Ok, I think maybe it’s time to get back to fundraising. Last cycle was a funny one — very successful for Dems, all in all, but with some races like Maine that seemed winnable but where gobs of money made very little difference.
On the other hand there is this calculation. About $200 million was spent on the Georgia Democratic Senate candidates’ campaigns (including a million from here). If we’d lost either race, the COVID relief bill would have been for $1.3 trillion. Two hundred million for a 1.3 trillion dollar pay-off…you can’t beat that on bang for your buck.
I’ve been reading a lot about the best ways to give. This article by Stacey Abrams was great. My take-away from it is that groups like Fair Fight are great places to give and so are state and county parties. I’m also friends with one of the real legends and pioneers of online fundraising and he says whatever gets people excited to give is the best thing to raise money for. One other factor is that early money has a big effect on who enters races — I don’t think that’s such a big thing this cycle because the last one showed Dems will raise lots of money for Senate races anyway and the House is still murky because of redistricting.
So I’d like to strike a bit of a balance. This year (an off-year), I’d like to focus on state parties, county parties, and maybe most of all groups like Fair Fight and Four Directions, with a special emphasis on groups who work on the Latino vote because that’s where Dems’ biggest problem was last time. As we get closer to the midterms and people start getting excited about races and candidates, I’ll shift more to that. How does that sound to people?
I’d like to start with a few places that really came through in 2020 and are continuing to come through (big win in Wisconsin on Tuesday)! We are planning on doing a big one for Four Directions where we talk to the people who run it. I’d like to do the same with a few other groups I’m looking at.
Maricopa County Democratic Party (AZ)
Wisconsin State Democratic Party
Fair Fight (Stacey Abrams’ ballot access group)
Open Thread: Biden Live on Gun Violence
Wapiti
Fantastic – I was wondering/hoping that we’d get back into this before next year.
H.E.Wolf
This sounds brilliant!! Thank you very much for the focus on voter enfranchisement and GOTV among voters of color.
Our state legislatures and governors’ mansions are a hidden treasure for us, if we flip (or retain) them for Democrats.
frosty
Sounds like a good approach. TurnPABlue had a recent fundraiser for $10,000 each for 10 rural counties trending more D. Check it out.
CaseyL
Thanks, DougJ! Your fundraising posts are always helpful. I’m a little more flush than usual right now, and kicked in to all three.
geg6
Arrrrrgh! As Charlie Brown would say.
I just maxed out on my political/charitable contributions for the month with $$ to TurnPABlue, John Fetterman for Senate and my campus’ SGA pet food fund drive for our local Humane Society.
You gotta catch me at the beginning of the month, Doug.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Sounds good to me. What happened in Wisconsin’s election on Tuesday? I’m reading a lot of education proposals got passed
Cameron
Definitely state and local races, since that’s the level at which most of the skullduggery takes place. If it’s not venturing too far OT, I’d like to ask the genuine Floridians what’s the plan for this state? I’ve only lived here about five years, and I’m puzzled why Democrats have such a hard time. The county I live in is strongly Republican, for no reason that’s apparent to me, and the local Democratic party assured me a year ago that things were turning around. Not. What’s missing?
geg6
Completely OT, but it looks like Matty Gaetz’s pervert tax collector buddy is rolling on him. LOL!
mali muso
Yay! I have a recurring donation set up for Four Directions but if we have a collective BJ thermometer, I will reset it to be part of that pool. Definitely up for more of this.
geg6
And if you’re looking all the way down to the county level, this is who I work with locally:
https://beavercountydemocrats.com/
This county was once a Democratic bastion. We need to make it that way again. We have our own version of Matt Gaetz (smarmy, bullying Young Republicans-type) who is at the head of the local GOP and he’s been way too successful. I want him taken down several notches. If we could get some Dem wins beyond that of Conor Lamb, things might change around here.
zhena gogolia
@geg6:
Oh, goody!
Old School
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The only statewide race was state school superintendent. The race is officially nonpartisan, but the candidate backed by the Democratic party won.
I know some referendums passed, but I don’t know how it faired all across the state.
For school boards, I have seen articles about how candidates who supported keeping schools virtual during the pandemic were defeated by those who want all children back in person. (Maybe that’s doing some cherry-picking. I’m not sure.)
