You’re supposed to make your emergency plans before there’s an emergency, so I thought we might want to take a look at our fundraising for this cycle now – before we know the outcomes.
So if you’re interested, let’s take a minute and look at what we’ve been up to.
How We Got Here
DougJ and I talked on the phone after the 2020 elections and the 2021 Georgia runoffs. We were both thrilled with how much we had been able to raise on Balloon Juice, we had the House and the Senate, and we didn’t regret for a second the nearly $900,000 we had raised for Georgia!
But what about some of the other races we gave money to, when it turned out that those candidates really didn’t have a chance, and some of them had unspent money after the election was over?
So we wanted to try something new. Starting in 2021, giving mostly to boots on the ground organizations – early money! That money does help candidates, and it builds a bridge to the future, even if this or that particular candidate doesn’t win.
That was in February of 2020, I think, maybe early March. Voces de la Frontera was the first group I reached out to. And so it began.
How Much Did We Raise, and Who Did We Raise It For?
Broad strokes? Beginning in May of 2021, we helped raise over $800.000.00.
$450,000 of that was direct donations, and $350,000 was match money that organizations were able to raise because we contacted them and said “we’ll raise you this much if you can match that”. And so the matches and double-matches, and Balloon Juice Angel matches were born.
Boots on the Ground
Our boots on the ground organizations were in these states: AZ, GA, MI, NV, WI. (Plus TX – $10k to the Democratic Party.)
$300,000 of our Balloon Juice fundraising went to boots on the ground organizations.
$350,000 of our external match money – all of it – went to boots on the ground organizations.
Taken together, we put $650,000 into the hands of boots on the ground organizations.
Candidates
$154,000 went directly to candidates, but even so, all of those funds were targeted.
$21,000 of that went to just 3 candidates for flash fundraising because they really needed a boost right now: Charlie Crist right after he won the nomination, Catherine Masto-Cortez when she was really struggling, and Cisco Aguilar just last week when word on the ground from NV was that they needed help now for that critical race.
$73,000 of that went to 20 House races that were very close, or were considered toss-ups. (Even though the polls are mostly worthless this year, that and word from folks on the ground are all we have to go on, so you use what you have.)
$40,000 of that went to our Election Protection thermometer. 5 Attorneys General in key states where opponents are election deniers (AZ, GA, NV, TX, WI). 4 Secretaries of State in key states where opponents are election deniers (AZ, GA, NV, WI). Two governors in key states (AZ and NV). 7 judicial candidates running for their state Supreme Courts (MI, OH, NC). All those candidates protecting our rights in 2022 and who, if elected, can hold the line for democracy in 2024.
$19,000 of that went our proof-of-concept experiment: that contributing to down-ballot candidates can not only support people who are running for state races, but can also help with turnout and can trickle-up to the people toward the top of the ticket.
Taking Stock
So, knowing what we know now – because in making choices we don’t have the advantage of hindsight – let’s take stock of where we put our fundraising money for 2021-22.
Do we mostly feel good about where the money went? Or not so good? Can we identify opportunities that were left on the table?
Let’s start the conversation now, before the results are in.
kalakal
That’s an incredible amount of money.
Well done Jackals
And a huge note of appreciation and thanks to Watergirl for making it happen.
You really are amazing
Mousebumples
Does your math include contributions to WisDems and the like? I think my monthly contribution is through our thermometer, so I know that was also included over these past few months.
Thanks for coordinating all of this – and for turning off the “Share my contact info” box on ActBlue. I’ve been unsubscribing from more stuff, and my random email and texts to donate money has been decreasing. 😊
Motivated Seller
Hats off to WaterGirl and DougJ–but lets be honest mostly WaterGirl. Putting together all the moving pieces is hard work. And then taking all the results and putting it into a narrative for all of us to review is huge. Hopefully Cole is considering a sharp raise.
Princess
Wow, BJ raises a ton of money. I’m excited to see the results. But it’s hard to know how to measure success. Even contributing to boots on the ground for a losing campaign can pay off in the future.
Matt McIrvin
holy crap, that’s a lot! Glad to have been part of it.
Old School
Balloon-Juice raised almost $900,000 just for Georgia in 20/21? Wow!
Mousebumples
@Old School: that number might include Ossoff’s first House campaign? I feel like we’ve had this discussion before, and WaterGirl will probably tell me I’m very very wrong on that, lol. 🤷♀️
WaterGirl
Adding this ad from Mousebumples in the other thread. Wow.
