OK, this is it people – we can give the anti-choice crowd a black eye that goes clear down to their belly button by taking out the Coat Hanger Twins; Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak and Pennsylvania Republican Joe Pitts.
Lois Herr has been campaigning along in PA-16. The recent entry of Connie Saltonstall into the MI-01 Democratic primary brings an enormous level of interest in the two men behind the road blocking of health care reform and the two women who can take them out.
Let's discuss what can be done to support them.
Lois Herr, Democratic candidate for the PA-16 House seat, ran in 2006, took 2008 off to care for her ailing mother, and is now back in the saddle for her second attempt. She is supported by an aggressive, growing Progressive community in her district. She is endorsed by NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and Gloria Steinem is coming for a fund raiser in a few weeks.
Connie Saltonstall, a county commissioner who ran and lost for state house in 2008, has just announced against Bart Stupak. She is pro-choice, pro health care reform, and not at all shy about her positions. She's at the Women's Campaign Forum Dinner in New York City tonight. She'll gain all the same support Lois Herr has and then some due to the high visibility of her blue dog opponent.
So, that's who we're supporting, now lets talk about how we can do that.
Both candidates have Facebook fan pages. Connie Saltonstall For Michigan District 1 has 250 followers, while the odious Mr. Stupak has 1,137. Please go take care of this problem promptly :-)
Lois Herr has 226 followers to Joe Pitts 657. Again, please scoot right over there and even the score.
Both candidates have a Twitter presence. Saltonstall2010 has 464 followers, @Herr2010 just 125. A rarity in the Republican world, Stupak has no Twitter presence at all. Pitts has almost exactly the same number of Twitter followers as Facebook fans, 653 total.
Lois Herr has collected $59,817 via ActBlue. Connie Saltonstall has received $14,408 in the thirty hours her account has been active. Stupak has raised $14,415 … from just 90 donors. Just plain folks supporting him in his district, eh?
You guys already know what to do with this diary; tip, rec, click the donate button if you can afford to do so. The Facebook thing is easy, too – just fan them.
The Twitter nut is a bit tougher to crack. Politicians need people to follow first, but then to really achieve anything those followers have to talk both about and to the account. There are a crowd of pro choice women on Twitter who are going to be all over making this happen for these two candidates. Users @BrainyGurl and @LibbyLefty and information sources used by this group and they're asking that people take the following steps.
1.Find good stories about the candidates.
2.Tweet a shortened link at either account
3.Be sure to mention the candidate by their Twitter name in the tweet
4.The group check the story and if it's good they'll respond, retweet, etc
The whole purpose of this is simple. DailyKos is old and gigantic in the eyes of Google – pages mentioned here shoot up the charts. The methods I describe above accomplish the same thing with Twitter. If you can't afford to donate directly because you're out of work you can make a big contribution by popping in periodically and talking up the candidates here and on Twitter.
So, there you have it. If you all click your mice at once you can put some would-be theocrats out where they belong – in the unemployment line.
(UPDATE:
pistolSO notes that there is a PeanutButter PAC pool and that Lois Herr is indeed in the running for an award.)