James E Powell
I’m still
a littleextremely bitter about that one. $14 million left over? I get that there are only so many TV & radio ads that can be won and that their efficacy diminishes at a certain point. But 1) there are other things to spend money on and 2) with all that money in the kitty and knowing that they didn’t know how or where to spend it, they were still hitting me with requests for more money every day. I would like an explanation. And an apology.DougJ
@mali muso:
Here’s the BJ Four Directions thermometer. Thanks!
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bj4d?refcode=thermometer
mali muso
@DougJ: Great! Done and done.
germy
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Raises $3.2 Million in 3 Months Despite Being a Few Biscuits Short of a Bread Basket
Ken
At least, that’s the way this week is shaping up so far.
Fair Economist
Donated.
Other good targets would be Dem-leaning states where Republicans currently control the legislature due to gerrymanders – NC, PA, and MI. In all of them the gerrymander will likely be much weaker in 2022 due to Democratic governors and with either Democratic State Supreme Courts or districting reform.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Old School:
Oh goody for the state superintendent! Thank you!
Baud
@germy:
Despite = On account of
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
@germy:
What does she even need all that money for? She’ll likely never lose that seat. Hopefully she misuses campaign funds and can be nailed on that. She’s a nut job and a Republican so that’s likely to happen
Cameron
@Ken: Certainly if their current trend of self-immolation holds, there could be a lot of interesting developments ahead. Of course, we should learn from history; I’m thinking of the Louisiana race pitting Edwin Edwards vs. David Duke and Edwards’ campaign slogan: “Vote for the crook! It’s important!” So just getting busted – and even getting convicted – might not do the job.
pacem appellant
Has there been a post mortem on ME? I’d love to know what the hayseed happened there.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Buying allies. She can donate that money to other candidates.
rekoob
@DougJ: Another couple of state parties to consider would be New Jersey and Virginia, both of which have off-year elections for the state legislatures and executives this November. Perhaps see how the primaries shake out and then dive in.
J R in WV
@mali muso:
Yay, Me too. Do you just cancel the current monthly donation when DougJ Timesbot puts up a B-J donation for Four Directions?
I contribute via DougJ’s B-J thermometers when they come by, but that’s a fraction of our total support for Dems. Which doesn’t bother me much.
Another Scott
@rekoob: Agreed.
The GQP is going to be motivated to fight hard to show that they’re still relevant to their donors. We are doing very well in Virginia, but we can’t get complacent about the upcoming elections. A town council recently flipped to GQP control because people weren’t paying enough attention.
Once we pick our candidates, we have to fight for them to win. When we win, great things can happen, but we’ve got to win first.
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cameron: Being in prison makes campaigning a bit difficult.
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
It is so easy to manage contributions via ActBlue. I went to my last email receipt for Four Directions and ended that donation, then clicked on DougJ Timesbot ‘s BJ thermometer for Four Directions and started a monthly donation there.
You have to watch, if you fumble finger the amount, you could wind up giving $123,456,789 a month!!!
That’s a joke, sun ;~) we’re not giving to WinRed for Trump after all ~!!~
Cameron
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Well, Keith Judd didn’t do so bad, all things considered,
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@pacem appellant: The O’Bros talked about this a while back– Pfeiffer, who I think is the smart one. I think it was (mostly) that the (public) polling was off. I kept thinking during the late summer and fall that Collins didn’t seem nearly nervous enough. She knows her state, has sold her phony independent schtick well, the incumbency advantage is real and hard to quantify, especially for a “fifth-generation Mainer”, which I’m told counts there.
The other side of the polling question, the weakness thereof in the modern/trump era, was Jen O’Malley Dillon telling us the (public) polls were way off in WI, MI and PA. “She’s just trying to raise money and motivate voters,” quoth the savvy. She was telling the truth.
patrick II
I would like to give a shout-out for the Democratic Senate problem to the forgotten hero Democratic senate nominee from North Carolina, Cal Cunningham, who just couldn’t keep it in his pants for a few more months. Because no one ever finds out about text sex.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cameron: Jay Kim didn’t do too well.