Josie
That’s an impressive amount of money and an even more impressively well rounded and well thought out distribution. Great job.
WaterGirl
@Mousebumples:
Yes. If you set up a recurring contribution through a Balloon Juice ActBlue thermometer, you recurring donations are included in this total.
WaterGirl
@Old School: @Mousebumples:
We have had this conversation before. :-) DougJ said it did not include Ossoff’s first house campaign. Back then I did not have access to the ActBlue thermometer pages so I am passing on DougJ’s information on that.
lashonharangue
Very impressive and thanks to everyone who made it happen. I feel good that giving here made it easier to ignore the many requests I received this cycle. After this is over I would be really curious to hear specifics about the boots on the ground impacts.
WaterGirl
I appreciate all the kind words! I really put this up, though, for you guys to all have a say. So please feel free to share ideas for other targeted opportunities we could have pursued, or we could pursue in the next cycle.
Do you think the targeted House races were a good idea, or a bad idea? Same for Election Protection and everything else. I tried to lay it all out for you guys so you could see where your money went and so you could weigh in.
At some point, we shifted from just boots on the ground because it was too late for the early money that turns other money into gold.
We raised nearly 1.7 million in the 2020-21 cycle. So we raised more – think RBG passing and all the other things that drove us to rage donating. So we raised less this time around, but it was more targeted. How do you guys feel about that?
If there is a runoff in Georgia, we will be raising money again, of course, which will up our total. Here’s to outright wins for us in GA
edit: it may be that BJ peeps still gave as much this cycle as we did in 2020-21, it’s just that contributions to Beto and others from BJ peeps won’t have shown up in our thermometers. It may be that a ton of folks still gave to candidates, just not through our thermometers because we wanted to do targeted fundraising this year to see how that turned out.
dm
I will occasionally pipe up in these threads to suggest people support a lot of local races. Though I’ve got to say “boots on the ground” is a great idea.
For a few years now I’ve had monthly contributions (tiny ones, admittedly) going out through ActBlue to (I’m doing from memory, so I may have the names slightly wrong)
Democratic Attorney Generals’ Association
Democratic Secretaries of State
Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee
My idea is building up the “farm team”, but also, getting local activists involved in communities that may not have much of a Democratic presence.
Anyway, I’d like to put something like that forward as a suggestion for the next round, starting the day after the election.
WaterGirl
Also, I didn’t want to say this up top because I don’t want to say anything negative about DKos on the front page. But I discovered this week that they, too, had an election protection ActBlue fundraiser.
Lots of overlap between the candidates on ours and the candidates on theirs, but DKOS is taking a cut of the donations. They have DKOS as one of the recipients, and they didn’t tell people that on their fundraising page.
I am proud to say that Balloon Juice got not one penny of the $800,000 we raised.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Oh wow.
I can’t put into words what an inspiration you have been.
WaterGirl
@lashonharangue:
I am seeing this as a 4-part process.
edit: I guess bullet point #3 should be #4, because part of our evaluation should involved the conversations with the boots on the ground groups.
bbleh
@kalakal: This times 10!
800 freaking thousand? That’s … real money!
dnfree
@WaterGirl: I am continuing monthly donations to both Voces and Four Directions. And I think the lesser-known races where smaller amounts make a difference is a good idea. Too many of the candidates seem to spend most or all of their money on advertising rather than on voter outreach.
As for Kos—that’s unacceptable not to identify the site as a recipient.
WaterGirl
@dnfree:
It’s not a good look. I have no idea whether they do other fundraising or if that was their only thermometer but yeah, that is really not a good look.
Alison Rose
This is freaking awesome, and I absolutely feel good about where the money went. For a lot of us, it’s tempting to want to donate to out-of-state candidates we know and like, whether or not they really need our $25 or whatever. Partially that’s because it’s hard to know which candidates who aren’t nationally known are good eggs who could really use the help, so these posts have been terrific for directing us to the right people.
Also too:
Kudos from a former editor.
tobie
You folks are SUPERB!
WaterGirl
@kalakal: Let’s remember the BJ Angels, too! They are a big part of how we have been able to raise so much.
WaterGirl
@Motivated Seller: Maybe Cole will send me a jar of spiced peaches. :-)
Mousebumples
I really enjoyed the postcarding/music posts. If others enjoyed those, I’m happy to send a signal to WaterGirl when a #PostcardsToVoters special election or runoff is happening, and we can do more of that.
