Swing State Project

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Friday, October 27, 2006

Final Netroots Push: The $100,000 Challenge

Posted by DavidNYC

LATE UPDATE: Well, as I'm sure you've seen, we've blown way past $100,000 raised today. In fact, we've hauled in $275,000! We're also incredibly close to $1.5 million raised on the page, total. Who will help put us over the top?

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Today, Friday, is the last best day to donate to your favorite candidates. Here's why: Over the weekend, campaigns will make their final choices about where to spend money - ad buys, mailers, get-out-the-vote efforts, etc. After that point, almost all major spending decisions will be complete. That makes it hard to effectively spend money received during the last week of the campaign. Final-week contributions are appreciated, sure, but cash received by today is a lot more valuable.

That's why Swing State, Daily Kos and MyDD are doing one final fundraising push for the netroots page. The goal is as simple as can be: We want to raise $100,000 for the entire page today. And this time, we're gonna ask everyone to dig as deep as possible. At earlier points in the cycle, campaigns can use small-dollar donations to help build their lists so that they can seek more donations in the future. Right now, though, what Democrats across the country need is just cold cash. After today, you should volunteer your time. But today is the day to part with your hard-earned bucks.

All week long, we've been flogging incumbent Democrats, begging them to give as part the Use It Or Lose It campaign. But we have to put our money where our mouths are, too. And that's exactly what I'm going to do.

I just gave $500 to the Paul Hodes campaign. My student loans ran out in May, and while I've recently started work, I haven't been paid yet. I've been living off a combination of credit cards and wedding gifts for months now. But I can't afford not to give - who among us can? You don't need me to tell you that what's at stake right now is just so unbelievably important.

But there are more concrete, immediate reasons: The NRCC just announced that it would drop $366,000 worth of negative ads into this race. To put that into perspective, this is roughly a third of what Paul Hodes has raised throughout the campaign, all getting dumped into the district overnight. My $500 is a proverbial drop in the bucket compared to that, but if enough of us declare "Fuck it! We've had enough! We're going to give whatever we can!" then we'll be able to fight back. I know it.

And it's not just Hodes under assault. For all the GOP's alleged money woes, they've always outraised us and always will. Democrats all across the country are now on the receiving end of the Republican Party's malignant Wurlitzer, and it won't let up until the polls close. Every member of our party needs our help. Whether you give to the netroots candidates or someone else today, just please give.

Are you with me? Can we raise $100,000 today? Yeah? Well, then, let's do this thing!!!

UPDATE (James L.): Whoa, it looks like $100,000 in one day is not much of a challenge for the netroots community. You guys have raised over $210,000 so far, and the day's not nearly done yet. Markos is right: let's blow the roof off of Actblue. Let's bring our total haul to $1.5 million. It's only a matter of raising $100k more tonight. I know our community can do this. Let's send our netroots candidates off into their final week in style--with enough resources to compete.

And if you've already donated, please take the next logical step: help get out the vote! Do More Than Vote is a great resource full of links to many different ways you can help from all corners of the country. You can also host or attend a pre-Halloween phone party coordinated by Moveon.org, or sign up for Moveon's Call for Change program targeting Democratic-leaning voters. Remember: this is going to be a base turnout election. There's no need to waste time trying to convince reluctant fence-sitters to switch to the Democratic column--all we have to do is light a fire under the asses of Democrats and Democratic-leaners who haven't given the election much thought this year. Moveon.org is making it easy to help, from anywhere in the country. Like David says, let's do this thing.

Posted at 04:45 PM in 2006 Elections, Fundraising, Netroots | Technorati

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Comments

If my online banking would work for me and I could see my balance, I'd be figuring out what I can give to Paul Hodes right now. As soon as I can...

Posted by: MissLaura at October 27, 2006 12:22 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I've sent my pittance. Hopefully others will also.

Posted by: sturg at October 27, 2006 06:13 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

From all of us at Grant for Congress, thanks, Swing State Project!!

You have been behind Larry since last spring, and we couldn't have made it this far without you. Thank you for everything you've all done, from contributions to blogging about Larry and his historic race.

The netroots rule!

Posted by: Julie Fanselow at October 27, 2006 03:48 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment