Nearly four weeks ago, I wrote the first in a projected series of diaries looking at political fundraising on Daily Kos. The catalyst was Joe Wilson's "You lie" to President Obama in the House chamber, and Rob Miller was the immediate benficiary. Since then, we've had another fundraising boomlet, regrettably not as big, for Alan Grayson, who refused to apologize to the Republicans for highlighting their refusal to address and fix health care in the bluntest of terms.
Far less impressive has been the official site fundraising for the Daily Kos–sponsored Orange to Blue 2010 page at ActBlue. The sole listed entity is the No on 1 / Protect Maine Equality campaign to prevent the law allowing gay marriage in Maine from being overturned in the election this November 3. With barely three weeks remaining, it looks to be one of the least successful site-sponsored political fundraising ever: a mere 141 donors giving $7,172 as of this evening. Daily Kos can do far better than that.
Tonight, I thought we'd look into those first few months back at the dawn of on-line political fundraising, and see how Daily Kos helped the process along.
Political fundraising has been part of Daily Kos practically from the beginning. While it didn't do any in the 2002 campaign—the diary was in its first few months, and still finding its audience—by early 2003 Markos was thinking about how to show the Democratic Party that bloggers were a source of support for the party, and therefore should have a seat at the table.
On February 14, 2003, Markos made a sobering post about the probable 2004 election finances: Bush may have 5x more money than Dems. In the comments, CADem pointed out that the DNC had a way to make online donations; Markos updated the diary, and went over to sign up for $25/month online.
But this got him to thinking, and at 6:30 the following morning he wrote Sending a grassroots message to DNC HQ, wherein he proposed that the "grassroots" (this was before the term "netroots" had become commonplace, having been re-coined only several weeks before) could pool the resources of its readers. Between Daily Kos, MyDD, Atrios/Eschaton, Talk Left, Democratic Underground, and others, he figured it was quite possible to raise over $100,000; even with the 6,000 daily readers of dKos, pulling in about 6%, or 334, to donate $25/month, would total $100,000 a year for the DNC.
The key to this effort would be in tracking the donations made by the readers of these blogs, so the party would know where the money was coming from. This wasn't a capability of the DNC website then; the idea was to get them to add it.
Site commenters generally liked the idea, though others preferred setting up a PAC to support candidates independent of the DNC. The first of these proponents, Steve Gilliard, seems to have coined the term "BlogPAC" in this thread; that PAC name was later used by a small group of bloggers including Markos, who founded a BlogPAC that worked—and still works—much as Steve envisioned.
Markos put the kibosh on the PAC idea in a February 18 post Fundraising for the DNC; he simply didn't have the time to take on such a major effort at the time. But he would pursue his original idea, of the DNC "tracking donations stemming from dKos" and other blogs.
It took a while to set up, but on June 9, 2003, in his 10:46 a.m. post Time to back our nominee, Markos announced that the DNC had set up what they were calling ePatriots, a way for bloggers to donate to the DNC and "take 'credit' for raising donations on behalf of the Democratic Party's eventual nominee fund."
By this time, Howard Dean had raised over a million bucks online—this was three weeks before he announced a $6 million second quarter, most of it online—and the rest of politics was beginning to realize that this internet fundraising stuff could actually change the money game in a big way.
Markos actually "worked with the DNC insetting up ePatriots." So Daily Kos was going to be the beta test of the system: if the users could donate and the totals be tallied and made available to Markos, then it would be rolled out to bloggers and webmasters.
Forty minutes after the post went up, it had been updated to note nearly $1,000 had been donated; after nearly two hours, that number was over $2,000. That counted Single (one-time) and Sustainer (monthly) donations as if both were one-time donations. That afternoon, in ePatriots update, the totals after a bit over six hours had grown quite nicely:
Donors Total
Single Donations: 50 $3085
Sustainer Donations: 43 $1450
Total Donations: 93 $4535
As he notes, if the Sustainers kept at it for a whole year, they'd donate $17,400; making the effective total $20,845. A comment four hours later notes that the $4,535 had increased to over $8,000.
A sidebar was added to the left column of the Daily Kos front page on the next morning, June 10, as can be seen in this web archive capture of Daily Kos from that afternoon; it has the following data:
Donors Total
Single Donations: 103 $7215
Sustainer Donations: 80 $2475
Total Donations: 183 $9690
Sustainers could now be projected to donate $27,700 over 12 months, for a total of $34,915.
In addition to the ePatriots totals, the sidebar now sported a new entry: "Help the Democratic Party raise the money it needs to defeat Bush, while also showing the DNC the power of the netroots.
Donation reminders were posted on the Open Threads for the next two days, and later on June 12 came two posts that made it clear ePatriots was a success. First, What would you say to McAuliffe? noted "Given the successful implementation and rollout of ePatriots, I'm told that DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe wants to phone and thank me." Then the announcement ePatriots is now open for all bloggers: "The initial round of testing went great, and the DNC is confidant ePatriots is now ready for primetime."
Markos did speak with Terry McAuliffe on the phone on June 20. What he planned to tell Terry was posted June 17 in What I will tell McAuliffe; he was going to stress communication and coordination. He mentioned that the call had happened on June 23, the same day he noted that the DNC had added an "informative donation FAQ" to the ePatriots page, one of the early improvements requested by Daily Kos users. On June 26, he posted My conversation with McAuliffe.
ePatriots fundraising continued, but at a slower rate for Daily Kos users. On June 18, at 6:18 a.m.—6/18 6:18; how's that for repetition?—the following numbers were recorded:
Single Donations 172 $10,822
Monthly Recurring Donations 116 $ 3,210
Total Current Donations 288 $14,032
Total Pledged Donations $49,402
(projecting recurring donations for 12 months)
Three months later, on September 18 (8:15 p.m.—not 9:18 p.m., alas), the following numbers were posted; this was the final ePatriots update before Daily Kos moved to Scoop software and the Movable Type site was shut down on October 15:
Single Donations 239 $14,478
Monthly Recurring Donations 155 $ 4,446
Total Current Donations 394 $18,925
Total Pledged Donations $67,830
(projecting recurring donations for 12 months)
On the new Scoop platform, Daily Kos included a "Donate" box in the left column with text "Help the Democratic Party raise the money it needs to defeat Bush." No total was given in the archived snapshots from December 1 or December 3, but before the end of the year, the box had changed.
By December 29 18, the single sentence above had been augmented by a total: "$36,163 raised to date." That may be the equivalent of "Total Current Donations", or it may add the Single Donations to the aggregate recurring donations; the program had been going for over six months at this point.
However, the ePatriots entry was no longer alone. The Donate box now had a second item: "Help Stephanie Herseth win a House seat in South Dakota. Tack on $.01 to your donation to tag it as a blogasphere donation."
Daily Kos was now following a special house election, even though the South Dakota special election wouldn't be until June 1, 2004. It was the first sign of what turned into a wild ride through 2004.
A final note: in 2008, Daily Kos, through its Orange to Blue page, raised $242,076.91 from 5,705 donors for Equality for All—the group that was fighting Prop 8 in California—on ActBlue, about a fifth of the total $1,219,405 raised there by 14,480 donations. As pointed out earlier, we've raised $7,172.02 for No on 1 / Protect Maine Equality, or well under one percent of the $1,042,945 raised for that group on ActBlue by 12,002 donations. We'd better get our act in gear if we care about equality. Here's the Daily Kos Orange to Blue 2010 page again, if you want to support Maine Equality this evening.
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From Yasuragi:
lulu57 is overcome by events, as is the thread that follows. (The things that happen in the old Mojo Friday just before the diary winds up in favor of the new one...)
From mdmselle:
winterbanyan makes several excellent points about advantages and level playing fields in BarbinMD's front page diary Conservatives And The Taliban Agree.
From mofembot:
Pager offers up a righteous repudiation of the winger whines about President Obama's winning the Nobel Peace Prize in Black Kos, Week in Review. Also in that diary, I loved what otter 8 had to say about President Obama, and how eloquently said it was.
From MinistryOfTruth:
War on Error tells the TRUTH in my diary on Alan Grayson, and it is MUST READ material in and of itself. Make of it what you will, but remember War on Error has read the bills, and has an opinion on the matter I think we can all highly respect.
From Inland:
So Rush Limbaugh is going judge the Miss America pageant, and in response to the diarist's question, "Why on earth would they want a noted misogynist to judge women?", James Robinson supplies the answer.
From TheMomCat:
The response by duckhunter to irishwitch had me really chuckling.
From Larsstephens:
This is my first top comment reccomendation, but I felt as if I had no choice when I saw this comment by nfsbr. [Editor's note: davewill comes up with a definition that is used in nfsbr's reply cited above, so you might want to start there.]
