(Bumped – promoted by DavidNYC)
Guys, it’s time to shell out to help Dave’s Redistricting App. I mean it.
For two years, countless Swingnuts have drawn innumerable maps using Dave’s App, which filled a huge void in an enormously crucial way. Indeed, as we wade further and further into redistricting season, it’s almost impossible to imagine what things would be like without the app. If it weren’t for one man’s vision, energy, talent, and dedication, we’d still be mucking around with Microsoft Paint. In short, Dave’s has been a total game-changer for us, and we owe him a great deal.
Until now, we haven’t had a good way to show our appreciation for Dave’s generosity, but fortunately Dave’s app recently became a project of Progressive Congress – and we can support his efforts through his new partner to improve and expand the app. As Dave himself explained:
This means that more members and visitors of Progressive Congress will get to know about DRA and that more users of DRA will get to know about Progressive Congress. This means that the Progressive Congress team will be providing advice and guidance for DRA. (Some of Darcy [Burner]’s suggestions have already been included in the app, in fact.) This means that Progressive Congress and DRA will be teaming up to help you better understand what’s going on with redistricting and what you can do about it. And this means working together to make government better for the people!
In seven-and-a-half years of running SSP, I don’t think I’ve ever solicited money for anyone or anything other than Democratic candidates running for office. This is going to be my one big exception, and I’m going to be blunt here:
If you’ve ever drawn a map with Dave’s App, or enjoyed a diary that featured maps drawn with the app, you need to plunk down some change to support Dave.
It’s important that we support Dave’s hard work over the last two years and his continued work in the future, so any amount is appreciated. I know you can skip Starbucks for a week to find $5 or $10. (If a monetary contribution is genuinely beyond your means, then you should contact Dave to see how you can help with adding new data to the app.) And here’s a nice side-benefit: All contributions are tax-deductible.
I just threw down $100, and I hope everyone else here joins in. While there are many things which have made the Swing State Project a great site, I think it’s safe to say that Dave’s Redistricting App is definitely one of them, and I’m proud to support him. I hope you’ll do the same.
UPDATE: I just got a report from Progressive Congress, and we’ve raised $590 from 18 people so far. I’d love to hit $600 and 20 donors. Who can put us over the top?
Like, WA-08 Darcy Burner?
DRA is truly a gift to political geeks. I’m a jobless college student and I can’t cough up much money, but I’ll try to cough up some change 🙂
But it is seriously useful. This is a totally fair ask.
all my money for college right now, but i might send a bit to the app anyways. although it may have hurt my grades a bit this past year 😛
this is possibly the best thing ever created for politics in the last century, since the 17th amendment. let’s contribute 🙂
on a related note, when will other states’ political data be up
To help now for having better districts can be more important than help later to some single candidate in a bad new district.
Keep up the great work, Mr. Bradlee. (And here’s to getting Puerto Rico and some more election data in the app!)
First, David, thanks do much for your kind words. I really appreciate it. And I want to thank you, the community here at SSP, for the wonderful feedback you’ve given me on this project for 2 years. Having an engaged user community has helped me direct my energies and improve the app.
And about more election data, I’ve just this week gotten data for a few states from someone and I’ll be working on that over the next few days, making sure it’s reasonable and getting it enabled.
And, I’m also working on making the app much better for Legislative and County redistricting. That’s a couple of weeks away (maybe sooner), but I have some of the basics working on my machine and I’m very excited about it.
Thank you.
pretty rare in Germany. I’d throw in something if I did, is there any other way to make a donation?
Also, as this is a DRA-related topic, I still hope someone can help me out with my technical problems, as I can’t open the app anymore.
My Silverlight version is up to date and works fine with every other Silverlight app, passes the online Microsoft test, it’s not browser related as it works neither with Firefox nor Chrome nor IE (shudder), and it’s like that for two weeks or so now.
My job forbids me from making any political contributions. I don’t think I could get away with donating to something called progressivecongress.org even if the money were earmarked for Dave’s app.