Hello and Happy Blogosphere Day, everyone! It certainly is a happy one for the Ron Shepston for Congress campaign here in CA-42. (The Fightin' 42nd!, as Stephen Colbert will someday say while interviewing Ron.) For those of you who don't know -- evidently some people don't spend most of every day in front of Daily Kos -- our own CanYouBeAngryAndStillDream, who I like to call "Ron" for short, announced his run for Congress yesterday; the previous day I announced that I'm running Ron's campaign full-time.
But that's not what prompts this diary. I have a picture to show you, and in deference to dial-up users it's below the fold.
As you probably know, today is Blogosphere Day, as Senators Durbin and Kerry, among others, have helped us celebrate. That means that ActBlue is collecting all sort of contributions today. And that means that a lot of people are seeing ActBlue's home page. And when they do, at the top of the page, they see this:
We're the #3 Hot Candidate or Campaign right now on ActBlue -- thanks to the generous donors of Daily Kos and elsewhere in the blogosphere!
We had been #2 earlier in the day, but it's Blogosphere Day, so we can't begrudge ActBlue it's success. But I do wonder: who is this John Edwards fellow? How do we pass him into the #1 position?
Over 100 DailyKos members have given almost $4500 to our campaign so far. That's fantastic -- every time I look at that screenshot, I smile -- but it's not enough. So far that's the amount a campaign gets from one maxed-out wealthy contributor donating for a primary and general election. I want to explain what we're getting from you this week. It's not just money: it's a narrative.
Money is not just money: it's an investment of commitment and of hope. I know how many volunteers we have offering to be part of the campaign, and it is great! It means that we can do more things with less money than most campaigns. But to convince the people with the ability to make large donations that they should give to us, we need the narrative. We can't tell them that Ron is an officeholder, or that he's wealthy and can self-fund. But we can tell them something else.
- We can tell them that Ron is the first ever serious candidate for federal office who was grown from the netroots, and
- And we can tell them that the netroots is proud of him and is behind him.
Now, I could tell them how many volunteers we have. And I can show them all of the nice comments we have on the items in our rollout. But there is one thing I can tell them that will convince them without any question.
I can tell them #1 by myself. I can't tell them #2 without your help.
I can tell them that you gave your hard-earned money to his campaign. Even if it was $5. I can tell them that we have proof that you care and that you are supporting Ron as one of your own -- one of our own.
That is what can turn people's heads. They tell you that "early money is like yeast." Well, this is our earliest money, and it is what can bring us that early money. We have to be able to tell that story. We have a story already, but it can be better. The better it is, the better reception we will receive, and the better we will do.
We can get rid of Gary Miller.
Ron modestly wouldn't run his photo at a really large size yesterday, but I will:
This is who we are sending to Congress. Walk with us! I want to be in this screenshot tomorrow and into next week!
NOTE: I forgot to mention that if you're in the area and would like to meet Ron, we will be at:
- Canyon Fireside Grille (22312 El Paseo, Rancho Santa Margarita), from 7:00 until 8:30 or so, and at
- Memphis Bar in Downtown Santa Ana (201 N Broadway, Santa Ana) from about 9:00 or 9:30 or so (they start at 8:30.)
See this page for links to maps and more info!