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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Can’t you just feel the moonshine?

Can’t you just feel the moonshine?

by | 59 Comments

This post is in: 

I’ve been getting lots of requests for more ways to give to state legislature races. North Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin seem to be the fan favorites right now (Sam Wang especially likes NC and Texas — a lot of you, and me, like Wisconsin because their state party is going like a house of fire). With the help of WaterGirl, I put together a list of 11 candidates in North Carolina (you can give to just one to avoid too many mailing lists — the order is randomly generated so you can just pick the first one if you like).

Balloon Juice Flip North Carolina

Goal Thermometer

And here’s our favorite state parties

North Carolina State Democratic Party

Goal Thermometer

Texas State Democratic Party

Goal Thermometer

Wisconsin State Democratic Party

Goal Thermometer

You can see everything we are supporting here.

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  4. 4.

    VidaLoca

    a lot of you, and me, like Wisconsin because their state party is going like a house of fire

    I live in Milwaukee and… i dunno. I have to say I’m not seeing anything like this. But I’m on the 501-c4 independent expenditure side of the wall. Can you offer a source for this statement?

  7. 7.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Thank you so much for doing this.  It’s really important to give people with means and easy way to use their $ for good fights.

  8. 8.

    VidaLoca

    @piratedan:

    That’s it?  Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you all want to give to the Wisconsin DP, better that one than any other but I haven’t seen anything like a house afire.  More like rebuilding in the middle of a hurricane.

  9. 9.

    Another Scott

    @VidaLoca: They seem to be doing something right.

    When Wisconsin is polled (CNN) on handling the "situation in Kenosha," Trump is down 12 (42-54), while Biden is up six (48-42).

    — Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) September 15, 2020

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  14. 14.

    VidaLoca

    @DougJ:

    And the one before it was a trainwreck.  Even the people who ran that one were embarrassed.  In April a different crew did a better job although the greed and over-reach of the Republicans played an important part in the turnout for that one — people were furious.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    @VidaLoca: From where I sit, Ben Wikler has pulled off some amazing organizing in the face of ground that has been constantly shifting beneath their feet.

    Your skepticism in noteworthy – It seems that you may have a different opinion; please share it with us if you do.

  17. 17.

    Zzyzx

    My twitter feed is exploding with people claimed that Trump somehow blamed Biden for not implementing a nation wide mask rule. That can’t possibly be accurate can it?

  18. 18.

    VidaLoca

    @WaterGirl:  Well, I live in the middle of this and I know some of the history.  Wikler has been on the job for a little over 15 months and he’s made improvements but the organization he took over was a mess.  Mike Tate was a poor choice as a leader; Tate’s successor tried to put things back in order but she was not the right person for that job.  Wikler has a lot of ground to make up.  Your money will help in that. But I stand by my characterization that he’s rebuilding a house in the middle of a hurricane.

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    @VidaLoca: Thanks for that information!

    I’m not gonna blame a guy who is trying to make order out of a chaotic mess that he inherited.

    I guess what I’ve been trying to ask if if you think Wisconsin money  would be better spent by a different Wisconsin group?  Because I’m sure not up for giving up on Wisconsin altogether.

  20. 20.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    It’s hard to believe sometimes how fast Virginia flipped.  We aren’t even a swing state any longer.  Nice to know we don’t have to work to turn us blue, and we can help other states now.

    I think it’s going to be Arizona next.  In five years, they’re going to be as reliably Democratic as we are now.  After that, who knows?  But my guesses would be North Carolina, Texas and Georgia.

  24. 24.

    Morzer

    Tom Nichols has been live-Tweeting Plague Rat One’s latest efforts to win over real people:

    @RadioFreeTom

    Seriously, Trump could’ve done just as well in this #Pennsylvania town hall meeting by just coming out, standing there, turning to the people in the room and saying “go f*** yourselves“ and then leaving.

  25. 25.

    VidaLoca

    @WaterGirl:  Well to be honest I put my own money and time into Voces de la Frontera.  I know that you’ve mentioned them in your posts before.  And Black Leaders Organizing Communities played a huge role in mobilizing the turnout in the African-American community, in the April primary election that Doug referred to above.  You’ve mentioned them too.

    I do that because I live in the 501-c4 world so I know them to be effective organizations but what I DO NOT want to do is dissuade any of you who want to put your money into the DPW from doing so.  The last thing we need right now is to get into a competition for resources.

  27. 27.

    Kent

    @Zzyzx:My twitter feed is exploding with people claimed that Trump somehow blamed Biden for not implementing a nation wide mask rule. That can’t possibly be accurate can it?

    What can’t possibly be accurate?

    That Trump said something completely and ridiculously untrue?

    Or that Biden was negligent in not implementing a national mask rule by authority vested in him as a former VP?

  30. 30.

    Kent

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):It’s hard to believe sometimes how fast Virginia flipped.  We aren’t even a swing state any longer.  Nice to know we don’t have to work to turn us blue, and we can help other states now.

    I think it’s going to be Arizona next.  In five years, they’re going to be as reliably Democratic as we are now.  After that, who knows?  But my guesses would be North Carolina, Texas and Georgia.

    I would have expected Florida to flip sooner than Texas.  But then I have no particular reason for thinking that except for having lived in TX for 13 years.

  31. 31.

    Morzer

    @Kent: I would say that the Democratic party in Florida are generally amazingly incompetent and negligent. I have the impression that the Texas Democratic party might have woken up a little bit, although they have not been impressive either over the last 25 years.  Some credit goes to Beto and his campaign for this awakening – and there hasn’t really been a Floridian equivalent that I can see.

