In case we didn’t know before just how important the Virginia elections are, we only need to look at the nearly 7.5 million dollars Youngkin’s PAC raised in the past 3 months. And that doesn’t even include the 2 million from a TikTok billionaire.
Republican mega-donors are out in force, and not just for the governor! They are rescuing some of the R candidates for state Senate and the House of Delegates with their enormous donations.
Republican Megadonors Help Youngkin’s PAC Shatter fundraising records
TIME IS SHORT. PEOPLE ARE VOTING. LET’S DO THIS.
CAN WE GET TO our $20,000 goal today?
We are currently at $15,530.
That will be a big lift, but after what you guys did yesterday, I think we can do it!
And we have a new $500 Angel Match! Big thanks to frosty, and to all the angels who got us to this p9oint!
Frosty will match up to $25 per person until we hit the $500 mark.
So let’s fight with what we’ve got here on Balloon Juice – our small dollar fundraising and political action, and our postcards. Helping Virginia – one donation and one postcard at a time.
Good info from yesterday, in case you didn’t see it then:
I don’t know who Chaz Nuttycombe is, but Virginia peeps seem to listen to him. This is the good news:
With 30 Days Until VA Election Day 2023, Chaz Nuttycombe’s Latest Ratings Have Dems with 71% Chance of Senate Majority, 57% Chance of HoD Majority
Three races have just been designated as toss-ups in this last leg of the race, and two of them are the races we are funding!
Update on the possible third candidate to support (not supporting for now)
The third race that Chaz Nuttycombe considers a toss-up is very well-funded, so we’re staying out of that one.
The other race I mentioned yesterday – that is “tilt” blue – looked at first glance like it might be a good one to support, but as of 3 weeks ago, the Dem had nearly 2x the money as the R, and the Dem has gotten at least $135,000 from a millionaire. So if the Dem doesn’t win, it won’t be because he didn’t have enough money.
Date to mark on your calendars
The last date for Q3 fundraising reports is Monday – just 6 days from now. But some reports arrive sooner, and we’re checking that site for updates every morning.
Look for us to make some big changes if the third quarter fundraising numbers tell a different story. Since we are little (but mighty!) we can turn on a dime.
That’s part of our power. :-)
Cheryl from Maryland
Very happy to see you cite Chaz Nuttycombe, who has an excellent track record analyzing Virginia state races. If any one needs more information, the latest at Blue Virginia sorts candidates in terms of how they reacted to the 2020 election, January 6th, and subsequent positions on voting rights bluevirginia.us/2023/10/threats-to-democracy-race-for-the-va-statehouse-edition. Hint – GOP candidates want to shrink access to vote.
Steeplejack
Threw in another $25. Damn you, frosty!
Mrs Ragbag
Just threw in 100.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack:
I laughed!
I guess i need to thank you both in this one. :-)
WaterGirl
@Mrs Ragbag: Thank you Mrs. Ragbag!
With Steeplejack, that’ makes $50 toward the match, and $125 for our candidates. (Before frosty adds his $500.)
Wolvesvalley
Here’s another $50. :-)
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: Seems like there have been donations that folks haven’t commented about for the match. Maybe some people want to be anonymous?
WaterGirl
@Wolvesvalley: Thank you!
That makes $75 toward the match, and $175 for our candidates. (Before frosty adds his $500.)
rikyrah
Sent in a donation
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: That’s always the case which is why matching works so well!
For every match, we usually end up with a least 3x the match amount, which very much helps!
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Thank you! If you want it to count toward the match, you can send me an email message.
Czar Chasm
The House of Delegates is where the focus really needs to be, so thank y’all for that. The trend over the past two years has been that the crazy, awful bills go through the HoD, but get killed in the Democratic-controlled Senate; while more practical bills get approved in the Senate, then die in the HoD. It was also the reason why our state budget did not go into effect until late September, instead of July 1.
The ideal situation is to win the HoD, and get a supermajority in the Senate, to counter Youngkin’s veto & amendment request powers: In his first year of office, Youngkin vetoed multiple bills that were popular and bi-partisan, but were introduced by a Democratic state senator he did not like. Triflin’, that was.
MazeDancer
PostCards are absolutely perfect GOTV tools for off-year, legislative elections. Reminds folks how every vote counts. Every. Vote.
And VA Dems have a great PostCard program. Click here. Scroll down to pick your candidate.
Added 10 to the match.
WaterGirl
@MazeDancer: Thanks for your donation!
That’s $85 toward the match, and $185 for our candidates.
The postcard program you mentioned is also listed in the postcard information page that’s in the sidebar.
So if you want to write postcards but don’t have time to check out the link in MazeDancer’s comment right now, please know that the resource is there in the sidebar, too!
WaterGirl
@Czar Chasm:
With any luck, donations, and a lot of hard work, hopefully we can get just that! Thanks for sharing more info about what’s at stake.
Ian
Is tiktok bad? I thought that the recent tiktok bans were based more on xenophobia and anti-Chinese sentiment than any real criticism of tiktok.
Alison Rose
@Ian: Like any app or site, TikTok can be used for good or evil. There is a lot of bullshit and propaganda and disinfo that gets spread via TikTok, but that’s not really the fault of the app in and of itself, but rather the very poor monitoring and moderation systems they have. Things that are clearly lies or damaging will be left up even when reported, yet people will get videos taken down because a tiny snippet of a song plays in the background.
Maxim
Another $25 for the match. *shakes fist at frosty* No, seriously, thanks very much to all our angels.
There go two miscreants
In for $100.
Cacti
In the Israel/Palestine situation, Israel is Russia.
No surprise Hawley would sympathize with them.
But his reasons are probably the more mundane “So Jebus can come back and rapture me away” variety.
silvery
gave $100
WaterGirl
@Ian: I’m just saying that he got $2 million dollars that weren’t included in the $7.5 million dollar count.
I leave it to the audience to judge, or not, someone who has invested $2 million dollars in TikTok.
WaterGirl
@Maxim: @There go two miscreants: Thank you!
That brings us to $135 for the match and $310 in donations.
WaterGirl
@silvery: Thank you!
That’ bumps us to $160 for the match and $410 in donations!
Jay K.
Tossed in another $5.
WaterGirl
@Jay K.: Thank you!
That’s $165 toward the match.
phdesmond
contributed $50 — Virginia must return to the blue fold.
JeanneT
I just tossed in $50.
WaterGirl
@phdesmond: @JeanneT: Thank you both!
That brings us to $215 toward frosty’s $500 angel match.
Ukai
Just donated $25.
WaterGirl
@Ukai: Thank you so much!
That brings us to $240 toward the match, just $10 shy of halfway there!
Old School
I see DougJ linked to this fundraiser earlier today.
Thanks to everyone chipping in via his tweet!
mvr
Just kicked in $50. Don’t know if the match is still around, but whatever.
WaterGirl
@mvr: Yes, your first $25 are matched!
That brings us to $265 toward frosty’s match. Since we said there would be no math, that means there is still $235 of match money available. Up to $25 per person.
I will check the thread in the morning to see if there are any more matching donations.
Big thanks to everyone!
Another Scott
+$50.
Thanks frosty, WG, and everyone!
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Thank you Scott! That makes $290 toward the match.
*I was going to say that I can’t believe you donated a round number :-) but now I see that the total is $18,001, so you must have timed your donation for when there was already a stray dollar at the end of the total.
Always thinking ahead!
WaterGirl
I just belatedly found a $25 donation from kalakal in an older thread, so that brings us to $315 on frosty’s match.
So there’s $185 left on this match.