Baud
@patrick II:
Cal sucks but Biden lost NC too, so I don’t know if it made a difference in the end.
piratedan
@patrick II: the part I found to be the most disappointing was Iowa, Jodi Ernst doesn’t even understand crop prices in the state that is most agriculturally driven and they STILL returned her to office. THAT was a kick in the teeth where actual competence and knowledge were rejected for ideology.
James E Powell
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The driving force of Republican politics is their voters’ hatred of the rest of us. Taylor Greene knows this and will be living off of it until she decides to do something else.
The article linked upthread calls her “the GOP Georgia representative that Republicans secretly hate,” but that is bullshit. They love her because she makes them “moderates” in the eyes of the press/media.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I hope she didn’t order arugula.
MisterForkbeard
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Did anyone else get this kind of ridiculous question? “We noticed that Donald Trump went to Mar-a-lago this weekend. Is he still working on destroying the country?”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: but those races were both pretty close, I believe, Biden closer than Cunningham, and Cooper won. Gives me hope for the open Senate seat.
Nicole
What better way to celebrate getting my 2nd Pfizer shot than by giving some $$ to Abrams? Thanks, Doug.
Mai Naem mobile
Have there been any studies showing the effect of the post office fuck up? I’ve heard basically nothing about that since the election. I don’t know how you would figure it out but I would like to know if that’s the reason the Dems lost way more seats in the House than was expected.
I am concerned about the Maricopa County recorder being a GOPr. It was a really competent Dem during 2020 who unfortunately barely lost his reelection. And I am completely not confident in the AZ independent redistricting commission. We really lucked out in 2010.
James E Powell
@piratedan:
What she does understand is that the majority of white people in her state hate Democrats. For nearly all of these red state monsters, that’s all they need to do to hold their seats.
If the purple trend continues in Georgia, it will be enough to keep Taylor Greene from going statewide, but she will be unbeatable in her safe, confederate house seat. Iowa has no purple trend that I’m aware of. And I will continue to worry about Wisconsin. A 20K vote margin in a high turnout presidential election doesn’t make me feel confident going into 2022.
Mai Naem mobile
@Baud: Kamala ordered those elite Frenchy french Macarons.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mai Naem mobile: OMG, I hope she didn’t get the fancy French mustard too.
patrick II
@Baud:
Cunningham was leading Tillis in polls until the scandal came out. But several republicans who were behind won re-election without help from a scandal, so it’s fair to say Cunningham probably would have lost anyway. But I would have liked for him to have enough self-discipline to find out for sure. It was a big disappointment, because any chance for that seat just went away the moment that scandal came out, and it was just so juvenile and dumb.
Barbara
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Trump’s favorite dessert on AF1 was reputed to be those fancy French macarons. Also too the bakery in the podunk town my husband grew up in makes them. They have become like fancy coffee drinks, mainstream. And I for one am delighted.
raven
@Barbara: Have you seen “The Great”? She figured macarons would salve the horrors of war.
Bill Arnold
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Link for a decent analysis of Collins/ME/2020? There were some fluffy speculation/opinion pieces after the election (confirmed; just looked).
And polling was right in neighboring Minnesota, and in Georgia and in some other states.
Why did the polls get Wisconsin so wrong — and Minnesota mostly right? – The polls were wrong again this year, at least in some places. (Greta Kaul, Nov. 13, 2020)
Benw
@Nicole: awesome! Congrats on #2
NotMax
@Barbara
Highly unsatisfying snack (YMMV). It’s like chomping on a cloud of Febreze when it’s sprayed into a room.
burnspbesq
Semi-OT:
I got your Hobson’s choice right here, Texans.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/08/george-p-bush-texas-ken-paxton/
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This is one of the few things I’ve heard about trump that has actually surprised me. Who convinced him to ever try something so effete and… French! (is that redundant?) I’m surprised it’s not some grocery store cookie– and I’m no cookie snob, I could murder a bag of Oreos or Keebler fudge stripes right about now.
mrmoshpotato
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Maybe she’ll hump a few 17-year-olds and get busted for kiddie porn too. I mean if you’re Rethuglican Trump trash, all three things can happen (because you make them happen.)
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: I’ll take the princeling. Paxton gotta go.