Money is awesome, and great, but for those that have time and interest (and $) to do their own boots on the ground work, I love hearing about it, too.
ETA – And if someone wants to do postcards in the future, but can’t afford stamps or something, I expect we could help support that effort. 😊
bbleh
@WaterGirl: as to (2), how to measure, regarding particular races, I agree that closeness of outcome, regardless of who wins, is a good measure, because you want the most “bang for the buck” in terms of outcome, and you’re more likely to affect close races than ones that aren’t.
Put another way, in retrospect, your money may have made the difference (or almost made the difference) in a close race, but it was probably wasted in a wide one.
Now obviously you can’t know in advance which races ultimately will be close, especially early on, and in some cases there may be propaganda value to boosting a clear underdog against a particularly loathsome opponent (I gave to McGrath a few cycles ago just because Mitch), but in the end, it’s a matter of moving probabilities of final outcomes, and a little can go a long way in a close race.
Now there may be good targets other than particular races, eg, state- or local-level organization-building, in advance of candidates being selected, but again I think “closeness” (eg in previous election results, or registration numbers, or some other proxy) would be a good measure of bang-for-the-buck. Better to work on building organizations in, say, Nevada than in Nebraska.
Mousebumples
@bbleh: And to piggyback – if the “Up ballot” candidates we funded don’t succeed… But the up ballot races do turn in our favor, I’d call that a win. We’d be supporting Democrats running in tough spots, to help boost overall statewide turnout.
WaterGirl
@bbleh: Be sure and save this comment so you can post it in the Monday thread where we are going to be talking about this. :-)
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: I find these thermometers a far better way to donate than to just pump money into whichever campaign screams the loudest in my email inbox or my Facebook feed–some of these were certainly the same ones as in the Balloon Juice lists, but relying on the thermometers means all the money doesn’t go to campaigns that are probably already sucking in a lot of donations. I’m a big believer in supporting down-ballot candidates in small races that look marginal and winnable. To me the targeting looks fantastic as a way of making sure the money makes as much of a difference as it can.
kalakal
@WaterGirl: I feel that the targeting was/is a good idea, we’ve raised a lot of money but not so much that we can distribute a significant amount to 100s of candidates.
And in particular I am keen on the election protection funding, I’m not sure how we evaluate its success/failure
OzarkHillbilly
Well done everyone, especially you WaterGirl.
kalakal
@WaterGirl: Absolutely!
WaterGirl
I keep coming back to Stacey Abarams, who started organizing in GA in 2010, with the big payoff in senate races in 2020. So I’m good with us supporting some of that kind of thing, too.
Fair Economist
I think you made great choices and that you and DougJ are great organizers. Definitely 2020 was a lesson not to give too much to the big marquee races – some of the losing Senate campaigns outraised the entire national statehouse campaign. If McGrath, Harrison, or Gideon had moved even half the money they raised to their state organizations they could have been funded for decades. My own donations this cycle went overwhelmingly to GOTV, statehouse, and secretary of state campaigns
I did move most of my contribution to directly through ActBlue, so in my case the lesser sums through BJ are misleading.
Mousebumples
@WaterGirl: I’d support some effort of “where do we need to focus now, looking at 2024?” What Senate races are up that cycle? Where should Dems be stronger than they are, if they had a deeper bench?
I’m hoping that Georgia/Stacey surprise people after Tuesday, but we’ll see… 🤞🤞
Motivated Seller
You are a treasure. :-)
I know what you are asking, but I think its premature. It feels like we made a real effort (as opposed to kvetching an a blog), and we really won’t know until the results come in next week.
That said, however, I’ll offer that creating a bridge between sharing our gripes and taking action is immeasurable. I just hope that jars of sliced peaches is enough to keep this going.
zhena gogolia
Since I’m the only person on the thread below, I’ll repost this kvetch.
Oh, fuck the NYT. I always look forward to taking their Friday News Quiz. But this week it’s a special “midterms edition.” Deleted with extreme prejudice.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Thanks for all your work. I have a fairly large monthly donation that I’ve had going since the presidential election, so I don’t usually participate here, but I really appreciate your efforts and the generosity of all BJ-ers.
CarolPW
@WaterGirl: You have to consider the substantial $ that went to Ukraine. That certainly had an impact on the “spare” money people had available.
Emily B.