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    @zhena gogolia: is anyone else watching this or at least keeping up with it on Twitter? It’s amazing. Whoever thought this was a good idea should be exiled to Brad parscale’s yacht or Steve Bannon‘s holding cell

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    @Zzyzx: actually, that is correct. I don’t have an actual quote in front of me but he did ask “where was Biden?”

    and then proceeded to say that a mask mandate was a bad idea because, and you can’t make this up, it’s hard to understand your waiter when he’s wearing a mask

  35. 35.

    Jeffro

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): The energy (if not the organization ) in Virginia is amazing.  My son and I were delivering yard signs last weekend, only to find out that most of the folks on our list already had at least a sign or two(!)

    it was heartening to see that Central Virginia has reached the blue saturation levels as in Northern Virginia, when we would go door knocking and find that party volunteers had already canvassed the area at least once or twice ?

  36. 36.

    Jeffro

    @Kent: I am guessing that Texas has more and bigger graduate-settled college towns, and fewer ‘snowbird’ MAGAts fleeing blue states.

  38. 38.

    WaterGirl

    @VidaLoca:  Are they smaller organizations?  If that’s the case, it doesn’t take a ton of money to give an organization a big boost.  Or are they fairly well funded?

    Are they part of ActBlue?

  42. 42.

    Jay

    I'm sorry but did Louisville hand over $12 million BEFORE they've even considered arresting the officers who murdered Breonna Taylor? so they acknowledge severe wrongdoing but…the cops are still on the job?? make it make sense.— are you there god? it's me, dionne (@OhDionne) September 15, 2020

  43. 43.

    Jeffro

    @frosty: it already was pretty blue in all but representation, due to the extreme gerrymandering of the state legislature.

    good things happen when people put in the work that leads to systemic changes ?

  44. 44.

    WaterGirl

    @VidaLoca:  If you would like to write something up about those two organizations in Wisconsin, so we can learn more about them, I would be happy to feature them in one of the Things We Can Do posts.

    Would you be up for that?  I am heading to bed now, but I will check back in the morning.  Or you can send me an email if you’re interested, that works, too!

    Nice to see your nym here, by the way, seems like it’s been quite awhile.

  48. 48.

    catclub

    @Jeffro: quick response from Biden:

    Joe Biden

    @JoeBiden

    ·
    1h

    To be clear: I am not currently president. But if you chip in now, we can change that in November: https://joe.link/35LrCCJ

  50. 50.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @VidaLoca: Wikler is doing a great job.  While I agree that he and his team were starting from a really bad place, they are doing the work that needs to be done.

    For everyone, BLOC and Voces are to great work on the ground and if you have any donation money left over this year, they are great places to put it.

  51. 51.

    VidaLoca

    @WaterGirl:

    Sure.  Omnes found the link I was remembering in your earlier articles.

    For further reading, three pieces on BLOC, the last is the best:

    Inside Milwaukee County’s New and Dynamic Ecosystem of Politics

    Block by BLOC, Wisconsin black women prove the simple truth about how Democrats have failed

    How Milwaukee Could Decide the Next President

    If you’d like to learn about (and support) Voces, they are holding a virtual fundraiser gala 6:00-7:15 PM CT on Sept. 25. Tickets are $50 for non-members, but for $30 you can purchase a year’s membership and then buy a ticket for only $25.

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus:   Thanks. I have apparently slept since then.

    After the pandemic, the murders, the protests, etc, playing to win didn’t feel like the right tone anymore.

    I never went back to the old resources page when I rebooted this as What You Can Do – after your reminder, I just grabbed a few from the old link you supplied, and added them to the current list.

  54. 54.

    VidaLoca

    @WaterGirl:  SttP is good people, I know a couple of their leaders.  They are another attempt to mobilize folks to vote, primarily focused on the African-American community.  I’d recommend them as a place for people to send money if they feel inclined to do so.

  55. 55.

    WaterGirl

    @VidaLoca:  I found the first 4 on this list at the Playing To Win link that Omnes provided up thread.

    1. Ballot Box Equality at the Ballot Box across Indian Country:  Four Directions
    2. Latino Leaders Organizing the Communities on the south side of Milwaukee :  Voces de la Frontera
    3. Black Leaders Organizing their Communities on the north side:  BLOC
    4. The Political Home for Black Women:  Higher Heights
    5. Souls to the Polls

    I added Souls to the Polls to that list.

    It seems to me that these are all voice that could use amplifying, so I want to talk with DougJ to see if we can put up some fundraising threads for all of these.

    Hoping that Doug would be willing to make balloon Juice Act Blue accounts for these so we can track them as part of our BJ efforts.  If not, I’ll see if he’s up for putting these up in a fundraising post anyway.

    #2, #3 and #5 are all Wisconsin.  I’ll have to see where the others are. x

  56. 56.

    VidaLoca

    @WaterGirl: 
    Many thanks — very kind of you.

    On the assumption that you, or Doug, or other readers for that matter want to do due diligence before recommending or setting up fundraisers for these organizations, I’d urge you to check out Voces de la Frontera’s fundraising gala that I mentioned above at comment #51. It’s a public event that you can access at a nominal cost, that should give you some insight into who they are and what they do.

  58. 58.

    VidaLoca

    @WaterGirl:  Heh.  Seriously, I’d rather not, because it is spamming or at least it’ll look like it.  You guys have your protocols, your people trust you, you can make a decision about next steps without me bothering you.  I appreciate the invitation but I’m just a tourist here.

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    @VidaLoca: I was being lazy.  :-)

    I copied your 3 links and the information about the event on Sept 25.  I’ll try to add that information to a few of these threads before Sept 25.

    FYI, I wrote to DougJ earlier today, asking about fundraising for those groups, so stay tuned for what comes of that.

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