I was going to diary this:
The beer and bubbly is being bought - the caterers called. Balloons are being ordered. In short, us Democrats are getting ready to party. In a couple of weeks, we're all hoping - many of us planning - on waking up to see Democrats taking control of the House and maybe even the Senate.
It's hard to not feel the enthusiasm in the air. After all, many polls aren't just breaking our way, they're crashing our way in a torrent. Even the MSM has started touting a Democratic landslide.
But, there's one publication calling it differently - Barron's is predicting Republicans will lose seats but still hold a slim majority in both the House and Senate.
And maybe it's a good reminder that we all have more work to do to ensure this election doesn't slip through our fingers.
But it's been done.
So instead, I want to talk about this:
There are still candidates that could use some cash and hopefully still some people willing to help them.
One of those candidates is Bryan Kennedy (WI-5) here in Wisconsin.
Kennedy is fighting to unseat James Sensenbrenner - Wisconsin's most embarrassing politician - and he needs help. His campaign is still running without much help from the big guns in Washington.
In the past month, Kennedy has been drawn into the black hole that is Milwaukee area press coverage. In short, the major newspaper here, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has given his campaign virtually no coverage at all. One notable exception has been a column by a pair of local political columnists who tried to cast him in a harsh light.
Last week, I called the managing editor of the paper to express my disappointment in the lack of coverage of a major Federal race. Much to my surprise, I received a call back within an hour from the politics editor.
We talked a bit and he gave me some tired lines about lack of manpower, editorial space, and so on. I politely called bullshit and told him there's really no excuse for not covering a race for the House of Representatives - particularly in light of the current mood across the country. After a short pause, he admitted that they had dropped the ball.
"Yeah," he said. "We haven't done a very good job of it. I wish we had done better."
"You still have two weeks," I replied.
There's not much realistic hope that they will do much in the next week or so though. And that makes it that much more crucial for Kennedy to be able to buy some more commercial time.
I'm not too proud - I'll ask.
If you have a couple of extra dollars, please take a few minutes and check out Kennedy. Here's an extended letter to the Journal-Sentinel that illustrates the type of man he is. If you think he's a worthy candidate, please donate a few dollars through this ActBlue page.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to give up drinking at least one beer every time I went out so I could donate that money to the Kennedy campaign. Many Kossacks joined in and our donations are now sitting at almost $400. I would like to push that over $500 before the weekend.
For those of you that live in the area, please give contact the Kennedy campaign's volunteer co-ordinator, Amy Vertz at 414-807-2983 or by email at amy@bk2006.org to volunteer some time for lit drops or phone banking.
Or, perhaps there's another candidate that strikes your fancy. There are many that are running campaigns on a shoestring - or at least the equivalent in today's political landscape where big money often prevails.
A couple I would suggest are found on the Netroots Candidates ActBlue page:
Larry Kissell
Patrick Murphy
Jon Tester
One short plug for the kind of guy that Larry Kissell is. I've donated a few bucks to him a couple of times in the last few weeks and have received an awesome letter back from him twice now. Both letters were standard 'Dear Friend' letters, but he took the time to cross out 'Friend' and replace it with my name and he signed both letters. That's a little thing, but he's the only candidate that's done something like that so far.
Anyway, what I'm saying is this...
We have don't have much time to cement a Democratic majority in the next Congress. We have even less time to make a donation that will actually help. If it doesn't get in this week, it probably won't make much of a difference in this election cycle.
Don't wait. And don't let Barron's be proved right - despite their questionable methodology.
And, even more importantly, don't let this opportunity slip through our fingers for lack of a few extra dollars.