Every day until the election I'm making a contribution to a new candidate, announcing it here on Daily Kos, and encouraging you to join me. If one person matches my contribution on my ActBlue page, I'll double my contribution; if ten people match it, I'll triple. Yesterday
workingmom OH,
mrblifil, and two others matched my donation to Ellen Simon, so today I'm sending her $20 more.
Please follow me across the fold for a "guest pitch" from furryjester for Andrew Hurst.
Here's Andy's website.
Here's my ActBlue page.
I got email yesterday from
furryjester, a friend of mine who lives in the 11th District and is very involved in the local Democratic party. The letter was so persuasive that I asked permission to use it as today's pitch for Andy Hurst. Without further ado:
I wanted to ask you to consider supporting Andrew Hurst as part of your daily diary series. He is running for Congress here in the 11th district of Virginia, against Tom Davis, who chairs the Government Reform committee. Tom is really a piece of work - fully supportive of the administration, just like they all are, but every 2 years he somehow manages to convince the voters in his district that he's actually a "moderate." He made headlines by calling for hearings regarding the response to Katrina and Rita, but then he lied to my face when I met him at an event and talked with him about my concern over the lack of funding for levee repairs in south Louisiana. The Washington Post also published an investigative piece about Davis a month or two ago that went into detail about his and his wife's extensive ties to a local law firm, ICG, and the influence peddling that was going on there: this lobby firm was arranging for its clients to meet with Tom Davis in his Congressional office, and testify before his committees.
Andrew Hurst is an absolutely wonderful candidate on his own, setting aside everything that is wrong with Tom Davis. I have been supporting Andy Hurst since the primary. I had the chance to talk extensively with him earlier this year, and it's safe to say that out of all the Democrats I've supported since I got involved in politics, Andy is the one I feel best about. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the biggest one is that he is in politics to give power back to the people, the way our government and political system SHOULD be. His #1 priority is campaign finance and ethics reform. Right now, money is such a corrupting influence in our political system that until we clean that up it's very difficult to accomplish any of our other priorities. As a strong voice for the reform we need so badly, Andrew Hurst will be a really great asset to the new Congress.
Beyond that, though, I feel absolutely comfortable supporting Andy because I know that he cares about all the people who have been completely shut out of power. We had an email exchange about poverty earlier this year in which I shared some of my own experiences with him: digging in the couch cushions for bus money, getting sick and being refused medical care, things like that. I don't think I've ever talked to any other candidate or elected official about those things. It's not always easy to get people to understand and care about the problems of people who don't live "normal" middle-class lives. But Andy does. He understands about the tremendous injustices of poverty. And he cares passionately about other injustices as well. He supports women's rights and reproductive freedom 100 percent, and he strongly opposes the anti-gay "marriage" amendment to the Virginia constitution. Andy is never going to sell women or gays or minorities down the river to get a vote, a contribution, or anything else. I've heard him talk about all these issues and he understands that it's about basic justice for all of us. That's what he's all about.
To my surprise, I just got an email that the Hurst campaign has purchased some TV time and his ad went on the air yesterday. I didn't expect this because the DC suburbs are an extremely expensive media market. I thought the campaign would be sticking to mail and radio; but they've finally got enough money to go up on TV as well, which is very exciting - this is the first campaign that has ever bought television ads in a congressional campaign against Tom Davis. They are trying to raise another $50,000 to stay on the air longer and this task is complicated by the fact that Andy made a committment very early on in the campaign not to accept any PAC money. The campaign is being funded entirely on individual contributions. That means it's an opportunity for the people who read this diary series to make a lot of difference.
Day | Candidate | Amount | Matching funds from other Kossacks | donors |
E-56 | Jack Carter | $100 | $321 | 9 |
E-55 | Susan Davis | $20 | $56 | 4 |
E-54 | Francine Busby | $50 | $321 | 12 |
E-53 | John Rinaldi | $20 | $101 | 7 |
E-52 | Ron Klein | $25 | $81 | 6 |
E-51 | Sherrod Brown | $25 x 2 | $116 | 9 |
E-50 | Ned Lamont | $20 x 2 | $200 | 13 |
E-49 | Phil Angelides | $20 x 2 | $85 | 6 |
E-48 | Charlie Brown | $20 x 2 | $300 | 16 |
E-47 | Victoria Wulsin | $25 x 2 | $326 | 16 |
E-46 | James Webb | $20 x 2 | $311 | 15 |
E-45 | Gabrielle Giffords | $20 x 2 | $111 | 9 |
E-44 | Debra Bowen | $100 x 2 | $551 | 18 |
E-43 | Jon Tester | $20 | $181 | 9 |
E-42 | Tammy Duckworth | $20 x 2 | $191 | 12 |
E-41 | Maxine Waters | $20 | $0 | 1 |
E-40 | Jim Brandt | $20 x 2 | $171 | 10 |
E-39 | Coleen Rowley | $20 x 2 | $420 | 13 |
E-38 | Dan Seals | $20 x 3 | $491 | 19 |
E-37 | John Laesch | $20 x 2 | $271 | 13 |
E-36 | Zachary Space | $20 x 2 | $236 | 16 |
E-35 | Scott Kleeb | $20 x 2 | $341 | 18 |
E-34 | Nancy Skinner | $20 x 2 | $171 | 10 |
E-33 | Mary Jo Kilroy | $20 x 2 | $201 | 15 |
E-32 | Eric Massa | $20 x 2 | $136 | 9 |
E-31 | Christine Jennings | $20 x 2 | $151 | 11 |
E-30 | Darcy Burner | $20 x 2 | $526 | 19 |
E-29 | Jill Derby | $20 x 2 | $72 | 9 |
E-28 | Patty Wetterling | $20 x 3 | $371 | 22 |
E-27 | Larry Kissell | $20 x 2 | $295 | 13 |
E-26 | John Hall | $20 x 3 | $291 | 16 |
E-25 | Wendy Wilde | $20 x 3 | $431 | 23 |
E-24 | Jack Davis | $20 | $11 | 4 |
E-23 | Nancy Boyda | $20 x 2 | $206 | 10 |
E-22 | Patricia Madrid | $20 x 2 | $131 | 10 |
E-21 | Jerry McNerney | $20 x 3 | $496 | 22 |
E-20 | Larry Grant | $20 x 3 | $781 | 21 |
E-19 | Linda Stender | $20 x 2 | $246 | 11 |
E-18 | Claire McCaskill | $20 x 2 | $516 | 19 |
E-17 | Julia Carson | $20 | $246 | 12 |
E-16 | Peter Goldmark | $20 x 6 | $2340 | 81 |
E-15 | Barry Welsh | $20 x 3 | $265 | 10 |
E-14 | Ellen Simon | $20 x 2 | $100 | 6 |
E-13 | Andrew Hurst | $20 | $0 | 1 |
TOTAL | | $2075 | $13176 | 605 |