Welcome to tonight's
Keeler-Palooza!
On Tap this evening:
Kossacks hit the streets!
Cryptkeeper commissions a poll!
Brian has racked up some pretty great endorsements. There are few we are more proud of than this one (w/video!)
Fundraising update and the last time we'll ever badger you, ever.
Canvassing and Virtual Phone banking Update.
A couple of videos reposted per request.
Big Brother Bri sez:
"Jump the dots, yo!"
Kossacks hit the streets for NYBri!
My hetero man-crush of the moment, LarryInNYC, drove an amazing group of NYC Kossacks up to the district to pound the pavement for Brian in East Fishkill today. Larry and crew, which included fellow Kogs Marlboro Lite, casperr and jonah in nyc, walked through the reddest part of the district today and had a great response. The people of deep red East Fishkill are ready for change and they helped bring that message to them personally. All told, they, with local Kossack glevine knocked on almost 300 doors today (!!) We had imagined we'd get to half that many, but I guess we should have known better. These are Kossacks after all. They kicked ass and we are damn lucky to have them on the team.
The weather was cold and windy today, and even though Larry had offered to buy lunch for anyone willing to come up with him, I decided it was only proper to make them something hot and hearty to eat. (It's a southern thing, I can't help it. We feed people.) So I made a big, mean pot o' chili for the crew.
Audrey caught me in the kitchen as I was a cookin':
Here's the crew chowing down in Audrey's dining room during our post canvass debrief:
And here's the whole crew out front at the end of the day:
From L-R: Some dude named lipris (i think), jonah in nyc, glevine, LarryInNYC, casperr, local volunteer Susan, some guy running for state senate and Marlboro Lite.
You kids are my heroes!
Cryptkeeper commissions a poll!
According to our opponents latest campaign filing, he commissioned dropped $10K on Cherry Communications of Tallahassee for "Polling". As far as anyone can tell, this appears to be the first time in a quarter century that he has done so.
Translation: He's feeling the heat.
New endorsements and a really special one.
Planned Parenthood endorsed Brian and gave him a perfect score of 100. Brian also recently received the endorsement of NY EDPAC among others.
But one recent endorsement stands out for us and it's one we are very honored to receive. Last week Brian was endorsed by Hopwell Junction Citizens for Clean Water and their founder, an all around rockstar and true working class hero, Debra Hall. Here's what I wrote the other day in a diary by kid oakland about Debra:
i'm working on a diary about an amazing woman here in brian keeler's state senate district. she's a total effin' rockstar, a hero. she has taken on a fight she never wanted, one she never anticipated and is kicking ass from the federal level down to her town council. she's taken on the the EPA, she's testified in DC and albany. she's my new personal hero.
her name is debra hall and she found out years ago that she was living on a superfund site. she found out that her well water was contaminated years before with some of the nastiest stuff imaginable.
she then launched a campaign to find out more about the site and had to file dozens of FOIA requests, badger the hell out of federal state and local orgs to get the info she needed. she had to fight like a sonofabitch.
she the founded Hopewell Junction Citizens for Clean Water & Clean Air. now she's helping other communities in similar awful situations organize and raise hell.
quite simply, she's a bad ass.
she endorsed brian keeler today. and, let me just say, that as a campaign, we couldn't be any prouder of any endorsement ever. debra hall represents everything about ordinary citizens faced with extraordinary circumstances rising to meet the occasion. she and her husband are true working class heroes. if we had 10,000 more of her, we'd be a much different country.
Here's the video of the press conference:
Fundraising Update and one last (really) plea for your (financial) help.
Months ago, folks told Brian and Audrey it would be a miracle if they could raise $40K to run against our opponent. I am beyond proud to say that we have raised as of this afternoon just over 90 thousand bucks! You read that right, folks. Thanks to you, we have raised over 90 large.
What that number won't tell you is that over 97% of that came from individuals, over 800 of you. The average is just under $83 bucks. Brian has taken absolutely NO CORPORATE MONEY. None. Nada. Zippo.
So many of you have given to this campaign more than once. Many of you have given repeatedly and we are working awfully damn hard to make very single penny count.
We have a paid staff of... ..none. Audrey hasn't taken a dime and neither have I. She has put her life on hold to run Brian's campaign and I've put mine aside to come up here for the last few weeks.
You simply can't contribute a campaign anywhere in this country that gets more bang for the buck than we do. It just simply isn't possible.
So, we are asking one last time for your help. We want to show everyone who told us that we couldn't raise 40 grand, that we couldn't raise 50 grand that we can raise 100 thousand big ones.
Pretty much every penny we've raised so far is accounted for. What will this last push pay for? It will pay for more ad time for our TeeVee Ads and it will allow us to greatly expand the universe of our last to mailers. It will get us that much closer to sealing the deal with the voters of the 41st District. It will get us that much closer to 4-6 new Dem seats in DC 5 years from now.
This is it, folks. This is the last time we'll ask, so if you can do it (and I know so many of us are tapped, that we've given all we can and then some), please click here.
And thank you, each and every last one of ya.
Canvassing and Virtual Phone Banking
We are planning to blitz the district every freakin' day till E-Day and we'd absolutely love to have your help. Today was so great and just goes to show you what happens when amazing folks put their heads together and their shoes on the streets. If you are in the area and want to join the team, you can click here or just drop me some mailto the addy in my profile.
We'll pick you up from the Metro North station here in Beacon!
We'll put you up!
We'll feed you homemade chili!
Also, fellow Kog mindoca is coordinating all our phone banking ops. If you are interested, you can reach her at electnybri@keeler2006.com. Wanna know what she's doing? Read This
Some requested reposts
Keeler/Cryptkeeper Debate part 4:
This is where brian really shines. it includes his closing statement which is awesome.
Brian at Gillibrand Rally:
Special Sooper Bonus Pic!
Brian talks to the coolest old guy in the world. This guy doesn't live in the district but has promised to call all of his relatives down here to vote for him because he was so impressed with him. I love that guy.