Thanks everyone for all the money you gave to Democratic candidates. We raised a total of just over 375K this cycle.
Don’t forget to vote tomorrow!!!!
by DougJ| 102 Comments
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M.
Thanks everyone for all the money you gave to Democratic candidates. We raised a total of just over 375K this cycle.
Don’t forget to vote tomorrow!!!!
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2018, Excellent Links, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat
Democrats have raised more than three times more money in small-dollar donations than Republicans, and used that to contest more seats https://t.co/WGaZWaRDWH
— Terri Rupar (@terri_rupar) November 4, 2018
… “What Democrats’ money allowed them to do is expand the battlefield beyond the handful of most vulnerable Republican seats,” said David Wasserman, House editor of the nonpartisan Cook Report, a political handicapping website.
As of October, Democratic candidates had outraised their Republican opponents in 53 of the 73 most competitive congressional races, including 20 districts that Trump won by double digits in 2016, according to a Washington Post analysis. Twenty-two contests became competitive after Democrats began heavily fundraising.…
Joyce Abrams, 80, has donated this election through ActBlue, an online fundraising platform. Often, she said, it was in response to a solicitation from a Democratic candidate trying to cross a fundraising threshold, giving as little as $5 just to show her support.
“In some cases, I’m really doing token giving. . . . Sometimes, it’s very important that there are numbers of people donating, as much as the amount,” said Abrams, a registered Democrat in southern Oregon…
The ‘green wave’ was less an act of nature than the result of careful planning on the part of Democrats.
Even before the primary season, Democratic strategists worked to prepare candidates for moments of national attention, and on how to capitalize on them.
To assist in the effort, an “expansion” team of five Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee strategists tasked with widening the midterm map for the party crisscrossed the country, helping the campaigns quickly respond when a fundraising opportunity arose…
ActBlue and other groups have allowed donors to give on impulse — when they are angry with the president, frustrated by Congress or hopeful about a candidate’s ad message.
“They read a Trump tweet, they see a video and they get really upset. They’re sitting there, and have 15 minutes before their next meeting. How does their intention turn into productive action in that short period of time?” said Ethan Todras-Whitehill, executive director and co-founder of Swing Left, which has raised $10 million for battleground House districts this cycle…
“Every Democratic candidate in the country has been looking for a moment this year . . . to tap into that national small-dollar fundraising army that exists for Democrats,” said Tyler Jones, a general consultant for Cunningham’s campaign. “When we started to see an influx of fundraising, it made us all look at each other and say, ‘We can do this.’ ”
Mothers’ Milk of Politics Open Thread: Yes, All Our Donations Helped!Post + Comments (58)
by DougJ| 99 Comments
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M.
Just a few more days til election day….I added some more candidates to our last go-round of candidates: Cunningham, Kulnarni, Denney, Eastman, Horn. We’ve got ten candidates now. So let’s make it an even 10K. These are all under-the-radar races. I think it’s the best way to spend our last minute money. There are A LOT of races that look like safe R that are shockingly close when they are polled. You can bet there’s a lot that are shockingly close that haven’t been polled at all. These could be in there.
by DougJ| 37 Comments
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M.
When I read Dave Wasserman and Nate Cohn on twitter, there’s a constant message that there are districts no one is paying attention to that could be pick-ups for Democrats. A lot of these don’t have much money being spent on them. Readers have been asking me to raise some money in such races. So I’m doing one last fundraiser. I’m starting with five candidates suggested by reader KVP — they’re all from Florida, which I like cos it’s swinging Democrat this year and some candidates here are very low in terms of cash on hand. I’ll add anyone to this list that you want as long as that candidate hasn’t been on a previous fundraiser. I’m looking especially for low cash-on-hand candidates that could use the money. We’ve spent on 87 races so far, but the playing field is probably a lot larger than that, so this seems like a good idea to me.
By the way, it’s not that these longshots will only come in if Dems run the table elsewhere. A longshot could come in that swings control of the House. This is an unpredictable environment.
by DougJ| 60 Comments
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M.