Patricia Kayden
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@burnspbesq: well, I for one hope I get to spend my last decades on this earth watching another generation of the Bush family try out to work out their oedipal issues– “gotta avenge Daddy for having been pantsed by the man I endorsed after said pantsing so that I could have a political career mostly after said pantser had fallen face first into a box of KFC extra crispy with a side of mashed potatoes”– by striving to become the third failed president of a dynasty whose dysfunction seems to be mostly political. Maybe Barbara The Younger will run as a Democrat in ten years or so and really set the loop-de-loop a-spinning
J R in WV
@burnspbesq:
So…
Tell us why you moved to Texass, anyways? My brother loves it there, everyone he knows carries a gun, everyone he knows votes straight Republican, etc, etc.
His F-350 fit right in while he owned his game farm, everything was just like he wants it to be.
But you don’t appear to be a Republican at all. Family there? I have to admit, I would not move to TX to help my brother out.
I would go there to lend a hand, but if he needed more than a few weeks, he would be moving to WV if he expected me to be a caregiver.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Who told you about our arugula bakeries? I mean…ummm…..nevermind!
dm
Hey, Doug!
How about some love for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/44039) — let’s elect some Democrats to state legislatures!
I’m also giving to the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State (https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dass) — you know, the people who tend to end up on the front-lines of determining how voting in a state is going to happen?
There’s also the Democratic Attorneys General Association (https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/22205), which I support on the general principle that progressive prosecutors make for more reasonable enforcement of the law.
raven
The census people just called and asked if I still wanted to work!!!
mrmoshpotato
@MisterForkbeard:
“We noticed Dump never says anything bad about Putin? Is he still a traitorous orange shitstain like he’s been since ’87?”
Princess
Places I won’t be donating: Primary races n another state. Those inside the state know their best candidates. Early money to McGrath and Gideon may not ultimately have hurt us but it sure didn’t end up helping us.
mrmoshpotato
@raven: You! Yes you! Son! You want a temporary job in 2030?!
debbie
@Yutsano:
Finally, your nym pops up! I wanted to thank you for your info yesterday about the stimulus payments. I found all kinds of stuff that hadn’t been there or had been updated since my last visit.
MazeDancer
Well done, Doug!
Please consider a group of legal fighters. Where people give to Balloon Juice Legal Fight and everyone gets some.
ACLU, SPLC, NAACP, and Democray Docket are 4 off the top of my head.
And there is Vote America, AAJC, and a million more.
They are all fighting the voter laws and the trans ban insanity. So they could use our help all year and then some.
raven
@mrmoshpotato: I wonder if they are still catching up?
Patricia Kayden
Miss Bianca
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That woman is a saint. And a mensch. I could never do what she does, never. The temptation to slap the crap out of some of these people would just be too much for me.
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Probably dazzled by the bright colors when they were displayed on a snooty dessert cart while he was running the Plaza Hotel into the ground.
debbie
@Miss Bianca:
Without rolling her eyes!
mrmoshpotato
@raven: It’s entirely possible given everything Dump fucked up.
debbie
@NotMax:
His buying the Plaza was a genuine historical tragedy.
burnspbesq
@Yutsano:
I don’t know if I can go as far as voting in a Republican primary, but I can certainly see throwing some coin his way.
Baud
Via Reddit.
Billboard
Shana
@rekoob: There are primaries for both party’s state-wide positions in Virginia this year (Dem primary in early June – R’s are having a multi-location convention sometime in May, I’m sure that will work out well) but you could give to the state party, or a county committee. The suburban-DC counties are pretty solidly blue now, but some of the downstate locations could probably do a lot with not a huge amount of money.
Or wait until after the primary and give then.
burnspbesq
@J R in WV:
Hopefully I’ll get to introduce you to her some day.
ETA: Austin is different.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
Fixed.
jonas
NC and SC were two other races that surprised me — the incumbents were vulnerable, Dems fundraised the shit out of the competition, polls had them neck-in-neck, and both Graham and Tillis basically cruised to reelection. Have there been any good postmortems about what happened there and what we can do for next time?
burnspbesq
@MazeDancer:
Don’t forget NRDC and Sierra Club.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: I had a feeling that was MadDogPAC before zooming in!
mali muso
@J R in WV:
Sorry to respond late, but yes. I went back in and cancelled my prior recurring donation after setting up the one through the BJ link. Unlike other political donation sites (ahem, WinRed), ActBlue made it very easy to do. :)
Barbara
@Another Scott: It will be interesting to see if there is any fallout from the very evident efforts of the VA GOP to stack the deck in favor of Snyder. I keep getting materials from Kirk Cox, and I can’t for the life of me understand why, however he sounds like a scary guy.
bluehill
@jonas: It may have been Trump at the top of the ticket, turning out irregular voters, who weren’t captured sufficiently in polling.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Well, there goes my melted down Crayolas theory.
