Over the past 40 years I've donated to many progressive candidates in both local and national elections. But I've become wary over the years because of two practices of political campaigns that I despise. The first is the use of paid fund raising firms that 'take a cut' of the money I've donated to the candidate of my choice. The second is when the campaign sells my name and phone number to other campaigns that start calling me to donate to their campaign too.
I've contributed three times to Senator Obama's campaign so far this year. Today I got a phone call from a very persistent woman trying to get me to donate more, right now, to Obama's "grass roots campaign". I told her I was broke at the moment, but I intended to donate more to Senator Obama's campaign online after the August Convention. She told me that that wouldn't help with what is needed right now, for the "grass roots" campaign she is working on.
I refused to give her my credit card number over the phone. Then she said she'll send me a pledge form for the "grass roots" donation, and I should wait for it in the mail instead of donating online like I've done before.
The more I think about this phone call, the angrier I get. I tried calling the Obama campaign headquarters here in Anchorage and was told there is no telephone number listed for it.
I'm pretty certain that this woman was not a campaign volunteer and is working for a paid fund raising company that would have taken a percentage of my donation.
I may be naive, but I thought Obama was supposed to be running a new kind of 'transparent' campaign. If I find out that they are either paying 'professional money raisers' and/or selling donors lists, they'll never get another penny from my almost empty piggy bank.