@dm: Thanks for these suggestions! I have been making small recurring donations to DLCC for a couple of years, but did not know about these other funds.
I agree that it’s really important to build up the farm team, including supporting strong candidates for local offices and grassroots activist networks. (I still think Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy was right on target.) And I much appreciate WaterGirl and other BJ folks doing my homework for me in terms of identifying important races where my donations can have an impact.
WaterGirl
@Motivated Seller: You may be right that it’s premature in one sense, but I’m really looking for to identify mechanisms that we can use once we have the outcomes after Tuesday.
If Mercedes Krause loses (as expected) but she gets a way bigger % of the vote than anyone expected against the well-funded entrenched incumbent, then that sets the stage for a potential win in 2024. If the state party didn’t fund her because they were sure she had no chance, but they see that she way exceeded expectations, then maybe next time they get behind her. Did she bring out the native vote, which impacted candidates up and down the ballot? So that’s a loss for Mercedes and a loss for her constituents. But she’s a rising star (seems to be) then a better than expected loss may well give us somebody really good on the bench, even if she lost. But is that a win for a good decision for us on BJ?
Just trying to get a framework that we can all use in evaluating whether our investments were good, even if the particular race was a loss.
We didn’t put a lot of funds into PA, but we did support some state races. If some of those peeps lose, but the Democratic candidate for Senate squeaks through, was that money well spent?
Maybe i’m pointing out the obvious, but I think having a framework ahead of time is good so our lizard brains and our emotions don’t control our view of what funds were well-invested and which weren’t.
WaterGirl
@CarolPW: Good point! We have given $80,000 to Ukraine.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@WaterGirl: Thank you for all your work, and also thanks to everyone who has been able to make a donation. This is incredible work!
piratedan
about the only thing I might add to this is … should we concentrate even more on state legislatures? If money is a big deal in smaller ponds, would it make sense to drop medium sized financial boulders in smaller pools?
WaterGirl
@piratedan: Yep, started looking at that late in the game, I think that is probably something we left on the table.
lowtechcyclist
Very good. I particularly appreciate the focus on (a) boots on the ground, and (b) a bunch of the easy-to-overlook races. Campaigns for Senator and Governor can usually get the money they need if they’ve got a decent chance.
Maybe include sheriffs, DAs, and the like next time? (I know it’s hard to do everything, so if that’s too much of a stretch, that’s perfectly OK.)
Boltsmag.org has been doing what it can to publicize a lot of those kinds of races. It should be a good source for future years.
RaflW
I think we did great work. The fact is, even if we do better than the CW says we will this 2 year cycle, we have at least three more cycles before – maybe – the GOP begins to get exhausted, and younger voters (who are liberal by a big margin if the reporting is accurate) start to outnumber GenXers and Boomers who are more Alex P Keaton than I’d ever want.
So the boots on the ground/community organizing work is best-positioned to be a long-term viable activity. The right figured out decades ago that you have to do bottom-up as well as top-down to really wield power. We’re out of the starting gate, and places like Run for Something are also helping, but canvassing and organizing across issues rather than individual politicians is the dealio.
And. I also gave a metric f-ton to downballot candidates this cycle outside of Juiceland. Mostly via Charles Gaba and his indefatigable collecting, organizing, PVI-ing and hucking his various state funds, House winnables funds, etc. Since he does that, there’s not that much need for Balloon Juice to do that WG didn’t already do this time. A few very targeted asks as outlined @top were, IMO, exactly right.
Now, let’s GOTV. :)
eclare
@lowtechcyclist: The DA race here in Memphis was *the* race (the election was in August, and the D won). Got an autotext from John Legend the morning of the election.
ETA> The US rep for this area, Steve Cohen, should win with least 70% of the vote.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist:
I have had their site open in a browser tab for weeks because I don’t want to forget about them!
Matt McIrvin
@piratedan:
We’re entering a situation where, because of crackpot right-wing legal theories being ratified by federal courts, the Presidency may end up being controlled by swing-state legislatures, so this is probably a good idea. These bodies also have a tendency to ensconce themselves semi-permanently though creative districting and to give themselves vast oligarchic powers, but it’s not a popular thing for them to do, so to some extent it’s a matter of making that point. I think they get away with a lot because people don’t pay attention to them.
Sure Lurkalot
Most excellent report and thanks to WaterGirl and Doug for their focus, the angels and for the positive messaging around these prodigious efforts.
