Author: DavidNYC

Fiat lux!

Reminder: Polls close in Louisiana for the LA-06 primary run-off at 9PM Eastern tonight. (James)

PolitickerNJ has the confirmation: Rep. Rob Andrews (NJ-01) will challenge Sen. Frank Lautenberg in the Democratic primary for NJ-Sen. The primary is June 3rd. A new poll shows Lautenberg with a hefty lead, but undoubtedly name rec is playing a big role here. Meanwhile, NJ pols are rushing to pick sides. This is going to be a serious battle, and I wouldn’t be surprised if other members of Congress jump in as well.

This also opens up Andrews’ House seat, a safe D+14 district. Undoubtedly there will be a ton of scrambling to succeed Andrews.

There are so many good state & local blogs these days. Which are some of your favorites?

The trickle begins:

AZ-01:

     Ann Kirkpatrick (D): $240K raised

VA-05:

     Tom Perriello (D): $340K raised, >$500K CoH

Add any others you’ve heard about in comments.

UPDATE (James):

SC-02:

     Rob Miller (D):  $200K CoH (March only)

UPDATE (David):

TX-07:

     Michael Skelly (D): $750K raised

Today is the very last day of the first fundraising quarter. Money raised today will get counted in the reports that get released in two weeks; cash taken in after today won’t get toted up until July. So please make a donation to the Blue Majority candidates – or any favorite Dems of yours – today.

We’re thrilled that we met our goal of 6,500 donations for the page. Now we’re trying to bring each candidate up to 1,000 gifts apiece. Can we do it by the end of the day today? Let’s go for it!

P.S. Please tell us who you’ve given to this past quarter in comments, whether on Blue Majority or elsewhere.

As you know, this week – the final week of the first fundraising quarter – Blue Majority is pushing to reach a total of 6,500 donations. We’re getting there – following on the heels of our endorsement of Barack Obama, we’ve now moved past 5,800 donors. That means we need about 700 more, so if you haven’t given yet, please do. Donations of all sizes are welcome.

There’s also another way you can contribute. We’d like to solicit nominations for new candidates to add to the page. To be clear, this isn’t a vote – we won’t simply pick the people who get talked about the most. Rather, we want to get a sense of who our communities like, and why. We also don’t have a specific timetable for adding new names, but we hope to choose some soon.

As a guide, here are some of the criteria we like to look at – some of these are old, and some are new:

Is the candidate running against a Republican incumbent or for a GOP-held open seat? (This is close to being an absolute requirement.)

Does the candidate embody the kinds of progressive values you’d ideally like to see in Congress?

Is the race not a top-tier affair? (Our dollars can go further in races which, so far, have received less attention and institutional backing.)

Has the local blogosphere embraced the candidate – and vice versa?

Does he or she pass the partisanship litmus test?

Is the Republican an easy target? (Think back to Tom DeLay.)

How blue is the district or state?

Please submit your ideas in comments – and again, please be sure to donate before the end of the quarter.

We’d like to poll our readers again on the issue of presidential endorsements. This site has mercifully avoided this cycle’s primary wars. But the math has been clear for some time to rational observers: Barack Obama will hold the lead in elected delegates after the last primary is conducted, and the only way Hillary Clinton can secure the nomination is if unpledged superdelegates choose to subvert the will of the pledged delegates. Given that Clinton’s rolled up very few superdelegate endorsements since Super Tuesday, and the discord a superdelegate-based victory might foment within the party, this is an extremely unlikely development.

So our question to you is, should Blue Majority endorse Obama now? I will admit I’m not some perfectly un-biased neutral observer – I voted for Obama, I’d like to see him be the nominee, and I no longer see a reason to hold off. But we’d like to see how our readership feels, too.

I also want to address one question which came up previously, which is, won’t adding our presidential candidate “take away” from donations to the downballot races that make up the rest of Blue Majority? The answer (perhaps surprisingly) is no. Having observed our list closely for several years, there is a definite “spillover” effect from the more prominent races. Last cycle, the Lamont, Tester & Webb races provided that “top-of-the-ticket” spark – this time, Obama can.

