I had intended on doing another diary on phonebanking for Debra Bowen's campaign, which is a really effective way to contribute. My first phonebanking diary earlier this week was on virtual online phonebanking, while my next one will cover phonebanking for those of us in the district.
But for the moment I'm putting that aside because I'm riled up about some fundraising information I've been noticing these past few days which provides such an amazing contrast between the Janice Hahn and Debra Bowen campaigns, at least as far as what you can tell on ActBlue.
Earlier this week, the Governor announced the date of the election, and both campaigns sent out an email to supporters notifying them of the election date and asking them to contribute to their campaigns - basically they were campaign kickoff emails. Bowen asked for a $25 donation, Hahn asked for $10, 25, or $50. These were very similar messages, sent about the same time, and both had links to donate on ActBlue. So I thought it would be good to gauge what would happen over the next few days.
What I saw was pretty amazing.
First off, on Tuesday, the day when the campaigns sent their emails, the Hahn campaign got a total of 5 donations (taking them from 197 to 202 overall), while the Bowen campaign received 29 (from 422 to 451) - 6 times as many donors, which is notable since their appeals for small donations were so similar.
But then over the last couple days (from 9pm on Tuesday to 9pm last night), the difference has been even more striking. If you were just looking at the money raised, you would notice that during this 48 hour period, the Hahn campaign raised $7,500 on ActBlue while Bowen raised only $1,170. You would suspect from those totals that Hahn had more donors, right? You couldn't be further from the truth. Here's how it broke out:
Number of donors: Bowen - 21, Hahn - 2
Number of donors (excluding donations of $2,500 or more): Bowen - 21, Hahn - 0
Yes, that's right. Hahn raised $7,500 on ActBlue from exactly 2 donations. One in the amount of $2,500 and another in an amount of $5,000. She literally couldn't have raised that amount of money with any fewer donations. It's very hard to fathom that there was no one over the course of those two days who gave non-VIP status amounts of money to the Hahn campaign.
Meanwhile, Debra Bowen got 21 people to give an average of $56 to her campaign, with no single donation even getting above $500. Having a campaign funded with lots of smaller donations, instead of a handful of really big ones is much healthier for the proper functioning of our representative democracy. It puts a representative in a position to do what's right, without having to worry if the big contributors are happy.
But taking such a path means you have to bring in a lot more donations to keep up. I hope you will consider donating to Debra Bowen's campaign, and then recommend to a friend or family member to do so as well?
ALSO:
Volunteer
Phonebank
Come visit Debra this Saturday 10-12 at Campaign Office in Torrance (Campaign Kickoff) (map)
Follow the race on twitter with hashtage #CA36