Congratulations to Debra Bowen for receiving the endorsement of Democracy for America for the congressional race to replace Jane Harman in CA-36.
The organization had begun a poll prior to Marcy Winograd's entry into the race (it was presented as Janice Hahn, Debra Bowen, or Other), and that had the potential to put the results into doubt.
To their credit, DFA put out a new poll to its membership - 7,000 of whom reside in CA-36 - and the results were overwhelmingly for Bowen:
DFA Endorses Debra Bowen for CA 36
Released: Mar 23, 2011 2:51 PM
District Overwhelmingly Chooses Bowen by 70% in DFA Member Poll
Burlington, VT – Democracy for America (DFA) endorses Debra Bowen today in the CA – 36 after members overwhelmingly support her by 70% in online poll. DFA members statewide supported Bowen enthusiastically in her previous race for Secretary of State. DFA has more than 7000 members in the 36th district.
“Bowen has been an outstanding Secretary of State and she'll make an outstanding Congresswoman for California's 36th District,” said DFA Chair, Jim Dean.
DFA supports progressive candidates up and down the ballot from school board to president and will be proud to see Debra Bowen go from doing great work for the state of California to standing up for progressive values in the US Congress.
In the ActBlue page DFA set up for Bowen, they say this:
We asked DFA members where they stood in the upcoming special election for Congress and the answer couldn't have been more clear -- DFA members overwhelmingly support Debra Bowen.
Thousands of DFA members in the district voted in our member poll and 70 percent of DFA members said that we should endorse Debra.
Debra has been an outstanding Secretary of State and she'll make an outstanding Congresswoman for California's 36th District. Join us today in support Debra Bowen for Congress.
Since the announcement, Bowen has gotten a flurry of donations to her ActBlue page (29 since yesterday), and this is notable because it doesn't appear that DFA put a link up to their Act Blue page - people just searched for Bowen's page on Act Blue on their own to donate.
I suspect that the collective volunteer efforts of DFA members will make the biggest contribution to her campaign. For example, after the DFA endorsement was announced, Edie Irons of Oakland tweeted:
shmeedie Edie Irons
@DFAaction Wahoo! Go @DBowen! I just signed up for virtual phone-banking.
DFA members throughout the country were active for Bowen in her races for Secretary of State, and since this endorsement announcement is most likely being shared with the national membership, this kind of attention reminding people about Bowen being in this race is will be helpful in getting them involved.
Finally, I want to make an important point about Debra Bowen and her relationship with the netroots/grassroots:
I have witnessed Bowen in her last two public campaign events talking up the involvement of people in other places of the country volunteering on the campaign. She has literally bragged about the fact that she's got people doing virtual phone banking from the east coast. She is proud of your efforts and sees it as a positive for her campaign to mention it. Some candidates are not so enlightened on that score, but Bowen is.
Be assured that if you get involved virtual phonebanking on this campaign that you will not be an afterthought and that your efforts will be noticed (in real time, since they see your activity on their computer screens) and that it'll be important to the campaign. I've been at the campaign office and spoken to the field staff there, and can vouch for this myself.
So kudos to you Edie, and to everyone else who volunteers their time to help Debra Bowen win this race - wherever you are in the country!
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If you haven't checked out my Phonebanking diaries in support of Bowen's campaign, you can find them here and here. This week's goal is to get 5 Kossacks to sign up and make some calls by the end of the weekend. Can you be one of them?