What happens is that, quite frequently, people come to the Blue Majority page with the intention of giving only to a better-known candidate on the list (eg, Tester). But, once there, they wind up giving to other candidates as well. And this isn’t speculation. I ran the numbers last year. As the number of races on our page grew, average donations per candidate dropped slightly, but total donations per donor went up. In other words, the more candidates on the page, the more people gave overall. Obviously, there’s a point of diminishing returns, but we haven’t reached it yet. And I’m pretty confident that Obama could provide an even greater “spark” than any of our senate races did last cycle.

So let us know what you think in the poll. Thanks!

Did anyone attend this fundraiser?

Please Join

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Senator Nan Rich

Commissioner Sally Heyman

for a reception honoring

Suzanne Kosmas

Candidate for Congress, FL-24

“She is considered the first legitimate challenger to Feeney, whom Democratic insiders see as vulnerable because of criticism targeting him as one of the “most corrupt” members of Congress.” Daytona Beach News-Journal, October 11, 2007.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

6:30pm to 8:00 p.m.

Sheraton Airport Hotel

Windows Room

1825 Griffin Road

Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301

Host $4600 • Sponsor $1000 • Friend $500 • Supporter $100-250

(donations in any amount appreciated)

I’m glad I didn’t, because really, it would appall me to violate long-standing tradition like this. I’m a big believer in habeas corpus, I despise the designated hitter rule, and after all, it’s my people that Tevye sings about. So when DCCC Executive Director Brian Wolff says:

Brian Wolff, executive director of the DCCC, says the bloggers are making “much ado about nothing,” noting that it’s “customary” for members to remain neutral in races involving GOP members of their respective congressional delegations.

I have to wonder what Debbie Wasserman Schultz is thinking. Clearly she didn’t get the message.

It’s that time again: A week from today, all federal campaigns have to close the books on the fundraising quarter. This means that if you want your favorite candidates to be able to issue strong quarterly campaign finance reports, you’ve got to contribute by March 31st.

Now, I’ll be honest – this is one of my least favorite parts of blogging, and it’s certainly one of the less pleasant aspects of politics in general. But money still matters – a lot. If we want to expand our majorities in Congress – and especially if we want to see progressive change – we’ll need a lot of cash to do so. Many big players – including labor unions, progressive organizations, and deep-pocketed donors – will look at these reports to decide which candidates to give to. It may not seem fair or even wise, but it’s reality, and we’ve got to work the system as best we can.

So we’re asking you to contribute to the Blue Majority candidates on ActBlue. These men and women are all strong progressives who are taking the fight to Republicans all over the country. Of course, they can’t do it without our help, which is why it’s the netroots’ duty to get involved.

Right now, the Blue Majority page stands at about 5,500 total contributions (you can see the number right at the top). Our goal is to add a thousand more contributions by the end of the quarter so that we can hit 6,500 overall. The size of your contribution doesn’t matter (though of course, we encourage you to give as generously as you are able to). We’re looking for aggregate numbers of donors. As the Obama campaign in particular has shown, smart campaigns can get a lot of mileage out of small donors, especially those who give early on. (And it’s still early.)

So please, stand up and be counted – make a donation to a worthy Democrat or three. And of course, if your favorite candidates are not on the Blue Majority page, we strongly encourage you to give to them at their own websites. Let’s nail that 6,500 target!

The DCCC’s Executive Director, Brian Wolff, recently posted on Democratic efforts to take three Republican-held House seats in South Florida over at the Huffington Post. As you are probably aware, there’s been a tremendous amount of controversy over the fact that Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, co-chair of the DCCC’s Red to Blue program, has recused herself from these three races, despite the fact that we have quality challengers in each. (Rep. Kendrick Meek has also abandoned these candidates.) Wolff had this to say about the controversy:

 

 

This is in keeping with Wolff’s prior comments on how importantly he views this issue:

Brian Wolff, executive director of the DCCC, says the bloggers are making “much ado about nothing,” noting that it’s “customary” for members to remain neutral in races involving GOP members of their respective congressional delegations.

If you, however, take a different view of things, I encourage you to call or write the relevant parties and let them know:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (campaign office):

E-mail: AskDebbie@DWSforCongress.com

Phone: 202-741-7154

DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen (campaign office):

E-mail: chris@vanhollen.org

Phone: 301-942-3768

DCCC Headquarters:

Contact form

Phone: 202-863-1500