:)
?BillinGlendaleCA
Looks like Instagram and FB are down.
japa21
A tiny bit of good news. Tuesday was municipal election day in Illinois. Schaumburg Township has been totally controlled by the Republicans for years. I can’t remember the last time a Democrat was one of the trustees. Well, this year the Dems won two of the four seats and just missed winning the other two.
gene108
@rekoob:
I don’t think Gov. Murphy (NJ) is in any danger of losing. Dems hold a 52-27 majority in the General Assembly, and a 25-15 majority in the state senate.
I don’t get the feeling this is a year, where voters are in a “throw the bums out” mood.
Cheryl from Maryland
Please don’t forget Virginia — 2021 is for all the marbles — Governor, Lt. Governor, Atty General, House of Delegates. Under total Democratic majorities (all three administrative offices, Senate and House), VA has enhanced voting rights, eliminated the death penalty, made it easier for post-prisoners to vote, improved Pot laws, etc., etc. The GOP in VA is in disarray; so it is time to CRUSH THEM. Here’s the VA Democratic Party Link. Also, I’m giving monthly to Rev. Warnock because I want the Senate Blue.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: But Balloon Juice is still up! Mwhaha!
Baud
@japa21:
?
Cameron
@burnspbesq: Austin is very different; at one point 3 of my 4 siblings lived there. Now a couple have moved elsewhere, but the opportunities I had to visit convinced me I’d have no problem living there.
debbie
@japa21:
Nice! I hope Schaumburg Township is the new bellwether!
WaterGirl
@Baud: Heh. I couldn’t quite make out the paid for part.
rikyrah
The Wisconsin folks won a big race this week in Education.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
“Paid for by MadDogPAC.com” is what it reads.
Skepticat
@pacem appellant: @pacem appellant:
My disappointed take is that Sara Gideon is from away—she’d lived in Maine only fifteen years. She was speaker of the Maine House, but they were closed down by the pandemic and thus she was “doing nothing for Maine.” They also blatantly lied (I know you’re surprised) that she’d ignored the situation and let a Democratic state rep pull a Gaetz (inappropriate actions with an underage girl). They painted her as too liberal, of course. Collins stressed her roots in “the County,” the fact she’d never missed a vote, her “independence,” and she was probably going to chair an important committee. She basically took credit for the Paycheck Protection Program. I contributed more than I really could afford to Gideon, but I also committed before we even knew who the candidate would be in order to support anyone but Collins. I was disappointed but continue to try to hold Collins’s tootsie to the flame.
Skepticat
@NotMax:
There’s a political marketing firm named Mad Dog Mail in Florida.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Intersting. Well, we are all mad and he is surely a dog, so I guess that works.
Sister Golden Bear
@Miss Bianca: I prefer to think her as the Secretary of Fuck Around and Find Out, with resting “I wish a mutha would” face.
J R in WV
@burnspbesq:
Congratulations!
And Austin IS different, a tiny island of sanity in, well, in TX.
One of my best friends was in Austin while his wife studied at a school there, and I visited while she was doing a clinical in Atlanta.They had a nice apartment out by the AMD factory.
We saw Pinetop Perkins doing two sets on his 92nd birthday in a club downtown. Killing it on the piano. Amazing good time. He was a real gentleman and a great musician.
dnfree
@japa21: We had the opposite result in Elgin Township, I am very disappointed to say.
dnfree
So far I set up small monthly recurring donations for my representative, Sean Casten, and neighboring representative Lauren Underwood in Illinois. Both of their races were far too close last time for comfort.
jonas
@bluehill: Seems there was a lot of that the last couple of years…
rikyrah
@raven:
?????
SuzieC
Thanks!! I have been fairly flush lately and looking for your recommendations. Have already contributed to Fair Fight, more on the way.