As for gauging whether money was well directed, since there’s been much handwringing about polls, it may be difficult to decide on a methodology for who outperformed them even while losing. But I do agree it’s worthwhile to consider the future…like Obama reminding us on the stump that he got shellacked the first time he ran.
patrick II
I am standing in line at my early voting site. I just had my picture taken with my congressman (and hopefully future congressman) Frank Mrvan who was standing outside. Good day so far.
H.E.Wolf
One of the things I appreciated most about the Balloon Juice 2021-2022 fundraising efforts was the prioritizing of GOTV groups run by, and serving, communities of color. Among them:
Four Directions: Native American
Voces de la Frontera: Latino/Hispanic
VAAC: African American (in part because of racial disparities in sentencing)
In addition, a goodly number of individual candidates that Balloon Juice supported are people of color (both incumbents, and challengers).
The USA has always been multi-racial, and is not yet equitable for all races/ethnicities. What we’ve done in 2021-2022 may have helped to balance the playing field somewhat, for this midterm elections cycle. I think that’s a very worthwhile path to follow.
[edited to make a couple of changes]
RaflW
@WaterGirl: That’s a great value, too. That all our dollars go to the causes/candidates. I did fall for one Kos fundraising request, and was indeed grumpy that they got a cut – my mistake to some extent as an experienced giver to have not clicked thru to the ‘allocate funds’ list to see just who.
I also – much more infuriatingly – got punked by a WI state legislator who worded her twitter ask as “I’m sharing the table this week with ___. ___, ___.” but the ActBlue sent all the money to her. Maybe she shares it out of her campaign chest? It seems intentionally not transparent, so she’s banned from my list, even if she’s a good vote in the chamber (she’s in a safe district).
Mr. Gaba who I praised above is upfront about always asking for a small amt. for MI Dems (and late in the cycle, he started getting some disclosed tiny fraction of the tiny amt MI Dems would get. He’s put in I bet 1000 hours this cycle and self funded it as far as I know up till then).
Long way ’round to saying: Integrity in fundraising matters. WG & Balloon Juice hit the mark.
MisterDancer
To sum up a lot of good feedback and add thoughts — we have to get out of the “this cycle or bust!” mentality.
I get it — for a lot of us, esp. the poor, Women, People of Color, my LBGTQIA+ peeps, and so on? It’s exhausting AND we/they are in the crosshairs of these asshats. That’s why I’m so glad that, which I could contribute, I did it primarily to the groups that support those folx “on the ground,” both in this and my posts about local/regional Reproductive Justice services to support.
But for many of us — we, in theory, have the capacity to help them by actually planning ahead. By working to support the next cycle, and see how we can help build these groups into sustainability. The real power of the Conservative Movement is money, true — but it’s also being relentless.
I submit we can be relentless, too, while holding fast to empathy and ethics…unlike them.
Stacey’s a blueprint, true — but she didn’t do it alone, nor grow it herself. And it might be worth it to find more orgs like the ones that built up those ground games, ones that are tiny, and see how we can help them. Even in states that, right now, look hopeless.
As Georgia showed: You never know. :)
Geminid
@piratedan: Virginia will elect new sets of state Delegates and Senators next November. I think the Dem candidates will be well funded, but this outfit may still be able to do some good work then.
This will be the first election with a new map since 2011. Democrats made iinroads on the old, Republican-drawn map towards the end of the last decade. The new one was drawn by a couple special masters after the Redistricting Commission deadlocked, and I think it’s fairly neutral.
rikyrah
clap clap clap clap
you all have done great.
I stuck with giving monthly donations to candidates that I thought were good.
Hopefully, some of them will win.
Really hoping for a couple of longshots.
WaterGirl
@MisterDancer: Stacey Abrams started the The New Georgia project in 2020, and I noticed The New Pennsylvania project this year (it may not have been PA but it was some other state) that I suspected was modeled after the New Georgia project, but it was too late in the cycle to really pursue it. I know that after 2020, Abrams and her organization were training folks in other states on how to get started.
It takes a lot of time to find organizations, vet them, talk with them to see if there is something we can help them do that they can’t do without us.
I think the hardest part is that it can be hard to get people to respond. Sometimes I’m thinking “we want to fucking give you money, why are you not calling back?!!!”
Baud
@MisterDancer:
👍
SuzieC
We did fantastically well!! BJ has become a money raising machine for the left. I’m not aware of any other blog doing this and, as you say, dkos takes a cut so I didn’t contribute anything through them.
