Long-time lurker here. Forgive my stating the obvious when I say that Clinton! Obama! The Drama! is sucking all the air out of the room.
My diary is going to echo other more literate voices on DailyKos when I say: a) picking a President will not fix all our problems, b) the energy of this election is rare. This is a golden moment to capitalize on a fired-up Democratic base to pick up seats across the country to strengthen our party in Congress. This opportunity may not come again in a long time.
So I need your help. You smart, wonky, geeky Kossacks who follow politics far more closely than I and have all that useful knowledge that political geeks tend to have. Follow me! Questions below the fold.
- I'm creating an Act Blue page of progressive Democrats to support who I can direct other people to. But how do I figure out who the good solid progressive Democrats are who are worth supporting? Are there any organizations who rank candidates for progressive values? It's really hard to comb through the records of so many different candidates to figure it out per person, on multiple issues. It's also hard to read someone's stated positions and know if they are truly what they say, without having some in-depth knowledge of the candidate.
- How do I know which candidates stand a chance of winning? I want to support progressives, but I also want to focus attention on the most likely pickups.
- Here's my list so far (I've clearly lifted candidates from the Blue Majority page, as I thought that would be a good sign of their progressive creds. My selects so far: Joe Garcia, Darcy Burner, Gary Trauner, Dan Seals, Eric Massa, Dan Maffei, Charlie Brown, Al Franken, Rick Noriega, Bill Foster, Jon Powers, Heather Ryan, Gilda Reed, Christine Jennings). I would love other suggestions. Please explain a bit about any candidates you recommend, stances they've taken, etc..
- I'm also writing a letter to friends to get them informed and excited about the chance to strengthen our hand in Congress. In this letter, which I plan to mail to as many people as I can, I will be requesting that they do the following things. Any other suggestions? Either for things to add or things I should modify to make the call to action stronger? Here's my call to action items on the Congressional races:
• Donate to my Act Blue page
• Create their own Act Blue page. Invite friends and family to contribute to the candidates they select. This would create more "buy-in" than just having them donate to my page.
• Volunteer for a local campaign (anyone know some sort of search tool to figure out what races are taking place in different parts of the country? I know various progressive blogs, like The Albany Project or Blue Oregon, are regional and might discuss local races with progressives running for office on them. But other than that, how would Average Jane Doe Citizen find out about local races they could donate their time to?)
• Blog. I am going to suggest that people who have some sort of blog (even something like a food blog or travel blog) take the time this election season to write an entry or 2 about what's going on politically, most especially if they volunteer for something. Because there's some great stories people often have about who they meet and the democratic process itself when they volunteer for campaigns/GOTV. I think if people write about their personal experiences for an audience of friends + family, that can be a good way for people to generate further interest in this election. Not everyone is a political commentator (or an insightful one), but I think there's lots of interesting stuff that happens on a human level when we get politically engaged that would make good blogging.
• Voter Registration. Any ideas on how to find organizations that will be doing Democrat-targeted voter registration? This is a 2-birds-with-one-stone thing, helping elect both local Democrats and also our nominee. Why wait til we have a nominee? The clock is ticking....
What calls to action am I missing here in terms of electing progressive Democrats this election cycle?
Other offshoot ideas I had: encouraging festive fundraiser parties this 4th of July, and an Adopt-a-Candidate idea (i.e. people looking at my page should "adopt" just one candidate, rather than split donations among several, and continue to donate to that one candidate if they can up to November. That way they will be more invested in that candidacy.)
Thanks for reading. Suggestions? Top Secret Lefty Resources to share? Tips? Criticisms? Have at it, I'd be grateful for your feedback.