Only eight days til the election. Vote early if you can! Otherwise, make a voting plan for election day. Mine is to go to the poll on the way to work after we drop the baby at daycare.
Let’s keep raising for the More More More fun. We already blew through our goal but I think the money here can make a difference.
I’d like to keep giving to Four Directions, which works on ballot access for Native American voters too.
Thanks everyone for being so generous. We’ve raised a little over 355K this cycle.
This Stevie classic seems appropriate these days.
by DougJ| 40 Comments
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M.
Every political analyst I read says the big question on election day is how many seemingly safe, under-the-radar races all over the country the Dems win. Even conservatives are saying that.
So once more into the breach for the Balloon Juice More More More fund, which consists of 47 Democratic candidates the vast majority of whom are in second and third tier races. This could make a difference.
This post is in: Bleg, C.R.E.A.M., Immigration
⚠️ EMERGENCY ALERT ⚠️
The gov't announced a plan to mass release families from detention centers. For months they’ve kept families for longer than the 20 days they are legally allowed, but now, they are suddenly mass releasing THOUSANDS with NO plans to ensure their safety.
— ?????? (@RAICESTEXAS) October 26, 2018
Link to the Houston Chronicle:
President Donald Trump’s administration is releasing thousands of Central American families after briefly detaining them at the border, overwhelming nonprofits from El Paso to San Diego who are suddenly scrambling to find them temporary housing and transportation to their final destination.
The “coordinated release” began earlier this month in Arizona, where nonprofits had to rent motel rooms to handle the influx. This week, federal officials asked Annunciation House, an El Paso shelter, to take in 1,300 adults and children with even more expected next week. In San Diego, Pastor Bill Jenkins said his church was told to anticipate as many as 150 migrants a day, double its usual intake…
The number of families coming here has steadily increased for months since the administration ended its controversial practice of family separation in June with a near-record 16,658 arriving in September, a 30 percent jump from August…
Usually migrant families apprehended at the border were processed and, if there was space, transferred to the three federal detention centers that hold immigrant families — two outside San Antonio and one in Pennsylvania.
The remainder were released, typically with GPS-enabled ankle monitors or other forms of supervision and provided notices to appear in the backlogged immigration courts.
The agency “no longer has the capacity” to conduct the additional review procedure without risking the violation of how long minors can be detained, an ICE spokeswoman said in a statement.
As a result, starting on Columbus Day weekend in Arizona, and now expanding to across the southern border, families are being freed en masse in greater numbers than before, with the burden of providing temporary shelter and travel coordination falling solely to nonprofits…
A 1997 legal settlement known as Flores prevents the detention of minors for longer than 20 days and has forced the administration to release most parents with their children, a practice Trump has consistently railed against. Critics say many don’t show at their later court hearings or if they do, they take months or years to conclude…
Bridget Cambria, an immigration attorney in Pennsylvania who often works in the Berks family detention center, said she views “coordinated release” this month as an attempt to pressure the undoing of the Flores Settlement.
“They see an emergency coming with the caravan and they have a narrative they want to use to make sure we continue much higher enforcement and the No. 1 target is obviously Flores,” she said. “If they can purport to have a surge they can use it as a reason to try get rid of it all together.”…
More detail at the link. My cynical interpretation is that Trump’s minions are lying about the number of beds they’ve got available because they want to ‘punish’ us bleeding-heart liberals for not letting them break up families and keep children in cages. And if it just so happens that ‘the optics’ of a sudden uptick in brown-skinned non-English-speaking wandering the streets of border cities looking for shelter should enflame Trump’s xenophobic, fearful base… well, twofer!
But we need your help.
Tonight our team of 100+ lawyers & case workers are mobilizing support these families. Chip in if you can: https://t.co/DFJ6RjmbXB
This is a moment where we as Americans can prove we’re not going to let cruel leadership define us.
— ?????? (@RAICESTEXAS) October 26, 2018
(RAICES’s page on Charity Navigator)
PSA: Something We Can Do for Migrants, Right NowPost + Comments (13)