BlueGuitarist
Thank you so much WaterGirl and juicers for all of this!
love all y’all
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: Kudos to you for all your work on the Down-Ballot candidates!
MisterDancer
@WaterGirl: I think I understand. In part: Once I resolve our literal roof-over-head issues , I look to assist.
MazeDancer
Every penny sent to WisDems went to good use.
The wondrous Ben Wikler just tweeted out this vid of the kids in a massive line to vote at UW-Madison.
On Wisconsin, indeed!
lashonharangue
Some possible metrics for “building the bench”
# of first time candidates funded
# of candidates running for higher office funded
# of contested races that were uncontested R in the previous cycle
HumboldtBlue
Extraordinary work, youse are impressive.
neldob
Thanks for all your work and thanks for all the research and everything. Go Dems!
Bonnie McDaniel
This is amazing. Kudos for everyone.
JR in WV
I am shocked and awed by this fundraising total report ~!!!~
Most of our contributions are directly to candidates via Act Blue, I’m afraid to look at my total report, actually.
Watergirl, an amazing job, what a great piece of work over the past 2 years! Thanks so much for your hard work and time!
Kristine
@Mousebumples:
I’m for that. I got started late with postcards, so happy to help at the back end.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
“I love you, man”. Great job. Boots on the ground was a great idea and I was happy to support it. I hope it makes a difference. We’ll see next week. I early voted and will be working at our polling place Tuesday.
unrelatedwaffle
I think these would be good places to start. Cause and effect is tricky at best, but this is what I lean towards.
1. Broad view: how many of our targeted candidates won? Ostensibly, the money went to them because we believed the race was winnable. Not nuanced, but good general info.
2. Historical view: Did our targeted candidates get a larger % of the vote than whatever Dem ran there last time? Win or lose, good to know the trends (Texas has not yet gone blue, but some areas get a little bluer every cycle. Good to pinpoint those locales). A little more nuance, a little more predictive power for next time.
3. Micro view: Did any candidates surprise us in particular? Can we figure out why with hindsight?
StringOnAStick
@Kristine: I was late getting started with postcards, and doing 15-30 per day is too hard on my hand so I will definitely be starting earlier next time! My final total was just under 400.
Betsy
@Matt McIrvin: I agree with Matt and others who have remarked on the efficiency of giving to close, winnable races. And I’d like to add that there was a lot of value provided in identifying those.
I didn’t donate much because this has been a “rebuilding year” for me, but it’s wonderful that you were able to streamline and target the giving effort.
And the totals! Just WOW.
frosty
So about 80% of our fundraising went to Boots On The Ground. I’m OK with that; they’re underfunded in general compared to candidates so I think that’s a good approach. I don’t have any problems with the way we funded candidates. I doubt any of them were swimming in cash and will have a lot left over, and we didn’t give to candidates in unwinnable races.
Let’s see how we did!
As for my resources, I’m planning to drive two hours to canvass for Susan Wild on Sunday instead of putting in the time for our sacrificial lamb against Scott (ptui) Perry here in Confederate PA. Same reasoning as our B-J fundraising, sort of – put your effort where it might work.
ETA: Targeted races was a very good idea. Election protection was a very good idea. Flash fundraising was a good idea. And yes, our valued commenters probably gave a lot more. I know that Fetterman’s emails managed to get a good amount of $$ out of this household.
frosty
And I’ll bet you donated every penny of your salary as a front-pager, too!
BlueGuitarist
A suggestion: invite candidates to engage in, bring a candidate’s perspective to, the reflection on fundraising.
Paul W.
Wow. Just WOW – I had no idea how much we raised and just in brief I think the distribution is good! The microtargeting towards high-impact/low cost (high-ish loss rate) I think I would like to give more weight but I cant think of a single fundraiser that I saw come up which I didnt agree with in real time.
My wife and I started our family this year, but I think I still laid out a grand or so here (don’t tell my wife) in addition to my long term monthlies, again no regrets and I think we will have made smarter investments with more impact than the 2020 cycle when I know I was super pumped at long shot Senate races that went NOWHERE (and had plenty of money anyway).
BlueGuitarist
@BlueGuitarist:
following up the suggestion at 77
down-ballot, purple house, election protection candidates, win or lose;
and maybe BJ adjacent candidates:
Cluttered Mind’s wife, Maine Senate,
Suzanne’s cousin. Connecticut house