Minutes before Bernie Sanders' preliminary announcement for his presidential candidacy, members of Occupy.com made its case:
Given New Hampshire’s proximity to Sanders’s home state of Vermont and the senator’s familiarity with the area and its people, he would have a real shot at winning the New Hampshire primary if he were to run. If Sanders wins in the critical first-in-the-nation primary state, he will finally be seen as a credible candidate for the nomination by the top pollsters and pundits. And if Sanders wins the nomination, Americans will finally have the economic populist presidential candidate they’ve been waiting for. Whether or not this opponent of the billionaire class, corporate greed, Wall Street and environmental degradation – and this champion of working people, the unemployed, retirees, and student debtors – becomes our next president will be entirely up to us.
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"Today, a group started by Occupy Wall Street founders, known as People For Bernie 2016 made their endorsement of a presidential candidate by lending their support to Sen. Sanders. They also announced the website PeopleForBernie.com and a partnership with Ready4Bernie.com "
Is this big? A May 6 Iowa poll shows a Bernie bump of 10 points from prior to his announcement. His first three days following the announcement yielded $3 million in donations from 50,000 donors, and 175,000 registrations on berniesanders.com, an average donation of $43.
Sound like anyone we know?
Bernie, as a People's candidate accepts no dark money from SuperPacs. The maximum anyone can donate is 2,500 to his campaign for the primary, and another 2,500 to the PAC - Progressive Democrats of America (pdamerica.org). This is ALL about the primary - if he gains the nomination he wins the Presidency. And we all know this.
I have been working for the past just over a month in social media pages, along with countless other activists, to manage the People's social media presidential campaign activities, and joined the PAC as an operative. And as we watch Bernie meet swelling crowds at his free Town Hall events (there is never a charge, everyone is welcome and he provides food and coffee), we know that food and coffee is being provided on the miniscule budget afforded by campaign donations at the average level of $43 per person. We must keep him in those Town Halls, we must keep the coffee and bagels flowing to the 99% who are rushing forward to meet their candidate. We are all he has, because he is not beholden to a SuperPac of dark corporate money. He faces the opposition of all of the billions the Koch Machine plan to throw at this election; he faces the $30 per head minimum Hillary is charging for her events, where you pay for the food you may not wish to eat and line her already overflowing war chest, assembled by Wall Street moguls. She has the 1% - Bernie has only us. So we have organized a June 2 Money Bomb:
https://secure.actblue.com/...
Give what you can - but if you can't, give $10.
7:58 AM PT: www.berniesanders.com
8:02 AM PT: tweet #CashBomb4Bernie
8:13 AM PT: 106 donors so far giving $1346! average donation of $12.
8:35 AM PT: We are over $2,000 from 131 donors! Average donation of $15.27
10:28 AM PT: We are over $4,356 from 261 donors, an average of $16.68 per donation! #Feelthebern
10:54 AM PT: At the current rate, donors are giving $1,000 per hour. We are currently at 300 donors giving $4,956, an average of $16.52.
UPDATE: Since a number of people here think I had some murky intention of invoking Occupy Wall Street as a means of 'fundraising' I would like to clarify that I used two sources for the diary: Democraticunderground.com and Thom Hartmann, radio host who has hosted Brunch with Bernie for many years. I had no reason to believe that PeopleForBernie.com were anything more than a newly-formed political action group (whom I saw when I went to Vermont, and who were most definitely campaigning for and turning out in force to mobilize voters for Bernie Sanders' campaign. The ActBlue campaign was put together by Joshua Sickels of Bernie Sanders for President Facebook Social Media group and coordinated with a half-dozen social media groups on FB and Twitter administered by 56 activists, including him and myself - and points DIRECTLY to the fundraising coffers of www.Berniesanders.com, and if you look at the graphic, that is where we urge you to go. I am very sorry that my fallibility in attributing the PeopleForBernie.com inception to OWS or the OWS News Site disturbed several of you, but I think you might do well to look at PeopleForBernie.com and satisfy yourself that yes, they really are campaigning at a grassroots level for Bernie Sanders for President, it is a Democratic primary effort, and it is entirely transparent.
Wed Jun 03, 2015 at 2:07 PM PT: FINAL MONEY BOMB RESULTS: $14,900!!! raised by 899 donors! Average donation of $16.77 ! Thank you everyone, that should buy some bagels and joe in New Hampshire, Iowa and Minnesota!