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Friday, September 29, 2006

Netroots End-of-Quarter Fundraising Push Day 5

Posted by DavidNYC

The end of the quarter is not officially until tomorrow, Saturday. But as of this writing, we are so close to our goal I can taste it: 9,868 donors on the netroots page. I'm heartened to see that our fundraising pace has picked up each day. I'm betting we can blast through our goal (10,000 total donors) by the end of the day, and that Trauner, Grant and Walz will all clear a thousand contributions as well.

Today, though, we'd like to specially focus on a guy right at the middle of the list: Larry Kissell, running for Congress in North Carolina's 8th Congressional District. This race might well be unique this year: It's the only seat I know of which the DCCC decided to contest, then dropped (after another candidate quit the race), then picked up again. Indeed, around ten days ago, Kissell was added to the DCCC's "Emerging Races" list. What transpired to make this happen?

From my far-off vantage point, I see two major things as being as responsible. First, Kissell had a huge and energetic grassroots (and netroots) base that always believed in him, even when this race looked as uphill as can be. Indeed, this continual show of strength was the principal reason Kissell was added to the netroots page. And when the DCCC ran a contest to see who could sign up the greatest number of volunteers in just a brief period of time, the Kissell team raked in an astounding 900 new names. That earned the campaign a major fundraising e-mail from the D-Trip, which you may have even received today.

The other thing I've seen is a very creative and aggressive underdog attitude. Kissell & Co. didn't wait around for big money to fund a paid media campaign. Rather, they sought other ways to break through to voters. This was best exemplified by my favorite single political stunt of the year: Cheap gas. For two hours one day this summer, the Kissell campaign sponsored an event where gas was just $1.22 at a local filling station - the price when the incumbent, Robin Hayes, took office. It was a brilliant move that garnered tons of free media and community goodwill. It even inspired copycat moves by other Democrats. (You know what they say about imitation & flattery.)

And in terms of what we've been trying to accomplish with the netroots page, Larry Kissell is almost a picture-perfect example. All along we've looked to add races which were not getting tons of attention, which you might describe as "second tier." Our fervent hope was that by giving these campaigns a boost, we might help propel them on to the big players' short lists. We're certainly not claiming credit for putting Kissell on the DCCC's radar, but we'd like to think the blogosphere's support played a role in doing so.

So if you want to help out the quintessential grassroots campaign, please give to Larry Kissell. Right now he's at about 1,350 total donations. Surely we can get him to at least 1,400 by the end of the push, if not more. Of course, it goes without saying that all the netroots candidates are extremely worthy, and, if you can, the time to give is now.

As always, please tell us whom you've been giving to in the comments below. Thanks!

P.S. I'd also like to make a quick mention of another effort that's also using ActBlue. The Secretary of State Project is supporting Democratic candidates for Secretary of State in key swing states around the nation. Though these state-level campaigns tend to get over-looked, they shouldn't be: As you may know, SoSes are responsible for overseeing elections. After the debacles we experienced with Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell, it's extremely important than we support good, honest candidates for these positions. The SoS project has helpfully assembled a list of candidates who need our help. Go check it out.

Posted at 02:02 PM in 2006 Elections, Fundraising, Netroots | Technorati

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Comments

I just got my first paycheck in 4 months! Woohoo!

After taxes and necessities, my wife and I have $500 in disposable income so I figured a Biblical 10% would be OK.

$10 to Trauner (WY-AL)
$10 to Kissel (NC-08)
$30 to Webb (VA-Sen)

Posted by: AlecBGreen at September 29, 2006 11:35 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

KisseLL, not Kissel.

Posted by: AlecBGreen at September 29, 2006 11:36 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment