First of all, a heartfelt thank you. When I posted the Senate 2016 diary yesterday it didn’t feel like anything special. I had simply found some interesting and pertinent information, with interesting possibilities and wanted to share it with you all. I was actually shocked when it made it to the Rec List yesterday, and literally stunned to find it on the Community Spotlight this morning. I sincerely appreciate you all taking my silly old self so seriously.
The reason I bring this up is that there was a very enlightening interaction between myself and a couple of other Kossacks in the comments thread that I think need to be highlighted. One commentator was stating that they were worried about their NC rep candidate due to a lack of success in fundraising. I replied that what they might want to do is to research the candidate a little bit, background, positions, have their state and district # and a link to their website and post a diary about it. I reminded them that there are a lot of activists on here, and even people who donate to races in places other than where they live, but they need to know WHO to support. A little farther down in the thread I received this comment. I am going to quote it without identifying the individual;
I'm a "donor" who doesn't live there, and thanks to diaries like this one I have donated to:
- AZ Kirkpatrick
- IL Duckworth
- NH Hassan
- NV Masto
- OH Strickland
- PA McGinty
- WI Feingold
Not huge amounts, but more than $27.
And now, thanks to comments in this diary, I looking at FL, MO, and NC.
This comment absolutely made my freakin’ day! The problem with “local” diaries are that people are afraid to post them, thinking that they’ll only be read by Kossacks who live in the local area. This is not true. In the last couple of months, I have posted diaries in reference to my NV Senate candidate, Catherine Cortez Masto as well as my local House candidate Lucy Flores. It was rewarding to find that the effort was successful in focusing attention and getting a little name recognition for the candidates.
And it’s not only that it can be effective in steering funding to particular candidates. I remember reading in a diary one time that there are multiple campaigns that check the Kos on a regular basis, looking for possible diaries on their specific candidates. If they can find one, those can be tweeted or “shared” to their supporter database. Some may even be used as voice overs in radio ads or transmitted in e-mail blasts. We have some pretty damned talented diarists here in the Kos, and what campaign can’t use a phrase or a paragraph that comes off as natural, honest and heartfelt instead of canned and rehearsed? The Senate should be ours for the taking, and even if we can’t flip the House (which is much more possible than it was 6 months ago) we can win back enough seats to at least clip Paul Ryan’s wings, and maybe even mitigate his little Tea Party Caucus problem for him. But we have to work for it, and that means getting the candidates the support and recognition they need.
Look, we all like to have fun. Anybody who has read some of my diaries know there is nothing my twisted little mind loves more than lampooning GOPasaurs for their general silliness as well as specific acts of inspired stupidity. And the GOP well of stupidity seems bottomless. But the top of the ticket is winding down. Trump is in, and we only have a handful of primary contests left on the Democratic side to hash out. The fire hose is becoming a garden hose.
My suggestion is this. If there’s a solid story about the national scene or the top of the ticket, by all means post it. But let’s stop micro parsing every item looking for one tiny nugget to make a diary out of. Instead, let’s fire up Google, do a little research on our local Senate and House candidates And get them up and running on the site. be honest, aren’t you just a litttttle tired of nothing but Hillary, Bernie and Trump diaries? How many ways can you argue the same point? Those “local” diaries may not make the Rec list, neither one of mine did, but you know what? I’ll take a couple of extra phone bankers or door knockers, and a few outside donations over the Rec list any day! So, let’s get to work for our people.
Thanks as always for reading!