From sardonyx (your diarist du jour):
grannyhelen reminds us of Martin Luther King Jr.'s acceptance speech when he won the Nobel Peace Prize forty-five years ago.
political junquie voted for this Truth from MinistryOfTruth's diary on Alan Grayson.
mdmselle on the view from Europe and Asia.
Mr Magu notes a consequence of this morning's announcement and an unexpected aftermath thereof.
Greasy Grant channels David Brooks. (He's a braver man than I.)
occams hatchet reminds us of something he wrote three years ago, gives a tip of the hat to Alan Grayson.
Dopeman likes today's news much better than some previous days.
Quantumlogic gives a great setup, and Treg hits it out of the park.
For our final feature in tonight's diary, we have today's top mojo using my revision of the cskendrick-devised mojo-to-Excel process.
First, Top Mojo excluding Cheers and Jeers, search-identifiable tip jars, and first diary comments:
1) Not this time. by political junquie — 238
2) We haven't had a "cool" president since... by JimmyTheSaint — 179
3) Cost out single payer by FishOutofWater — 170
4) Wow, a diary with facts! by indepenocrat — 151
5) Yes, because it's a gift. by NCrissieB — 142
6) Hey! by koNko — 123
7) First president to by Hawkjt — 120
8) Grayson deserves the... by Wom Bat — 115
9) Yet, many people call him a coward by aymandaman — 114
10) Look at us, all getting along. by Eileen B — 113
11) I don't know about that, but I'd love to see by HylasBrook — 112
12) And therein lies the rub! by rontun — 111
13) Will Ferrell running naked in Old School - omg! by grannyhelen — 109
14) Great stuff by gsbadj — 109
15) In the words of Patton Oswalt, by droogie6655321 — 105
16) i'm pretty sure by joe m — 104
17) The GOP is "outside America" by CoolOnion — 100
18) every time by Delilah — 98
19) Dollars and sense by political junquie — 95
20) Thank you, George W. Bush by Dallasdoc — 94
21) You're either part of the solution... by Josiah Bartlett — 94
22) Don't give us a neutered public option by Yalin — 89
23) The Pope thinks that he does by Kitty — 89
24) Damn! Can We Clone Him?! Seriously!! by CityLightsLover — 88
25) It was so good by kestrel9000 — 88
26) Senator, please also fight to change 2013 to a by flitedocnm — 86
27) Medicare has changed the lives of our by blue jersey mom — 84
28) My first impression by joanneleon — 82
29) He never set out to earn it. by brooklynbadboy — 81
30) I posted this over at BlacKos but I'll by mdmslle — 80
31) Outside of America by indepenocrat — 80
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Tips for Alan Grayson and the Best. Rant. Ever. by MinistryOfTruth — 947
2) Tip Jar by blackwaterdog — 520
3) Tip Jar by BoBo2020 — 465
4) Tip Jar by Crispian Day — 445
5) Tip Jar by sc kitty — 439
6) Tip Jar by Eclectablog — 416
7) Tip Jar by Michael Moore — 399
8) Tip Jar by Blue Republican — 380
9) Tip Jar by SenChrisDodd — 366
10) Tip Jar by Nashville fan — 343
11) I don't care what the HATERS say, I'm proud by Muzikal203 — 254
12) Not this time. by political junquie — 238
13) Tip Jar by Keith Pickering — 213
14) Tip Jar by sad pony guerilla girl — 201
15) Tip Jar by Julie Gulden — 186
16) Tip Jar by Devil Without A Cause — 186
17) We haven't had a "cool" president since... by JimmyTheSaint — 179
18) Cost out single payer by FishOutofWater — 170
19) Wow, a diary with facts! by indepenocrat — 151
20) Yes, because it's a gift. by NCrissieB — 142
21) Mojo Mug by TexDem — 124
22) Hey! by koNko — 123
23) This is Great News for McCain! by Al Rodgers — 120
24) First president to by Hawkjt — 120
25) Grayson deserves the... by Wom Bat — 115
26) Yet, many people call him a coward by aymandaman — 114
27) Look at us, all getting along. by Eileen B — 113
28) I don't know about that, but I'd love to see by HylasBrook — 112
29) And therein lies the rub! by rontun — 111
30) Friday Tip Jar.... by Bill in Portland Maine — 110
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