For sharp, insightful analysis--yeah right!--be sure to read this post all the way to the end. You might also (not) win a pony if you read all the way to the end!
I want to send out my most sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of you who voted for me in the first two rounds of Gov. Mark Warner's Map Changers contest. Because of you we just finished very strongly in the top five in the West from a list of very strong candidates. We will get a much needed $5,000 check from Gov. Warner's PAC as well as a chance to win the final round and bring Gov. Warner to Colorado.
There are a few people who deserve special thanks here. First, my campaign staff, who consistently go above and beyond the call of duty, and simply don't know how to fail! I learned in the Marine Corps that only thing you need to know about a person is how will they respond when things get hot. My staff only gets better when the heat gets hotter. I love you all and we wouldn't even have a campaign if it weren't for all of you!
I also want to send out my most sincere thanks to Ed Perlmutter and Angie Paccione and their campaign staffs. I made a lot of calls yesterday asking people to help us get the votes we needed in Gov. Warner's contest, and Ed and Angie really stepped up for me. I won't forget it! Loyalty runs deep to the bone for me. I hope you'll visit their websites here and give them an end of quarter financial thank you: http://perlmutter2006.com/ and http://angie2006.com/
I would be remiss if I did not recognize John and Aaron and Matt and Matt and Raf and all of our wonderful Colorado bloggers. Kos and MyDD may not know Colorado is a State in America, but I know that we have the best bloggers in the Country right here in the mountain state!
And Jay Ferguson--you are THE MAN, my friend! I wouldn't trade you for any website designer or tech person in the world. We would be lost without you!
Let me finish with a brief editorial. I keep hearing how we "can't win" in CD6 and we can't beat Tom Tancredo and no Democrat could because it's such a "conservative" district. Well I've got news for you, we CAN win, and we ARE winning, and I've got the poll numbers and the fundraising and the grassroots results to prove it!
We've already raised more money in this district than any Democratic candidate in CD6 ever has----and we've had almost no buy in from the usual big money people in Colorado politics. We haven't had any big names in the political world come to Colorado for us. We haven't had any emails from Kerry or MoveOn. We haven't been netroots endorsed or anything like that. We've raised almost $350,000 from regular people buying into what I'm about and sending in their hard earned dollars, and you know what? I'll take it that way, thank you, because regular people is what I'm all about!
We won Russ Feingold's nationwide contest. And now we just got another $5K and advanced to the finals in Gov. Warner's contest. Everyone says we can't win, but all we keep doing is winning! We are what the grassroots and the netroots SHOULD be about. We are about regular people banding together to make a change, and when we win in November, it will really mean something.
We are building a movement here in Colorado. A movement that says that regular people like Bill Winter and Angie Paccione and the thousands of hard working folks who have contributed to our campaigns CAN take back America, and CAN give us back government of the people, for the people, and most importantly, BY the people.
You don't have to join me or my campaign, but I hope you will find someone like me and get on board. We're going to take our Country back and it's time for YOU to get on the bus!
Thank you!
Bill Winter
http://WinterForCongress.com