Okay, I know it's Saturday night and many of the regulars are probably out, or watching a movie, or whatever, but I bet we can raise $500 for Francine Busby with the few people here tonight. As I'm writing this diary, Busby's netroots account sits at an impressive $6543.87 and I bet we can raise that total to $7,000 in the next hour. I've already contributed to her campaign, but I will start things off by adding another $100 right now. Every dollar counts, and apparantly Mark Warner has stated that Busby will need $1.5 million to take this seat in the upcoming April 11 election. I'm not precisely sure where her current cash on hand stands, but I know she is far short of that mark.
more, under the fold
This election is a GREAT opportunity for us to take over a formerly Republican held seat, the seat of the universally despised, bribe accepting Randy Duke Cunningham. More than 90% of the voters in this district disapprove of their former Representative and, by a 10% margin, prefer a Democrat to replace him in the House. But, special elections usually have very low turnout and Francine Busby needs our help to win. This seat would mean a lot for our causes, please do whatever you can. You can donate to her campaign on the front page Netroots link.
All we need is for 40 people to give $10 each...or 60 people to give $7.50 each...or 20 people to give $20 each. Not much more than a decent lunch.
here's a link to the contribution site, which you apparently will need to cut and paste because i am not tech savvy, sorry!:
http://actblue.com/list/netrootscandidates
Edit: Okay, I was going to start with $25 when I figured why not kick it off right with a larger contribution. I am a true believer that we can take this swing seat. It should be a top priority if we are serious about retaking the House.
I'm adding a little section here about Busby, from my previous diary:
My three reasons why Busby will win:
1. CA-50's Congressional seat has been in the hands of a corrupt Republican for the past 16 years. But Duke wasn't just any corrupt Republican. Duke is the only GOP member who has publicly admitted his criminal conduct and is facing a serious sentence of up to ten years in federal prison. The book on Duke is closed--the only matter still pending is how long he'll be sitting in his cell. Recent polls taken in CA-50 indicate that about 90% of the electorate there disapproves of Duke. In a district with slightly higher Republican registration than Democratic, this is surely a great sign. The voters will be eager to move away from Duke and the GOP's more general corruption scandals (Abramoff, etc.) will surely affect even ethical Republican candidates vying for this seat. The one and only candidate in this election who will not be linkable to Duke's and the GOP's unbelievable stench of corruption is Busby.
2. Busby is the only serious, funded Democrat on the April 11 ballot. Meanwhile, there are 8-10 Republican opponents on the ticket, all hoping that they will move onto the primary. Several of the Republicans are very well funded and it is inconceivable that any one of the many republicans would be able to capture the necessary 50%+1 of the vote, needed to avoid a primary. We can rest completely assured that the only candidate who can possibly win 50%+1 on April 11 is Busby, due to the huge number of serious Republican opponenents (splitting the conservative vote) and the fact that Busby is the only viable Democratic candidate.
3. If Busby does not capture 50%+1 of the vote on April 11, the run-off will be held as a part of the general California Primary. Currently, there will be no serious primary for the Republicans running for Governor of CA or for the Senate seat in 2006. Meanwhile, there is going to be a hot primary to select the Democratic opponent to face off with Governor Schwarzenegger in the fall. That means that Republican turn-out should be quite low while Democratic voters will be very interested in showing up at the polls in June. This can only help Busby as Republican turnout in the district will be depressed and Democratic turnout should be higher than usual.
For more information on Busby's campaign, or to find out how to volunteer your time or finances, go here:
http://www.busbyforcongress.org
I hope that everyone here will do what they can to make our dream of a Democrat controlled House of Representatives a reality in 2006. The road to the takeover of Congress begins early this year. A Busby victory in CA-50 (which voted--just barely--for GWB in 2004) would send chills down the backsides of every Republican in the country!