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Monday, March 20, 2006

TX-21: What Every Campaign Should Have

Posted by DavidNYC

This post isn't really about TX-21, but it's inspired by that race. The Democratic challenger - a Fighting Dem by the name of John Courage - has put out a prospectus on himself and his race. It's a fantastic document. It's very professional-looking, it contains tons of detailed information, and above all, it answers a lot of common questions in advance. Simply put, every campaign needs something like this. If you have one of these ready to hand or e-mail to potential donors, endorsers, etc., you'll just look a lot more serious, and you'll be taken more seriously, too.

UPDATE: At the request of the Courage campaign, I've taken down the link to the document. If you're interested in seeing it, try contacting them.

Posted at 12:53 PM in 2006 Elections - House, Texas | Technorati

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Comments

I know why that document looks so good. The shading and format makes it obvious. That was a document made in Apple's Pages. It's a basic drag and drop template for making flyers or reports. Good for anything involving colors. Any campaign could use this and have something that looks as good within about 3-4 hours.

BTW, I appreciate the work you guys do here, this is my first post here even though I've been reading for several months.

Posted by: trowaman at March 20, 2006 01:51 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Thanks very much for your kind words, trowaman.

Appearances are important - and if it's as easy as you say, then there's no excuse for other campaigns not to have a similar document. Also, it's not only about appearances - the prospectus contains a lot of helpful information as well.

Posted by: DavidNYC at March 20, 2006 02:16 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

This is completely unrelated, but Russ Feingold's PAC is having another contest to give a congressional candidate $5k. The voting is going on from today until the 24th. The candidates are:

Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-20)
Tessa Hafen (NV-03)
John Laesch (IL-14)
Monica Lindeen (MT-AL)
Dave Loebsack (IA-02)
Eric Massa (NY-29)
Barry Welsh (IN-06)
Bill Winter (CO-06)

You can cast your ballot here:

http://www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/vote

This is a fine group of 2nd tier candidates (campaigns in tough districts that are possibly viable due to the strength of the Democratic challengers). The only problem I see is that Dave Loebsack missed the filing deadline with the IA SoS (he came a few signatures short--he needed 1500, I think). There's still a chance that the party could nominate him through a convention, though. (I'm not sure how IA elections law operates.)

I encourage you all to cast your votes!

Posted by: HellofaSandwich at March 20, 2006 02:45 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

And speaking of the Progressive Patriot aware, might I add that none other than the mentioned John Courage was the first recipient? :)

I'm in Courage's district, TX-21. In fact, I was in the old 21st 4 years ago, when Courage ran once before. It's much better now (the Austin/Travis County part makes up half the vote) and there are competative state house races under every part of the district, the best in the Austin part.

Honestly, outside of DeLay/Lampson, this is one of the (if not only) real pickups we have in Texas congressional races this year. And I'll get to work on it and blog it all!

Posted by: Karl-T at March 23, 2006 04:33 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

What about Shane Sklar or Rick Bolanos? Do either of them have much of a shot? I agree, that 1 or 2 seats will probably be all we can squeeze out of Texas, and we just might lose Chet in any cycle now...

Posted by: HellofaSandwich at March 23, 2006 04:55 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I'd have to look at the numbers again and see what their latest fundraising is. For Sklar, it's going to be about getting enough money to do the campaign old style. Needless to say, I'll be watching it this fall (along with say David Harris in TX-6) but outside of that... I just don't see us picking up any seat we lost due to redistricting where an incubment Congressman can't even win the seat. I don't see why new and far less organized or known candidates would win.

Posted by: Karl-T at March 24, 2006 03:51 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment