bloging world was very quick to jump on the Jon Tester campaign. This is one of the few times that I can not jump on board. The main reason, I do not believe Jon Tester can win this race. After seeing what just happened in Ohio, I am firm believer in the power of the grass roots. The race in Montana is much different than the race in Ohio.
First, there is incumbent running. Conrad Burns has been in office for the last 16 years, his name recognition in this state, according to the latest poll, is 99%. Jon Testers was 39% . Jon Tester has never won a state wide election, to be more precise, Jon Tester has never run a state wide election. Jon Tester is having difficulty raising money, his first FEC report he was only able to get $39000 in the bank. To put that in perspective that is about .2% of what Conrad Burns has in his war chest. And if that is not bad enough, there are already allegations of illegal contributions. As for my opinion on the concert as a fund raiser, well you can read my opinion on that here .
I wouldn’t be so critical, but there is a democrat in this race that can actually win. John Morrison . His name recognition is significantly higher than Testers. Morrison has raised 10 times as much money as Tester (all legal thus far). He has won two state wide elections. Plus, John Morrison is a great guy and a good democrat. I am not working for any campaign. I am just a concerned Montanan who wants to see Conrad Burns out of office and back in Missouri where he belongs. So why not donate your time, money , and support to a candidate that can win?

Posted by: Andy_Duphrane at August 3, 2005 08:07 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Rosalind Kurita for US Senate TN
Rosalind Kurita is in a primary battle with bankruptcy bill supporting Harold Ford for the Democratic nomination. Kurita is a former nurse and is currently a state senator. I am supporting her because she has denounced the bankruptcy and energy bills and CAFTA. I may not, and most you will not, agree with her on every issue, but she is by far the more progressive candidate in the race. I think Kurita is the better candidate in large part due to the fact that she spent 4 days in my county which is so republican it is often ignored by candidates. I think that is a sign of someone who will do whatever it takes to win if we support her.

Posted by: schwompa at August 3, 2005 08:42 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Done. I'm in for $25.

Montana is a great 2006 opportunity for Democrats.

Posted by: quaoar at August 3, 2005 10:55 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Christine Cegelis for Illinois District 6

This is the retiring Henry Hyde's district and Christine took him on in 2004 with a grassroots campaign and won 44% of the vote - more than any Democrat has ever won against Hyde. She took the loss in stride and never stopped campaigning.

Now she's looking ahead to a general election that could get nasty. The Republican heir apparent to Hyde is Peter Roskam, more conservative than Hyde, he's Santorum's soul mate. He's already raised $400k and is being advised by the likes of Grover Norquist and reportedly Karl Rove.

Christine is not a professional politician. She's a progressive citizen who simply decided that she couldn't sit by and hope someone else stepped up. She was a Dean Dozen candidate in 2004 and she's giving everything she's got to win in 2006. The party is sitting back, waiting to see if she can raise huge sums of money or to see if a "self-funding" candidate steps in. By nature and by situation, she's a real grassroots candidate that needs netroots support to win. I hope Swing State signs on to support Christine.

Full disclosure here is that I volunteer for her campaign. Because we need candidates like her in office. Real people with real opinions and real commitment.

Posted by: Kathy at August 4, 2005 07:45 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Bruce Roemmelt - 13 District hose of Delegates - Virginia - November 8, 2005

Bruce Roemmelt is a 20+ year retired fire fighter, an educator and Vietnam veteran. He's raised $100,000, beating his opponent, a 13 year incumbent Republican Delegate Robert G. Marshall. Bruce is very focused on door-to-door, meeting the voters where they live.

Roemmelt's opponent is the most radical Republican delegate in the Commonwealth, recently demanding that gubernatorial candidates state whether they will support a return to an 1847 law banning abortion. Marshall has sought to make it a crime for adults to give minors contraceptives. He authored a bill invalidating any contracts between same-sex partners that seek to confer any right of marriage on their relationship. He has called women who use invitrofertilization "adulters." He is currently working on legislation that will deny spouses the right to honor eachother's medical wishes when faced with life or death decisions. He has ran unopposed for several years and finally has a challenger in Bruce Roemmelt.

The story continues and is being told here: www.Bruce2005.org

Posted by: ChristianGrantham at August 5, 2005 05:06 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment