Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Republicans do not trust women.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

This chaos was totally avoidable.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Everybody saw this coming.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Consistently wrong since 2002

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2018 / Money’s Great, but Your Time is More Valuable

Money’s Great, but Your Time is More Valuable

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It’s awesome how much money we’ve raised this year for candidates, but candidates also need people to put that money to good use. I’m down at the Wheeling HQ for the Ohio County Democratic Party, writing postcards for William Ihlenfeld, who is my candidate of choice this election for the State Senate. Ihlenfeld is battling a lot of dirty money that is backing his opponent, Ryan Ferns. And when I say dirty money, I mean literally:

Three years ago, a group of residents in West Virginia’s northern panhandle formed a new group, the Ohio Valley Jobs Alliance, and declared themselves a “voice for local jobs.”

A few months later, however, the group’s first major action was aimed not at creating jobs, but at blocking them.

In November 2015, the alliance, known as the OVJA, filed a legal appeal to challenge a key permit for construction of the Moundsville Power project, a natural gas-fired plant in Marshall County.

The move was puzzling. Backers of Moundsville Power said the project would be a significant boost for the area, providing 500 jobs annually during a three-year construction period and 30 permanent jobs once it was operational. Supporters said the project was a way for residents to capture more economic gains from West Virginia’s booming natural gas industry.

The legal action, it turns out, was funded by Murray Energy Corp., one of the nation’s largest coal producers, one of the group’s leaders testified in a deposition in the case. Murray Energy’s founder and CEO is Robert E. Murray, who is among the nation’s best-known advocates for reviving the coal industry and cutting regulations related to it.

Murray is the clown who was widely mocked by John Oliver and then sued him in response. At any rate, they are pumping a ton of money into a State Senate race, because, well, King Coal ain’t going down without a fight.

At any rate, if you can, get out and walk the streets, man the phone banks, staff the offices, write postcards, and if you just don’t want to even do that because you don’t like to be around people (which I totally get), maybe make them a lasagne or something healthful and drop it off at HQ so they don’t subsist on only fast food and cookies.

Reader Interactions

54Comments

  2. 2.

    guachi

    I appreciate those who give time since I’m barred from doing so, being active duty military and all.

  5. 5.

    gene108

    Canvas for my House candidate, Andy Kim, NJ-3 on Saturdays. Going to a local town meeting of the Dems. My town is run by Republicans. First time I have been this involved.

  7. 7.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TaMara (HFG): Have you considered a career change that allows you to take advantage of your newfound passion for homicide? I understand there are several unexpected openings with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

  8. 8.

    Scamp Dog

    Last week week the Adams County Democratic field office had a potluck. I wound up getting recognized as one of their top 3 canvassers, by simply going in once a week, even though I rarely got through the entire packet. Get out there folks, you can be a hero to the local staff!

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Also too executioner, as the KSA if on track to have performed a record number of executions this year. Since MBS was slotted as crown prince he’s overseen an average 16 executions per month.

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’ve been doing a lot of phonebanking for my Congressional candidate, Carolyn Bourdeaux. The incumbent in GA-07, Rob Woodall, used to be Chief of Staff for the previous member, and I interacted with him (Rob) quite a bit when interacting with elected officials and their senior staffers was part of my job description. He is one of the most unengaged Congresscritters I’ve ever seen. Doesn’t list the address of his district office on his official website; nobody ever answers the phone either locally or in DC — I think I’ve managed to get through to a real person just once in the past 15 months. He’s useless.

    Carolyn is smart and sharp. She’s an academic with solid public policy chops. She reminds me a little bit of SPW in that she has all the wonky information at her fingertips but is a clear and relaxed teacher as she conveys it. The more I see of her, the more I like her.

    It’s a deeply Republican district and I honestly don’t know if she stands a chance against the advantages of Incumbency Inertia. But if anybody can, she can; and if it’s ever going to happen, it’s 2018.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: As long as you can use a sword as well as a gun and a knife and a garrote you can be dual hatted. Or in this case, masked.

  20. 20.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Barbara:

    Something tells me that they would have no shortage of applicants if they did advertise for assassins.

    There are millions of qualified applicants just among rank and file Florida residents!

  23. 23.

    Steve in the ATL

    @SiubhanDuinne: but it’s progress to have (1) a D candidate, which so many races in Georgia don’t have, and (2) a smart, articulate D candidate rather than “some guy” who’s only there for the ritual slaughter.

    If those clowns in Cobb County can swing blue, there’s hope yet for you clowns in Gwinnett!

    Confidential to Omnes: apologies for the clown references….

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    In my case would be better to write postcards for Rs.

    Half the time my handwriting is so bad that I can’t read it. With but little extra effort could make the illegibility 100% on the postcards.

    :)

  25. 25.

    Steve in the ATL

    @TaMara (HFG):

    I haven’t killed anyone today. That’s the best I can do.

    @guachi:

    I appreciate those who give time since I’m barred from doing so, being active duty military and all.

    Well, guachi, can you say the same? (if you work in Logistics or IT or Personnel or something, just say that that information is classified so the jackals won’t lose their awe for you)

  26. 26.

    Raoul

    Money, volunteers, postcards, virtual phone bank, whatever people can manage in MI03. I know Amash is considered a very likely R. But why not make him work his butt off these last few weeks? No freebie reflections.

    @Redistrict
    What if you held an election in a CD Trump won w/ under 52% and no one bothered to run a real campaign or raise money?

    Welcome to Grand Rapids, where Cathy Albro (D) outraised #Mi03 Rep. Justin Amash (R) $70,000 to $43,000 in Q3. @CookPolitical rating: Likely R.

    My friend Fred Wooden ran in the Den primary against Ms. Albro, but I’ve now donated to her effort as well. Amash likes to pretend he is above the mudsoaked GOP fray, but he isn’t.

  27. 27.

    opiejeanne

    @ruemara: He gave to Republicans, yes. He gave money to Democrats too, but those Republicans he supported was to keep Tea Partiers out of office.

    These days it’s hard to tell the difference, though.

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    Since MBS was slotted as crown prince he’s overseen an average 16 executions per month.

    Behold the Lord High Executioner!
    A personage of noble rank and title —
    A dignified and potent officer
    Whose functions are particularly vital.
    Defer, defer
    To the Lord High Executioner!
    Defer, defer
    To the noble Lord,
    The noble Lord High Executioner!

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Also, using it as a catchall to include sweats, shorts, and/or overalls.

    In John’s case I’m not sure that’s necessary, but your inclusiveness is noted and appreciated.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @opiejeanne:

    Holy cow! That’s a lot of executions.

    Yep. I happen, most fortuitously, to have a couple of paper napkins at my disposal, and a pen, and a calculator right on this here now phone, and a full set of ten fingers, and I was able to reckon that it works out to an average of roughly one execution EVERY OTHER DAY. Math.

    MBS the Saudi Reformer, my flabby old white ass.

  37. 37.

    Kraux Pas

    I’ve been reaching out for a couple months to the Jay Gonzalez campaign for Governor of MA but haven’t heard back about volunteering opportunities. Any suggestions on an alternate way to get involved?

  40. 40.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Kraux Pas:
    Maybe try the MA State Democrats? Googling them brings up their website, complete with a “Find An Event” page and some other info for volunteers. If the Dems are running a Coordinated Campaign, there may be a field organizer for Gonzalez in the Dem Party campaign HQs in the state.

  41. 41.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @NotMax:
    Whenever I see a country named partly after the man who brutally united it, I don’t think of tolerant reform

  44. 44.

    tobie

    @Kraux Pas: Have you tried reaching out to your local Democratic club? Every county usually has one, and the clubs organize GOTV for local elections. If not, you can also go national with one of MoveOn’s or OpenProgress’ text campaigns. The Rosen, McCaskill and Heitkamp campaigns are also looking for volunteers.

  47. 47.

    seaboogie

    Hey John – This introvert who sucks at phone banking just joined PostCardPatiots.com and requested 20 names from a most needed area and got names for Kendra Fershee in WV. Feel like I can do this without pants, because for we womenfolk, a bathrobe is just a more casual version of a DVF wrap dress. Heh.

  53. 53.

    Duane

    @gene108: First time for me too. Door- to -door for Claire McCaskill on Friday. Can’t believe I have to do this to stop the republican insanity. In any normal world, McCaskill wins easily.

  54. 54.

    sheila in nc

    My town is sweet, sweet, deep dark blue, so they’ve been organizing us to go out to neighboring counties and pull the Dems out of the woodwork. The goal is principally to support candidates for state legislature — gotta do something about those gerrymandered reactionary yahoos who are running roughshod over what CP calls “the newly insane state of NC”. Have already canvassed for Sydney Batch in Wake County; next weekend, Erica McAdoo in Alamance. The statewide effort runs the numbers on which races are closest, and assigns their volunteers accordingly.
    Also, one-stop early voting starts TODAY in NC! Am booked on Friday and Monday to staff an early voting site in my county and give people literature on all the stuff that nobody keeps up with. Specifically, the judicial races and the six bogus state constitutional amendments that were cooked up in three days of a lame duck legislative session and put on the ballot to 1) goose Republican turnout, 2) grab power from the Governor, and 3) overturn the court’s decision about voter ID.

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